Help - Steam Engine And Real Life Coil Specs Don't Match

[CrazyChef]

I made a couple of staged fused Clapton coils for a buddy of mine, but I can't pulse them on my istick 100W. It won't go lower than 0.15Ω. Steam Engine says that one coil should be approximately 0.358Ω, so a dual coil setup should be half of that (0.179Ω), right? This dual coil setup is coming in at 0.11Ω...

I need to pulse these, but I can't. My buddy has a sigelei 150 TC so I can pulse it for him on his mod, but that's still not going to solve the problem.

Any ideas on what went wrong? 0.11-0.179 is a big difference...

Here's a few pics of what I entered into Steam Engine and the coil setup.

 

[CrazyChef]

I know the one positive lead on the right (going through the post hole) looks like it's touching the top coil, but it's actually about 3mm below it.

 

[State O' Flux]

When ever I run into a discrepancy with SE calcualted net resistance vs. what an actual or anticipated value is... it's usually the wire actual thickness vs. the SE "standard" gauge thickness.
It's most frequently thinner than the listed value, but I've run into a few that were thicker.

In other words, never assume your wire is the thickness it's "suppose" to be. Who makes it or what type/gauge appears to be irrelevant - even genuine Temco Sandvik Kanthal A-1... which is probably the most common and frequently used wire in the US, can be off spec.

If you don't have at least one already... the above is a good case for owning a dial or digital caliper, or micrometer.

 

[derekspencet48]

There are also alot of Variables when making coils it might just be that.

 

[Robert Cromwell]

Exact predictions on Claptons and twisted coil type of coils? Not gonna happen. Too many variables involved. Getting close is all we can hope for.

 

[SLIPPY_EEL]

Time to buy a mech, for getting her bedded ..chances are that once you get it bedded in with a few pulses that resistance is gonna move closer to where it should actually be.

Orr you could take one coil off, get the other fired up and ready then swap do the same and then re-install both and you might get lucky and have them both above your ohms you need.

 

[Uncletattoowhat]

In my opinion and experience, it could be as complex as the resistance flow that your atomizer allows based on the quality and type of materials used to manufacture it, or even as simple as there is a little dirt in your mod's 510 threads.

Like explained above, too many variables to be exact. I keep an old authentic FUhatten sitting on my build table just for the circumstances where my initial build comes out sub 0.1ohm that my sig150 or ipv4 will fire it. After a tweak, it can raise dramatically. Hell, there are always hotspots on my fused claptons when I build them, and resistance ALWAYS stabilizes once they're set.

 

[Kraken_Up]

Like the rest above said, get a mech, preferably with multiple batteries in parallel, and give quick controlled pulses until some of the nastier hotspots are worked out at least. Be careful, and pay attention to what you're doing, you'll be draining more current that your batteries should be providing.

 

[93gc40]

.11 vs .17 is like a half wrap worth of descrepancy or even 1 leg is a tiny bit longer. Or the twist pitch is a bit different than that use in the formula. Not to mention affect of using kanthal mixed with nichrome and the affect of oxidation or lack there-of. You might want to invest in a cheap 2or2x18650 mech mod so you can at least dry fire your coils. I bet you get a completely different reading after you fire it.