Mechanical Mod/RBA safety question

[Ravalstoney]

To clarify what I meant (which may or may not be related to what I actually said, LOL), it's not that I take those basic concepts for granted, by any means. It's that when talking about what you need to get started with RBAs, I'd rather people say, "RBAs are for anyone who's willing to understand the basics of electricity, battery safety, and math" than, "RBAs are for anyone who has sufficient vaping experience", because the latter seems to me to be a highly nebulous concept that isn't always (or even often?) directly relevant.

Hopefully that was more sensical of me.

Agreed! I've only been vaping for a little over 3 months, but since high school I've trained to be an A&P technician (airframe & powerplant), HVAC, water purification and pump systems, generators and work currently as an industrial maintenance technician. All fields that require a knowledge in at least basic circuitry. In addition to at least 100 videos on vaping and pages upon pages of forum posts on RBAs. My 3 months isn't everyone's 3 months.


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[Light Seeker]

I've been trained on not only basic electronics, but advanced also. That said, even though I could simply calculate ohms law, I just plug it into the many online calculators for a quick answer. I'm also very aware that most reading a sticky on ohms law would have glazed eyes after the 4th sentence.

Instead of basic electronic theory, I believe it's more important to instruct how to use a meter and what you do with your readings. I've been guilty myself of telling others they need a DMM, but not what to do with it. What buttons to push to read low ohms or dc voltages. How to account for resistance in the DMM leads. Where to put the probes. An ohms law calculator and where to plug your readings in. A lookup table for specific batteries so u don't exceed the max amperage from the ohms calculator. How to correctly do a voltage drop reading. Simple troubleshooting skills.

And don't have this in a stickied text post to glaze a readers eyes and interest, quickly moving along to more popular topics like 'what mod should I buy' needs to be in a video, ala pbusardo.

 

[Brewdevil]

thanks for the info, just get frustrated sometimes with setups. A small much mod is prob the best thing for me to use money wise and something I won't destroy at work. Ordered a meter and won't be using that mech until I check it out(or anything else for that matter) What would be the best recommendation for a setup with this mod?,..leak free, and safe. And to all thanks for all the help I appreciate it and I guess I should have started my own thread, next time I will. Back to reading on here for me.













And this was posted after-rant.


To everyone: This is why you should invest in (even an inexpensive) multimeter. Because you need to be able to test things that don't have atomizer connectors on them. In other words, more than just the coil you made. Sure, you can screw a coil onto some PV and it will show you some approximate ohms. But there's more use for a MM than just that.[/QUOTE]

 

[Ravalstoney]

Reading this thread also led me to the question, is it a good thing that you can buy gennys and other RBAs for less than thirty bucks? Before the AGA Ts as far as I know, getting a genesis required you to make an investment. If your a person whos willing to spend a good amount of money on an atomizer is a lot more likely that you would actually know what your doing with it.

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[Baditude]

Reading this thread also led me to the question, is it a good thing that you can buy gennys and other RBAs for less than thirty bucks? Before the AGA Ts as far as I know, getting a genesis required you to make an investment. If your a person whos willing to spend a good amount of money on an atomizer is a lot more likely that you would actually know what your doing with it.

Not necessarily. I can't count the number of brand new vapors who have bought a Provari and a Z Atty Pro as their very first e-cig setup based soley on the recommendation of a friend or a couple of ECF members that convinced them that the combination is the best you can buy.

 

[Light Seeker]

Not necessarily. I can't count the number of brand new vapors who have bought a Provari and a Z Atty Pro as their very first e-cig setup based soley on the recommendation of a friend or a couple of ECF members that convinced them that the combination is the best you can buy.

^ THIS!

LOL. Every other thread in NM has at least 1 post from a fanboy saying just get a provari, you will eventually. One outta 10 threads are asking what's the very best mod to buy.

 

[tearose50]

I vote for the stickies and Bad's blog to be made readily available.

I'm also so happy to see this thread. Glad the OP (and others) asked the questions. Glad they got some excellent data. Glad to read about who should be using RBA's, and I fully agree.

I feel I have run into a patch of sanity that I don't seem to see so much around here anymore. Thank you. Keep up the good work.

 

[Katdarling]

Guys, Ladies... I'm sorry but what is SLR? It's Acronym City around ECF and even tho I'm a "veteran" vaper, there is much I need to learn.

Is it Super Low Resistance? Sub Low Resistance? Smoktech loves Riva? Just curious.


By the way, the posts in this thread have been incredibly enlightening. I do hope they can rise to the top where they can be more visible to newbs, and to vets offering up advice to newbs. I have learned a great deal reading in here, and now am more convinced than ever that RBAs are not for me. I have not put in the time to research and learn what I'd need to know. And, I will make sure in conversations with newer vapers to let them know what I've learned here. It's valuable, important, and timely.

Thanks to you all. Love the Bad'Tude.

 

[ClippinWings]

Guys, Ladies... I'm sorry but what is SLR? It's Acronym City around ECF and even tho I'm a "veteran" vaper, there is much I need to learn.

Is it Super Low Resistance? Sub Low Resistance? Smoktech loves Riva? Just curious.

Yes.. Super Low Resistance.

Generally it started as a reference to anything lower than the pre made LR attys... So < 1.5 ish

Now though, you will see it used interchangeably with Sub-Ohm coils, that could be another problem, because there is a huge difference in safety from a 1.2 coil and a 0.2 coil.

I vape sub ohm... 0.8 I have a healthy respect for my batteries and a healthy fear(for now) of going lower than that...

Though I have seen and vaped(trying someone else's) setups as low as 0.2...

It's epic... But not for the faint of heart.

BTW.. Riva? Haven't seen that name in quite a while... do those even still exist LOL


Sent from my mobile, using Tapatalk... so ignore the typos.

 

[Baditude]

I'm disappointed that this thread was moved to a sub-forum. This topic is much more about safety issues and the uninformed new RBA user than it is a strictly RBA topic. This needed to stay in the New Members Forum. Just my
___

ULR (ultra LR), SLR (super LR), and sub 1 ohm vaping has become quite popular recently. The only way to attain it is with a home made coil on an RBA and a mechanical mod. These mech mods typically have few or no safety features; only a collapsable hot spring and ventilation holes should a battery be hard-shorted to go into thermal runaway.

The lower someone goes in coil resistance (ohm measurement) with their heating coil, the more risk is involved to push the battery into a dangerous situation.

Some RBA's have had issues of "wandering ohms". For example, on some the thumb screw that secures the upper leg of the coil on the positive post can come loose enough to allow the resistance to change markedly. Resistance can drop as much as 1 ohm. Therefore, someone can start out with a 1.0 ohm coil and before long the resistance has dropped to 0.2 ohm. This is one of the reasons that I make my coils at 2.0 ohm.

Regulated mods (processor controlled) have built in safety features which will shut the battery device down once it detects a coil of SLR or a voltage setting too low to safely fire a coil. These safety features are the very reason the mech mod owners dislike using them, because they prefer to bypass the safety features to attain SLR.

This is the reason I am not a fan of SLR coils. The use of them pushes our devices to a dangerous level, and it certainly isn't for someone who hasn't done adequate research and educated themselves. I see more and more people jumping into an RBA setup and they don't have the appropriate tools (like a multimeter) and asking why they are even needed in the first place. This has gotten ridiculous.

This alarms me. An accident is waiting to happen. Experienced vapors need to advise first-time RBA users to do the research, educate themselves of proper use and setup, have the proper tools available and know how to use them, promote battery safety, et al. before attempting to use them.

 

[kingdal]

Guys thanks for all the great advice. Anyone want to do a quick tutorial on exactly how to use a multimeter? Or point us to some resources that have that info? Ive been lookingfor a while and that info is scarce. Thanks again

 

[Baditude]

Guys thanks for all the great advice. Anyone want to do a quick tutorial on exactly how to use a multimeter? Or point us to some resources that have that info? Ive been lookingfor a while and that info is scarce. Thanks again

You Tube is your friend and a great resource for learning.
HOW TO USE A MULTIMETER



Buying guide for a digital multimeter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh1n_ELmpFI

Below is an excellent 4 part tutorial on using a digital multimeter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVFkKBFJsZg&list=PL4A0248AE2B0DF1A3

 

[bikini_kill]

Guys thanks for all the great advice. Anyone want to do a quick tutorial on exactly how to use a multimeter? Or point us to some resources that have that info? Ive been lookingfor a while and that info is scarce. Thanks again

Here's a good video by GeekGirlVaper:
Multi-Meter How to for Electronic Cigarette users

 

[Katdarling]

Yes.. Super Low Resistance.

Generally it started as a reference to anything lower than the pre made LR attys... So < 1.5 ish

Now though, you will see it used interchangeably with Sub-Ohm coils, that could be another problem, because there is a huge difference in safety from a 1.2 coil and a 0.2 coil.

I vape sub ohm... 0.8 I have a healthy respect for my batteries and a healthy fear(for now) of going lower than that...

Though I have seen and vaped(trying someone else's) setups as low as 0.2...

It's epic... But not for the faint of heart.

BTW.. Riva? Haven't seen that name in quite a while... do those even still exist LOL


Sent from my mobile, using Tapatalk... so ignore the typos.

Evidently they still do!

 

[Vince159]

I can't find anyplace else to go with this, so I hope someone can give a little advice. I just rebuilt my Innokin i30, dual coil, it now reads .05 ohms! I've been doing sub ohms dual coils on my dripper atty, but I'm kinda excited about sub ohm dual coil on a 3 ml tank . It fires, but I feel alittle inexperienced with sub ohm on mech vaping. Any threads anyone can point me to?

 

[kingdal]

Baditude and bikini, you guys a great help. Thanks!

 

[martydmb]

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/rebuildable-atomizer-systems/425921-guide-sub-ohm-builds.html

 

[Vince159]

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/rebuildable-atomizer-systems/425921-guide-sub-ohm-builds.html

Thank you..

 

[Maglin]

Lots of good advise in this thread. One thing that was brushed upon was over discharging a battery. I measured the resistance of my Samsung 18650's and it was pretty high like around 50 ohms. Think I'll recheck them along with my AWs but my high quality lipos read around 3-4 ohms a cell and when I pull over 120 amps from them they degrade and they start to show higher resistance. 5C is a common safe discharge rate for most Lipos. Over that you start to break down and will start to permanently raise in internal resistance. Below 1 ohm is pretty risky with anything that isn't a high quality IMR or LiMn. It would be very good to have an announcement about battery safty , mechs, RBAs, ect along with do's and do nots for all ecig users.

And DMMs as said are the best trouble shooting tool and not just used for checking coils. I use a fluke and its leaps and bounds better than the cheaply made $100 ESS unit it replaced. Might not be needed for just ecig use but getting a decent unit doesn't hurt. I just happen to have one from my old day job along with a lab scope . And this forum is very hard to navigate if you don't know where certain products are discussed. Would be nice to see the types of devices in sub forums like "cartotanks, RBAs, Mechs" ect...

Edit: guess the new posts section on the tablet took me to the forums I had been looking for. So not the easiest to navigate.

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[Light Seeker]

I also love my Fluke, I've had it for at least 25 years! But many of my tools I buy the highest quality I can afford, they're always a pleasure to use, never break, and as my fluke demonstrates.... I'll probably give it to my grandson

But while its a fine instrument, I also don't want to discourage anyone from not getting a DMM because they're so expensive. A DMM is required, and an $8 tool is immensely better than not having any, and for the limited needs for vaping a cheap meter works just as well as a Fluke