My first part failure - USB passthrough.

[Houdini]

Exactly 2 months to the day after getting it my USB passthrough from PS started smoking itself. It was working fine and I was holding it by the atomizer while I was reading here and it started getting hotter and hotter by itself. I looked down and the light was on. I unscrewd the atomizer and the light stayed on so I gave it a smack on the desk and it went out. Put the atom. back on and gave a few puffs and it works but every 2 or three puffs it sticks on and the light flashes and goes out and stays on for a while then goes out again. I have the wire taped to it so there was no tugging on it where it goes into the end. I set it down on the desk and after a minute or so I was looking at it and the light just came on by itself without me even touching it. This is the first time I've ever had any part go bad in 4 months so I'm not too upset. I'm gonna pull it apart and yank the switch out and put a manual switch on it. I've been wanting to do that anyway but I didn't want to tear it up while it was still working so its not all bad.

 

[Vicks Vap-oh-Yeah]

Well, I was going to offer my condolences, but seeing you're just going to experiment on the corpse, I'll offer congratulations, instead...

 

[lec666]

i just got passthroughs for both my 801 & 901. i'm not so fond of auto power either. i have
about 6 tac switches left for when these fail. my handmade 801 dead battery passthrough
mod is just brutal. i wish they were all manual.

 

[Jim Davis]

Exactly 2 months to the day after getting it my USB passthrough from PS started smoking itself.

From the way you describe the symptoms, maybe you should contact an exorcist first.

 

[esmkr209]

Sounds like your passthru had a long and happy life LOL. My 901 passthru from puresmoker last exactly 21 hours and 12 minutes. Instead of sending back for a replacement I pulled it apart and replaced the auto switch with a manual one as well. The passthru has not given me any problems since.

 

[Houdini]

What switch did you use and did you pull it apart from the threaded end or where the wire goes in?

 

[lec666]

this is pretty much what everybody is using

SPST 12VDC/50mA 5.0mm High Tact Switch - RadioShack.com

 

[Happy Jack]

Exactly 2 months to the day after getting it my USB passthrough from PS started smoking itself. It was working fine and I was holding it by the atomizer while I was reading here and it started getting hotter and hotter by itself. I looked down and the light was on. I unscrewd the atomizer and the light stayed on so I gave it a smack on the desk and it went out. Put the atom. back on and gave a few puffs and it works but every 2 or three puffs it sticks on and the light flashes and goes out and stays on for a while then goes out again. I have the wire taped to it so there was no tugging on it where it goes into the end. I set it down on the desk and after a minute or so I was looking at it and the light just came on by itself without me even touching it. This is the first time I've ever had any part go bad in 4 months so I'm not too upset. I'm gonna pull it apart and yank the switch out and put a manual switch on it. I've been wanting to do that anyway but I didn't want to tear it up while it was still working so its not all bad.

First part to go bad in 4 MONTHS!!! I am VERY interested in what equipment you use and the maintenance you perform! Please, do tell...

 

[RazorNribbonz]

I'd be interested in that as well lol

 

[Houdini]

My secret for parts lasting so long is I do no maintenance at all. I used to use the USB pass that just went bad all day since I work at home. I've had the same atomizer on it the whole time too. I would add a few drops to the cartridge when the vapor started getting low and keep using the same cart for about a week. I have pre-filled ones in the refrigerator - about 75 left - so when they start looking gray and matted down I just throw it away and put a new one on there. So I do that for about 8 hours a day. Then when I'm done working I go in the family room and have a different one sitting near my chair in there. Usually it's either a VaporNine Rio pen style or the ScrewDriver. I also have a little eye dropper bottle of which ever juice I'm using sitting there too. I stay in there for about 4 hours watching TV or reading and vape the whole time. I have 2 Rio's so if a battery dies during that time I get the fresh charged one and put the dead one on charge. When my wife goes to bed I go back in my office where I have another TV and stay up for another 3 hours or so and there's another Rio near my chair in there. If the battery is not charged I bring the SD in there and use that and just keep topping off the cart. So basically I'm using 2 different 901 atomizers and 2 801 atomizers and only 2 801 batteries the entire day. I've just never had anything stop working I guess cause I rotate a lot and maybe some luck. Plus I think not dripping into the atomizer keeps any juice from getting in the battery and gumming it up. But really I do no cleaning at all to atomizers. I just use them they way they are meant to be used and they work.

 

[RazorNribbonz]

ahhh..Houdini..Do you drip with your screwdriver and just not the others or none of em... Thanks... You don't even low them out...amazing

 

[Houdini]

I don't drip with any of them.
And here's a big coincidence. The atomizer I had on the broken USB just died. I was using it on the SD and it worked one minute and not the next. I tried cleaning it with no luck so I tore it apart and the coil was broken. So I lost an atomizer and a USB pass in 2 days. I think I got my monies worth out of both of them. I'm still gonna put a switch on the USB pass though.

 

[LuckySevens4U]

You don't even blow your attys out at night? Nothing?

 

[Houdini]

Nope. Nothing. I'm not sure what that would accomplish. Any liquid in there from the night before will just get burned the next morning. Over night isn't so long that left over liquid would do damage to a coil. The atomizer is made to have liquid in it.

 

[okielady]

I just got my first penstyle usb passthru. I plugged it in and puffed on it and the light comes on but no heat what so ever. I puff a few more times and it flashes 5 times at me. Do these things have to charge? It is so light it doesn't feel ike it has anything in it.

 

[Houdini]

The power output on some computers is not enough to use a penstyle passthrough. On my set-up I have a 2 USB ports on the back of my monitor. I've been using a 901 passthrough on one of those and it works fine. I tried a 801 passthrough on the same port and it does the same thing as yours. Flashes and no power. So I plugged it into one of the USB ports on the front of the computer CPU and it works fine. Another funny thing is I added an USB extension so the wire would be longer and that made it stop working.