My Mini DID Experience

[asha23]

Well, I got my Mini DID today, plus a Kir Fanis clear tank. It's nice. I thought I'd share my experiences, as it took me a good few hours to get the mesh and coil right. It's still not perfect

Attempt 1.

I got the wick rolled to fit the hole exactly. Used my gas stove to oxidize the wick. Spent a good 15 minutes trying to get it as oxidized as possible. Burnt it with juice 5 times.
Inserted it into the hole, using a needle top to keep it solid.
Wrapped a rizla around it.
Coiled 3 coils. using the S shape method... Relatively tightly, using .15 nichrome.
Fired it...
POP!. The coil burnt out immediately.
Hmmm

Attempt 2.

Removed all the coils. Re wrapped around the rizla 3 more coils using .2 Kanthal. Worked!
Nasty burnt taste. On observation the top coil was causing a hotspot. Not much vapour.

Hmmmm

Attempt 3

Removed all the coils, pulled the wick out from the tank and went back to the stove. Re-oxidized for a further 10 minutes. Another 5 juice burns.
Re wrapped the coil, slightly looser. No rizla. 4 coils this time as I wanted a slightly higher rez.
It worked. Nice amount of vapour. Slightly burnt taste... Hmmmm... I was using Boba's Bounty...
Vaped on this for a while. At different voltages (I don't have a resistance checker, so it's kinda trial and error)... Still getting burnt taste.
Checked the coil... Sure enough. A hotspot on the top coil. Other coils not firing...

DAMN!!!

Attempt 4.

Stripped the whole thing down. Tossed the wick and coil, cleaned everything.
Rolled a new wick. Oxidized for 25 minutes. Quenching this time. 10 juice burns.
Ooops. The wick completely disintegrated when I popped it through the wick hole.. I guess I over-oxidized it

BUGGER!

Attempt 5. I WILL NOT BE BEATEN BY THIS BLOODY THING!!!

Cleaned and rebuilt the DID
Dropped a post screw on the floor. Spent 30 mins trying to find it... It's disappeared into another dimension. BUGGER! - Ordered 2 more... - Have one left, so will try and build it with 1... Hmmm..

Watched 5 youtube videos.
Rolled a new piece of mesh wick.
Oxidised for 15 minutes. Paying closer attention to getting it all evenly oxidized this time
5 Juice burns.
Wrapped a Rizla around the end before pushing the wick through the hole.
Wrapped 4 evenly spaced coils in the S shape. Made sure the legs were closer to the post.
Burned it dry, to burn off the Rizla.

All coils firing evenly!!!!
Popped some juice on the coil... Loads of sputtery vapour!
Filled the tank... Loads of vapour. No burnt taste.

Fiddled a little bit with the coils, spacing them more evenly and loosening the post leg a little.

It kinda works...

So. It took me 5 hours to get a decent coil going. I still have a glowing top coil hotspot... BUGGER!!!. But it is vaping.... I'm going to strip it down again This is my first Genesis style atty and I was expecting a bit of trial and error. I guess I should probably invest in a butane torch as I don't think my gas stove is oxidising the wick properly.

I'm going to persevere, but man. This stuff is time-consuming to say the least!!! I'm off to watch some more videos

UPDATE: It's been working reasonably well. Getting the odd burnt hit now and again. I'm guessing this is something to do with the wicking.. Tipping it sort of helps.

 

[spraintz]

stick with it man, I don't have a DiD but I went through the similar scenario with my G-Tanks.

I spent about weekend tinkering, trying, testing, failing, adjusting when I first got it and finally nailed it. Once I got a good process down every coil since has been simple and quick to put on.

You'll get there, see you on the other side mate....

 

[spraintz]

BTW, glowing top coil is most certainly a short.

not all shorts are created against the coil and wick but can also show up between the wick and the body. I just got a bliSS rebuildable (friggin awesome BTW) today (different style but essentially similar design) and was able to make a wick right off the bat with no shorts at all and hitting, wicking and vaping perfectly. Heres how:

Roll and oxidize yer wick like you normally would then practice using this cotton method:

Mesh/Cotton hybrid wick Bluegrasslover's method - YouTube

the idea is to have a small bit of cotton between yer coil and wick. This will help prevent shorts between the coil and wick when you wrap yer coil and it also aids in keeping the coil really wet as cotton wicks extremely well. the only thing is you can't "dry burn" it or it will burn the cotton.

I took this one step further and used the above method but instead of just using the cotton where the coil would be, I wrapped the cotton down the wick all the way to where the wick enters the tank part. Bam!!! no more shorts at the coil and no risk of shorts between the wick and tank body!!!

taste is perfect and I haven't even come remotely close to a dry hit in my first three tankfuls(in this evening alone )

Give it a go, you might be surprised at how much easier making a coil is with this method...cheers

 

[RsK0807]

I had a hard time with getting the wick and coil just right when I first got my DiD.
If your using 32awg kanthal, run I lighter under it before you wrap your coil to stiffen it up a bit.
When you wrap your coil, you wanna make sure the top coil and the top of the wick are pretty close to the positive connection to avoid the top coil glow.
Make your wraps just tight enough that that wire is making contact with the wick all the way around, but not too tight that it squeezes the wick.
Do a dry burn after you make ur connections and adjust the coils until you get an even glow.
And after your successful with the coil setup, and suggestion I have, if you use juice 70pg/30vg or thicker, leave the bolt out of the juice fill hole. This helps the juice wick better.


Good luck!! If you have any further problems or questions, shoot me a pm and ill do my best to get you up and running.

 

[silversx]

i got my mini did few days ago too.. 3 hours and like 10 tries later.. i ran out of kanthal that shipped with the did.. ordered more on ebay.. can't wait to get back to it.. this thing is rediculous.. all the videos make it look so easy.. but dam my provari was giving me e1 e4 e8 errors all over the place.. i wrapped a 6 coil and it came to 1.2ohms? lol i must be doing it really wrong..

 

[asha23]

Thanks for the tips guys! I have managed to get it working I think. A lot of tinkering though.

 

[spraintz]

Silversx, you are shorting like crazy. When you measure out some wire and know it should 3ohms for example and it shows up waay lower....thats a big indicator of a short. The kicker is trying to find out where and resolving it.

Keep in mind, the idea behind oxidizing the mesh is to create a non-conductive "barrier" or "crust" on the wick so the current will be forced through the resistance wire. But, electricity will always try to find the path of least resistance. That oxidized surface of the wick can be broken down or scraped down to conductive material again with something as small as trying to position the coil as yer wrapping it or if the wick scrapes the edge of the hole of the tank body and a short can show up.

In my mind, that cotton trick listed above gives the best chance of keeping a short from showing up. Think about it, in yer 10 tries at wrapping the coil, how many times did the wick kinda move around on you a lil bit? or you wrapped a coil or to and had to adjust it mid wrap and the coil moved around some on the wick? These movements and points of contact are what can affect that oxidized layer. With that small amount of cotton on there creates a shield that will keep you from having to be so careful and delicate with it.

Just saying, I have never wrapped a coil on a true genesis style atomizer (top coil/bottom tank: did, line, zen, cobra..etc) until yesterday......first try I took a random wick I had made previously and just threw it in there and tried to wrap the coil all easy like all the videos show............worked for about 30 seconds.....the same thing e1, e4,e8 maybe even some others I didn't see I chuckled and said to myself "...haha, yeah right, that's what I thought..." 2nd try, I used the same wick hit it with a lil oxidizing treatment again and did that cotton thing and man-handled me a coil on there in like 20 seconds........and boom!!! not one hotspot, no errors, right at 2.2ohms as expected (34g nichrome 4/5 wrap) perfect even hits every time. I'm about to put my 5th tank through this thing and it hasn't missed a beat.

No matter what method/suggestions you end up using or trying just try to think of all the ways and places a wick can touch a metal ground and eliminate it and you will have better/reliable coils.

 

[Thomas Simms]

I have DID clones coming from a coop and i am def going to have to try this. I have the worst luck with coils, i haven't used a true rebuildable yet but i have been using my vivi nova with cotton for awhile and im still using the original coil i made months ago because i cant make a good coil right.