SMPL Mod (clone) discussion

[UCChris]

Well, I have a problem with my Amod SMPL clone. I have a Twisted Messes rda on it. Dual coil 24 gauge at .27 ohm. I was playing COD with my roommates and noticed the mod was warm. It was sitting between my legs so I thought nothing of it. I went and put it on my desk in my room and went back to playing. Went back in my room about five minutes later and switched out the battery to start vaping it again. I was switching my battery on my other mod too and when I went to touch the Amod, it was quite warm. Like 20-30 degrees hotter than the air temp. I unscrewed it, and everything looks okay. There's no vapor coming from the atty and the pin didn't collapse or anything. It's still protruding a good 2-3mm. Any thoughts?

 

[Bad Ninja]

What type of battery?

 

[UCChris]

What type of battery?

Sony VTC4


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Nikea Tiber]

The problem is you were playing Call of Duty when you.should have been playing Battlefield instead.
In all seriousness, though, check your atomizer on an ohm meter to make sure it isn't shorting, and check your battery to make sure that the wrap is completely intact.
If you dope your switch with a dielectric grease, they are conductive. Make sure there isn't so much on the contact that it spills over to where it shorts the negative to the body of the mod.
At .27 ohms a single VTC4 shouldn't be heating up that much, though keep in mind that it is a small mod, and a .27 dual coil build will get quite hot and that heat will migrate to the body of the mod.
My ADV is a .25 ohm dual coil build, and on a praxis or 4Nine (which are about the same mass and construction as a SMPL, as I do not own one), and without a 510 heatsink they both get pretty warm (easily 15-25°F above ambient) when I have a session on them.
If your battery wrap is fine and your atty doesn't have a short, assemble the mod and atty with a fresh room temperature battery and just let it stand vertical, and monitor it to see if it starts to get warm without you interacting with it other than touching it to see if it is warming up. If everything is fine after a minute or so, vape on it until it is warmer than room temp, pull the battery to make sure it isn't hotter than the rest of the mod, if it is about the same put it back in, and just put it on the table and see if it is cooling off while you aren't using it. If at any point the mod/battery gets hot really quickly, pull the battery ASAP and have someone knowledgeable check your SMPL.

 

[mhertz]

As I really appreciate expanding my as-of-yet small insight on dielectric greases vs conductive greases vs vaseline etc by e.g. this link found through googling.

Dielectric Grease vs Conductive Grease

I was the same way, as link suggests, "dielectric grease - hmmm", meaning the thought of thinking diminishing contact performance, compared to conductive greases(because of the specific wording of "dielectric")... I quickly learned my lesson(should have sooner, because of Nikea's previous postings, lol), and was all set for getting some dielectric grease to use on all treads and contacts, sparingly of course, especially after seeing a test showing it really makes a difference... Also, silicone grease is easilly available even to me were i'm from, and i've seen it in stores, cheaply also...

I liked this quote:

All of these dielectric greases, and virtually all from other manufacturers, both improve insulation and preserve electrical connections. They do this by sealing contaminants, moisture, and air out of connections. They also seal insulators, keeping moisture and contaminants out of insulation. They are as effective at preserving connections as "conductive" grease, and will not harm insulation.

(I remember Nikea once stating to me that I should just pick any dielectric grease...)
However, then all happy about only having to use a single cheap product on everything, then I finally read this pararaph:

Switches, Movable Contacts, and Relays

Unless you are absolutely sure what you are doing is OK, do only what a switch or relay manufacturer suggests. There are some cases where very high current contacts can be lubricated, or should be lubricated, to prolong or extend life. There are many cases where lubricating contacts accelerates failure.

As a general rule, low-viscosity greases can be directly applied to low-voltage contacts. Low-voltage generally would include consideration of opening or closing transient voltages, such as opening arcs from inductance back-pulse.

Contact arcs have the ability to alter composition of greases. Silicone greases can be converted by arcs to silicone carbide, which is highly abrasive. For this reason, silicone grease should be avoided when contacts are "hot switched" and have any chance of arcing.

Of course I can still use it on threads, but I just hoped for a one-piece-solution to everything, including contacts, and as the biggest advantage I personally was looking for was reduced arcing...

Anyway, I don't know the credibility of said link, but usually I myself am pretty good at dividing credible, from non-credible authors/persons, from the way they write, vocabulary, arguments and thougts/reasoning, atleast imho, and I believe this is correct... However, I could be wrong of course

Edit: Crap, now i'm a little insecure about something(about if posting bs)... The very start of said link states that dielectric grease doesn't contain silica, despite popular opinion, but when looking up on wikipedia(I know, but still...), there is stated fumed silica is often used as thickener...

Edit2: No matter if everything being 100% correct or not, then I still recommend it, as it's still a nice read imho... Noalox is also shortly mentioned in two places:

The problems centered around dry connections that corroded, and around aluminum trunk cable shield connections protected by Noalox, a grease people often call "conductive". All of these problems were eliminated by "non-conductive" grease.

I have no opinion if conductive greases help or are necessary. I still use Noalox on clamped aluminum slip joints in antennas because it is generally less expensive than silicone dielectric greases. I do NOT use conductive greases on electrical connectors, or if I am unsure of metal compatibilities.

Conductive greases should specifically match materials being clamped. Conductive greases should never be used in electrical connectors with multiple terminals. Conductive greases should only be used in connectionsthat are well-isolated from connections with differing voltages, and never in high voltage connections.

Edit3: Btw, unrelated but the reason for adding salt to vinegar or lemon-juice, is because the acidity of the vinegar/lemon-juice gets heightened by the salt evidently and it's the acidic properties of vinegar/lemon-juice that removes the oxidation and corrosion and hence salt is used as an accelerator...