Titanide Themis Misfire and Massive Volt Drop

[DeadbeatJeff]

Was working great for a while, but the past week it's just been really sucking. Barely hitting, and misfiring A LOT. Works good every once-in-a-while.

I deconstructed the whole thing and cleaned every thread and connection. I tested the atty on another mod.

Any revival that may have occurred was fleeting.

Am at the end of my rope -- there us literally nothing that could be going wrong with this device, but it's got a short or something somewhere.

It is my wife's mod, and I'm thinking the only thing could be that she pocket-fired it and melted the insulator in the 510 somewhere where it can't be seen. The visible insulator is fine, and the battery and atty are making solid contacts.

Does anyone have any experience with something like this? I realize that not a lot of people have this mod, but I also know a few of you do. I'm starting to think my next step, in term sof trouble-shooting, is somehow replacing the insulator, which seems borderline impossible considering it is not removable by design.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

 

[DeadbeatJeff]

bump

.....

 

[Ryedan]

I don't have a Themis, but I have been vaping mech mods for a while and had a couple of thoughts. First, is the switch or the other end heating up at all? If an area is heating up that's a good indication it needs to be cleaned there. It will heat up more if you're running low resistance coils than with high resistance.

Did you take apart the switch completely and clean the button O.D. where it slides and makes contact with the part you screw onto the tube?

 

[DeadbeatJeff]

everything has been thoroughly cleaned with PGA

 

[Ryedan]

everything has been thoroughly cleaned with PGA

If there is corrosion on a surface sometimes PGA doesn't do it and you need a little fine friction.

Massive voltage drop does not happen from a short, it's always resistance where there should not be resistance. The resistance can also come from not making hard enough contact between surfaces. That includes the battery. If there is adjustment in the switch for different battery lengths for example, that could need adjusting.

Sorry, but that's all I've got.

 

[DeadbeatJeff]

No corrosion. Is titanium for one; also hard contacts are being made.

Sent from the Northwest Corner, CM

 

[Bad Ninja]

I repair mods for a local shop.
When I see intermittent performance, misfires and voltage drop issues, here's how I troubleshoot:

Check the 510 connection to the atty first.
A microscopic gap between center pin and atty will cause a small arc that will give you intermittent problems, voltage issues, misfires etc.

This actually sounds like the problem of everything is clean and the switch is working properly.

Which leads us to the next area to check:
Switch assembly.
I check springs and magnets for discoloration or carbon buildup from arcing.

Try not to let it frustrate you.
It's a simple device, if everything looks good and I still have the same issues, I go back and look again, because I obviously missed something.

 

[DeadbeatJeff]

everything looks fine; all contacts are solid

the spring looks fine, but I'm gonna try an upgrade and see

 

[DeadbeatJeff]

The battery is making contact with the switch; the battery is making contact with the positive pin; the positive pin is making contact with the atomizer. All the threads are shiny and clean.

Everything is tight and connected, by all measures it is exactly as it has always been. Just to be sure I replaced the spring, which was fine, and the problem has not resolved itself.

The only part of the device I cannot see is the inside of the topcap, and having exhausted all other possibilities, and having checked everything and rechecked 4 times, the only conclusion I can come to is that there is a short inside the topcap. To confirm this I just put a new battery in, charged to 4.20v with a new 1.1ohm build (unwicked and bare) on the atomizer. It would not fire a single time. HOWEVER, when I placed the fully charged battery back on the charger it read 4.01v. So obviously the device is pulling current from the battery.

The only possible conclusion is that there is a defect in the insulation itself, between the positive pin and the topcap, causing a short.

 

[UncleChuck]

Do you happen to have a multimeter? If so, you could place the leads on the center pin and ground and check to see if there is any conductivity, that will confirm whether it's shorting or not. Even a super cheap one will be able to do this, might be worth getting to troubleshoot this mod. Based on your description the problem's got to be the one place you cannot easily look, you seem to have all other bases covered.

Does the battery get warm if you put it in the device and fire it, when it doesn't fire the atty?

 

[DeadbeatJeff]

well, electronicstix seems to be satisfied with my troubleshooting (although they don't warranty the device, I'd been having trouble getting ahold of anyone at Titanide, and have been in a dialogue with them for the past few days).

I get what you are saying now. It sounds like something may have come loose inside the top cap.
I have never fully disassembled one either so I am not sure how they are set up inside there.
Unfortunately I do not have any spare parts laying around. I do still have a few full units laying around though.
I will send out another cap tomorrow morning with a return label so that you can send back the cap you have.
Hopefully that will fix the issue.

 

[Bad Ninja]

Do you happen to have a multimeter? If so, you could place the leads on the center pin and ground and check to see if there is any conductivity, that will confirm whether it's shorting or not. Even a super cheap one will be able to do this, might be worth getting to troubleshoot this mod. Based on your description the problem's got to be the one place you cannot easily look, you seem to have all other bases covered.

Does the battery get warm if you put it in the device and fire it, when it doesn't fire the atty?

Try this.

The symptoms suggest the issue is in the top cap/ atty connection.
You mentioned an autofire scenario.
Did this actually happen?
If so, you are probably spot on about the insulator.

 

[DeadbeatJeff]

not autofire, but instead of firing the atty it's just circulating massive amps through the mod... the batt dropped from 4.20 to 4.0 after about 8-10 short misfires