Vamo owners, I could use some help!

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bid00f

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Feb 8, 2013
11
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san diego
Hey guys today I was using my vamo with my a7 for the first half of the day before switching to my mvp when I went to school. Apon putting my a7 back onto my vamo. My vamo will only flash lo(horseshoe) everytime I press the button and 0.0ohm's when I check atty resistance, I've tried cleaning the connectors really well to no avail. I know its not my atty because it works on my other two devices. I even tried adjusting the center connecter on the a7. There is nothing I did different from when it was working today earlier. For trouble shoot purposes I'm using a SS vamo with a panasonic CGR18650CH attached to an a7 with a 3-4 wrap of 32g kanthal that comes out to 1.7 when i check resistance on my lambo.
 

dam718

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Dec 30, 2012
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How old is your Vamo? I've gone through two of them... Lucky enough when I experienced a problem similar to yours I was inside the DOA period of the vendor I got it from and they were able to swap it for me...

Anyway, here is what I found...

Inside the 510 connector on the Vamo, the center post is isolated from ground by a small silicon washer. If you have a device that goes on top, you can over compress the washer and actually cut into the silicon with the center post. So when you torque it down it presses the center post against the ground, creating a dead short.

When there is no device at all on the vamo and you do a resistance check does it show 9.9 Ohms? This would indicate an open circuit, and it what you want to see with nothing on there...

Try threading the A7 down on the vamo and just before it gets tight, start checking the resistance periodically as you tighten it. It should initially read the correct resistance, but will be too loose. Once you tighten it down it will short out the post and read 0.0... This would be an indication that your silicon isolator is cut or ripped...

If this is what happened to you, I don't know of any way to replace that silicon spacer... I just got a new Vamo, and I barely tighten anything down on it anymore.
 

bid00f

Full Member
Feb 8, 2013
11
4
33
san diego
My vamo is a week shy of being a solid month old. When I check my resistance I get 0.0, so I'm guessing there is no circuit being completed due to no ground? Dam718 you're a life saver, it was the silicon ring. I didn't think it played any importance so I kind of just "put it back in" but upon reading your post I took the ring out (because it was jsut kind on top of the connector instead of around) and then I jimmied the post up a bit to seperate it from the rest of the 510 connector and who would have thought.

Reading 9.9 oms again... now to figure out how to sneak this silicon washer back to where it sits properly.. which I honestly don't know how it should be positioned correctly LOL

*edit 2 : I fixed it thank you @dam718 for making me aware of the washer, I didn't think it was too important last night when my vamo stopped working so I didn't mention it in my first post. but yeah I got it situated around the connector well and its grounded again. and boom back to normal. Thanks :)
 
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dam718

Ultra Member
ECF Veteran
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Dec 30, 2012
1,797
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Hawaii
My vamo is a week shy of being a solid month old. When I check my resistance I get 0.0, so I'm guessing there is no circuit being completed due to no ground? Dam718 you're a life saver, it was the silicon ring. I didn't think it played any importance so I kind of just "put it back in" but upon reading your post I took the ring out (because it was jsut kind on top of the connector instead of around) and then I jimmied the post up a bit to seperate it from the rest of the 510 connector and who would have thought.

Reading 9.9 oms again... now to figure out how to sneak this silicon washer back to where it sits properly.. which I honestly don't know how it should be positioned correctly LOL

*edit 2 : I fixed it thank you @dam718 for making me aware of the washer, I didn't think it was too important last night when my vamo stopped working so I didn't mention it in my first post. but yeah I got it situated around the connector well and its grounded again. and boom back to normal. Thanks :)

That silicon ring was separating the center post from ground. It wasn't that you were not seeing ground, it was an issue of the positive and negative directly shorting against each other! That was the safety circuit of your Vamo doing exactly what it's supposed to do! :) Glad I could help, even more glad it's working again!
 
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