Very *WEIRD* thing happening with Tornado based h/m passthrough and 2Ohm RBA?!?

[Dearth Vapir]

Hi there techy folks,
Got myself here a Tornado tank (Ego) on which the battery had died. I'd opened it, removed the dead battery innards, and wired it to a small switch mode PSU (I have the experience) to use as a kind of 'pass-through' for when sat on the couch - plenty of power from the PSU - I put 6v in and get the usual Ego 3.2-3.3 out. It'll run an atty or carto of 2 Ohms or greater no problem. Any less and the Ego circuit current limit cuts out, as would be expected.

Been running a 'CHID' on it for a week or so with a 32 awg 2 Ohm coil, but today that broke whilst cleaning it, so I wrapped another using the 29awg I'd just got, again at just a shade over 2 Ohms (lotta turns, that.) - So, Chid works fine on my smok e-power and PC pass-through, but it won't run at all on the Ego based h/m PT - I measure the resistance of the coil (2 Ohms), connected it to the Ego PT whilst still measuring, it suddenly shows a full short circuit. I disconnect the Ego PT from it's power supply, and the coil once again reads the proper 2 Ohms, showing that there isn't an actual/physical short circuit being formed when the parts are screwed together...

Messed a few times more and once or twice the meter reading actually *rose* suddenly and showed *7* Ohms after PSU and Ego were connected again, button not pressed - button light still wouldn't come on, coil still wouldn't fire etc. - The PT still works fine on all my 2 Ohm Boge cartos so isn't obviously FUBAR at all itself.

The switch mode PSU has a grounded -'ve output to remove floating voltage values (they were stupid - at times 100+v above ground - tingled to a wet hand, that... ), small internal cap across output for spikes and high freq. smoothing, and a larger (C) 320uf electrolytic in place for further cleaning of the DC out-to-Ego PCB, if this matters...

The *only* thought I've had - with the amount of turns it took to get 2 Ohms on a 2.3-2.5mm (500#SS mesh) wick (about 14, have a created an inductor that's reacting strangely with the Ego PWM circuitry? - if it ain't that, I'm at a loss, and if it *is* that, I'm at a loss as to how I can cure it without altering the build of my CHID in ways I don't want to.

Any help from anyone more electronically tech.savvy than I am? - I only have the basics down so I'm guessing that's quite a few of y'all ',;~}~

TIA for any help from you fellow Sherlocks out there - will be appreciated.

D"Stumped"V

 

[Dearth Vapir]

Just did another test and powered it from a diferent source (PC USB outlet (essentially a different SM PSU) and a 14650 battery still with the above results, so I at least ruled out the switch mode PSU as having any part in the issue...

DV

 

[WillyB]

Chid works fine on my Smok e-power and PC pass-through, but it won't run at all on the Ego based h/m PT

So basically your coil looks good, hot spots etc?

Always best to look towards and start with the simple first. Might be something as simple as a connector issue. Look hard at the center post and insulator of your PT, a magnifier helps. Does all look good in there. If you got some 510-> 510 adapters try using one inline. Just go for firm contact, don't muscle them. You could also try tweaking the PT's center pin a bit.

I dislike how many of these RBA's use such a large diameter center/positive post. I'd prefer to have more of the insulator showing.

 

[Dearth Vapir]

So basically your coil looks good, hot spots etc?

Always best to look towards and start with the simple first. Might be something as simple as a connector issue. Look hard at the center post and insulator of your PT, a magnifier helps. Does all look good in there. If you got some 510-> 510 adapters try using one inline. Just go for firm contact, don't muscle them. You could also try tweaking the PT's center pin a bit.

I dislike how many of these RBA's use such a large diameter center/positive post. I'd prefer to have more of the insulator showing.

As mentioned in my O/P - I ruled all that sort of thing out right away (as an ex-fault finding and trouble shoting tech. I'm used to the elimination routine) - I put the RBA onto the PT, disconnected the PT from its power source, and the RBA coil measured normal (shade over 2 Ohms). Soon as I reconnected the power to the PT, resistance showed around 0 Ohms, and PT wouldn't fire at all, and in fact the button light woldn't even flash properly to acknowledge it had just been connected to the power source.

- Whatever is going on is not an electro-mechanical issue.

Pulled the wick and col off the other day to clean them, and after resinstall, everything worked fine for an hour or so, but soon as it was all bedded back in, it went strange again - resistance didn't change to below the Ego threshold over that period either - quadruple checked.

All I can think is this is indeed some sort of field/inductance issue - an inductor can have a reasonable static/DC resistance, but present a total short circuit at a given frequency.

Anyhow - thanks for the reply - appreciated.

DV

(E2A) - The RBA works just fine and dandy on my other PV's, including my new itaste.

 

[woundedphoenix]

What are you vaping? If you are vaping dark, high VG juice, is it possible that some is getting stuck in/around the coil (build up over time, even a short time - darker juices present more rapidly than light, this condition - that could be causing your homebrew pt to show a short, whereas other devices do not, solely due to the way the homebrew is et up, the electronics and electrophysics of it, etc?
I found an axiom early on... when all else fails, look at the juice (i was vaping some 100% vg, with 100%vg base flavors, though i doubt it would have to be that extreme in this case).
I bring this up as you say a good cleansing seems to temporarily fix the issue.

My apologies if i got anything wrong or misread something. It's very late here, for me, and my eyes are starting to swim.
-woundedphoenix

 

[Dearth Vapir]

What are you vaping? If you are vaping dark, high VG juice, is it possible that some is getting stuck in/around the coil (build up over time, even a short time - darker juices present more rapidly than light, this condition - that could be causing your homebrew pt to show a short, whereas other devices do not, solely due to the way the homebrew is et up, the electronics and electrophysics of it, etc?
I found an axiom early on... when all else fails, look at the juice (i was vaping some 100% vg, with 100%vg base flavors, though i doubt it would have to be that extreme in this case).
I bring this up as you say a good cleansing seems to temporarily fix the issue.

My apologies if i got anything wrong or misread something. It's very late here, for me, and my eyes are starting to swim.
-woundedphoenix

Cheers there WP - I long since abandoned that PT and atty combo but appreciate the reply anyways thanks.

As for the juices - thet varied, and I can be pretty certain it wasn't that - also pretty certain it was down to resistance/inductance and the electronics - seems these genny style atties can do weird things with different PV's - i.e. I now have an i-Taste, and over 99% of the time all my genny styles work flawlessly with it, but on occasion the power will lock on after the button is released and it isn't just mechanically 'sticking' - got the same thing happen with the h/b PT too, and a couple other PV's I've tried and also read others have the same exp. - try a dummy load instead, same DC resistance as my gennys, and all works fine.

Anyways#2 - haven't really used another PV since I got the i-Taste - I love th VV capability (easier than fine-tuning genny coils and can adjust for different weather and juices), it has plenty of capacity and I can use it whilst it charges too.

Later,

DV