Vivi Nova Rebuild tutorial

[MISTer E]

mrelwood I also have so far have had little luck with the topper setups (I have only done a few.) Your images are OK by me, for any grade of images = often better than none!

bmarley5780 There are three holes in the ceramic bauway CE4. My original source for them was overpriced. So I ordered some cheaper from here:
Vape-Bauway LR CE4 Clearomizer
I do not know for sure that these have the same 3 holed ceramic heads(as some runs of products change parts sometimes), but once I receive my order (from the above source), I shall report my findings.

gdeal, your images are & have been, very helpful to my vapor science

education.

 

[MikeE3]

MikeE3 that needle thread puller gadget is a true getter N keeper!

MikeE3, looks like I'm not the only one who finds a second use for fly tying tools I'm thinking about respooling an old bobbin with Kanthal wire to make wrapping coils easier.

subdude is on to me google, fly tying bobbin threader and you should get variety of styles and prices to choice from.

I actually use this style, the thin wire compresses easily when passing through the coil. Not sure if the one's with the 'triangle' in their shape will work as well.

 

[gdeal]

?

eGo CE Dual Coil 3.5ml Clear Cartomizer | Ceramic eGo Dual Coil Cartomizers | CE4 EGO DC Carto's

?

Nice Find ! - "dual coils, big fat wicks topped off with a ceramic coil" Ceramic coil? Can anybody confirm this?

 

[mrelwood]

Pictures are good. I believe I understand now. Is this similar to what you are doing?

Yes, the mesh is as short as possible, just to cover the area of the coil. It doesn't touch the chamber walls, and only the wick protrudes to the tank. Tried the long mesh earlier with the Kanger T2, and the wick was impossible to get through the mesh, and it didn't wick as well as it does with a short mesh. I think the coil on the longer mesh has to be too small in diameter to be optimal.

I specified wrong measures the last time, the coil is wrapped on a 2.0mm pole (not 3mm), and the mesh around a 1.5mm one (not 2mm). After several tests I believe the diameter and spread of the coil and the thickness of the mesh are crucial factors on how the ato vapes. Too much SS and the coil takes several seconds to heat up to give proper vapor (causing coughing I think because of the low temperature but very moist vapor), too thin a coil and the wick/mesh doesn't store enough juice and only allows short 1-2s puffs. If the coil is spread too wide the mesh heats up slower, and the center part again might get out of juice too fast. I will try 2.5mm coil on a 2mm mesh next, just need to find a 2.5mm pole or a drill bit.

I aim for the ato to work best at 3.7V, so higher voltages and resistances might again behave very differently.

Today I tried if I would get the current one to leak when topped. I filled slightly above the 2ml mark (past the wicks) and I did get flooding. But battery connection stayed dry, and the flooding was soon gone with vaping, and didn't reoccur when the juice had dropped to 1.9ml, and the air pressures got set. So I believe 1.9ml is a safe filling level with this setup. But a dry or a non-fluffed wick could leak even at 1.5mm.

 

[fakebook]

how do i stop my rebuilt head from leaking? anyone?

 

[Aron Gatt]

Won't this look cool... Is the new vivi .. I think it looks great


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[gdeal]

how do i stop my rebuilt head from leaking? anyone?

Hard to provide any help if you do not provide details. Perhaps a picture of your rebuilt head?

 

[fakebook]

Hard to provide any help if you do not provide details. Perhaps a picture of your rebuilt head?

i don't have access to a camera right now but i can tell you what i did.

1- took the already coiled wick and place the 2 ends in the head.
2- keep one end apart - add in rubber gasket with the other end thru it.
3- place pin.

did i miss any step? it fires perfectly. but it leaks so bad.

 

[gdeal]

i don't have access to a camera right now but i can tell you what i did.

1- took the already coiled wick and place the 2 ends in the head.
2- keep one end apart - add in rubber gasket with the other end thru it.
3- place pin.

did i miss any step? it fires perfectly. but it leaks so bad.

1) Is the top and bottom cap screwed on tight and sealed?
2) Is it leaking from the center hole? Check to make sure the head is screwed in tight.
3) Do you have a good seal with the wick in the slots? If not check the silicon top cap; or use more wick material.

Not much else I can think of unless you have a defective unit.

That all I got.

 

[Ignorant]

Ceramic cup ?? Seems interesting mod..

Been fiddling with gauze pad as wicking material. Seems to work. Taste is fine, better than silica what i have, wicking is fine, how long this thing lasts?? We´ll see.
2.7ohms@4.5V

Went all the up to 6V. No problems, teste is still good, and vape clouds are huge !


But...

Needed to refill. There starts my problems.
With full tank, second with this gauze pad setup. Freshly carged battery.
- No vape, only taste.
- Sometimes mild hint of cottonish flavour
- Cracling and popping
- 4.5V and entire Nova heats up on use.
- Maybe caused by my Lavatube 2.1t, it´s not firing everytime.

Heavy chain vaping may caused these failures. Let it cool down and just wait for few moments.
and now it´s working fine again.

 

[Errol]

?

Nice Find ! - "dual coils, big fat wicks topped off with a ceramic coil" Ceramic coil? Can anybody confirm this?

I can't confirm the eGo CE DC but I have several of the Twin_Coil_Tank Clearomizer from VapingZone and both coils have ceramic tanks.

510 Tank Twin Coil Clearomizer - E Cig : Joye eGo & eGo-T | Boge Leo | Cartomizers | E-Liquid | Electronic Cigarettes | eGo Tank

 

[Errol]

I know we are all waiting for MISTer E to come back and raise the curtain on his ceramic cup mod, but I want to share a quick, non-scientific test (and I repeat non-scientific test) on the wicking rates of four different materials.:

Bamboo Viscose (Aunt Lydia's #10) - 8 threads
Hemp Cord (Darico - All Natural) - 3 strands then 4 strands
Cheesecloth (Bed, Bath and Beyond) - 45 thread width
Cotton Wick #1/0.

I used a basic set up to approximating equivalent density of materials (slight twisted to ~3mm diameter), I fully wetted each material and placed in a cup of water with the ends wrapped over the side. I then used a paper towel covered by heavy grade sheet of plastic to have uniform pressure on each material.

Winner: Bamboo wicks fastest. Hands down.

Interesting that after the first test I looked at the hemp cord, which is very stiff, and thought I may have made it to thin, so I added another piece of cord.The extra strand added just under 1MM but put it over the twisted 3mm standard. However, it performed great. I was a bit surprised.

Interesting test gdeal. Have been curious about what a comparison of the various wicking materials might produce and your test answers a few questions. I'm assuming what I'm looking at in the two tests are the size of the wet spots produced by the various wicks on a paper towel? Don't understand where the sheet of plastic is during the test.

How much time was involved to get that much moisture onto the towel?

Errol

 

[Errol]

Sleepy Zzzz... EDIT: I can not leave out Errol!, for his awesome seemingly custom made avatar inspired the energy of my post, for his kind words were that last I read before starting.

Once a again, beautiful work MISTer, looking forward to your next lesson, OH!, and thanks for flattering closing quote. Sorry to say I slept through it all.

Errol

 

[mrelwood]

Needed to refill. There starts my problems.
With full tank, second with this gauze pad setup. Freshly carged battery.
- No vape, only taste.
- Sometimes mild hint of cottonish flavour
- Cracling and popping
- 4.5V and entire Nova heats up on use.
- Maybe caused by my Lavatube 2.1t, it´s not firing everytime.

Heavy chain vaping may caused these failures. Let it cool down and just wait for few moments.
and now it´s working fine again.

Sounds pretty much like flooding the coil to me. I think you either filled past where the wicks go inside the ato head or your wick is not thick enough.


I tried the bigger coil measures. 2.5mm coil (steady 1.9ohms), 4cm of mesh on a 2mm pole, 30 strands of cotton. Very slow coil heat up, very little VTF, and no dry hits. Took the coil out, tightened the same coil on a 2mm pole, 2cm of mesh on a 1,5mm pole, 24 strands of cotton. Thick clouds of vapor, throat hit and flavor is as good as ever, and I get a small nicotine buzz with already three deep vapes on a 12,5mg juice, even though it's already evening. This is where it's at, guys. Perhaps I will try even less mesh to make the coil heat up even faster.

New flavor: Sweetish Lemon pipe! 23% Liberty Flights Rich pipe, 10% Inawera Lemon, 5% LF Hazelnut, 12,5mg/ml, 62% VG. Quite nice!

 

[gdeal]

Interesting test gdeal. Have been curious about what a comparison of the various wicking materials might produce and your test answers a few questions. I'm assuming what I'm looking at in the two tests are the size of the wet spots produced by the various wicks on a paper towel? Don't understand where the sheet of plastic is during the test.

How much time was involved to get that much moisture onto the towel?

Errol

What you are looking at is a paper towel that was placed on top of a bowl filled with water that contained the wicks. Each wick was draped over the lip of the bowl. All pictures were taken from directly above. Since the paper towel would not lay flat and even by itself, I held the paper towel underneath a clear, thin (but stiff) sheet of plastic. This allow me to evenly place the towel on top of the bowl/wicks and provide slight weight on top of the towel and observe wicking. I was not looking for flow velocity, just relative wicking capability.

Each water spot corresponds to a wick material, you can see some of the wicks through the paper towel.

The test lasted only about 15 seconds.

In hindsight, I should have put a SS mesh wick and Silica wick in their as well....

 

[Errol]

Thanks Gdeal, now I understand the plastic. I originally thought you meant to say you had put the plastic under the paper towel and let each of them drip for a given period of time.

Errol

 

[mrelwood]

A photo of the vapor production from my modded Vivi Nova Mini.





The last picture doesn't do justice, the car was filled with a rather thick smoke. Going out and opening the rear door still put out steam like something was burning. Don't vape SS/cotton and drive!

 

[gdeal]

mrelwood

I followed your specifications for ss mesh size and coil size. I used bamboo (not cotton) and I get similar results. Very good vape production and taste. Wicking capability kept up with a chain vape as well. I have been through 4ML so far, very impressive. This vape is much different than using just cotton or bamboo alone. I see what you mean with the thinner thickness SS mesh. It is acting more as vaporization surface multiplier. With proper coil coverage and thinner ss mesh covering the wick, you can get the entire surface of the mesh to vaporize juice when heated. While this set-up is not as "juicy" as my larger cheesecloth wick, the vapor consistence is much greater and vapor feels finer. Perhaps smoother is a better word, but definitely not "wham" flavorful. I do not mean this is bad, just a bit different of a vape. (same juice btw)


I was able to create a 6/7 turn coil with 34G Kanthal for 2.7ohms. I surprised myself, because my coiling is usually terrible. What what very nice was that based upon the specifications, the oxidized mesh was perfect size for sliding the coil onto and still have a bit of resistance to keep the coils in place.

I used 6 threads of Bamboo which was fairly snug in the SS mesh and it filled the slot opening nicely. (Bamboo does not appear to expand as much as cotton) I probably could remove a thread to get a bit looser of fit, in the coil and the slots, but I really do not want to disturb the set-up. The vape is that good.

All in all: I like this.

I am going to try this with cotton next and increase all diameter dimensions by .5mm. I want the same wall thickness of SS mesh so I will need to do a bit of math. (Ugh)


Here are a few pics:

 

[gdeal]

A photo of the vapor production from my modded Vivi Nova Mini.


The last picture doesn't do justice, the car was filled with a rather thick smoke. Going out and opening the rear door still put out steam like something was burning. Don't vape SS/cotton and drive!

Haha - reminds me of Cheech and Chong.

 

[MISTer E]

Vaportasticly done gdeal. That bamboo is amazing, I have read a bit about its wicking capabilities in the "silica: danger will robinson/wick materials" thread over in mods & your vapor science experiment/presentation was a gem of information to add to my vapor education.

fakebook I hope you get it sorted out, all my Novas leak, but they seem to be doing so less & less, as I gain experience in the delicate finesse & touch of working on such a tiny scale applied to my continual education in vapor science.

EVERYONE! What looks real cool is that image of the metal windowed tanked ViV that Aron Gatt awesomely posted, just a few post ago. If you look real close they relocated the air/leak hole to the side of the bottom gnurling, this way it leaks out of the side instead of on the battery, by the looks of it.

mrelwood2cool:jake<) I agree the buzz is where it is @, especially when the vaportronic gadgetry is tweaked just right, sounds tight.

MikeE3 inspired me with posting more about his fly threading gizmo. So I present a vapor recycle creation & tool of the vapor knight on his/her quest for the perfect comprehension & ability to work with "the forces of vape" discovery!

I used some 32 gauge .008 stainless craft wire on the prototype above, but one of my guitar strings would be thicker. A better shape is likely in order, although I am sure this one works OK. A cool/fly tool design that I hope to put to use.. inspired here in ECF... the VAPOR SKOOL. (The way that there are a ton of subforums here is mind numbing, like a nice cloud of vapor

VAPE volumes!

P.S. I shall try to remember to include exact details, of the way I twisted the mass of wire that gets hidden inside in the ceramic grail tutorial I shall do soon, as the sorta trick knot I made up, seems to hold well & not slip in either direction of force put on it.