Volts/Amps?

[mjp808]

Can someone with a little more knowledge talk about the relationship between volts and amperage as they relate to the requirements of an atomizer?

There are tons of different 3.6v batteries, but a wide swath of mA ratings.

Maybe someone can write a sticky post with the specs of a standard e-cig

 

[nicowolf]

What I have learned so far :

OEM e-cig batteries are 3.6 or 3.7 volts and typically less than 250 mAh.

Higher voltage means faster heating of atomizer.

Higher mAh means more puffing between recharges.

Lithium batteries seem to be 3.0, 3.6, or 3.7 volts. I am unsure how this is regulated in unprotected cells - too technical for me.

Batteries with larger physical dimensions also have larger mAh ratings (in general), while the voltage remains unchanged (NiMH tends to be around 1.2 volts, Alkaline around 1.5 volts, and Lithium somewhere between 3 and 4 volts regardless of physical dimensions).

I won't weigh in on requirements as I do not know at all, just that 7.2 volts seems to be too much (I sacrificed 2 atomizers to find this out), and I have heard reports that 6 volts has not harmed Madog's Magnum or his atomizer.

 

[secondson2929]

If my memory serves me correctly:

Mah (mili amp hours) is a measurement of capacity. Ma (or amperage) is a measurement of current. In an ideal world if a battery had 1000mah and an attomizer draws 1000ma the attomizer will run one hour of constant use.

A 2000mah battery could provide 1000ma for two hours. A 500mah battery would provide the same amperage for half an hour.

This is all "in a perfect world" of course. In the real world we have to deal with resistance, degradation of battery voltage etc.

To my knowledge the standard e-cig batts provide 3.6 or 3.7 volts and have mah ratings in the 250mah to 400mah range.

Hope this helps.

 

[imeothanasis]

We have said it before but I will say in here again my good friend crazy modder!!!

All the above are right and something else.

If you put 2,3 or.... same batteries in series, then your total mah are the mah of one battery and the total volts are "volt of 1 battery x as many batteries you have"

If you put them in parallel, then you increase the mah (1st battery mah + second battery mah + .......), but the total volts remain the same as one battery has.

As for the resistance of atomizer, is 3,7 ohm, so if the battery is 3,7v, then the current witch goes to the button and the atomizer is 1 amper. That means we need at least 1 amp button, because in other case it will soon stop fanctioning.

From physics we have this:

I=V/R (I=current, V=volts, R=resistance). So if V=3,7 and R=3,7, then I =1 amper. If we increase the volts, we need a better button.

My english are no so good to these things so if you understand I am happy

 

[Laredo7mm]

I think most atomizers are between 3.3 to 3.7 ohms of resistance. The more volts you run through them, the more watts they produce. Watts is power, so the more the better, until you push it too far and burn up the atomizer.

Do a google search for "Ohms law calculator" and you can put numbers in the calculator to see how the power changes when voltage changes.

The relationship is not linear. For example with 3.7 ohms, and 3.7 volts, you produce 3.7 watts. Now double the volts to 7.4 and you get 14.8 watts.

 

[breakfastchef]

My batteries for my pen-style read around 4V =/- a bit. Using a USB pass-through and the same atomizer, I tested a 12V USB car adapter rated at 5V +/- at 350mA, a 12V USB car adapter rated at 5V +/- at 700mA and my Kensington Ultra Portable Power Pack rated at 5V at 1000mA. The car adapter ratedat 350mA produced no vapor; the 700mA device was better, but not satisfying; the 1000mA Kensington device was great with vapor production.

Then I built a maddog magnum-type mod out of a flashlight using two CR2 batteries at 3V each with a mAh rating in excess of 1000mA. Wow, this device blows away anything I have ever tried. Increased voltage and current flow seem to contribute to a better vaping expereince. As noted above by a prior fourm member, the life of an atomizer running at higher current and voltage may decrease it's life expectancy. That is ok by me as I would surely trade a better throat hit and smoke plume for the cost of any atomizer.

 

[mjp808]

Excellent--its good to have this all in one place. Thanks, all.

There is plenty of info on voltage (and not much choice with li-ion), but not much talk about all the various amperage ratings.

I put 2 3.0v/880a in series (like MadDogs) and blew my atomizer, so I was kinda going back and checking my math. I think the atomizer was on it's way out anyway.

My plug-in "Fuggly" at 4.5v, 1600mA, gives a really good amount of vapor-my benchmark. The amperage does affect vapor. I tried 4.2v at 0.1a and nothing. I also made a 1-battery (protected) powered configuration, 3.7v 880mA works well until it reaches it's mid point of charge (3.7v), then it just kinda drops off. If you let it sit for a few minutes, the charge kinda comes back.

 

[mjp808]

So what would happen with a 3.7v 5000mA battery to an atomizer?

 

[imeothanasis]

So what would happen with a 3.7v 5000mA battery to an atomizer?

The best!!!!!

 

[imeothanasis]

The mah does not affect the atomizer but the duration of smoking, nothing else. If you put a C battery then you will smoke for 2 days!!!

But a huge thing will come up as device. You cant hold it my crazy modder

Exept you are a bodybuilder xa xa

 

[nicowolf]

Excellent--its good to have this all in one place. Thanks, all.

There is plenty of info on voltage (and not much choice with li-ion), but not much talk about all the various amperage ratings.

I put 2 3.0v/880a in series (like MadDogs) and blew my atomizer, so I was kinda going back and checking my math. I think the atomizer was on it's way out anyway.

So, you are ok on volts. Let's explore the "amperage ratings". Secondson's post above does well at explaining the mAh. Now for mA (notice the lack of an 'h' here, that is important). The best way I can explain the difference between the two is to use an anology. In terms of water:

water would be the electricity

fluid ounces would be like mAh

the friction that slows or speeds a current of water would be measured in ohms for electric.

the force we are using to push our water through a tube would be volts.

the speed of the water as it goes through the tube would be mA.

the impact that the water has when it hits an obstacle would be watts.

I may be off a little on the ohms, volts, and watts. I still get a little confused with those myself.


So, we modders try to use volts to achieve mA so we can get watts (in ecigs it equates to heat); and mAh to keep it going for a longer period of time.

If you increase mAh in a battery, you increase how much electric it can hold, meaning how long it will last on a set of batteries.

If you increase volts, you increase mA and watts as well (the atomizer heats up faster).

To change ohms, you would have to change the atomizer innard materials.

I hope all this makes sense.

I think what you are trying to ask is what would be the ideal voltage and mAh ratings. My short answer would be: the best I have seen is 4 to 6 volts and the highest mAh rating you can fit into your mod (the physical size of the battery determines how much it can hold, like the glass of water). The voltage of the battery is determined by it's chemical makeup (Alkaline batteries are 1.5 volts, lithium is 3-3.7 volts depending on which chemical the battery uses to stabilize the lithium, NiMH is 1.2 volts).

I have been thinking about this and researching since December. The best combination I have found for voltage and mAh is Madog's Magnum mod with 2 CR2 batteries. If six volts eats through your atomizers too quickly for your taste, you can use one 3.7 volt lithium battery of whatever size suits you, or four 1.2 volt NiMH batteries of whatever size, or three 1.5 volt alkaline batteries of any size. This is a tough decision to make and I refuse to make it for you.

 

[nicowolf]

So what would happen with a 3.7v 5000mA battery to an atomizer?

It would vape about as well as it did with the original battery. You just wouldn't have to change that battery or recharge it for days.

 

[ApOsTle51]

So what would happen with a 3.7v 5000mA battery to an atomizer?

no different to a freshly charged battery .
Most e-cigs will draw up to 1000mA so all you really have is a spare 4000mA.
if it was 5000mAh and 300mA output your cig isnt going to perform/heat up properly but it would last a very long time between charges.

This is why on a passthrough it will only supply a max 500mA on an unpowered port because 500mA is the max USB1 will feed.
Passthrough's work best running from a mains powered usb hub or a usb battery pack with an output greater than 1000mA.

haha nico ...posting same time...snap!!!

 

[nicowolf]

Apo, do you know about this stuff? Was my anology correct? I need someone to point out any errors I have made here, so I can better understand the concepts myself.

 

[ApOsTle51]

water would be the electricity

fluid ounces would be like mAh

the friction that slows or speeds a current of water would be measured in ohms for electric.

the force we are using to push our water through a tube would be volts.

the speed of the water as it goes through the tube would be mA.

the impact that the water has when it hits an obstacle would be watts.

I may be off a little on the ohms, volts, and watts. I still get a little confused with those myself.

your analogy is correct nico , the only thing im not too sure on is wattage but the rest is right. I've often seen electricity explained by water as it gives a imaginary visual aid in identifying various measurements. Nicely explained.

 

[kender]

It's volts x amps = watts
so i guess "the impact that the water has when it hits an obstacle would be watts."
would be kind of right.

 

[imeothanasis]

Watt is the power of curent. Its really V*R. That means that watt is the job witch a channel with 1V in its edges and 1 A tension "eats" or "does".

Sorry my english does not help me much with terminology.

Maybe to say it different. Its the power witch "comes out" from a channel with the above characteristics

 

[imeothanasis]

Let me give you an example:

two motorcycles are moving in the same road and they do the same distance. If the first motorbike does the distance in 2 min and the second in one min (the moving power is the same to the 2 motorcycles) then we say that the moter of second bike is more powerful than the first's bike. That means, the second bike has more power than the first one because it does the same job in less time.

Hope I helped

 

[vslim]

If you are really curious about this stuff you can buy a VOM, which is short for Volt-Ohm meter, and check the resistance of your atomizers. It is a good thing to have, to see if they are really dead. My 901 atomizers from bestecig.com are 2.2 ohms, I had two which had pooped out. Put them on the meter, one was open (infinite resistance) and one was still 2.2. Cleaned the 2.2 one, it is now working fine. You can also use it to check mod connections and real battery voltages (NiMH batts show 1.4 volts when charged). Nicowolf's explanation was spot on.

 

[imeothanasis]

I check the other day my atomizers and only one of them was dead.

The others worked, they want only to clean them with tropical's bob method.

The strange thing was that one of them was not smoke very well so when I check its registance was 7,8!!! So with so big registanse the atomizer could not work with the batteries so well