So, it's using the same amount of power, regardless of setting? Seems a waste. Sounds like I need a higher resistance carto, and bump up the volts to reduce the heat on the regulator.
I've only known one thing in this world that magically dissapears.
Well, it's not necessary that it magically disappear. Preferably, we can shed the extra voltage without pulling extra current from the battery. Switching regulators, in general, are much more efficient. Another term oft used for mods that utilize this type of regulator (which, as far as I'm aware, is used solely by the vaping community) is 'Evercool'.
Linear regulators add increasing resistance to 'absorb' some of the voltage, leaving the remainder at the desired value. At any given setting, roughly the same amount of power is drawn from the batteries and increasing amounts of it are wasted as heat. In contrast, a switching regulator toggles a switch very quickly to reduce the output, with the switch being open more often as the output setting is reduced. Thus, the lower the setting, the more 'power is left in the battery'.
It's still a bit of a mystery to me how this switching action adjusts voltage... I understand this stuff just enough to be dangerous, but it seems to me like this would reduce current, rather than potential.
The above applies only to step-down scenarios. Step-up, to the best of my understanding, work via magic.
