what exactly is voltage drop

[Stinkytofus]

a. how does voltage drop affect my vape?

b. whats considered good voltage drop (what mechanical mods cloned or authentic has good voltage drops)

c. whats considered bad voltage drop (what mechanical mods cloned or authentic should i avoid)

d. when do i know i have to charge my battery? my friend say when your vapor is noticeably less, is there other indicators?

e. if my mod or bottom firing area gets warm should i worry?

f. if my mod or bottom firing area gets too hot, what should i do?

g. in an event of an short, how will i know?

thank you ! trying to get into mech mods !

 

[p7willm]

All the resistance stuff in an electric circuit causes the voltage to drop. This includes the coil, which is where you want most of the resistance and the rest of the mod and atty.

Bad resistance happens mostly at junctions between elements of the mod.

Starting at the negative end of the battery and moving around to the positive you have 1) whatever touches the battery. 2) whatever parts of the switch that are open and close when you push the button. 3) connect the piece that closes the circuit to get thing that screws into the bottom of the tube 4) where the bottom screws into the tube. 5) where the pieces of the tube screw together 6) where the top cap screws into the mod 7) where the atty screws into the top cap (the outside of the 510 connection, not the inside) 8) any connection from the 510 to the rest of the atty. 9) connect the atty to the coil 10) the coil that you want to have resistance in so it heats up. 11) connect the other side of the coil to the atty. 12) connect to the center of the 510 (some attys have several parts here all of which have to be connected) 13) the inside 510 piect connects to the inside of the top cap. 14) the inside of the top cap connects to the positive side of the battery.

ALL of these connections add bad voltage drop. Oxides of metals are much worse conductors of electricity than metals and all metals oxidize. On a regular basis clean all the connections you can. Get rid of oxidation and any crud you can. Noalox is a grease with particles of Zinc in it and the Zinc cuts through oxidation to improve connections.

A freshly charged battery is 4.2 volts and when you vape it quickly drops to under 4 and then slowly drops down to about 3.5. Then it quickly drops. You will probably notice the point where it quickly drops and that is where you should recharge. If you want to ckeck take the battery out and use a meter to check the voltage. When you see it at 3.2 it is time to recharge.

There are two reasons a part of the mod will get hot. It is next to another part that gets hot. Or it gets hot because the electricity is having a hard time getting through. The coil is supposed to get hot. It should have resistance to electricity. The rest of the mod should have very little resistance. If some part other than the coil is getting hot on it's own you need to look at that part and figure out why the electricity is having a hard time getting through. With the button it most probably needs a good cleaning. A clean button should not get hot.

If things get hot that are not next to the coil there is something wrong. The coil gets hot and things touching it get warm and things touching the things touching the coil get a little warm.

If you short something you will know. The battery will start to get hot. Pieces of the mod will probably start to get hot. If it gets too hot to hold drop it and step back, it is not worth hurting yourself over a mod. If you see gas coming out of the mod, it is too late for the battery. If something horrible happens find out what it was and fix it before you try to use the mod again. If the mod is damaged don't use it.

 

[pdib]

dang! nicely done p7!

Only thing I'd mention is that, for all practical purposes, mech. battery swap usually occurs around 3.7 volts o' charge. (Maybe 3.5V) Everybody always says, "you'll notice the vape getting weaker, and you'll know when to change batteries". Well, that's cause you will. It's obvious. Nonetheless, Stinky, check the voltage (the charge) of your battery on your first few battery swaps, just to get a sense of where it's at. I think I recall checking the charge status of my battery frequently when I first started: "oh .. . so that's what 3.9V vapes like" and "mhmmmm, 3.65V . .. . yeah, I thought it was getting weak" . .. . . . like 'at.

ADDIT: oh, and the first sign of a hard short may well be "mod won't fire". When your mod has a "hard" short circuit, the current isn't following the prescribed path (i.e. to the coil) . .. . .it's taking a short-cut . .. . . so, no vape. If your mod doesn't fire, you might not want to repeatedly press, nay stand on, the fire button . .. . . unless you want to feel things getting warm what really oughtn't to be getting warm.

 

[Noble Gas]

^^^ What P7 said.^^^

Hehe. Seriously though, that was a pretty good description. I'd like to add that detecting voltage drop is usually pretty easy. At some point your juice can taste a little lackluster or muted. For instance, I vape a mixture of peanut butter and apple, and when the batt is fully charged the apple shines through bright and crisp. As the battery drains, the apple starts to soften and the peanut butter comes out more. At a certain point, around 3.8 or 3.7 volts, the peanut butter just gets dull. It doesn't taste bad, but just muted to the point of boredom. And yeah, the vapor production starts to wane as well, though it's sometimes not obvious if the lighting isn't just right, or you're outside where wind can get at your clouds. If you're just not sure but worry about over-draining your battery, fire your mod into a voltage meter and see how things are going. Basically you never want to drain your batts below 3.2 volts, but you'll likely be unsatisfied with your vape before then.

 

[Noble Gas]

Yes, I said pretty much the same thing as pdib, but his post wasn't there when I started writing

 

[cstone1991]

Just to add to the great info already here, once you have an idea of how long a battery normally lasts, that will give you a pretty good idea of when to swap going forward. I know that at bed time my battery is normally at about 3.5v and that's when I charge it. If the vapor production drops off I check the resistance of my Atty first because the screws sometimes back out a little and change the resistance and if that is normal then I check the battery voltage.

Another note, with the chemistry of the batteries that we use it is much better to recharge a bit early than it is to let the voltage drop too low before charging so if you know you can get through 1 day, but not quite all the way through the second it would be wise to charge before bed on the first night if you won't have a way to check voltage while you're out the next day and/or don't have a spare.

 

[deavidsedice]

I'm not an expert on this area, but i have some knowledge on elecronics. Also i'm a mech owner since some weeks ago.

Voltage Drop is when the output voltage lowers whenever it outputs a high intensity. It happens on every battery and on every circuit.
Voltage Drop is a bad thing, mainly because it means energy is getting wasted, and that energy will come out as heat.

Some batteries are better than others and show less voltage drop. Some bad contacts, mods, etc could give more voltage drop.

When you talk avout voltage drop, I assume an high voltage drop.


a. how does voltage drop affect my vape?
It will make your mod and battery to heat up.
Also, you will need to put lower resistances to get the same amount of vapor.
Batteries will be discharged early.
If it heats, and if you put lower resistance, those two combined could give problems in your battery.


b. whats considered good voltage drop (what mechanical mods cloned or authentic has good voltage drops)
If it's a voltage drop from the battery, maybe any voltage drop is ok while it is in the spec.
Maybe, in general a drop of 20% of the voltage in the battery is the maximum you should have.

For other components, any voltage drop (a 1% or so) is a problem on those. Maybe even with a 5% of voltage drop on the mod doesn't give you any problem, but that shouldn't happen (and you're wasting energy).

Look for mods made of cooper or aluminium (or at least, any metal), and the contacts should be made of cooper.

c. whats considered bad voltage drop (what mechanical mods cloned or authentic should i avoid)
I have no idea on this topic, but maybe you should avoid those made of plastic.

d. when do i know i have to charge my battery? my friend say when your vapor is noticeably less, is there other indicators?
As Far as i know, no. You will get 4 times less vapor when is discharged, that should be noticeable enough.
I use a Kick inside the mech, and it cuts off the power when the batts drop below 3.2v; maybe a kick would be useful for you too.

e. if my mod or bottom firing area gets warm should i worry?
I would worry only if the bottom gets hot. The rest of the mod can get hot because it is near the atomizer.
Make sure the batt is ok, and the button only fires when you press it.

 

[Vwls]

a. how does voltage drop affect my vape?

b. whats considered good voltage drop (what mechanical mods cloned or authentic has good voltage drops)

c. whats considered bad voltage drop (what mechanical mods cloned or authentic should i avoid)

Voltage drop for the most part due to differences between mods will not affect your vape at all. As long as you keep your contacts clean and use quality, fresh batteries, your vape will be awesome.

(I gleaned this by listening to people a lot smarter than me...)

Unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation out there regarding voltage drop and conductivity of certain metals improving one's vape. (Most people on vaping forums have no understanding of basic physics, or of electronics in particular.)

The first thing to keep in mind is that a mod is not necessarily better because it's made from a certain metal. Actually, the difference in conductivity between various metals account for such minuscule differences, that the metal itself is never the explanation for differences in measured results obtained in voltage drop tests. For example, pure copper has a resistance of 1.724 x 10-8 ohms/m. Stainless steel has a resistance of 6.9×10−7 ohms/m. This equates to a difference in voltage that is smaller than most multimeters are capable of measuring. Thus, observed differences between mods in voltage drop tests are due to explanations other than the resistance of the metals. Most likely they are caused by differences in contact resistance, corrosion, and of course, poor testing approach.

The truth is, voltage drop tests in general produce useless data. A thorough and precise cleaning of every part of every mod tested would be a first step toward a valid comparison, but this is never done. (Corrosion invisible to the eye increases resistance in the circuit; if the parts that connect to each other are not perfectly clean and do not completely grip thread-to-thread, voltage drop increases.)

Anyway, looking at the voltage drop across the atomizer is not a particularly useful way of ascertaining how well a mod performs. It would only be valid as a comparison if you used the same battery and atomizer on all the mods being tested, and ensured that the charge level in the battery was identical for each test. The absolute measured values are quite meaningless, as you don't know what the internal resistance of the battery is.

So I would advise choosing your mechanical mod based on the reputation of the modder, the quality of the product, and the aesthetic appeal, as opposed to reported voltage drop data. You want something that is well made, will last through all the abuse you'll give it, and holds its value if you decide to sell it to upgrade to the next best thing. It's also nice if you can contact the modder if something breaks, goes wrong, or wears out. And it's cool to support innovation and quality in the vaping industry by buying a mod from the guy who designed it and who takes pride in his product. These are all excellent things to weigh when choosing a mod, and great reasons not to buy a clone.

Enjoy your new adventure!

 

[MacTechVpr]

What a great and meaningful post vwiz. It's too bad more authentic makers don't take your sentiment to heart. Perhaps that might help. I hope they're listening. I vote for a sticky here. Thanks.

Good luck.

 

[pdib]

Voltage drop for the most part due to differences between mods will not affect your vape at all. As long as you keep your contacts clean and use quality, fresh batteries, your vape will be awesome.

(I gleaned this by listening to people a lot smarter than me...)

Unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation out there regarding voltage drop and conductivity of certain metals improving one's vape. (Most people on vaping forums have no understanding of basic physics, or of electronics in particular.)

The first thing to keep in mind is that a mod is not necessarily better because it's made from a certain metal. Actually, the difference in conductivity between various metals account for such minuscule differences, that the metal itself is never the explanation for differences in measured results obtained in voltage drop tests. For example, pure copper has a resistance of 1.724 x 10-8 ohms/m. Stainless steel has a resistance of 6.9×10−7 ohms/m. This equates to a difference in voltage that is smaller than most multimeters are capable of measuring. Thus, observed differences between mods in voltage drop tests are due to explanations other than the resistance of the metals. Most likely they are caused by differences in contact resistance, corrosion, and of course, poor testing approach.

The truth is, voltage drop tests in general produce useless data. A thorough and precise cleaning of every part of every mod tested would be a first step toward a valid comparison, but this is never done. (Corrosion invisible to the eye increases resistance in the circuit; if the parts that connect to each other are not perfectly clean and do not completely grip thread-to-thread, voltage drop increases.)

Anyway, looking at the voltage drop across the atomizer is not a particularly useful way of ascertaining how well a mod performs. It would only be valid as a comparison if you used the same battery and atomizer on all the mods being tested, and ensured that the charge level in the battery was identical for each test. The absolute measured values are quite meaningless, as you don't know what the internal resistance of the battery is.

So I would advise choosing your mechanical mod based on the reputation of the modder, the quality of the product, and the aesthetic appeal, as opposed to reported voltage drop data. You want something that is well made, will last through all the abuse you'll give it, and holds its value if you decide to sell it to upgrade to the next best thing. It's also nice if you can contact the modder if something breaks, goes wrong, or wears out. And it's cool to support innovation and quality in the vaping industry by buying a mod from the guy who designed it and who takes pride in his product. These are all excellent things to weigh when choosing a mod, and great reasons not to buy a clone.

Enjoy your new adventure!

yeah! what she said.

 

[Stinkytofus]

So if corrosion is invisible how i clean it ? Just wipe it down with microfiber cloth ? Need anything to clean it with ?

 

[eratikmind]

So if corrosion is invisible how i clean it ? Just wipe it down with microfiber cloth ? Need anything to clean it with ?

First, try using an eraser, follow by either a light coat of Noalox or Deoxit.

 

[Nightshard]

The button part of a mechanical mod is basically the only section with moving parts, that's why it's more likely to get loose or dirty.
When that happens the resistance in that part get's higher and it becomes hotter then the rest of the mod.
At this voltage range, the voltage drop in a well built, clean mod is negligible.