help!! mod setup problems / mod newbie

[300]

Feb 11, 2014 20:19:51 GMT purkle said:

Hiya 300, yep that's the exact one. I had read that conversation on Fasttech before but didn't really have a clue what they were on about!! Makes a wee bit more sense now; the pin does have a spring, in between the pin head and the insulating black ring. So if you hold it by the black ring you can push the pin up & down, but that doesn't stop the whole pin part (black ring included) falling out. However it is firmly held in horizontally, it can't move that way, it's just if there's no battery in it can fall down into the tube. When a battery is in & it's all set up, there's nowhere the pin can go really. It seems like it probably is connecting with just the +ve atty pin, so still I don't have a clue..

This is the mystery of the month, this is!! Mega thanks to everyone

PS: the spring loaded pin doesn't seem to have much of a function being springy...

PS 2: there's no spring in anywhere with the battery, is that an issue?

Ahh, i see what you mean, it's the whole insulator assembly that's loose.

I don't really know the device you have so prolly not the best idea to give you advice based on guesswork, might be worth listing the name of the Mod in your title, maybe another member here with the same Mod will spot it & give you better advice.

[purkle]

aww yeeeahh, maybe! I'll give him a shout & explain my predicament, I prob should've been using a safety fuse with them, or should've got protected ones. I've taken a couple of pics of the centre pin & the atty pins.. NB the scratches on the black bit are just where I was filing it..

Ya thinks I've got the pin in the right way & stuff?

[purkle]

Thanks 300, I'll try & get a 0-ring or improvise with some innertube or something to get it to stay in.. don't know how to change the title of the thread?

[300]

Hi Purkle

This may not be what you want to hear but considering this Mod has possibly fried 2 batteries i'd be inclined to put it away & look for something else, hope this doesn't offend.

raid2506 a member here on AAEC is good with Mod Repairs, maybe he wouldn't mind taking a look at it for you & at least be able to tell you if it's safe to use.

[purkle]

Right well I'm getting outta here.. 10 hours on a forum is definitely not healthy, ha!! Thank you all so so much for being so patient with me & helping.. not totally sure what my plan of action is but tonight is not the night to find out

Vaping love to all! xx

edit: 300 I think you're right to be honest! certainly no offence taken!! actually Smokey has made me a really really kind offer! That's good to know someone who likes fixing, I can maybe donate it for the greater good, god knows everyone has been exceptionally kind to me!

[Greg]

Feb 11, 2014 20:41:03 GMT purkle said:

aww yeeeahh, maybe! I'll give him a shout & explain my predicament, I prob should've been using a safety fuse with them, or should've got protected ones. I've taken a couple of pics of the centre pin & the atty pins.. NB the scratches on the black bit are just where I was filing it..

Ya thinks I've got the pin in the right way & stuff?

Screw yor atty into the brass piece in your last pic without connecting to the rest of the mod. Then with your multimeter set to ohms connect one lead to the brass outer part and the other lead to the brass centre pin you've been filing. As you said the centre pin is loose without connecting to the battery to secure it best to do the test with the atty upside down to prevent fall out. Upside down also allows you to exert a little pressure on the centre pin with the multimeter probe, do you get a short on the meter ? nice little job for you tomorrow

[purkle]

Feb 11, 2014 22:28:26 GMT Greg said:

Feb 11, 2014 20:41:03 GMT purkle said:

Hey Greg, dya know I'm not really sure that this multimeter is working very well?!  Just to add a bit of excitement into the mix... or maybe I'm really just an electron-repellent..!!  Tried what you said, but on every single one of the resistance settings (200?, 2k?, 20k?, 200k?, 2M?) the multimeter read '1', and that was the reading both when the probes were touching the pin & outer brass, but also when the probes were floating about in the air touching nothing because I hadn't touched them to the thing yet!  As far as I understand, the reading of '1' on resistance settings means that the meter is overloaded & the resistance setting should be increased.. but there's no way that nothing but air in between the probes should give a resistance bigger than 2M? surely!!?

Sorry to make this so confusing.  The meter is new but was prob the cheapest off ebay.  I've tried the continuity test (beep setting) with the same probe points as above:

There is a beep when the +ve probe is touching the base of the centre pin & the -ve probe is touching the upper bit of the brass tube the atty screws onto; even if I move the -ve probe up onto the actual side of the atomiser there's still a beep!  So I guess that means the centre pin is definitely shorting on another part near it? - although the beep when I touch the two probes together (away from the mod completely, to test the continuity test) is quite inconsistent, mostly it beeps but sometimes not...

I guess this all means that there's definitely a short from the centre pin onto the rest of the body.  This was done with the Davide atty on, not even the Aerotank.  Don't worry I think I'm just going to have to give up with it & send it on to someone who enjoys the great problems of the universe   Having already made the centre pin head smaller, I don't know what else I could do to stop it shorting! 

If you could just let me know if I'm correct with my assumptions that would be great, I don't want to lose my first mod-baby if there is something I could do to make it better

Thanks, L

[Adam78]

It's normal for cheap meters to read 1 when the probes aren't touching anything (mine does too).

Set it to the lowest ? setting (200? usually) and touch the probes together firmly, if it still displays 1 that's not normal.

Have you got the black probe in the "COM" port and the red probe in the "V?mA" port?

[purkle]

Ahha, cheers Adam well, you're right when the probes are touching it reads (a very undecided) 77ish?, when the Davide is on the centre pin for the brass mod it reads (a very undecided 71ish?, and when I'm testing the same thing on a 510 connector + atty that I'm trying to build a box mod for, it reads 1.

What does this all mean? Does the '1' on the latter mean that the 510 connector (which I prised out of a broken ego battery) is f______d? More importantly, what does it mean that there's a non-1 reading for the brass mod? I'll try the brass with the aerotank as well to see if there's a difference....
(aaaargh this meter Is rubbish, it's reading '1' with the probes pressed together again lol!) ok, and breathe... With the aerotank on the end of the brass mod it's reading '1' on resistance, and no beep on continuity. Hmm, so different for aerotank vs. davide...... the plot thickens....

[purkle]

oh, and yep.. had to read a tutorial on meters haha, but in the end I got them plugged in the right bits, hehe

[Adam78]

Not having much luck are you purkle, I'm sure you'll get it sorted soon though

You don't get an instant reading for ohms btw, it's normal for the display to count down a bit until it settles on a number, but having said that, 77?'s is far too high for just the probes, mine displays about 6?'s then goes down until it settles on about 1.5?'s

It sounds like you've been sent a wonky multimeter or the probes are bad. Did you get XL830L ?

[purkle]

Hmmmmm... yeeah I got a XL380L, maybe I'm not reading it right... It was on the 200? setting, which is the lowest resistance setting, and definitely reads about 77 in the end, so I take it that translates as 77?? and not 7.7? or something, haha?

Aye man I'm just sending this thing back!! Just tested the probes again to see if I was really reading it right; kept them touching & hands still for literally about 2 - 3 minutes, & it still didn't settle on a number! jumped everywhere between 111.6 & 7.4, and everywhere in between (the 40's, 50's & 60's came up a lot, maybe it's a rock&roll meter!)

It's prob just a bit dodgy, I'll just get them to send a replacement.. and not chuck out those batteries yet just in case..! I am pretty lucky anyway, I'll PM ya..

Oh hey so I'm not gonna know if my old 510 connector works, dammit!! Wanted to check it Before I build a thing round it rather than after.. but if the meter is sick then no such luck! I'll just stick with maintaining my luckiness

[Greg]

Feb 12, 2014 18:45:07 GMT purkle said:

Hmmmmm... yeeah I got a XL380L, maybe I'm not reading it right... It was on the 200? setting, which is the lowest resistance setting, and definitely reads about 77 in the end, so I take it that translates as 77?? and not 7.7? or something, haha?

Aye man I'm just sending this thing back!! Just tested the probes again to see if I was really reading it right; kept them touching & hands still for literally about 2 - 3 minutes, & it still didn't settle on a number! jumped everywhere between 111.6 & 7.4, and everywhere in between (the 40's, 50's & 60's came up a lot, maybe it's a rock&roll meter!)

It's prob just a bit dodgy, I'll just get them to send a replacement.. and not chuck out those batteries yet just in case..! I am pretty lucky anyway, I'll PM ya..

Oh hey so I'm not gonna know if my old 510 connector works, dammit!! Wanted to check it Before I build a thing round it rather than after.. but if the meter is sick then no such luck! I'll just stick with maintaining my luckiness

Maybe your leads are dodgy on the meter. Set it to 200 ohms and remove both leads. Take a paper clip and stretch it out and push each end of the paper clip it the meter plugs from where you unplugged the leads. You should get a good zero, if you do then you've got dodgy connections in one or both of your leads.

[purkle]

Thanks Greg Yep must have been the leads.. didn't have any paperclips, so I shoved a bit of copper wire in there & when I worked out it needed to be insulated & I couldn't be touching it (took a while haha), then eventually it settled at 0.6?.. think it's a half-bit of speaker wire.. that sounds about right doesn't it? Great, I can just replace the leads nice one!

Ok so see if I get the leads sorted.. then what am I actually looking for when I'm testing bits of the mod?? I'm guessing that:

1) I don't want current to be flowing through the outside of the mod, so if there is no beep when I touch the outside & also the centre pin then that's good?
2) I want there to be a good potential difference through the battery, so test probes on either end of battery set on 20V, if about 4V that's good?
3) What other measurements can I take and what sort of values should I be wanting if everything is working ok? Or otherwise, does anyone know of a good site / thread about such things? I'll keep on looking myself, but not found much yet.. I.e. when I was testing resistance before, not sure whether I was looking for a high / low / no value etc...

Thanx

[fagin]

Current will flow through the outside - that's part of the circuit.