Peekay had his batteries on charge and would have probably been vaping before we could reply
How's the don working out for you peekay? cracking little mod isn't it
Hope it's all working out for you.
Yeah - and the first battery almost exploded! Let me explain...
I took both IMR 18650's that I received and waited patiently for them both to fully charge. I then proceeded to try different attie combos with the Megaladon (Don). One thing to note here is that there are no instructions that come with this mod...
LR Kangers were the first test - what a vape! I was totally blown away by the difference with the Don compared to my Ego-T. Things were looking good.
Next, I put a Bud Tank onboard hoping to enjoy a little Apfelstrudel. Screwed the tank on, turned the 'safety' feature off, and fired the Don up. All of a sudden my hand started burning, so I pulled the battery ASAP and couldn't - it had welded itself to the nylon bung at the end of the battery cap spring!
I let the whole thing cool down (the Stainless Steel Don got pretty bloody hot), and proceeded to part the battery from the Don. The nylon bung at this point was pretty buggered and had a massive flat spot on the end. The metal on the battery cap itself had gotten so hot as to change the colour to the shimmery blue you get on metal if it's been heated. No small wonder my hand got a little toasty!!!
I realised that the nylon bung was pretty important to the whole operation of the Don (for those of you who don't know, the bung slips inside a small opening in the battery cap which then allows the battery to complete the circuit when it makes contact.)
Using nail clippers, I rounded the bung again so that it would travel freely, tested to ensure the spring would move up and down as expected, and moved the now cool battery to the side and pulled the 2nd one from the charger. I then bounced the battery in the sleeve to ensure that it would travel to the metal of the battery cap, then moved my attention to the top of the device.
After removing the Bud, I looked at it to determine what had caused what was obviously a short circuit in the Don. I was surprised to note that the 510 mount on the Don has a centre post which is simply a flattened screw (remember that this is, after all, a mod). I then looked at the connector on the Bud, and it had been crushed inwards which caused the inner and outer connections to become one. Basically, I had screwed the Bud all the way onto the head of the Don, and crushed the contacts up together - not good!
At this point, I didn't want to test the Buds again, so I went back to the LRK - pushed the activator briefly to listen for the attie firing up and released. There was no warmth, so I tried a toke and all was good.
I've since realised that you should remove the top cap of the Don when mounting any type of attie or tank system. The screw in the head of the Don will jam while attaching the atty, and basically twist and/or maim the connector causing the above effect. I now attach while the head is off of the Don.
That - understandably - took most of last evening to resolve, and my initial joy was turned to annoyance and frustration, meaning that I have been tainted by the bad experience. I left the ACTv3 to test last, as my original thoughts were to test my faves all the way up to the ACTv3 so that I could compare them all.
Building and filling was a dream - can't say just how brilliantly built the ACTv3 is - nice work there Arry!
However, when I attached it to the Don, I was underwhelmed. Draw was tough, not a huge amount of vapour, flavour or hit (vfh), and I was initially putting this down to the SR Boge (I believe) that was supplied with the ACTv3. So, I took an loaded LRK, punched it with the handy tool that I also purchased (so easy a 1 yr old could make a hole in your carto), and rebuilt the tank then filled it.
Mounted it on the Don, same again - tough draw, little vfh - hmmmm
Looking at the carto, you will see a small hole at the top of the connector, just below the main body of the carto. This is the air hole. On the Don, full screw down meant that the hole was being obstructed by the metal thread of the 510 connector on the Don. A slight twist backwards and the hole clears one of the two gaps in the connector.
That produced a better vfh - but strangely not as good as it is (currently) on the Ego-T battery! Not quite sure why that would be the case (Ego-T is at least .3v lower in power than the Don)?
So I have the ACTv3 on the Ego-T, and the LRK's on the Don as I'm finding that the best combo at the moment. Can't wait to try the ACTv3 on the Lavatube wifey is getting me for Chrimbo (but it does need testing before wrapping, I'm sure you'll agree).
I'm disappointed that I found out the problem the hard way. Instructions with the Don might have been useful to have to ensure that someone without electrical knowledge doesn't seriously harm themselves doing what I did above.
The ACTv3 seems to drip a little too much for my liking - the hole on the LRK is exactly the same size as the one supplied - I'll go back to that carto to double check first as the LR may not be able to handle the flow of juice too well?
Sorry about War and Peace above - it's difficult to get across exactly what happened in fewer words. LOL
I'm optimistic for my future with the Don. The plan is for it to replace the Ego-T on a daily basis (in portable form), and the Lavatube for evening bliss.
Edited after proof reading.
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