How to know if you have a short or not?

[Vape lord]

Anyway thank you for the help guys. I'm gonna leave the forum until my coil master arrives (Wednesday) then ill come back and give you guys a quick update as to what its reading for your expert advice. Please all be aware that even though your trying to help, some of us don't appreciate you basically saying that our houses are going to be burnt down and to never use a mech mod again. We all have to start somewhere right? and this is why I came to the forum in the first place. Thanks again.

Vape on and peace out.

 

[Vape lord]

Sure mate. I'll run through the steps I take.

1/ Use Steam-engine.org to work out roughly the resistance if the coil you want to build if you are building your own from scratch. If you have bought a premade coil, ignore.

2/ Give your RDA deck a good clean and make sure no stray bits of wire and no gunk on it.

3/ Attach deck to your reader (turned off) and fit your coil. Make sure post screws are tightened down and that the coil isn't touching anything it shouldn't be (deck, pin, top cap)

4/ Switch the reader on and take a look at the resistance. It should read a solid number (0.32 for example) if it is blank or showing 0.00, the coil is faulty or shorting out. Make sure the resistance is within the amp limits of your battery.

5/ If coil is showing a solid number, fire the coil if your reader had that ability, the good ones do, I usually pulse fire so I don't risk breaking the coil. Strum the coil using ceramic tweezers until it is heating evenly from the centre outwards.

6/ Once it is heating correctly, check the resistance again and make sure the post screws are still tight. It should still be showing a solid number though that may have changed from the original number as the coil is now warm. Make sure that number is within the amp limits of your battery.

7/ If you follow all those steps and everything appears fine, at that point I'd fit it to the mod, wick and use. Check it again every few days just to make sure it's still reading a suitable resistance. If you ever drop or knock the mod hard enough to potentially move the coil, check it immediately before using it again, can't risk the coil shifting and touching something it shouldn't.

May seem like a faff but it's one of the safest methods and realistically takes minutes to do.

Got you. Thankyou so much for taking the time to respond with a message as detailed as that. I shall copy and paste it into a word document so i can look back on it the first few times i build one to make sure im not forgetting anything! And yeah the reader i ordered does have a fire button so that should be useful. Thanks again mate i really appreciate it!

 

[speedfreek67]

nah mate, i genuinely have OCD so usually have to have thins repeated. If it angering you, just leave.

Well I apologise then, sorry. It's just we have had a couple of banned members turn up from time to time to play us, and unfortunately I added 2 and 2 together and made 5. Sorry again, no hard feelings, I hope.

Good luck with the building, I just wish you had got comfortable with coiling an RDA using a regulated mod with all the safety features they have, rather than jumping in at the deep end with a mechanical mod.

Let us know how you get on.

 

[Vape lord]

Well I apologise then, sorry. It's just we have had a couple of banned members turn up from time to time to play us, and unfortunately I added 2 and 2 together and made 5. Sorry again, no hard feelings, I hope.

Good luck with the building, I just wish you had got comfortable with coiling an RDA using a regulated mod with all the safety features they have, rather than jumping in at the deep end with a mechanical mod.

Let us know how you get on.

It's alright mate. Sorry if i have been a little arsey too. I can tell that the people from this community are genuinely nice people so its fine. I agree that i shouldn't have just jumped in the deep end but we all make the odd strange decision!

 

[Mitz]

Sure mate. I'll run through the steps I take.

1/ Use Steam-engine.org to work out roughly the resistance if the coil you want to build if you are building your own from scratch. If you have bought a premade coil, ignore.

2/ Give your RDA deck a good clean and make sure no stray bits of wire and no gunk on it.

3/ Attach deck to your reader (turned off) and fit your coil. Make sure post screws are tightened down and that the coil isn't touching anything it shouldn't be (deck, pin, top cap)

4/ Switch the reader on and take a look at the resistance. It should read a solid number (0.32 for example) if it is blank or showing 0.00, the coil is faulty or shorting out. Make sure the resistance is within the amp limits of your battery.

5/ If coil is showing a solid number, fire the coil if your reader had that ability, the good ones do, I usually pulse fire so I don't risk breaking the coil. Strum the coil using ceramic tweezers until it is heating evenly from the centre outwards.

6/ Once it is heating correctly, check the resistance again and make sure the post screws are still tight. It should still be showing a solid number though that may have changed from the original number as the coil is now warm. Make sure that number is within the amp limits of your battery.

7/ If you follow all those steps and everything appears fine, at that point I'd fit it to the mod, wick and use. Check it again every few days just to make sure it's still reading a suitable resistance. If you ever drop or knock the mod hard enough to potentially move the coil, check it immediately before using it again, can't risk the coil shifting and touching something it shouldn't.

May seem like a faff but it's one of the safest methods and realistically takes minutes to do.

I would add one more important step to this before moving the rda from the ohms reader to the mod. Put the cap on and check the resistance again to make sure your coils are not touching the cap. If the coils come into contact with the cap you risk a short. The resistance should be checked on the ohms reader with the rda fully assembled before it is moved to the mech mod. If a coil is making contact with the cap the resistance will drop once you put the cap on. If that happens you need to remove the cap and adjust your coils. And remember the ohms reader won't necessarily show if the resistance has changed unless you remove the rda and then put it back on. So each time you are checking to see if there is a change in resistance remove the rda from the ohms reader and then screw it back on and then re-check the resistance.

 

[Vape lord]

I would add one more important step to this before moving the rda from the ohms reader to the mod. Put the cap on and check the resistance again to make sure your coils are not touching the cap. If the coils come into contact with the cap you risk a short. The resistance should be checked on the ohms reader with the rda fully assembled before it is moved to the mech mod. If a coil is making contact with the cap the resistance will drop once you put the cap on. If that happens you need to remove the cap and adjust your coils. And remember the ohms reader won't necessarily show if the resistance has changed unless you remove the rda and then put it back on. So each time you are checking to see if there is a change in resistance remove the rda from the ohms reader and then screw it back on and then re-check the resistance.

Thanks mate. I am pretty sure i know what the cap is but can you just confirm what it is lol. Coil reader arrived and just charging up the 18650 before i put it into action

 

[vapemac]

Thanks mate. I am pretty sure i know what the cap is but can you just confirm what it is lol. Coil reader arrived and just charging up the 18650 before i put it into action

The cap is the top bit. The bit you pull off to get at the deck

 

[wrldleigh]

Thanks mate. I am pretty sure i know what the cap is but can you just confirm what it is lol. Coil reader arrived and just charging up the 18650 before i put it into action

I'm aware this wasn't directed at me, but the Cap it the other section to your RDA, the piece of (generally metal) that goes over the deck. It's important that that's not being touched by your coil, as it would create an aforementioned short.

Another thing that I don't feel has been touched on, or not sufficiently. Without asking questions like this, you wouldn't learn. None of us were born vapers, so in future, don't worry about asking how/why/what happens, just do it before you physically do anything yourself.
Similarly, I believe it's important to not only be able to utilise Steam Engine, etc. But also understand the process, and why you need to know your batterie's amp limit, and the effect your build has in relation to that.

Battery Mooch (arguably the most important reference point for mech users) has long been testing batteries, his work will keep you safe, provided you're not foolish and follow the build>check>fire>check>check again>check just once more, to be certain> use methodology listed above. He's got a youtube channel discussing all things battery. While you're waiting for your 18650, pop over to youtube, start at episode one and just learn. It'll be a great help, albeit a lot to take in.

 

[Vape lord]

The cap is the top bit. The bit you pull off to get at the deck

Ah right yeah thought so :0 Was worried it was some odd vaping term for something different! Coil reader came and im thankful for the results. Let me know what you think. Put the rda on capless and its reading at 0.55-0.57 Ohms and my target resistance was 0.5 ohms so nothing to out of range there. Put the cap on and still reading at 0.55. Is it safe or do you think i should do some further testing?

 

[Vape lord]

I'm aware this wasn't directed at me, but the Cap it the other section to your RDA, the piece of (generally metal) that goes over the deck. It's important that that's not being touched by your coil, as it would create an aforementioned short.

Another thing that I don't feel has been touched on, or not sufficiently. Without asking questions like this, you wouldn't learn. None of us were born vapers, so in future, don't worry about asking how/why/what happens, just do it before you physically do anything yourself.
Similarly, I believe it's important to not only be able to utilise Steam Engine, etc. But also understand the process, and why you need to know your batterie's amp limit, and the effect your build has in relation to that.

Battery Mooch (arguably the most important reference point for mech users) has long been testing batteries, his work will keep you safe, provided you're not foolish and follow the build>check>fire>check>check again>check just once more, to be certain> use methodology listed above. He's got a youtube channel discussing all things battery. While you're waiting for your 18650, pop over to youtube, start at episode one and just learn. It'll be a great help, albeit a lot to take in.

Thanks mate. I will keep looking into it until i know exactly 100% what im doing. I now know the rules about battery safety, coil shorts, equipment require etc )