OBS Engine Nano not producing vapor, low voltage reading from Box mod vs. other rba's tested

[Gataurax]

I just received my OBS Engine Nano from China, shorty after reading up on some of the health concerns surrounding firing your coil prior to wicking and filling. Anyway, I didn't check to see if it would fire until it was built. Despite having read the coil packaged with this product would sit at around .35 ohms, I figured I would give it a try on my 30 amp battery and keep the wattage fairly low. 

It turns out my battery my not be 30 amps but 20, so I began firing at 10 watts, I fired it on a Smy50 Tc after testing the resistance of the coil. Seeing it at .23 watts on this device, I was disappointed and a little nervous to even fire the thing. I had hoped to play around with the coil and wattage for a few days - testing the vapor production - before going out to shop for new coils and a nice battery. So I gave it a few clicks regardless of my concerns, and after managing the calculations...but nothing happened.

What I didn't immediately realize was that a). My coil wasn't heating up enough to produce vapor, but it was heating, and b). There was a vast difference between the voltage readings of the battery when switching between my Kanger and the OBS. The Kanger ranged between 3.1 and 3.4, while the OBS reads only 1.1 - 1.3 volts. I have 4.2 volt batteries. I have done a bit of reading on the possible reasons for this problem and I understand that if I'm dealing with a short I could be in dangerous territory.

Just to cover these easy points: I know my 510 post is connecting with the Smy. I don't, however, know how securely - even though this model features a spring mechanism to accommodate longer posts. And the coil is very tightly screwed into the posts (this deck makes for a much easier build than that of my Kanger) I could be wrong, but if it's reading .23 ohms and it is, in fact, heating slightly, this isn't necessarily a full-blown short. Maybe an insecure connection? 

I'm leaning toward this issue being one of a faulty post, but maybe there are some things I could try if anyone has suggestions. There's no way in hell I'm gonna RMA this thing back to China, but I was really excited to test out some different coils and juices after reading the excellent reviews about the vapor quality even at low wattage.

[Walt]

Ok, I know very little about the Smy50 Tc, but looking it up it appears to be a regulated mod.  So, in general with either a .23ohm or .35ohm build you should be fine using up to the full 50 watts available even with a 20A battery.  Obviously start low and work your way up.  There is one way to find out if your coil is shorting out against the inner chamber of the atomizer and that is to remove the base/build deck and test it's resistance without the rest of the atomizer attached.  If it measures higher with the base alone than with the atty fully assembled then your coils are most likely touching the chamber and will need to be rearranged.  The variations in voltage between atomizers is to be expected per differences in the resistance of the atomizers.  

[Tam]

If I read your post correctly, and I could have misread it due to low levels of caffeine, it sounds like you're testing the coil resistance on your mods and not an independent ohm meter. If that's correct, the first thing I would do is to go out and purchase an independent ohm meter and go by that instead. They also make it easier to build coils on as they act as a stand of sorts.

[Earthling789]

8 hours ago, Gataurax said:

I just received my OBS Engine Nano from China, shorty after reading up on some of the health concerns surrounding firing your coil prior to wicking and filling. Anyway, I didn't check to see if it would fire until it was built. Despite having read the coil packaged with this product would sit at around .35 ohms, I figured I would give it a try on my 30 amp battery and keep the wattage fairly low. 

It turns out my battery my not be 30 amps but 20, so I began firing at 10 watts, I fired it on a Smy50 Tc after testing the resistance of the coil. Seeing it at .23 watts on this device, I was disappointed and a little nervous to even fire the thing. I had hoped to play around with the coil and wattage for a few days - testing the vapor production - before going out to shop for new coils and a nice battery. So I gave it a few clicks regardless of my concerns, and after managing the calculations...but nothing happened.

What I didn't immediately realize was that a). My coil wasn't heating up enough to produce vapor, but it was heating, and b). There was a vast difference between the voltage readings of the battery when switching between my Kanger and the OBS. The Kanger ranged between 3.1 and 3.4, while the OBS reads only 1.1 - 1.3 volts. I have 4.2 volt batteries. I have done a bit of reading on the possible reasons for this problem and I understand that if I'm dealing with a short I could be in dangerous territory.

Just to cover these easy points: I know my 510 post is connecting with the Smy. I don't, however, know how securely - even though this model features a spring mechanism to accommodate longer posts. And the coil is very tightly screwed into the posts (this deck makes for a much easier build than that of my Kanger) I could be wrong, but if it's reading .23 ohms and it is, in fact, heating slightly, this isn't necessarily a full-blown short. Maybe an insecure connection? 

I'm leaning toward this issue being one of a faulty post, but maybe there are some things I could try if anyone has suggestions. There's no way in hell I'm gonna RMA this thing back to China, but I was really excited to test out some different coils and juices after reading the excellent reviews about the vapor quality even at low wattage.

First of all, it is normal for different mods to read different resistances of the same coil/tank... the e range can usually be 0.1, but can be more or less, depending on the mod.

Secondly, the Voltage showing on the mods is showing how much Voltage is being applied (not the Voltage of the battery) to the coil, based on the settings and resistance of the coil.  If the mod is only applying 1.3V, the resistance is reading HIGH, or the Wattage (or temp) is set way low.

I would try the coil/tank on your Kanger mod, dial in the Wattage or Temp settings that work best for you... then set the OBS mod to the same settings and try the coil/tank there.  It should be close to the same vape, but may require minor adjustments up/down based on how the mod reads the resistance?  If this does not work... chances are there is a fault with the mod (bad post, bad circuitry, poor battery contact points, etc.)

[Walt]

Probably a little late for this response and it may be an entirely different issue but I just had a similar experience with a nano.... maybe.....

I put a six wrap 3.5mm Id stainless 2x28 (twisted) + 32 spaced coil in a new nano. It was a tight fit between the posts and the inner wall of the chamber.  Testing the resistance initially there were no shorts.  After vaping for a bit the resistance started going down by a few 1/00ths of an ohm.  My DNA mod was picking up on this and the result was a vape in TC that faded off to nothing adverse to holding a stable temp.  I can only guess that with heat the coils were expanding enough to create a short.  Probably against one of the posts per inspection.  I replaced the coil with a parallel Clapton @ 3mm and am now getting a perfect vape.  The overall resistance did go from .5 to .4 which is to be expected.  I would have liked to get .5 but it is pretty rough with so little room without using a wire with less surface area.