Noisy Crickets for beginners. Why and why not? - Lung Candy FYI

[Maxxis]

Ok so I do get a lot of requests from people, that are new to mechanical mods, to sell them a Noisy Cricket. About 90% of these requests are usually denied to the nature of this mod. The other 10% I find are experienced users of RDAs and already capable coil builders.

For the 10% I do a general overview on usage, maintenance, and caring for the mod over time. The thing I focus most on is battery safety.

Now for the 90% that are very new to this I start off with coil building, RDAs etc. In depth knowledge is passed on and about 50% of these customers generally admit to going blindly into this purchase and also basically because the mod looked cool to them. Another scenario is where a friend bought one and they want one too.

These devices should be treated like guns to be honest. It really is only as dangerous as what the operator is doing.

Have a look at this brilliant video that Twisted Messes posted. I know this has been posted before but it links in perfectly with the info above.



So there you go. The same info applies to regular series box mods. Not just hybrid mechs.

If you have any questions post them below or pop me a PM or email. Happy to assist.

 

[Golden Goose]

great post really enjoyed that one guys i can also get frustrated with the lack of knowledge not just about mods in series but also the dangers of mech mods especially in series. Thanks again guys very good post

 

[Soprono]

@Maxxis Can I post a few issues I had before starting with mine that some real advise would have helped with the research and maybe ask for some pics of your setups would help to?

These are the questions I had before getting my cricket, I knew some of the key points behind this mod however I wanted to ensure my knowledge backed up with facts from the community who use this daily and I continuously learn more with each person I talk to, some of my main concerns:

• When does a RDA have a safe protruding pin ?
• Monitoring batteries ?
• Your build ?
• Overall Battery Safety ?

Some of the answers I found to be valuable advice and @Maxxis can touch up on these is:

• Iv kept to the safe route in terms of RDA and stick to the industry standard in this regard RDA's like the Twisted Messes, Lush and Indestructible are my go to RDA's. Some of the RDA's are borderline safe, on a cricket borderline doesnt work be sure and be double sure its enough.
• Monitoring Batteries: I have come to notice that you will defiantly see a drop in performance. Battery life is defiantly not on your side with this mod (ohm of build dependent) so this mod is not your take out to the club all night Mod let my friends vape and chuck clouds on the dance floor. I use mine in the car and back from work and seldom use it without checking the batteries the following day. I know this is enough as I feel the drop in power delivery this however takes time to learn and if you are worried chuck them in a charger to start learning the limits and the type of power @ certain levels.
• Lower Ohms Lower Ohms....this is a bad mindset on these builds, even at 0.4ohm thats a insane amount of W (175W on fresh 8.4v) . I stick to my 0.7ohm builds @ 100W on 8.4V.
• Batteries I rotate every charge cycle. Batteries are wrapped the same colour and numbered due to the load that battery connected to the 510 pin will take more "load" than the 2nd battery in line. This just keeps ensuring that no one battery will take the constant load.

Lastly make use of this website, its a heaven sent to those looking to get quick number estimates:

http://www.steam-engine.org/ohm.asp

@Maxxis can correct me on a few things to please if you feel areas where I may not have hit the nail on the head. I myself am learning and it took me over a year to get to even attempt a regulated box never mind this. Ohh and that twisted messes video is defiantly a must, watched it 3 times.

 

[Silver]

Great post @Maxxis

Perhaps you can try assist by advising me. I have had my eyes on this mod for some time. I am a fairly experienced vaper/rebuilder but not with exotic coils, more the simple stuff. I am comfortable with my Reo mechs and general principles of battery safety.

The things that attract me to this mod are as follows:

• Keen to explore higher power mechanical vaping
• The feel in the hand - i have felt the mod - it feels very comfortable and compact

The parts that concern me:

• That issue about which atty to use with the pin etc etc - soprono has touched on it above. How does one know what atty is ok to use on it? Can one use that Petri for example?
• I like my instant ramp coils. On my Reos I actually prefer 28g to 26g. (Kanthal) I find the 26g takes time to ramp up and then it also has afterburner effects. I still need to try Ni80. So if i was using 8.4 volts, would a 26g kanthal coil in the cricket seem like a 28g coil in my Reo?
• What RDA to get? - I dont want to win a cloud comp, just get awesome flavour and have something relatively easy to buiild. I worry I will have to buy several RDAs and spend loads of time trying out many builds. Am hoping to sort of crack it right with one RDA and a few buiilds.
• Safety - i am comfortable with battery safety and ohms law as well as good battery management. But am concerned about the venting situation. Are there enough vent holes? On my Reos there is a hot spring which helps with safety in the event of things going wrong.

 

[Maxxis]

Quick (long) post around the setups, functionality and safety of the Noisy Cricket.

First things first.

The Noisy Cricket is a hybrid mechanical series mod. Lets break down what that means.

Hybrid - This means that the mod does not have a regular spring loaded 510 connector like what is found on regulated and some other mechanical mods. The benefit of hybrid connections is that atomizer makes direct contact with the battery. The advantage of this is that you get the most direct contact to the battery with zero voltage loss to the atomizer. In order for this to work you need an atomizer with an adjustable 510 connector or one where the positive pin protrudes past the threads of the connector. See the image below on what is safe.

Mechanical (in this case) refers to the nature of the mod. It is unregulated and has no built in protection against shorting or low battery drain. Some mechanical mods like the KVLT for example has a built in mosfet to protect the switch mechanism.

Series refers to the configuration of the batteries. You get two types of configurations parallel and series. With series your batteries sit back to back doubling the voltage of the mod but keeping the amp draw limits equal to that of a single battery. In parallel the batteries sit side-by-side offering double the amp draw limit but keeping the voltage equal to that of a single battery. When building for series we need to keep this in mind. Double voltage equals a lot more power. We will dig into this further down when we discuss ohm's law, heat flux etc etc etc.

That explains the terminology of the mod itself.

Ohm's law and all that science class stuff

Now lets go back to school quickly and discuss ohms law and how to easily calculate your amp draw that the build will handle.

The potential difference (voltage) across an ideal conductor is proportional to the current through it. The constant of proportionality is called the "resistance", R.Ohm's Law is given by: V = I R where V is the potential difference between two points which include a resistance R.​

That part makes zero sense to me so lets simplify it and use the formula in a practical example to show how it works.

Lets start with a fresh set of 18650 batteries. Im going to use the Samsung 25R as an example. They are a solid 2500mah battery with an amp limit of 20A. Two of these in series will happily have 8.4v available for use. Keep in mind that you still only have 20A available. Im using continuous drain instead of pulse rates.

To easily work out how many amps a build will draw we take the available voltage and divide the builds voltage into it. Lets work with a 0.5ohm build to be safe.

8.4v / 0.5ohm = 16.8A. Perfectly safe for the batteries.

Now you must be wondering what the wattage is going to be. Simple. Take the amps and multiply by your voltage.

16.8A X 8.4v = 141,12W

This is the most basic way to calculate it. When we discuss the coil builds to use you will understand why 140w isn't necessarily too much for this.

In my next post I will deal with the builds and explain heat flux, cooling, and show you how to calculate your coils to get the build spot on for this.

 

[Maxxis]

The builds

Lets dive into how building coils work and how to build something usable for this mod.

First thing to understand is heat flux. Heat flux is the rate of heat transfer through any given surface. In particular with vaping and coils we are looking at heat flux density which is measured in W/m² or mW/mm² (milliwatt per square millimeter).

The easy way to explain is by using the example of taking 1 litre of water and filling two different objects with it.

Lets fill a glass with it. It basically overflows and makes a mess.
Now fill a swimming pool with it. It hardly wets the bottom of the pool.

Now look at two different coils and 8.4v of power being fed into them. A 28ga kanthal coil at 0.5ohm and a 22ga kanthal coil at 0.5ohm. Due to the nature of the wire they will have a different resistance. So to get both to 0.5ohm we have to take a certain length of wire and make a coil. 28ga will be 28mm of wire. 22ga will be 113mm. Now lets see what the heat flux of each will be.

28ga - 4970 mW/mm²
22ga - 617 mW/mm²

The 28ga is basically melting as soon as the power hits it. The 22ga will get hot but not instantly melt.

The key thing to know with this is that you need to the right size (not resistance) of coil. Since we have a fixed voltage and wattage with the build we need to find a balance between power and mass of metal being heated up.

My go to build on the cricket is a single coil 22ga at 3mm ID and around 14 wraps using Anarchist AN80 NiCrome wire. This is a great vape for me. Not too hot and the flavour and vapor production is spot on.

Kanthal was used in the calculations above. NiCr80 has a lower resistance so you need more wraps to get to the target resistance. However this yields lower heat flux since you have more metal to heat up.

Keeping the coils in check

We have two elements that basically cool these monsters down. The juice and airflow. As long as you have air and juice on the metal things will stay nice and comfortably in control.

Now you may ask, how do I get a cooler vape. Two ways to do it. Add more air or lower the heatflux. Basically you adjust your build so the device puts out less power or you add more metal to heat so that the heat is reduced.

Up next. Battery safety, maintenance and care.

 

[Maxxis]

Batteries

The best batteries to use in mechanical mods are the ones with the highest possible discharge rate. Not the pulse, but rather the continuous rating. See the table below to know what your current battery is capable of doing

When you just get the mechanical mod of your dreams you might be tempted to keep using it for as long as possible. The problem here is that you might actually run into a scenario where you accidentally drain the batteries too low. It happens easier than you think.

My advice is to check the voltage of both cells individually after every hour of use. Don't let them drain below 3.6v to be safe. After a while you will start to develop a sense for when the mod isn't hitting as hard as it does on fresh batteries. Make sure to use a proper battery charger.

It is normal for the mod itself to get warm when using it. Especially with big builds. This is mostly due to heat soak from the atomizer into the mod. It should however not get HOT! If it does get hot in your hand i suggest you put it down in a safe spot and let it sit to cool down.

The noisy cricket is equipped with adequate vent holes at the base of the mod. This is to assist with cooling and to protect against catastrophic failure in the event of a battery venting on you.

Maintenance.

Due to the mod being assembled and disassembled quite often to install batteries I suggest cleaning the threads with a microfibre cloth and rubbing alcohol every time you take it apart. This makes it easier to keep it operating at maximum efficiency and prevents layers of gunk building up on the threads over time.

I've tried finding out what material the hybrid adaptor and fire button uses but I know with the aluminium body you do get oxidation on the threads from the two. Keep it clean.

Device Safety

Always make sure you attach the atomizer to the positive side of the battery and the fire button to the negative. Getting these two mixed up can cause the mod to auto fire. This is due to the protruding positive on some batteries making contact with the fire button. Ive seen this happen. Scary!

When not in use either remove the batteries or unscrew the fire button. double check that it cant fire.

Don't leave the device in the car or in any situation where it can get hot.

Make sure that the atomizer has the correct 510 connection.

Builds, builds, builds.

Keep those batteries charged.

 

[Soprono]

Love love love those descriptions. Thank you for the effort @Maxxis !!!!

 

[Maxxis]

Useful Links

http://www.steam-engine.org/coil.asp?r=0.5&hfnw=140&awg=22&id=3 preset for a 0.5ohm Kanthal A1 coil
http://www.lungcandy.co.za/get-some...ssories/mods/mechanical/wismec-noisy-cricket/

 

[Silver]

Thanks @Maxxis
Very informative posts indeed.

So in response to my concerns I posted previously:

The issue of the pin on the atty has been dealt with. Super pictures and thanks for the explanation.

As for the instant ramp - are you saying from your explanation of heat flux that a thicker wire coil in the cricket will feel like a thinner wire coil in a single battery mod - from a ramp perspective?

Thanks for clarifying the issues on safety. And showing the vent holes.

I am still not sure about what RDA to get. I know this is a Noisy Cricket thread, but what RDA would you recommend for good flavour (clouds not too important to me) and easy to build? Will that Dotmod Petri one work nicely on the Cricket?

 

[Maxxis]

@Silver

Thicker and bigger builds will feel like a smaller coil on a single battery mod but you will have more density in the vapor as well as more vapor production.

This again will add a ton of flavour.

In terms of RDA the Petri will work really well. It has ample building space.

I will look into some more options for you too. Wotofo Sapor being one as well as the Twisted Messes.


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[Silver]

Thanks @Maxxis

Much appreciated. Thicker plumes and denser vapour sounds like a good idea.
I need to try this.

If I don't like the Cricket I suppose I can always fall back on the RX200, which hasn't been pushed hard yet

 

[Maxxis]

You are welcome to come through and try some different builds and options.


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[Soprono]

You are welcome to come through and try some different builds and options.


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for Silver however I wouldnt mind that offer either haha maybe get a blueee one

 

[Maxxis]

Anybody is welcome.

Happy to give some hands on advice as well as setup the device for you.


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[Keyaam]

Thanks @Maxxis

Much appreciated. Thicker plumes and denser vapour sounds like a good idea.
I need to try this.

If I don't like the Cricket I suppose I can always fall back on the RX200, which hasn't been pushed hard yet

@Silver
Look at the indestructible RDA by Wismec as well. Im currently enjoying that combo.