OF
Well-Known Member
I suggest that may be happening anyway......and I don't think there's a reliable way to tell......
Besides as they say 'it ain't much of a drive, for him it's more like a short putt'.
OF
Arizer Solo
- Thread starter Rockwise
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- arizer battery powered
I suggest that may be happening anyway......and I don't think there's a reliable way to tell......
Besides as they say 'it ain't much of a drive, for him it's more like a short putt'.
OF
I know this has been discussed ad-nauseum but i still can't get it through my thick skull - there is not a solution that will allow me to charge and work as a PA at the same time right? I would have to plug in one piece or the other? So since the Jameco appears to be the cheapest by a decent amount - is there a downside to that?
Samsquanch
Vapor Astronaut
All I can say if your going to try to use a PS2 brick is this . You better have 20/20 vision and a steady hand when your making your solder connections on the jack . The lugs are super tiny and it is very easy to short out if your sloppy . Too much wire or too much solder and your screwed .
Other than this way I havent tried a stock PS2 brick with an adapter for the dc plug https://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/s...mDQ4w==&ddkey=https:StoreCatalogDrillDownView . I forget if I had to switch polarity of the plug so not sure if that way would work .
Other than this way I havent tried a stock PS2 brick with an adapter for the dc plug https://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/s...mDQ4w==&ddkey=https:StoreCatalogDrillDownView . I forget if I had to switch polarity of the plug so not sure if that way would work .
Dreamerr
Always in a state of confusion and silliness♀
You can either charge or use period no matter which you decide to buy. You already have a charger that came with the solo. The only thing a PA will do is allow you to use it without the deep battery drainage.
To be clear, I rank the Solo higher than most, but for my purposes I put the MFLB (and the FV) ahead of it. It's all personal, of course.
mmenzie
My friends call me "Menz"
I am turning 39 again for the first time next month and i tried the MFLB and hated it. but that is my opinion
@Dreamerr i would love for you to PM me your 10000 foot overview (i dont need specific details) on the PA's you have for the solo. i am thinking of purchasing one in the not so distant future
@Dreamerr i would love for you to PM me your 10000 foot overview (i dont need specific details) on the PA's you have for the solo. i am thinking of purchasing one in the not so distant future
OF
Well-Known Member
Gentle Friends,
All this talk about Solo's and PAs and older models and no batteries and so on got the best of me. I decided to crack open my Solo again and do some poking around. I have a couple of VV PAs here (older prototypes) and the 'right' connector for the battery pack (be careful here, guys, Arizer reversed the polarity normally used for some reason). This let me do some interesting stuff (to me anyway) that I think lends some insights to the Solo and also puts some bad information to rest.
First off, the fully charge battery pack (I pulled it the instant I noticed the charge light go solid) was 8.31 Volts by the time I got it out and measured it. I took this to be top of the range and set the power supply feeding the battery connector to this value at turned it one. First to calibrate the 'battery meter'. I did a 'run down' series, dropping the input by .1 Volts a time, stopping and starting the Solo to see what the battery indicator said. Here's the very interesting results. The meter on the PS only had one tenth Volt resolution but the results kind of speak for themselves, even if adding more questions:
8.3 to 8.0 shows step 7
7.9 step 6
7.8 step 5
7.7 step 4
7.6 step 3
7.5 step 2
7.4 step 1
7.2 and below no lights.
Then, on a whim, I backed it down still more, unrealistically low to see if it would 'drop out', it didn't. Once running at 7.2 I was able to lower it to 5.0 Volts, the LEDs dimmed a lot but it would still set temperature and try to heat! This confirms something I thought I saw 'from outside', the Solo processor only samples some things (like real battery voltage) at the start in some cases. Anyway, from this we can see why we seem to get extra battery life from step 7....Solo has compressed the top step. It also shows why the 'one LED per session' thing is so common and also points out that the scale is definitely rigged. 7.2 Volts total is 3.6 per cell in the battery, what's typically considered 'half charged'! So the theory that Arizer 'bent the curve' some to get us to not discharge too deeply seems supported. Batteries of this class should still give excellent service down to 3.3 Volts per cell or so, 5 or 6 steps below 'no lights left'. How wise that is is another matter. This also confirms some anecdotal evidence put forward by some Members?
There are 'many sessions left'. Use them at your own risk (or should that be risk of your Solo's battery?).
Then to reconfirm what I saw before in terms of battery current draw. There's a very minor load idling and setting heat levels but when you fire up the heater the current rockets over 2.5 Amps (with a 8.3 Volt 'battery') and quickly drops to 2 or a bit less (maybe five seconds?). When the heater shuts down, current immediately drops to about .01 Amp.
Finally, to the main event. What gives with PA power?
So this one is hard to measure in a repeatable way. Things shift around a lot, especially as more or less current comes from the battery (and therefore not from the PA). After some playing around I adopted a procedure where I'd set the 'battery' voltage, lower the PA voltage until the 'battery' was supplying several tenths of an Amp then slowly increase the PA voltage until that current passes back through .1 Amps again. Not perhaps the most accurate way to measure, but repeatable and it gave useful data I think. Again, this is the chart of what PA voltage is when it uses less than .1 Amp of battery power when the heater is on:
7.4 Volt battery needed 7.3 from the PA
7.7 needed 7.7 Volts
7.9 needed 7.9
8.1 needed 8.2
8.2 needed 8.3
8.3 needed 8.4
So as the battery goes down, so does the 'changeover', they track which makes some sense. It also means a 'power hog' PA (one that discharges the Solo battery quickly in PA mode) can 'fix itself' at some point as the battery in the Solo discharges. Take, for instance, the case where the PA is putting out 8.0 Volts. When the battery is fully charged, this will mean high discharge rates for the battery, until it gets down to about 8.0 Volts as well. Then it will start to taper off on it's demand for battery power. By the time the battery gets down to one or no lights left it should be basically not using any battery power, running exclusively from the PA. That is, of course, very subject to the battery voltage as well. Not a simple answer for sure. It looks to me like for maximum battery life you want a PA near the top of the acceptable PA range (7 to 9 Volts). The danger is, of course, go a little too high and it will tilt out on you. Lower voltage just means it shifts to 'PA power only' later on the battery discharge curve, perhaps even in the 'no lights lit range'.
I guess I'm even less concerned now that before since most any PA will carry the full load (or nearly so) as the battery level drops low enough. This needs to be tested again I think, but that's my take on it at this point. Doing the real test, PA session after PA session until it fails could not only take a very long time as the percentage of power from the battery drops to near zero but that could be hard on the battery by deep discharge.
One final fun thing. Once it was heating normally I turned the 'battery' voltage down and it kept going! I unplugged the supply, leaving only the PA power, and it ran fine. So you know what comes next......yes, you can plug in (at least this) Solo with no battery inside to a PA, turn it on and run it. This too needs retesting a time or two but it seems that 'conventional wisdom' is wrong, Samsquanch's claim about 102 working with no battery not only confirmed but it applies to other models? The 'why did they go backwards?' concern I had was based on bad information it seems, my guess is they all do it.
I'm going to need some time to digest this good stuff, and will probably redo much of it (including trying to start up with low 'battery' voltages). But now you know as much as me.
Thanks for your kind attention.
OF
All this talk about Solo's and PAs and older models and no batteries and so on got the best of me. I decided to crack open my Solo again and do some poking around. I have a couple of VV PAs here (older prototypes) and the 'right' connector for the battery pack (be careful here, guys, Arizer reversed the polarity normally used for some reason). This let me do some interesting stuff (to me anyway) that I think lends some insights to the Solo and also puts some bad information to rest.
First off, the fully charge battery pack (I pulled it the instant I noticed the charge light go solid) was 8.31 Volts by the time I got it out and measured it. I took this to be top of the range and set the power supply feeding the battery connector to this value at turned it one. First to calibrate the 'battery meter'. I did a 'run down' series, dropping the input by .1 Volts a time, stopping and starting the Solo to see what the battery indicator said. Here's the very interesting results. The meter on the PS only had one tenth Volt resolution but the results kind of speak for themselves, even if adding more questions:
8.3 to 8.0 shows step 7
7.9 step 6
7.8 step 5
7.7 step 4
7.6 step 3
7.5 step 2
7.4 step 1
7.2 and below no lights.
Then, on a whim, I backed it down still more, unrealistically low to see if it would 'drop out', it didn't. Once running at 7.2 I was able to lower it to 5.0 Volts, the LEDs dimmed a lot but it would still set temperature and try to heat! This confirms something I thought I saw 'from outside', the Solo processor only samples some things (like real battery voltage) at the start in some cases. Anyway, from this we can see why we seem to get extra battery life from step 7....Solo has compressed the top step. It also shows why the 'one LED per session' thing is so common and also points out that the scale is definitely rigged. 7.2 Volts total is 3.6 per cell in the battery, what's typically considered 'half charged'! So the theory that Arizer 'bent the curve' some to get us to not discharge too deeply seems supported. Batteries of this class should still give excellent service down to 3.3 Volts per cell or so, 5 or 6 steps below 'no lights left'. How wise that is is another matter. This also confirms some anecdotal evidence put forward by some Members?
There are 'many sessions left'. Use them at your own risk (or should that be risk of your Solo's battery?).
Then to reconfirm what I saw before in terms of battery current draw. There's a very minor load idling and setting heat levels but when you fire up the heater the current rockets over 2.5 Amps (with a 8.3 Volt 'battery') and quickly drops to 2 or a bit less (maybe five seconds?). When the heater shuts down, current immediately drops to about .01 Amp.
Finally, to the main event. What gives with PA power?
So this one is hard to measure in a repeatable way. Things shift around a lot, especially as more or less current comes from the battery (and therefore not from the PA). After some playing around I adopted a procedure where I'd set the 'battery' voltage, lower the PA voltage until the 'battery' was supplying several tenths of an Amp then slowly increase the PA voltage until that current passes back through .1 Amps again. Not perhaps the most accurate way to measure, but repeatable and it gave useful data I think. Again, this is the chart of what PA voltage is when it uses less than .1 Amp of battery power when the heater is on:
7.4 Volt battery needed 7.3 from the PA
7.7 needed 7.7 Volts
7.9 needed 7.9
8.1 needed 8.2
8.2 needed 8.3
8.3 needed 8.4
So as the battery goes down, so does the 'changeover', they track which makes some sense. It also means a 'power hog' PA (one that discharges the Solo battery quickly in PA mode) can 'fix itself' at some point as the battery in the Solo discharges. Take, for instance, the case where the PA is putting out 8.0 Volts. When the battery is fully charged, this will mean high discharge rates for the battery, until it gets down to about 8.0 Volts as well. Then it will start to taper off on it's demand for battery power. By the time the battery gets down to one or no lights left it should be basically not using any battery power, running exclusively from the PA. That is, of course, very subject to the battery voltage as well. Not a simple answer for sure. It looks to me like for maximum battery life you want a PA near the top of the acceptable PA range (7 to 9 Volts). The danger is, of course, go a little too high and it will tilt out on you. Lower voltage just means it shifts to 'PA power only' later on the battery discharge curve, perhaps even in the 'no lights lit range'.
I guess I'm even less concerned now that before since most any PA will carry the full load (or nearly so) as the battery level drops low enough. This needs to be tested again I think, but that's my take on it at this point. Doing the real test, PA session after PA session until it fails could not only take a very long time as the percentage of power from the battery drops to near zero but that could be hard on the battery by deep discharge.
One final fun thing. Once it was heating normally I turned the 'battery' voltage down and it kept going! I unplugged the supply, leaving only the PA power, and it ran fine. So you know what comes next......yes, you can plug in (at least this) Solo with no battery inside to a PA, turn it on and run it. This too needs retesting a time or two but it seems that 'conventional wisdom' is wrong, Samsquanch's claim about 102 working with no battery not only confirmed but it applies to other models? The 'why did they go backwards?' concern I had was based on bad information it seems, my guess is they all do it.
I'm going to need some time to digest this good stuff, and will probably redo much of it (including trying to start up with low 'battery' voltages). But now you know as much as me.
Thanks for your kind attention.
OF
ataxian
PALE BLUE DOT
I respect you so don't take this wrong?
Nothing personal however the vaporizers you like are like drinking $100 bottles wine out of a plastic cup.
Dreamerr
Always in a state of confusion and silliness♀
That was to funny ataxian...hope you had a good day on the boat you said oh my. I miss my solos as they are resting from all that testing.
I don't know OF because as you know my 102 went 32 sessions while I was using it and was still on 7 and there is no way in hell my 1A3 gets close to that. That was with the stock PA.
I don't know OF because as you know my 102 went 32 sessions while I was using it and was still on 7 and there is no way in hell my 1A3 gets close to that. That was with the stock PA.
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OF
Well-Known Member
The most intelligent thing I can come up with is 'they're different', sorry until I get near it I can't say more.
Except for the point that with a modified PA I also got that kind of life on seven with my m1A. It's not necessarily model related, it could be that one unit?
I'm using an M103 and have the battery degrade in PA mode (just like the other models it appears?).
@OF do you have access to any 102's by any chance?
To summarize my tests from today, I'd expect the 'degrading' of charge to slow and basically stop as the battery level drops down. The proof will be testing modified PAs I think.
I think I might know a guy who has a m102 I can borrow. I'm checking. I don't think it's really all that different at this point really.
OF
Dreamerr
Always in a state of confusion and silliness♀
I agree it may just be my unit so those of you that have a m1a3 can you report how your unit does under load...TIA. I know it can't be exact as we all use differently but I use level 3, a full 12 mins, no back to back, at least 15 mins more like a half hour in between sessions sometimes an hour, and toking the whole time no water.
ataxian
PALE BLUE DOT
Boating was really nice in NEWPORT BEACH today.
More test tomorrow!
Hope you had a great day!
FoldedPaper
Well-Known Member
I have had my Solo for just over a month and have been using it daily. Recently, after refilling the stem, I noticed a strange sensation. When I place my lips on the stem when it is attached to the unit, the unit seems to be creating suction, so it actually takes the breath out of me! I don't know what could be causing this.
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Dreamerr
Always in a state of confusion and silliness♀
I quoted so maybe you will get an email and come back and explain. This is very strange. We will try to help if we understand.
It's called "really good weed". It made me chase pink unicorns yesterday, so mystery suction seems plausible to me. I'd just re-load if I were you. If you see unicorns, tell them I went into the forest. Thanks in advance.
FoldedPaper
Well-Known Member
When I put the stem into the solo even if the stem is empty now and the solo is off, if I try to draw through the stem, it takes my breath away, there is like a vaccuum, or some sort of slight suction. Something is off with the air pressure. It is very strange.
It is not very strong obviously, but this subtle suction makes it impossible to get any vapor. The thing had been working awesome up until this, when I stopped getting vapor. Took the stem out, put it back in and...what the... sucking on it feels weird.
I am not using any extra attachments or anything, just the solo with the stems it came with.
It is not very strong obviously, but this subtle suction makes it impossible to get any vapor. The thing had been working awesome up until this, when I stopped getting vapor. Took the stem out, put it back in and...what the... sucking on it feels weird.
I am not using any extra attachments or anything, just the solo with the stems it came with.
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When you start "Nothing personal", the next thing you say will almost certainly be personal. Just pointing that out.
I've had the experience of quite a few vapourizers by now, and the FV is one of the absolute best for flavour. I am far from alone in this opinion, and yes, I've hit a Cloud. If you think the FV is like a "plastic cup", then I submit that your taste buds are due for a checkup, and you can take that personally if you like.
I looked forward to the fantastic taste from the Solo that I had read so much about, and I think that I posted in here what a disappointment it was. The Solo cooks the load between hits and anyone with decent taste buds will detect this. It's not nearly as bad as Pax, but the cooked flavour is distinct and quite noticeable. I will add at this point that I am in the group known as "supertasters". I am willing to bet that you are not.
OF
Well-Known Member
Strange indeed, and no doubt disturbing.
Do you get the same effect with just the stem? Does it draw freely/normally?
Have you tried the other stem? Does it do the same thing?
If you try to blow (gently) into the stem, what happens?
TIA
OF
abhishek
Well-Known Member
MFLB was my first Vape..Didn't do much for me..in fact I had completely written off vaping coz of MFLB, this was ,till I tried my friends' Solo...
Third hit on it and I was like WTF, such awe some taste and a huge cloud , which i could never achieve with MFLB..
I have 1 gathering dust, and I wI'll send it Toronto with a friend, by November.. So anyone want it for ffree can jus pik it up from her..
Third hit on it and I was like WTF, such awe some taste and a huge cloud , which i could never achieve with MFLB..
I have 1 gathering dust, and I wI'll send it Toronto with a friend, by November.. So anyone want it for ffree can jus pik it up from her..