Arizer Solo II

OF

Well-Known Member
@morninglight You are going to need to contact Arizer.

Reach out by email and they will be I touch promptly. Include any pictures that might help explain the problem.

Sorry to hear about your Solo.

I fear you're right. No 'last minute reprieves here'? That is nobody has seen this before and can contribute more than guesses? Aside from some lucky break where it 'fixes itself' (and therefore can og out again when least convenient....) 'this one has to go to the shop' I fear.

If we're still going to guess, I've got one (of course.....). Keyboards (even ones with a few keys like here) are 'scanned' by software to detect button presses which can happen anytime. More importantly, you need to process those pushes. For instance, in your computer, the keyboard is really a stand alone computer itself, linked back via a USB (or 'USB like') digital link. But to keep it all straight it does it in a strange way. The KB decodes and sends a code when it notices a new key being pressed. Say 'k is down'. Then it sends a 'k is up' when it's released. Those two might be several messages apart (other stuff is going on). If it was an upper case K it's 'shift down, k pressed, k released, shift released' and so on. Things have to be paired to be recognized. If a command gets out of place it all breaks down. A single stuck key can goof up the whole process. That's my guess, a key is stuck and hanging up the program?

Before I put it in the box I'd spend some time 'playing' with the buttons hoping to find one that 'doesn't click right' every time. And try unplugging and re plugging the charger in some more? Another check is to wave it around in the dark, that should leave a 'trail of dots' in the dark from the display (which is rapidly being switched on and off) proving the processor is still running enough to run the display? If so it's probably just confused......like most of us?

Regards,

OF
 

ataxian

PALE BLUE DOT
I use a small screen in the stem, directly touching the four holes in stem, then herb, then another screen to hold it all in. Doesn't take much pressure either. Screen herb screen.
I agree, this thing hits better than my desktop or even any bong I've tried.




I want to hug you. When I saw those scratches my inner OCD was crying. I'm home now and can confirm that was the case! I'm actually leaving the screen protector on to keep it "new" longer. We'll see how long before my OCD takes it off haha.

Unrelated but I'm a bit scared at how much I always enjoy reading Ataxians replies. (Does he really not have a solo 2 yet? Where's his GoFundMe at already)
I want a SOLO 2 and AIR 2 however my original SOLO work's fine!

One day I will get one?

@OF has one because he's strong willed.
 

dynospec

Well-Known Member
It was sitting on the charger and not in use. I removed the cord from the solo and the screen just froze with the battery icon. I can’t turn it off or on. Buttons don’t do anything. It doesn’t respond at all. Been sitting with the same screen since early Saturday now.

have you tried holding down the up and power button together at the same time for a extended amount of time, maybe 30-60 seconds? Just a guess, that maybe that could reset it? Or even all 3 buttons down at the same time, or different combinations, but typically if there is a "reset" in most electronics Ive used its often built in to the power button. Just a thought I had, that may hopefully help you out; have you tried contacting arizer?
 

morninglight

Well-Known Member
I fear you're right. No 'last minute reprieves here'? That is nobody has seen this before and can contribute more than guesses? Aside from some lucky break where it 'fixes itself' (and therefore can og out again when least convenient....) 'this one has to go to the shop' I fear.

If we're still going to guess, I've got one (of course.....). Keyboards (even ones with a few keys like here) are 'scanned' by software to detect button presses which can happen anytime. More importantly, you need to process those pushes. For instance, in your computer, the keyboard is really a stand alone computer itself, linked back via a USB (or 'USB like') digital link. But to keep it all straight it does it in a strange way. The KB decodes and sends a code when it notices a new key being pressed. Say 'k is down'. Then it sends a 'k is up' when it's released. Those two might be several messages apart (other stuff is going on). If it was an upper case K it's 'shift down, k pressed, k released, shift released' and so on. Things have to be paired to be recognized. If a command gets out of place it all breaks down. A single stuck key can goof up the whole process. That's my guess, a key is stuck and hanging up the program?

Before I put it in the box I'd spend some time 'playing' with the buttons hoping to find one that 'doesn't click right' every time. And try unplugging and re plugging the charger in some more? Another check is to wave it around in the dark, that should leave a 'trail of dots' in the dark from the display (which is rapidly being switched on and off) proving the processor is still running enough to run the display? If so it's probably just confused......like most of us?

Regards,

OF

have you tried holding down the up and power button together at the same time for a extended amount of time, maybe 30-60 seconds? Just a guess, that maybe that could reset it? Or even all 3 buttons down at the same time, or different combinations, but typically if there is a "reset" in most electronics Ive used its often built in to the power button. Just a thought I had, that may hopefully help you out; have you tried contacting arizer?

I talked with a guy at PIU who recommended plugging in the solo 2, holding down all 3 buttons. I held them for about 60 seconds and finally got it to 'power off'. Screen went dark. Unplugged the power cord and was able to power it up normally. It is now working. THANK JESUS. No, seriously, thank you everyone who replied. It was sort of unbelievable a little bug could happen like that.
 

JCharles

FC 06/06/2017 | ACMPR 26/07/2017
I talked with a guy at PIU who recommended plugging in the solo 2, holding down all 3 buttons. I held them for about 60 seconds and finally got it to 'power off'. Screen went dark. Unplugged the power cord and was able to power it up normally. It is now working. THANK JESUS. No, seriously, thank you everyone who replied. It was sort of unbelievable a little bug could happen like that.

Glad your device is working again!!

It would be awesome to let Arizer know what happened and how it was solved. Might help another vaporent in the future.
 

Serial_Vapist

Arizer Solo II Arizer solo OG Xvape Avant
Thanks to MK for an example of charging advice from the past. I've posted such advice a lot over the years, for instance I've discussed charging a couple hundred times:
http://fuckcombustion.com/search/52201587/?q=charging&o=date&c[node]=39&c[user][0]=7683

To me more specific about techniques for maximum battery life (what I suspect you want), I often quote "Battery University", an excellent resource on many topics. Sorting for such mentions gives 20 options:
http://fuckcombustion.com/search/52201459/?q=battery+university&o=date&c[node]=39&c[user][0]=7683

That includes other vapes, of course, the Solo I and both Airs (and a lot of others) use this same scheme.

Overcharge (say four hours or more past 'full') BEFORE ANY USE (don't cheat even a few minutes, or you loose any advantage and should avoid it). After that first charge, avoid full charges (a doubling of lifespan if you stop at 90% instead of 'full'. Doubling. Stopping at 80% (less than 'one bar') doubles it again! Four times the number or recharges before replacement? Worth considering.......

Likewise, avoid deep discharges, strive to never have it 'lock out' due to no charge left. More important in Solo than Air of course, since battery replacement is such a bigger deal here.

Avoid high temperatures, simple storage at high temperatures when fully charged will 'kill' (or severely damage) the battery over time without any real use. This is why you should always get such batteries delivered to you at 'about 2/3 charge'. Ones that come out of the box either fully charged or discharged past say 50% should be suspect straight away. Arizer is a top notch outfit, they know better, that should not happen here. And so does Panasonic (the maker of the 18650s used to build the Solo II packs).

I agree, it's very hard to find stuff around here, "Search" is kind of primitive. Unfortunate, but it is what it is as the saying goes. You can also use Google to search, just enter this Forum domain to limit it. That means I end up repeating the message a lot over time, it's out there. Waste enough time around here you're sure to come across it a time or two?

PM me if you can't figure it out.

Regards to all.

OF

Awesome OF thanks again, I wish I had known this with my Solo OG (I managed to screw the battery up in that one after about 2 years, replaced it with a higher capacity battery, it's still going strong). I appreciate your knowledge on this, I love Arizer's products & want to take care of them, cheers!
 

sickmanfraud

Well-Known Member
Just found this link. The add does say the quality is lacking, but for our own @ataxian and others of us who are embarrassed to keep buying new stems $3 each is too good to be true.

I HAVE NOT BOUGHT ANYTHING FROM THIS VENDOR SO I CAN NOT SPEAK TO THEIR QUALITY.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/3x-LOW-QUA...be-Stem-Drying-Tubes-Curved-Bent/332377420323

I have bought items (first quality) from their Amazon store and I was satisfied, but prob apples to oranges.
 

Creeper

deep in the matrix...
I picked up one of these on a Black Friday sale and I have to say the flavour is fantastic. Been using a Dynavap/Sticky Brick combo for a while but I've been reaching for the Solo 2 for that nice flavour which I don't get with the others. My go-to vape right now, I was floored something actually topped the Dynavap for me this year lol.

And if you are on the fence go Mystic Blue all the way, it changes colour depending on the light in your area. :o

:rockon:
 

Little Bill

Oldest stoner on FC
I love my Mystic Blue Solo 2; but I've been having an affair with my Crafty vaporizers lately. I was packing about .14 grams and having two sessions with one at base temp and second with boost temp. The flavor is so much better now that I'm packing .07 grams and using in one session with both base and boost temps.

But I still love my Solo 2 (from 4-20 sale) and will get back to it soon. It's flavor rivals the Crafty and it's battery life is much better. Super easy to keep clean too. It's best for home use in my Ekornes recliner.
 

dynospec

Well-Known Member
Ive finally almost read through this thread, definitely some great info in here, thanks to all for that!

I fear I am beginning to have a bit of a issue with the battery in my solo2. I had not yet discovered all this forum and the great info in it, specifically that about the initial overcharge, and I let my unit charge over night one time aswell. The first full charge lasted great, I felt it was right where it was supposed to be. However each charge since then has seemed to provide less and less run time. I now try to charge it before it gets to 25% and charge it up to 85-90%. I will have to do some tests today/through the week and see how much run time I get, but I feel it has significantly dropped. Hopefully Im just using it more than I realize or something.
 

vaporcloud

lurking kiwi
I find the Solo II battery life to be really good but it's all at the top. By that I mean the battery level seems to drop very slowly when fully charged but once it gets to half charge it drops quickly. I'd suggest charging it fully and counting how many sessions you get from it until it's almost out of charge.
 

dynospec

Well-Known Member
I find the Solo II battery life to be really good but it's all at the top. By that I mean the battery level seems to drop very slowly when fully charged but once it gets to half charge it drops quickly. I'd suggest charging it fully and counting how many sessions you get from it until it's almost out of charge.


I will try this, first though I charged it to 90% this morning, I am going to time each session and log each use, if I get results that are not satisfactory I will try a full charge and then repeat the test several times. I do try to avoid full discharge/charge cycles, but I will do a few so I can be sure its all in my head.
 
dynospec,
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vpr85

Well-Known Member
@dynospec - According to Arizer their devices have built-in protections so you cannot over-charge the battery and it cannot drain too far. I fully charge and fully drain my Solo II battery every 2-3 days for a few months and I still get pretty much a full three hours of use every time. I know it is good to be careful with batteries but you won't realize the full potential of the battery if you don't use the full potential.
 

OF

Well-Known Member
I fear I am beginning to have a bit of a issue with the battery in my solo2. I had not yet discovered all this forum and the great info in it, specifically that about the initial overcharge, and I let my unit charge over night one time aswell. The first full charge lasted great, I felt it was right where it was supposed to be. However each charge since then has seemed to provide less and less run time. I now try to charge it before it gets to 25% and charge it up to 85-90%. I will have to do some tests today/through the week and see how much run time I get, but I feel it has significantly dropped. Hopefully Im just using it more than I realize or something.

As you suggest, there's a huge factor in there.....the owner and how he vapes? I ran into this several years back with the original Solo. I discovered things like the scale is rigged, the first step of 7 on the 'battery meter' was twice as large (capacity wise) as the rest of the steps. There the voltage across a single 18650 (of the two) drops almost exactly a step per LED after that. That is the lights represent 4.0, 3.9, 3.8, 3.7, 3.6, 3.5 and 3.4 Volts or more as they light. So, even below the last step there is still some protective margin before the protective stop.

Solo II seem similar, only with less steps? That will take some more measurements to confirm, but for now I'm comfortable with that estimate.

I finally decided to remove the human element, I ran a series of 'open top, no stem, full blast (heat) runs back to back. You get close to 50 this way IIRC, but it's very repeatable after the human factor is removed. Fears of 'early aging' disappeared after that.

I have an additional tool in this, I have an 'integrating charging current' rig that measures the total charge replaced in the pack directly in mAh which I started using a few years back. It took a very long time for my original Solo to finally start losing capacity, I'm about to rebuild that pack after four or five years of at least 'once a day' on average use. No doubt more.

A defective 18650 is always possible, of course, but I suspect it's not a real degradation in t he pack this soon.

@dynospec - According to Arizer their devices have built-in protections so you cannot over-charge the battery and it cannot drain too far.
I know it is good to be careful with batteries but you won't realize the full potential of the battery if you don't use the full potential.

Of course they do. But maximum sessions per charge is only one way to rate batteries? Also a factor there for real customers is battery lifetime? How soon do I need to replace the pack?

So, if I told you you could set the upper charge limit as close to 4.25 Volts worst case and add a few more sessions per charge (always a Sales advantage on it's face?) what do you think the Sales types at Arizer would vote for? Then, if I told you that practice kills the battery off sooner so the customers will have to buy a new vape or replacement battery sooner? I bet that would please them too, wouldn't you?

My advice about 'sound battery management' is based on this idea:
http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries

Please pay special attention to the stuff around figure 4. Following my advice (and practice) of stopping a session or two early (at closer to 4.0 Volts) MORE THAN DOUBLES THE LIFESPAN OF THE BATTERY PACK. IMO enjoying Solo for more years is really the best way "realize the full potential of the battery", that is by using it for a LOT longer before replacement.

Each guy gets to make his own call here, but IMO advice should also come with the 'downside'? The downside of the advice to 'ignore other advice, run it hard and enjoy it' is it will cost you in early battery replacement.

Running the pack 'into the mud' as risks as well. The cells are in series, you can't charge one without also charging the other. Over time this means the weaker one will never again get fully charged (since the stronger one will reach full first), the pack was carefully 'balanced' when built (I match to about 10mAh, the two 18650s I'm going to use are 8mAh different) but this degrades over time and the balance gets worse and worse. Deep discharges beat up the weaker cell early to protect the stronger one in an ironic way?

FWIW, I feel so strongly about this I built a 'Gadget' to automatically stop charging early. One version looks like this:
jy0w0hN.jpg


The charger plugs in upper left, the button starts the cycle putting power out the cable to the Solo by turning on the transistor upper right. The 'shunt' resistors near the transistor monitor the charge current and automatically cut the charge when the drop set by the blue adjustment has been reached (currently set for 85% of full IIRC). My first Solo (which didn't get 'the treatment' from the start) has finally dropped to 5 or 6 sessions per charge. When I strip the pack I'll measure the remaining capacity but I'm confident it's not 2200mAh any more.

Bottom line, if you're careful the battery can last a LOT longer? Some of us consider that getting 'full potential' for your battery dollar.

Your call, of course. It's yours to use as you see fit. Arizer will be happy to take your money for a new pack when you're ready. And they're glad to give you advice to make that as soon as possible.........

For myself, I'll continue to give the advice I do. Overcharge (before any use at all, or don't bother....) the first time only. Don't push the bottom end too much, recharge before it 'hits bottom' and stop charging early (at 80 or 90%) when you can. Every time you do so (stop 10% early) you get 'a free cycle' on battery life.

OF
 

vpr85

Well-Known Member
Bottom line, if you're careful the battery can last a LOT longer? Some of us consider that getting 'full potential' for your battery dollar.

Your call, of course. It's yours to use as you see fit. Arizer will be happy to take your money for a new pack when you're ready. And they're glad to give you advice to make that as soon as possible.........

For myself, I'll continue to give the advice I do. Overcharge (before any use at all, or don't bother....) the first time only. Don't push the bottom end too much, recharge before it 'hits bottom' and stop charging early (at 80 or 90%) when you can. Every time you do so (stop 10% early) you get 'a free cycle' on battery life.

OF

Fair enough! For me, I'm happy that I get more uses per charge in the short term, even if it means my battery starts to weaken a bit after a year or so of use. Getting an honest 3 hours of use per charge is dope for a heavy user like myself. Plus, my VAS seems to kick in every 2-3 months...
 

InhaleExhale

Well-Known Member
I ordered some stems, screens, and a GonG during Arizer.com's Black Friday sale. They printed a shipping label immediately but didn't ship for almost a whole week. Then when it arrived, I heard glass tinkling inside the USPS box. It turns out that while each stem is individually placed in a small bubble-wrap sheath, they didn't bother to wrap the order in bubble-wrap so basically it was bunch of loose stems who backed out of their bubble-wrap pockets rattling around in a media mailer box. My order shipped from Chicago.

Fortunately, none of the stems appear to be damaged - but seriously, Arizer, use a small sheet of bubble wrap in the box! :doh:
 
InhaleExhale,
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dynospec

Well-Known Member
Thank you to both of you for your replies, @vpr85 I base my charging style largely off what I have read @OF post and what I read from battery universities website, since I am more interested in prolonging the batteries lifespan than sessions per charge.

I havent done much testing today, had some errands and running around today so have only had one 8 minute session earlier since the 90% charge, bar is 4/5. It is helpful to know that the top 10% is actually more like 20% so that could have alot to do with the feeling Ive been getting. Also like you mentioned and I had guessed at its pretty likely I have simply been losing track of time more frequently since receiving my solo2, hmm must be a coincidence haha.

That said I will continue my test to put my mind fully at ease, since although unlikely it isnt impossible that there is something amiss. Ill make sure to post my findings, my testing method is quite crude given the lack of instruments to measure voltages but it should do the trick.

Gonna load up a stem, cant decide if I should GonG or not. Got some absolutely beautiful indicas, cant remember what they are since I forgot to write it down but theres for sure some Green Bastard cant remember the other 2 :shrug:
 

JCharles

FC 06/06/2017 | ACMPR 26/07/2017
Fwiw I have followed the advice OF has been dropping regarding batteries since the Solo II was released.

Over time there will be a bit of battery degradation, in that you might only get 2hrs58mins of use vs 3hrs (as a non-scientific example). This will happen regardless of how you charge/discharge.

I think the real bonus of stopping a charge early and not letting it discharge entirely is the years of use.

And with that said, remember Arizer has said they will replace a Solo II battery for a fee, if requested/needed.

So some of us will push that 3 hour limit to the max. Other users will work with 2-2.5hrs of use with more frequent charging. And hopefully all of us will someday replace the battery and either retire our Solo II or hand it down to a vaporent in need.
 

Creeper

deep in the matrix...
I will say this about battery life too, it depends on the ambient temperature that you are using the device in. Sub-zero temp now where I live and when I vape outside the battery drains hella quick but makes complete sense. Only thing I think Arizer could have done better is use a USB type charging port instead of the current one, would have made it easier to carry around a cable and charge from my computer then the wall adapter. Not a big deal, they need stuff to put on the Solo 3 lol.
 
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