Arizer Solo

S

SoIoArtist

New Member
Pipes said:
Batteries are reading charged, correct? If so, this has all the signs of one of your batteries heading south. In an attempt at bringing up the lesser cell, you could try topping up the cell by leaving on the charger pass the solid green by a few hours. Might help short term but most likely they will need replacing down the road.
Warranty should still apply if only a few months old.
Also, does it work while charging?
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When I turn it on, it reads as charged, its not similar to the battery just dying and the unit turning off; the yellow lights keep flashing for a long time (until I turn it off). Also when I turn up the heat while it's charging the the red and green lights flash together at the same time, the unit beeps and then the blue and all the yellow lights flash together with the green light staying on (red light turns off).

I'll let the unit charge until I get a solid green light and try again. Thanks for the speedy reply btw :)
 
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Pipes

Addicted DIY Enthusiast
Accessory Maker
SoIoArtist said:
When I turn it on, it reads as charged, its not similar to the battery just dying and the unit turning off; the yellow lights keep flashing for a long time (until I turn it off). Also when I turn up the heat while it's charging the the red and green lights flash together at the same time, the unit beeps and then the blue and all the yellow lights flash together with the green light staying on (red light turns off).

I'll let the unit charge until I get a solid green light and try again. Thanks for the speedy reply btw :)
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Your quite welcome.
The lights do crazy things when the battery acts up. Looks good but fails when any real load is required. Then pops back to good. Drives the intelligence to do weird stuff.
 
T

Tanz

Well-Known Member
Just gave my solo chamber a good clean and let it burn off at 7 for the full auto shut off cycle and I noticed the whole thing was hot when I picked it up after it shut off. I had it sitting on a plate...don't think the bottom vents were totally blocked but the hot air rises from the top anyway...? I hope this is not a problem, as in the batteries are heating up (from my understanding they do that when they are no good anymore, maybe?). I don't remember the unit ever getting hot before.

Any ideas?
 
Tanz,
S

smithwonder

Well-Known Member
I stumbled upon this video on youtube:
in this video the reviewer disassembled the unit and explained the path of air inhaled, also doing a quick temperature accuracy check.
I think it shows a technical approach to review vaporizers.
 
lookhigh

lookhigh

FC member
So i bought an openbox unit from PIU for out and about use. Turns out there were a few problems with it , but an email to Randy and it was all sorted out. Now I'm trying to figure out if this is the older PA unit. It will not heat while charging but the HEAT light stays on when its heating and then plugged in? I tried a 9V PSU and the LEDs just flashed Ether way i will not use this plugged in as i got this as a backup/outdoor or for other people to try.
 
lookhigh

lookhigh

FC member
OF said:
I think a simple, and hopefully definitive, test is to start heating on battery then plug it into 12 VDC and see if it continues to heat normally. New models do, old ones drop heating and switch to charging.

OF
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It stops heating alright but the red heat light goes solid. don't know if it charges as all the LEDs light up solid as well? Works fine otherwise but i am curious.
 
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OF

Well-Known Member
lookhigh said:
It stops heating alright but the red heat light goes solid. don't know if it charges as all the LEDs light up solid as well? Works fine otherwise but i am curious.
Click to expand...

Sounds like old model (stops heating, new ones continue on).

I suspect the battery is fully charged right now?

TIA

OF
 
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Canadianguy

Canadianguy

Well-Known Member
ilikesnacks said:
i lent my solo to my sister for about 3 months and when i got it back she hadn't cleaned it once, the bowl was black and the stems were clogged, needless to say - she wont be seeing it again.

i soaked the stems in ISO over night and did a shake with some salt in a ziplock bag, good as new.

the bowl was harder though, i think she was putting hash or oil in it cause there was tons of crap stuck to the bottom, i couldn't clean it simply using a qtip and ISO so i cut a thin strip off of a green scrub pad for dishes & shoved it in the bowl and twisted it around (after it had already been sitting around for a few minutes moistened with ISO) and everything came off with no hassles.
Click to expand...


I had a little water from a adapter get in the bowl and stained it good!!I just read your post on using a little piece of scrub pad and it worked great!!Thank you!
 
Canadianguy,
OF

OF

Well-Known Member
pedrodepacas said:
Could you please have a look if this is a good replacement solo battery or sticking to the original is a better idea?
Click to expand...

Not enough details to say for sure, but I'd steer clear.

I understand that the bigger capacity rating is attractive and all, but Arizer had the same option (3400 mAh) and didn't use them......instead using the same 2200 or so class batteries 'the smart money' uses. That is that's the battery Dell, HP, Apple and the rest of the laptop makers use for this application.
for instance. As well as other vape makers like VB that use this sort of battery. Because they last longer in battery pack applications (where the stronger battery kills the weaker over time).

Another point is battery makers don't usually offer such higher capacity batteries without PCBs and with solder tabs (since they don't expect them to be used for battery packs....), meaning most likely someone has soldered directly to the batteries (although you can spot weld tabs on), a definite no-no on these types of batteries.

Even if you get past the tabs part (by welding tabs), you're still stuck unless the batteries are unprotected (you need an appropriate 'two channel' PCB, having more than one leads to problems).

Absent more information, I'd stick with the factory battery if it's available.

Good luck.

OF
 
OF,
pakalolo

pakalolo

Toolbag v1.1 (candidate)
Staff member
OF said:
Not enough details to say for sure, but I'd steer clear.

I understand that the bigger capacity rating is attractive and all, but Arizer had the same option (3400 mAh) and didn't use them......instead using the same 2200 or so class batteries 'the smart money' uses. That is that's the battery Dell, HP, Apple and the rest of the laptop makers use for this application.
for instance. As well as other vape makers like VB that use this sort of battery. Because they last longer in battery pack applications (where the stronger battery kills the weaker over time).

Another point is battery makers don't usually offer such higher capacity batteries without PCBs and with solder tabs (since they don't expect them to be used for battery packs....), meaning most likely someone has soldered directly to the batteries (although you can spot weld tabs on), a definite no-no on these types of batteries.

Even if you get past the tabs part (by welding tabs), you're still stuck unless the batteries are unprotected (you need an appropriate 'two channel' PCB, having more than one leads to problems).

Absent more information, I'd stick with the factory battery if it's available.

Good luck.

OF
Click to expand...

Arizer might have decided against higher capacity batteries but our own @CentiZen has been making replacement packs for the Solo with 3400 mAh batteries for quite a while now. Many of our members use them happily. I don't know if they have a much shorter lifespan but I'm not aware of any failures yet. Many people would gladly trade lifespan for higher capacity anyway.
 
OF

OF

Well-Known Member
pakalolo said:
Arizer might have decided against higher capacity batteries but our own @CentiZen has been making replacement packs for the Solo with 3400 mAh batteries for quite a while now. Many of our members use them happily. I don't know if they have a much shorter lifespan but I'm not aware of any failures yet. Many people would gladly trade lifespan for higher capacity anyway.
Click to expand...

That would be "more information". That means I think that's a different case.

My opinion stands, for the reasons cited. I'd go with the factory one in the situation the OP describes.

OF
 
OF,
CentiZen

CentiZen

Evil Genius in Training
Accessory Maker
pakalolo said:
Arizer might have decided against higher capacity batteries but our own @CentiZen has been making replacement packs for the Solo with 3400 mAh batteries for quite a while now. Many of our members use them happily. I don't know if they have a much shorter lifespan but I'm not aware of any failures yet. Many people would gladly trade lifespan for higher capacity anyway.
Click to expand...

This is a conversation that has been had several times in the past on the forum and I think we will just be rehashing the same points made in those discussions before. I can appreciate OF's position, Arizer knows their product better than I or other reverse engineers will and may have contextual information that lead them to make the 2200mAh choice over the 3400mAh choice. And the 2200mAh cells are the popular choice amount most manufacturers. But why is this?

I can tell you for sure that I have had less than a 1% defect/return rate on these batteries, and in most cases the issues are related to user error and not following the installation instructions. I cannot speak for VapeFiend or other manufacturers, as I am performing my own QC. This is spanning the near year I have been operating, and from what I can the entirety of the first batch is still going strong.

If you look at the business side of things here (in Arizer's context) we are looking at around 2-1$ per cell for a 2200mAh 18650 cell. The market for these cells is wide open, it is very easy to procure large amounts at a time and there are multiple suppliers that allow Arizer to hedge their supply chain.

Now, the NCR18650B regularly fetch over 10$ for single pieces, and get down to ~6$ in an order of thousands. They are produced by one company and the market for these cells is being disproportionally dominated by Tesla as they ramp up the production of their cars. I have had serious difficulty getting a reliable supplier that can keep large amounts of these in stock; and even then the volume discounts are much lower than those on other options.

So like I said, I can understand and appreciate the position that higher capacity packs may not be the best option. But I disagree with the assertion that these packs will have a decreased lifetime, as in my own (albeit, anecdotal) experience they have lasted even longer than the stock pack while still providing a higher capacity. The 2200 is the popular choice because it makes the most business sense - if your a profit based business making low cost consumer product and your looking at 500-1000% the cost for less than a 50% upgrade in capacity, it just makes sense to design your product with the cheaper, smaller battery.

Or to put in a different light - if the 2200 is objectively the best option, why would Tesla choose the 3400mAh cells for their cars? If these batteries were more prone to failure than their smaller cousins, I have no doubt they would not be powering the most advanced electric vehicles on the market. I think it comes down to is a cost/benefit analysis; not that one is objectively better than the other.

I don't want to derail the thread or get into a big argument about this - but I welcome anyone who would like to have a discussion about this to reach out to me through PM. I understand that I don't know everything and if you think I am missing something I'd be glad to talk.
 
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lookhigh

lookhigh

FC member
I am now fairly certain that i got the old true PA style openbox SOLO. I cant be certain until i have the proper PSU to try this. One difference i have noticed between the old and new one is the startup beep is much longer on the old one? maybe this is a new way to tell the old ones from the new? Anyone else noticed this?
 
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