USPS just dropped off the new Lightning pen. While the battery is being topped off I thought I'd share a couple of first thoughts.
It's smaller than I was expecting, even after watching Matt's videos and checking out the pictures on
iNeedHemp. I thought it would be much thicker and a bit longer. I am very happy it's the size that it is. It is a little thicker than the old 510 eGo batteries, which means it doesn't fit into any of the nice little stands I have, but such is life. Comes with an extra pair of O-Rings and an extra heater cup with extra screws and a tiny hex tool. (And a nice tiny dab tool and a very short USB C to USB A cable). It doesn't have pass through charging; you can't vape while you're charging. Seems to take about 400mA, but may take more when it's actually discharged. It was mostly charged when I got it.
And speaking about the size, the ceramic cup is smaller than I visualized as well. A Q-Tip barely fits inside. barely. When I got the QQ chimney ceramic cup I thought it was tiny compared to the V5 ceramic cup, but the Lightning pen cup is really tiny!
A note about the top: as with the v4 and v5 metal caps; you can pull it off and you can unscrew it. If you unscrew it you're probably not doing what you want as the heater section will remain in the top. The only time you want to unscrew is when you want to remove the heater section itself from the battery. If you don't want to pull the cap straight off, just twist it clockwise as you pull it off. The cap doesn't unscrew, only the heater unscrews...
So let's talk 510 connectors. So close but so far. The thread pitch and diameter of the connectors appear to be to the 510 "standard" (there never was a 510 standard, just something most manufacturers tried to come close to). But the depth is all wrong. I have every kind of eCig battery known to man here, and the heater won't work in any of them because its 510 connector is too long. When the heater connector bottoms out in the battery connector, the threads are still too far apart to engage. I can screw one of my oil carts into the battery because it's narrow enough to fit, and it actually works, (but is useless because the air intake slots on the oil cart are blocked inside the battery). I have no plans to use the Lightning battery with anything else, but it would have been nice to be able use the Lightning Heater on a different mod.
So this last part is mostly to point out to everyone what wasn't obvious to me. I've been using a 3grams
heated melt tip on top of a tiny eGo battery to drip dabs into the V5 cup and QQ chimney for months. Best thing since sliced bread. So I also ordered the heated dab tool that comes with the Lightning pen. Guess what? The heated dab tool fits the Lightning battery (same very long 510 connector) but nothing else. So it turns out to be not very useful. It would mean unscrewing the Lightning heater, screwing in the dab tool, grab a dab and drip it into the cup, which wouldn't want to stand up straight because that end is the 510 connector. Then unscrew the dab tool, and screw in the just loaded heater.
For every hit. I think not. (
I could buy another Lightning battery, to use as a spare. Then I could use it to load the cup and when the main battery gives out, move the dab tool battery to the heater. I think I'll just stick with the heated dab tool I already have). I think maybe this has something to do with the transition from the AIO coil based pen to the ceramic based Lightning pen, but I don't know about the AIO because I don't like wire coils.
Anyway, it's charged enough.
It gives
MONSTER hits. More later.