Is firmware upgradeable really necessary?

[Jim_ MDP]

Are you saying there's a 3rd party firmware download for the Pico that might help SS temp control? If yes, link?

As for thread topic, I think it's a nice feature to have. No harm. If you don't need to upgrade, don't upgrade.

I've still been too lazy to actually use it on my JT mods ( ) but the Arctic Fox s/w adds many Escribe-like functions and controls, as well as a PC based monitor function for troubleshooting. Good stuff.

And David's right about taking care not to try TC too low. It's based on changing res and that's proportional to the starting resistance... higher base res = more change as it heats up = more accuracy. That's more important on our budget mods, but even with a dna, I'd only go so low.

 

[Fozzy71]

Are you saying there's a 3rd party firmware download for the Pico that might help SS temp control? If yes, link?

Here you go - Uniform firmware for many devices - ArcticFox + NFirmwareEditor

I personally didn't care for the SS TC vape after installing it and didn't feel like having to mess with the software/profiles to get it to vape similar to, or better than, what I am used to with the standard firmware.

 

[ddirtyvapes]

Yeah, I'm not sure at all that I'll actually get it; I have plenty of other mods that do TC better and am not usually too disappointed even with how the Pico does. My biggest issue is that it seems to struggle actually reading SS sometimes; I get kicked out of TC mode fairly often. I will probably just leave it for now since I tend to use the other TC modes more on the Pico and keep SS on my other mods like the Minikin2 and my Hohmwreckers.

 

[DaveP]

The only real issue I had with TC mode in the Pico 75W was that the TCR in M1, M2, M3 was set at the factory default of 120. Once I set that to 92 for SS316L it was fine. Since I only vape SS in TC mode I set all three modes to 92 and the default wattage for TC mode at my normal 10W. Wattage in TC mode tops out at 75W default when new or when you upgrade firmware.

 

[David Wolf]

Are you saying there's a 3rd party firmware download for the Pico that might help SS temp control? If yes, link?
As for thread topic, I think it's a nice feature to have. No harm. If you don't need to upgrade, don't upgrade.

Yes there is, Artic Fox firmware upgrade for a lot of different mods, including the Pico. Fozzy71 has a good link to a thread which includes a link to the Arctic Fox site above. Good discussion in that thread about it.

Here you go - Uniform firmware for many devices - ArcticFox + NFirmwareEditor

I personally didn't care for the SS TC vape after installing it and didn't feel like having to mess with the software/profiles to get it to vape similar to, or better than, what I am used to with the standard firmware.

I saw a youtube video of testing of a Pico with a thermocouple, he found it 50 deg F high with the SS setting on the Pico at around 400 degrees F if I remember correctly. He played around with his settings, and putting M1 to around 79 to 80 it was more accurate. I did my own testing and with a setting of M1 79 it was pretty good accuracy on the whole. using the SS Pico setting I may as well just been relying on Power control since it was so inaccurate. But thats not the problem I'm having now with TC of SS. Sometimes I set temp at 270 deg F and it vapes well, other times i have to set it at 400 to get the same vape, lol. Im using it on CLR coils which are likely not the best to use for TC, so plan to try my Kayfuns this weekend. I need stability One thing that interests me about Artic Fox is from what I've read you can put in TFR values for resistance, so if it will do that on the Pico, I hope it will give better performance. Would like to hear from anyone who has used Arctic Fox TCR settings on a Pico. Another thing i hope to get is "live" resistance display which is one of its features. I don't plan to upgrade to AF until a second Pico I've ordered arrives.
I'm still new at this TC stuff but I read a lot haha.
Pico TC test on 316L SS using a thermocouple:

 

[David Wolf]

The only real issue I had with TC mode in the Pico 75W was that the TCR in M1, M2, M3 was set at the factory default of 120. Once I set that to 92 for SS316L it was fine. Since I only vape SS in TC mode I set all three modes to 92 and the default wattage for TC mode at my normal 10W. Wattage tops out at 75W default when new or when you upgrade firmware.

How is your performance at 92, compared to whatever Eleaf has as a default for the "SS" setting? My testing using a thermocouple on a CLR coil, 6 wraps 28 AWG, tempco 316L wire gives me an actual temperature about 50 deg F higher than my setting at 400 deg F. Similar to what the guy in the video I posted above experienced in his testing.
With your setting of 10W, what resistance is your SS coil? Does your "temperature protect" display kick in, or is it being limited by the 10W setting and never coming in?

 

[DaveP]

How is your performance at 92, compared to whatever Eleaf has as a default for the "SS" setting?

92 is a commonly suggested TCR for SS316L. I just chose the recommended TCR. It's very similar at 10W in TC as my 10W setting is in wattage mode. If you were to change it back and forth from wattage mode to TC mode and hand it to me I probably couldn't tell the difference.

I tend to stay in TC mode for the projected battery life increase. I don't think I get the commonly stated 1.5 times longer vs wattage, but I've never reset the puff counter in each mode to see the difference.

 

[Wheelin247]

I'm not using a Pico and don't usually use regulated devices (I love my mechs and unregulated) but whenever I do use a regulated device, I use either the RX200s or the RX300 which both are running the Arctic Fox firmware. I like the AF firmware better than I did the factory firmware. They also have different looking screen layouts that you can use to change up the look instead of the same old screen that is usually used so +1 for a happy AF firmware user.

Another good thing about this firmware is if your decide to upload the firmware to your mod and don't care for it, your not stuck with it. You can always upload the factory firmware and use it instead of AF.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[GeorgeS]

Like most of us, I've gotten stuck with my fair share of "pet rocks". Granted they did not start that way - usually tons of unrealistic reviews and glowing feed back helped me decide to put the POS in my shopping cart.
The thing is, in almost EVERY case if only the firmware was updateable I might not of gotten stuck with a pet rock.

As a recent convert I've loaded the "Artic Fox" firmware on three different devices with good results. Granted the three devices were mostly perfectly functional before the "upgrade" however after loading the AF firmware I liked how the devices functioned even more.

One word of warning: some "reviewers" will parrot missinformation. Cases in point: "reviewers" CLAIMED that two of my last "pet rocks" were absolutely firmware updateable however the reality is that the actual hardware to allow this feature was completely missing from the devices in question.

 

[QcVaper]

After upgrading my mod's firmware today (aspire nx75) i can say it's a yes totally usefull.
I used to have to input different button combination to access different functions,after that upgrade now i can easily access all the function and they added a menu system. Makes it 10x better to use imho. Don't really care about the puff counter though,but it's still a fun thing to have.

 

[backitdown]

Is it believed that the Pico's stock Stainless Steel TC value is 120 when using the mod in S.S. mode and not using the Mi, M2 TC settings ? I recently got a Kanger K-1 box with the DNA75 chip and have been doing a little comparison between the Pico and K-1 in TC mode. Too early to tell, but I am finding my tastes say this Pico is about 30* high. Hard to be sure------------