Yeah I'm now certain it's a mod+tank technology. I just saw
this post from Reddit, actually quite old, 22 days - it came before the mod announcement so no-one at the time really got what it was about:
"Introducing the iSub-TC. The first tank which uses Innokin Control Technology for exact, controlled temperatures"
Couldn't be clearer I'd say - the tank has to have the technology, not only the mod.
Comparing the original iSub to the iSub TC:
There's an extra ring in the middle of the base which must be where the sensor has been added.
The original iSub was actually perfect for (traditional) TC - or would have been had they released any TC coils for it - because of its direct mod-to-coil connection: the 510 connection is the base of the coil itself, rather than the coil screwing into a base that then has a separate 510 pin. The bottom AFC ring screwed around the base of the coil. This new design seems to indicate that that's changed - it looks more like a traditional tank with coil-to-base-to-mod connection. Which it would have to be for if the sensor is in the tank itself as the new connection is going to need some additional power/signal lines to the mod.
Also look closely at the base of the chimney of the new tank. In pretty much any other clearo, that would be the top of the coil screwing into the chimney. On the new iSub TC that doesn't look like a coil to me, it looks like some kind of coil housing.
So no the first tank is not going to be rebuildable, unless one rebuilds the coils (if that's even possible.)
Surely they'll bring out a rebuildable tank? That is if they've managed to make the sensor good enough to monitor an arbitrary "coil area" and not only a fixed position, known-size coil with only internal wicking.
And that is if the sensor is even in the tank, and not (some part of it) in the coil head - which they then sell for $6 or $10 each or whatever, instead of $2. Perhaps that thing I thought looked like a coil housing is in fact the top of the coil, and it's a way bigger coil than usual. Possibly disputed a little by that extra ring - had the coil had all the goodies in it, they could have gone for the one-piece AFC like the original. But it could still be partly in the tank, partly in the coil. I don't know how small these Thermopiles can get?
And final if, perhaps the biggest if: whether they're willing to even try that and forego some of the revenue from people buying coil heads. I suppose that will depend in large part on how many people decide to sit this one out if they can't have it as an RTA. There's enough people out there buying coil heads that they might not even see it as a big priority.
I'm also really interested in the nature of this mod-to-sensor connection. If they were decent they would come up with some kind of standard - a system for sending power/signal to/from an atty for use in sensors of multiple types and for other future advances (automatic atty ID? Mod controlled AFC/juice flow? Mod-controlled flavour switching in multi-chamber tanks? You name it.) And therefore to allow many manufacturers to create compatible devices with a common standard. They might even be able to license it.
I was going to say I'd be incredibly surprised if they did that, but then I noticed that the Reddit post I linked referred to this as the first tank using "Innokin Control Technology". Not temp control, just control. That sounds like a generic standard to me! Or it's just a missing word and means nothing
Anyway, all very interesting indeed.
