New Kangxin 50W TC device - Mini VF KX-50D: single 18650; LED torch; USB charge; multiple colours

[TheBloke]

More seriously.. have you guys who have received your Mini VF seen any kind of Low Battery or Weak battery message on it yet? @Nailz @KenD ?

I have not on my Gold. Instead, when it gets down to about 3.4-3.5v, it just turns itself off. Then I have to do New Coil again, and it might vape for another couple of minutes and then turn off again.

It's done that twice now with two different batteries, a Samsung 25R and an EFest 3100. When I tested them after removing them the EFest was at 3.5v and the Samsung at 3.4V.

I'm now vaping on my Green to drain a battery in that to see if the issue replicates.

@Croak does that sound like poor grounding type issues, or something related? I think you said you have or had something similar on your Kangxin flask? Though I thought you said it was Weak Battery too early rather than actually shutting itself off. Though I suppose a new chip could respond differently.

I have cleaned the battery cap and the threads, though not super hard yet.

I have to say I am not at all impressed with quality control so far. My Gold has that issue. My Green has at least four issues:

1. The white spots on the finish I mentioned on day 1
2. The screen cover not being completely flush, again noticed on day 1
3. The 510 connection is not good, on day 2 I noticed the pin seemed to be stuck in - it wasn't retracting when I pushed it gently with a screwdriver.
   1. I had to remove the top plate to free it.
   2. Now the pin moves normally, but all resistances seem much too high - eg 0.67 from a ST coil that reads 0.58 - 0.60 elsewhere (0.59 on my Gold Mini VF). EDIT: When taken off and put back on it just read 0.63, so getting closer but still higher than all other mods I tested and 0.04 higher than its sister Mini VF.
   3. I've stopped trying TC on it for the moment.
4. There's something weird with the battery tube. A Samsung 25R fits in fine. An EFest 3100 will not go beyond the threading, it just jams.
   1. The same battery fits perfectly in my Gold Mini VF, and indeed in all my other mods.
   2. I think it's the threads on the battery cap being slightly too far inwards or something. I've not yet investigated a possible fix.

The gold has none of these issues (though it does maybe have that issue on low battery) and the gold was also available earlier from Kangxin. So maybe it's that the 'colours' (not gold or black) are more suspect/rushed.

@Treeburner1983 do you have your Green yet?

 

[KenD]

On my black mini I get "weak battery" and then it switches off almost immediately. It's possible to turn on again and take a few puffs, then "weak battery" and switching off again. Battery charge down to about 3.4v. I'm quite satisfied, but the quality doesn't seem to be quite on par with the Waidea flask. Might simply be due to the weight difference and the rattling buttons though.

In other news; I decided to relegate my Goblin to Kanthal duties, at least until I get some titanium wire. Just too much of a hassle to build nickel coils on it.

 

[TheBloke]

On my black mini I get "weak battery" and then it switches off almost immediately. It's possible to turn on again and take a few puffs, then "weak battery" and switching off again. Battery charge down to about 3.4v. I'm quite satisfied, but the quality doesn't seem to be quite on par with the Waidea flask. Might simply be due to the weight difference and the rattling buttons though.

OK thanks, well if you're seeing 3.4V as well maybe this is not unusual - though it does suck. 3.4V on a single battery means battery life feels incredibly low compared to 3.1-3.2V from dual battery that I'm used to. I obviously expected it to be halved, but more than halved is a shame.

Perhaps I've just missed the battery message every time as it's harder to see on side screen. I thought I held it and looked right at the screen when it turned off one time but maybe I didn't. I'll check when I get to the end of this battery.

Thanks!

 

[Nailz]

I have not run mine low enough yet, seems to manage battery usage very well compared to my 'lost vape curve', I have 3 mods on the go at home, and charge the mini VF nightly.

 

[Shigura]

Just got the grey mini VF in as of today. Been vaping on it since I've unpackaged. My thoughts on my particular device so far as been somewhat positive. My biggest issue tho so far is more or less cosmetic as the top on my mod doesn't sit flush with the casing. So it makes all my atomizers slightly crooked. Here's a pic:

Sorry for the potato quality had bit of an issue focusing in on it. So I wonder if there might be a wire trapped thats preventing a flush fit.

Tried at least 3 different atomizers as well. Atlantis (kanthal), Mutation X V2 (.13 ohm, 12 wraps, 26g ni200), and Magma (.15 ohm, 8 wraps, 28g ni200) both RDAs using 2.5mm coils. Atlantiz and Mutation both sat flush and screwed in nice and easy. But the Magma took a bit more to screw in (probably due to the raised 510 positive) and had a gap. So with all that everything worked perfectly great and matched up with a dna40.

Other then that, kinda sucks not having at least a power lock. But I'm digging the form factor as it feels comfortable in both hands. For the price I can't complain and it will be my out and about mod for awhile. I'll be vaping on it exclusively for a week or so, and see if I get this battery issue @TheBloke had pointed out.

Edit: Also don't see the temp. protect popping up on screen either. But instead I've watched scale the wattage real low instead like 1w-5w ish.

 

[aldenf]

These reports seem to suggest the new chipset is best suited for DIY mods. The final implementation into mods seems to be hit or miss and consistency/QC leaves much to be desired. I hope to see the naked 50W/60W boards available soon.

 

[TheBloke]

These reports seem to suggest the new chipset is best suited for DIY mods. The final implementation into mods seems to be hit or miss and consistency/QC leaves much to be desired. I hope to see the naked 50W/60W boards available soon.

The Rayn board is available, but only in its 40W guise. This will likely be a very similar/identical board to that found in the Kangxin 40W flask and Waidea 40Ws flasks. Doesn't have the flash light support of the Mini VF and almost certainly not the ability to turn the mod off. On the upside, it will have "power lock" (settings lock)

D40 (DNA40 Clone 40W Temperature Protection Module, Support .1ohm Coil)

But if I were to get a board I really wouldn't want this one any more. The Infinite board is the one to get - up to 60W, lower min resistance (0.06), C temps as well as F, Nickel Purity (much better usage for Titanium and other non-Ni200 wires), better DNA 40 clone in general. But when/whether that will ever be sold separately is anyone's guess. It was available until very recently for $47 in the form of a cheap VS clone, but those have gone now so currently it's only available in the $50+ Geeco and Infinite Zero clones. Presumably other mods using it will come out soon.

 

[MegaVap]

So you guys liking the Mini VF so far? Performance good? I should be getting mine Monday, fingers crossed! I want something to take to work instead of my VS rDNA40. I have scared myself one too many times after I've misplaced it thinking it was lost forever, what a sinking feeling

 

[TheBloke]

To add regarding my Green issues: I can hopefully cross at least one problem off the list. In all my testing this evening resistance has been on a par with my Gold Mini and both have been on a par with a couple of other mods. Sometimes the Green is 0.01 higher but often it's the same, across a couple of different attys.

I do need to keep an eye on it because its 510 pin was definitely stuck at one point, but perhaps the spring has loosened slightly or the pin has settled into a better position over more usage. Whatever, for now it's OK!

@MegaVap I think this mod will serve your stated purpose well. I haven't posted my thoughts on it yet because I haven't quite been able to work out what they are! I will try and do so tomorrow.

I will say that the flashlight is proving to be nearly as useful as I hoped I have used it many times. It's not as bright as I hoped - less bright and a significantly narrower beam than my cell (but I guess that has two bulbs) - but it gets the job done in most cases.

I've used it to find many screws I've dropped - takes a little while because the beam is narrow, but I can hunt them out by passing the light across the floor and I always find them much faster than with no light; to look for things in dark cupboards/shelves (ditto) and to guide myself through the darkened house at night when I've turned off the lights (works very well.) Keeping it in my top pocket at all times is proving very helpful, as I hoped.

I also did a flashlight battery burn test, mostly for the video review I hope to do shortly: I ran the light for 4.5 hours continously on a fresh 4.2V Samsung 2500mah battery. After that time the voltage had dropped from 4.20 to 4.05. I also measured temperature of the mod housing and the 'bulb' and it rose no more than 1°C above ambient.

As for how much that is in mah - I checked a battery drain graph for the Samsung 25R which showed that with a constant drain of 0.2A, 4.00V would be reached after approximately 400mah. Which works out to 88mah per hour of flashlight use. Or 3% of a Samsung 25R per hour. Mods don't use 100% of the available mah so it would be a greater % of usable battery, but still not significant.

Anyway that was an extreme test and even after 4.5 hours the battery bar of the mod still showed full. That's enough to re-assure me (and hopefully anyone who wants the video) that you can use the flashlight with impunity without noticeably affecting your vaping usage. And especially to re-assure anyone silly enough to think that the fire button LED will be having any detectable effect on battery life!

 

[Shigura]

To add regarding my Green issues: I can hopefully cross at least one problem off the list. In all my testing this evening resistance has been on a par with my Gold Mini and both have been on a par with a couple of other mods. Sometimes the Green is 0.01 higher but often it's the same, across a couple of different attys.

I do need to keep an eye on it because its 510 pin was definitely stuck at one point, but perhaps the spring has loosened slightly or the pin has settled into a better position over more usage. Whatever, for now it's OK!

@MegaVap I think this mod will serve your stated purpose well. I haven't posted my thoughts on it yet because I haven't quite been able to work out what they are! I will try and do so tomorrow.

I will say that the flashlight is proving to be nearly as useful as I hoped I have used it many times. It's not as bright as I hoped - less bright and a significantly narrower beam than my cell (but I guess that has two bulbs) - but it gets the job done in most cases.

I've used it to find many screws I've dropped - takes a little while because the beam is narrow, but I can hunt them out by passing the light across the floor and I always find them much faster than with no light; to look for things in dark cupboards/shelves (ditto) and to guide myself through the darkened house at night when I've turned off the lights (works very well.) Keeping it in my top pocket at all times is proving very helpful, as I hoped.

I also did a flashlight battery burn test, mostly for the video review I hope to do shortly: I ran the light for 4.5 hours continously on a fresh 4.2V Samsung 2500mah battery. After that time the voltage had dropped from 4.20 to 4.05. I also measured temperature of the mod housing and the 'bulb' and it rose no more than 1°C above ambient.

As for how much that is in mah - I checked a battery drain graph for the Samsung 25R which showed that with a constant drain of 0.2A, 4.00V would be reached after approximately 400mah. Which works out to 88mah per hour of flashlight use. Or 3% of a Samsung 25R per hour. Mods don't use 100% of the available mah so it would be a greater % of usable battery, but still not significant.

Anyway that was an extreme test and even after 4.5 hours the battery bar of the mod still showed full. That's enough to re-assure me (and hopefully anyone who wants the video) that you can use the flashlight with impunity without noticeably affecting your vaping usage. And especially to re-assure anyone silly enough to think that the fire button LED will be having any detectable effect on battery life!

Don't forget we can vape and tell horror stories too! Any who the form factor is quite nice and fits well in hand. Although taller then a VS still feels quite small as well.

 

[Treeburner1983]

Received the green Kangxin Mini VF Friday and set my fiancée up with a nickel coil on her Subtank Mini RBA deck. So far its working great including the TC, and although I hate the protruding bubble over the light, even the flashlight works well and is not difficult to activate. My one complaint is not being able to lock the power settings on the mod - they should have removed left/right or stealth mode and kept the ability to lock power settings.

The surface of the mod is flawless and the spring loaded 510 makes attaching atomizers a breeze. The green color is slightly darker than pictured, but the color is very cool - under bright light it appears emerald green, but in low light it appears black; very neat effect!

Only been a few days but so far she's loving the Kangxin Mini VF, makes a decent first TC mod!

-Treeburner

 

[TheBloke]

Good news @Treeburner1983 and I agree that it's a shame Settings Lock has gone. I use that quite a lot when I have it available.

But I'm glad they put the flashlight on an easy combo. Removing stealth instead would have been ideal, but I guess they went for the easy option - put the flashlight over one existing function, rather than move settings lock to where stealth was, and then put flash over where settings was. I like settings lock a lot but I'd rather lose it and have flashlight easily accessible versus have flashlight require five clicks to lock and then hold fire and - to activate it, where stealth was.

Then again, they added a whole new combo - tap +/- three times - for power off. What would have been ideal in my view is if flashlight was tap +/- three times, and then power off was the same but when locked. Then all existing DNA 40 functions would remain unchanged.

(Actually what would have been really ideal is if Evolv had thought for more than 20 seconds about design and usability and hadn't forced everyone to play Button Twister and instead implemented a menu system. And/or if the cloners had had the courage to step beyond what Evolv did and improve it more than they have.)

And while we're on the subject of flashlight I will say that while I love it, I really hate the ridiculous strobe. Every time I go to turn the flashlight off and find myself in that ridiculous strobe mode I take a moment to think "WTH were you thinking?" I mean, what is it for? "For fun"? Well who is ever going to use that for fun. It's not like it's bright enough to entertain a party or anything. Nor is it meant to be anywhere near kids. And it could theoretically even be dangerous - for someone who's epileptic and uses the flashlight in the dark, and they can't turn it off without engaging a strobe mode. I have no idea if one LED bulb is strong enough to trigger such a thing but I bet you anything Kangxin didn't check that before they put it in.

Anyway, I still like the light a lot - and the bulb doesn't even bother me hugely, though it's not nearly as good as a flat cover like a mobile phone has. I will change my tune if mine ever gets smashed of course!

 

[TheBloke]

Regarding Weak Battery - I just drained a 3100mah on my Green and I did see the message. It took me several goes to see it as it's really hard to see on the screen while vaping and I had a coil head on so didn't want to pulse much without pulling, but I saw it eventually.

So seems most likely my Gold shows it too and I just kept missing it.

More good news is that I'm not detecting any drop-off in the vape around the Weak Battery message. Not that I should at 3.4V but at least that's good news versus some earlier installations of the Rayn board.

 

[aldenf]

Regarding Weak Battery - I just drained a 3100mah on my Green and I did see the message. It took me several goes to see it as it's really hard to see on the screen while vaping, but it definitely appeared.

So seems most likely my Gold shows it too and I just kept missing it.

More good news is that I'm not detecting any drop-off in the vape around the Weak Battery message. Not that I should at 3.4V but at least that's good news versus some earlier installations of the Rayn board.

This seems to be a common occurrence with this Kangxin chipset. I'm wondering if "Weak Battery" is warning of unacceptable voltage sag as opposed to overall low battery level.

 

[TheBloke]

Yeah maybe? I don't know much about such things.

On my Waidea I have started having some issues with low output power before it displays Weak, but in the case of that Flask they have been attributed to the mod's very poor ground connection and are theoretically improve-able by improving/fixing that ground. But I have heard of similar issues on Kangxin Flasks and I think the Heatvape Invader as well.

I do know that my Waidea Flask drains its dual batteries to 3.2V before displaying Weak Battery. So I'm not sure why the Mini VF insists at stopping at 3.4-3.5V. Perhaps that's related - maybe they did that to prevent/mitigate the weak vapes at lower voltage. Maybe it is an endemic problem in these boards and this was Kangxin's way of trying to limit the exposure.

 

[Shigura]

This is my first kangxin device, as far as TC. But I'm enjoying it especially for its price. Bugs me up the wazzo that I have a gap where 510 connection and the case. Looking inside I now noticed that it is also crooked as well which most likely is why it doesn't sit flush. As well as lack of a power lock, I also agree to at least removing the left/right feature which is useless imo. Same goes for the stealth mode bs, besides your fingers cover up the screen anyways. Plus don't know if anyone else noticed but I feel the mod heats up fairly quicker then most. Possibly how compact everything is inside?

 

[Shigura]

Found this as he is one of many I follow on youtube

 

[Thorpapa]

I get my vf mini from gearbest at yesterday. It's work real well, but I find a bug. If I don't vape longer time, it was shut down, and when I turned on don't recognize the Tc. I remove the atty, fire, then attach the atty, new coil, and working again.

 

[zoiDman]

I just got my VF Mini from Fasttech.

Did a .6 Ohm Ti Build on a Subtank Mini and set the Unit to 310F. Tried doing at 25W Dry Burn. The Coils Didn't Turn Red. Great!

I then stuffed the Coil with Cotton and Powered it to see what would Happen. Nothing. No Burning. Nothing. Unbelievable!

So I Saturated the Cotton with e-Liquid for a Vapor Test. Houston... We have Vaper!

Loaded everything Up. Did a couple of Primer Puffs. Then a Big Hit. Wow! No Burnt Hit. Just a Huge Hit. Outstanding!

25 Watts for this e-Liquid with this Ohms on this Subtank Mini should have Tasted Like cross between Welding Fumes and Burnt Marshmallows. It Didn't.

Unreal !

I know this is Probably Old News to Most of You. But this is My 1st TC Mod. Not sure How Well this Mod will perform under Day-2-Day situations? Or if will even Last? But right now it is Blowing My Mind.

LOL

 

[Shigura]

I just got my VF Mini from Fasttech.

Did a .6 Ohm Ti Build on a Subtank Mini and set the Unit to 310F. Tried doing at 25W Dry Burn. The Coils Didn't Turn Red. Great!

I then stuffed the Coil with Cotton and Powered it to see what would Happen. Nothing. No Burning. Nothing. Unbelievable!

So I Saturated the Cotton with e-Liquid for a Vapor Test. Houston... We have Vaper!

Loaded everything Up. Did a couple of Primer Puffs. Then a Big Hit. Wow! No Burnt Hit. Just a Huge Hit. Outstanding!

25 Watts for this e-Liquid with this Ohms on this Subtank Mini should have Tasted Like cross between Welding Fumes and Burnt Marshmallows. It Didn't.

Unreal !

I know this is Probably Old News to Most of You. But this is My 1st TC Mod. Not sure How Well this Mod will perform under Day-2-Day situations? Or if will even Last? But right now it is Blowing My Mind.

LOL

Great news glad your enjoying it!!! My damn 510 connex was put in funky, has a bit of an angle in the battery tube. In which case my top piece is lifted up a bit, potiently becoming a big issue if I ever have juice leakage. Battery life is terrible in TC mod and not quite as efficent as a dna 40. I still like it alot and use the flashlight. Was gonna whip it around tomorrow but my rDNA came back so imma use it the next few days.