Apollo Reliant 60W - TC with TCR adjustment, including Stainless Steel support

[TheBloke]

A new advanced TC mod has appeared out of nowhere, thanks to @cigatron for the heads up!

The Apollo Reliant 60W TC

• US link: Apollo Reliant 60W Temp Control Mod (Body Only)
• UK/EU link: Apollo Reliant 60W Temp Control Mod (Body Only)

Specifications:

• Temperature Control Mode
• Wattage Mode
• Mechanical Mode
• Temperature adjustment from 200°F up to 600°F (100°C - 300°C)
• Wattage range from 5 watts up to 60 watts
• Compatible with atomizers as low as 0.06 ohm
• Operates on a single 18650 High Drain battery
• 5 click lock
• Adjustment lock (press and hold both + and - for 3 seconds)
• TCR adjustment to allow you to use many different temperature control wires: Ni200, Ti, SS and more
• Bright and easy to read real time display
• Adjustable screen orientation
• Stealth mode
• Built in USB pass through charging
• Built in safety features including: temperature protection, reverse battery protection, wide battery vent channels, over charge protection and low voltage protection.

Full manufacturer's blurb:

Spoiler

Introducing the all new Apollo Reliant 60W Temp Control Mod. The Reliant is Apollo's newest mod featuring temperature control, the most advanced technology in the vaping industry. Designed and developed in our state of the art facility in Northern California, we've packed a handful of new features into this device.

The Reliant features three different firing modes, Temperature Control, Wattage, and Mechanical.

In Temperature Control Mode the range is from 200°F up to 600°F (100°C to 300°C) with up to 60W max and is compatible with nickel wire, titanium wire and even stainless steel wire by setting the temperature coefficient of resistance in our advanced menu. Temperature Control allows the device to sense how fast the atomizer heats up and will prevent it from firing when your coil is dry, making sure you don't get any burnt or dry hits.

The Reliant also has Wattage Mode so it's still compatible with traditional kanthal coils or any wire that is not temperature control compatible. The Wattage from 5W up to 60W providing you with a great amount of vaping power and a great range of adjustability to work with any atomizer or clearomizer.

It also features Mechanical Mode that will provide direct power from your battery straight to the coil while still maintaining all the built in safety features this device has to offer.

The Reliant fires atomizers down to 0.06 ohm and has built in USB pass through charging. With it's bright and easy to ready display, the screen shows you all your vaping specs in real time so you know exactly what your Reliant is doing.

The Reliant's compact size and ergonomic shape give it a great hand feel and make it one of the most compact mods on the market!

 

[TheBloke]

I have contacted the UK site to ask for more details.

The mod appears to be available now - no mention of pre-order.

Very surprised this has appeared out of nowhere, nothing on YouTube, no samples sent out to anyone.

Looks good though! TCR adjustment with specific mention of SS, so it must be the full TCR range from 0.001 upwards. If it's accurate and provides a good vape, that'll be the third mod/chip after the DNA 200 and Dicodes mods to feature this. (Smok and SXK mods also feature TCR, but are less accurate and less reliable, and the Smok doesn't yet go down to SS.)

I wonder if it's their own chip or they have taken technology from others. They claim everything is developed in their Californian labs.

 

[Croak]

No mention of firmware upgrade capability. The lack of which is bothersome on a $100 mod these days, especially a $100 mod from a tyro board maker.

 

[TheBloke]

Yeah fair point.

Though it's currently $80 in the US and £60 in the UK - there's a "20% summer deal" on the US (code SUMMER20) and a "25% off everything over £50" in the UK (code SAVE25)

The have a tube mod on version four, the VTube 4.0, so I guess they've been around in general a while. Hadn't heard of them myself. The VTube has a number of reviews on YT which from a very quick glance seem largely favourable.

 

[gorman]

I was so very close to buying it on impulse... then I asked for size and TCR specifications on their Facebook page. And yeah, no firmware upgradability could be a minus (although... if TCR is already full specced there might not be that much of a need) and reviews... I'd like to see some independent reviews.

 

[Cotay]

Phil Busardo will love the fire button placement!

 

[TheBloke]

Yeah it does look a little odd

 

[TheBloke]

I think it might be OK though, I just imagined it with my hand, it's kind of like holding a lighter (remember those? ) to spark it. Well that's how I imagined it, reality may differ!

 

[TheBloke]

Edited the OP to add their full blurb.

@gorman - it does mention 'compact size', and in fact claim it's "one of the most compact on the market".

Them's fighting words!

What I really want to see is the screen. You can learn a lot from a screen.

 

[cigatron]

With adjustable tcr I not sure how important upgrading is to me. No spec on the tcr range of adjustability shown but it must go fairly low to claim ss compatibility. When the price hits around $50, I'm in. @f1vefour won one in a contest, I'll give him an invite here.

 

[TheBloke]

Yeah in terms of features, it's already feature-complete for most needs.

The issue is bugs - if it does things badly, we'd want FW upgrading.

Anyway it's not there, at least in this revision, so we'll need to see how it works in practice and what the accuracy is like. There's a lot that can go wrong in the little details - and the big ones.

That's great you won one, @f1vefour ! Do you have it yet, or if not any ETA on delivery?

 

[TheBloke]

Regarding bugs that can happen:

The DNA 40 was an (in)famous example - it had a huge bug in °C mode, where I believe turning off TC in °C mode resulted in it instead setting the temp to maximum for the next vape, potentially toasting your coil/wick.

Even the super expensive Dicodes 2380 has a problem with °F mode in early revisions, requiring a 30°F offset to desired temperature because someone forgot to include the +/- 32° offset in the C->F conversion! Oh, and in some revisions, you can't even go up in the temp menu in °F mode Proving that they didn't even bother switching to °F mode before putting them into production (Or I suppose, that they did but thought 'eh, who uses F?' )

It seems that US developers just don't test °C and EU developers just won't test °F

 

[cigatron]

And the Evic VT60 is way off on Ti temps....with no upgradeable feature....got it.

 

[f1vefour]

The TCR goes from 10 - 100 in single increments (10,11,12..etc). I don't have any TC capable wire yet so I can't comment on this aspect further. 69 is the recommended setting in the manual for nickel.

The device is about the same height as the Cool Fire 4 and only a few millimeters wider. Here is a screenshot next to the CF4:

 

[f1vefour]

@USMCotaku also has the device in hand and has several TC mods, he also has had it for about three weeks.

 

[TheBloke]

Wow, good TCR range. Wider than the Dicodes, which for some reason stops at 650. Smok XCube currently only goes down to 0.0015, and I think not as high as 0.01.

SXK does do 0.001 - 0.01, but not hugely accurate or smooth. Not sure the upper limit on the DNA 200.

Thanks @f1vefour !

 

[TheBloke]

Just a crazy thought.. it couldn't actually be the SXK chip? It certainly uses the same scale, including use of numbers of 10 to 100. And SXK have recently added a dedicated Titanium mode.

But SXK doesn't have a lock resistance.

For now we'll have to assume they're telling the truth and its in-house developed.

Would one of you mind showing a photo or two of the screen in operation?

 

[f1vefour]

USMCotaku has a brass SXK so he can compare the two, someone invite him in.

Here is a gallery of most functions, bad quality ensues..didn't want to use the flash.

 

[TheBloke]

Awesome, thanks! Nah I can't believe it's the SXK, it's too different - having a mech mode, showing the name of the mode in the bottom left. But it is heavily DNA 40 copied.

Though that mode name leads me to believe it must be possible to properly switch mode, rather the Evolv's horrible "turn temperature to OFF" system. Is there a shortcut combo for that, and/or a proper menu system (if so, let me guess: three or five presses on fire!)

It does amaze me that someone goes to all the trouble of making a new chip from scratch and feels like it has to look identical to everything else out there. Vape manufacturers are so conservative.

 

[f1vefour]

You can switch modes properly, you can leave the wattage up in temp mode for adjustment or the temp if you wish. It will fire in standard wattage mode if you're in temp control with a kanthal coil (very cool), it does automated battery sag test and adjust the wattage to a safe level (cool again), it shows what wattage you're getting in mech mode (lovely).

To get in the menu you simply click down and fire button.