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This is quite enlightening on the battery sag/cut-off issue and clears up some questions I have often wondered about.The Dicodes doesn't do it. It never varies the wattage from the set amount.
What it does do is let you set the minimum voltage at which it will stop firing - which is the voltage after battery sag. It then also displays on screen both the at-rest voltage and the after-sag voltage from the last vape. And it also has a mah counter, which if you reset it after changing batteries will show you the incrementing mah as you use the battery, and thus by the time of the low battery message is a total of what you got from that battery.
The minimum battery level range, in single battery mode, is 2.5V to 3.2V.
When the battery gets down to its lower levels of charge, it will sag a huge amount - up to 0.7v in my experience.
Therefore set to the minimum 2.5V, you will find your batteries are at about 3.2v when it says Low Battery and stops firing.
When I was getting the Dicodes I got excited thinking I could finally get more battery life out of my batteries - not understanding why all other mods stopped using them at 3.2v when I knew that 18650s were specified as safe taken down to 2.5v.
It was only after using it I realised how bad the sag was, and why all other mods stopped at 3.2v - because that's actually 2.5v after sag. So although the Dicodes lets me set a minimum, it still doesn't discharge my batteries any more than my other mods.
So it's only a benefit for those who want to lengthen the life of their batteries by never taking them, after sag, below 2.8v or whatever value. It doesn't give you more charge versus other mods which are already hardcoded to take them to 2.5v and no lower.
I keep it at the minimum because personally I'd rather go longer between charges and just buy replacement batteries now and then; they're not expensive. And I still haven't had to replace any, after 5 months of vaping on replaceable 18650s. Though I don't yet have an Analysing Charger which can tell me their resistance and total mah and stuff, so I don't know to what extent my older batteries are holding less charge.
I plan to get a charger like that eventually, probably the Opus BT-C2100 v2.2
I suppose I could use the Dicodes to monitor their mah, and keep a spreadsheet of results over time, but mehWhen I first got it I did record some readings from various batteries, just to see how much I got out of a 2500mah versus a 2200mah etc. It wasn't all that interesting. 2087 mah from a 2600mah battery, for example.
I received an email from Apollo today and it seems that they have a special this Labor Day weekend where the Apollo body is available for $69.99. I went to the site and the site showed $99.99 and so I asked "Josh" on their chat about this and he said that once the item is actually entered into the cart the price will change to this special. I guess I will have to get on this. Unfortunately i am already over my Sept vape budget... what to do. what to do,-- OOOH woe!
I believe it's a no brainer at $70, hell I've paid quite a bit more for a three post dripper...matter fact it's sitting on the Reliant
Be sure to drop by the Apollo contest thread and throw your name in the ring, all you need to do is post anything vape related. Next drawing is Monday and there aren't a whole lot of entries, less than 30 if I had to guess.
Be sure to drop by the Apollo contest thread and throw your name in the ring, all you need to do is post anything vape related. Next drawing is Monday and there aren't a whole lot of entries, less than 30 if I had to guess.
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Where is the address for that contest, please.?I believe it's a no brainer at $70, hell I've paid quite a bit more for a three post dripper...matter fact it's sitting on the Reliant
Be sure to drop by the Apollo contest thread and throw your name in the ring, all you need to do is post anything vape related. Next drawing is Monday and there aren't a whole lot of entries, less than 30 if I had to guess.
Go to the vendor section, and look for Apollo.....it will be there
Sent with one hand, the other is busy vaping
Sent with one hand, the other is busy vaping
Got affirmation from Apollo. The chip is made by sxk, but design was a combined effort. Apollo flew their engineer out to sxk to work on it.
Sent with one hand, the other is busy vaping
Sent with one hand, the other is busy vaping
Yes that was generous of @a_rey88 to divulge the information instead of copping out and saying it's a trade secret or some such nonsense.
They might as well state clearly where the two chips differ. I mean, if theirs is better, I feel it would be in their best interest to clearly explain where and how, wouldn't it be?
We know they've added mech mode, and provided a shortcut/menu for switching between VW, TC and the new Mech. That at least is a good addition - I hate how on the DNA 40, and thus its clones, you have to scroll through temperatures to OFF to go to VW, then re-set the temp afterwards to go back into TC.
Sounds like they've also improved the battery thing we've been discussing, given that Apollo specifically described it in their manual, and that it doesn't work like it does in the SXKs I have.
But it's hard to know for sure, because we only have older SXK mods to compare it against. Only by getting the latest SXK chip - as will be found in the upcoming SXK Mini Zero - can we see how far SXK had developed on their own versus how much Apollo added to that. I'll be trying to get an SXK Mini Zero at some point.
Mine's just arrived.
And I can immediately add another thing improved over the SXK. A big improvement, and one that that I am 99% sure that Apollo are responsible for. It's something I love:
This mod has finally moved away from the Evolv/DNA 40 - and also Yihi - system of having temperature buried in a menu, with only wattage (or joules) on screen, so that temperature is only changeable by multiple button presses, and in the Evolv case requiring locking and unlocking.
In the Apollo, the temperature is now on-screen at all times in TC mode, adjustable with simple up/down. That's great, but not new on its own: many newer TC mods do that. But those newer mods that have temp easily adjustable have mostly done it at the expense of wattage adjustment - they don't let you change wattage at all. (Correction, not the first as the Joyetech does it too.)
The Apollo still has both temp and wattage settings, but have put temperature as the easy up/down control, and then wattage (which is really only 'max wattage' in TC mode) in a menu.
Perfect! You get the easy temp control we've wanted for ages, but not at the expense of max wattage if you do want to be able to set that. Finally a mod that gets it right.
We can't be absolutely sure that this wasn't done by SXK on its own - at least we can't until we see an SXK Mini Zero in operation. But I will bet good money that this is an Apollo improvement.
And I can immediately add another thing improved over the SXK. A big improvement, and one that that I am 99% sure that Apollo are responsible for. It's something I love:
This mod has finally moved away from the Evolv/DNA 40 - and also Yihi - system of having temperature buried in a menu, with only wattage (or joules) on screen, so that temperature is only changeable by multiple button presses, and in the Evolv case requiring locking and unlocking.
In the Apollo, the temperature is now on-screen at all times in TC mode, adjustable with simple up/down. That's great, but not new on its own: many newer TC mods do that. But those newer mods that have temp easily adjustable have mostly done it at the expense of wattage adjustment - they don't let you change wattage at all. (Correction, not the first as the Joyetech does it too.)
The Apollo still has both temp and wattage settings, but have put temperature as the easy up/down control, and then wattage (which is really only 'max wattage' in TC mode) in a menu.
Perfect! You get the easy temp control we've wanted for ages, but not at the expense of max wattage if you do want to be able to set that. Finally a mod that gets it right.
We can't be absolutely sure that this wasn't done by SXK on its own - at least we can't until we see an SXK Mini Zero in operation. But I will bet good money that this is an Apollo improvement.
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Another thing I really like: no flashing "Temperature Protection" message, blocking out the screen. Instead, the addition of the letters "TP" in the gap in the middle. Very smart, again the best of both worlds.
I'm starting to like Apollo's engineering! Their partnership with SXK is a really good idea - take an existing, innovative, but fairly crude product, and add the little tweaks and improvements that we vapers know are needed but the Chinese non-vaping engineers often don't realise. (Though often nor do the US vaping engineers, for that matter!)
On the more negative: TCR scale is still wrong. I need 40 for Titanium, not 35. The default is 70 for Ni200 where 60 is more accurate.
The SXKs have always been like that, and originally I figured it was because of their chronic low resistance. But this doesn't have a low resistance problem, but still has the offset TCR gauge.
It's not the end of the world, because one can always find the right setting, but it's strange and a silly mistake. I was only able to 100% confirm the right Titanium setting on the SXK with proper temperature testing, something that most people can't do. And the offsets are varying, eg Titanium is +5 (40 not 35), but Ni200 is +10 (70 not 60).
I will do proper temp testing of the Apollo to give a range of figures for different wires.
I'm starting to like Apollo's engineering! Their partnership with SXK is a really good idea - take an existing, innovative, but fairly crude product, and add the little tweaks and improvements that we vapers know are needed but the Chinese non-vaping engineers often don't realise. (Though often nor do the US vaping engineers, for that matter!)
On the more negative: TCR scale is still wrong. I need 40 for Titanium, not 35. The default is 70 for Ni200 where 60 is more accurate.
The SXKs have always been like that, and originally I figured it was because of their chronic low resistance. But this doesn't have a low resistance problem, but still has the offset TCR gauge.
It's not the end of the world, because one can always find the right setting, but it's strange and a silly mistake. I was only able to 100% confirm the right Titanium setting on the SXK with proper temperature testing, something that most people can't do. And the offsets are varying, eg Titanium is +5 (40 not 35), but Ni200 is +10 (70 not 60).
I will do proper temp testing of the Apollo to give a range of figures for different wires.
Hmm, how is the fire button for you guys? Mine is not good at all. Almost no travel at all, and it's now jammed about three times. Fortunately it doesn't auto-fire, it jams in a way that doesn't fire. But that makes it impossible to press until I wiggle it.
When I first got the mod out I tried to go to the TCR menu immediately. It took me about a minute to manage to press +, - and fire at the same time, because the fire button was never registering. I kept getting POWER LOCKED instead. I got it working eventually by holding fire with my nail, then pressing up+down. But now I'm vaping on it I'm regularly finding presses are not recognised.
Probably just a fault in mine? Hopefully it will loosen up. Have any of you noticed anything similar?
When I first got the mod out I tried to go to the TCR menu immediately. It took me about a minute to manage to press +, - and fire at the same time, because the fire button was never registering. I kept getting POWER LOCKED instead. I got it working eventually by holding fire with my nail, then pressing up+down. But now I'm vaping on it I'm regularly finding presses are not recognised.
Probably just a fault in mine? Hopefully it will loosen up. Have any of you noticed anything similar?
Yeah at the moment I'm only able to press fire about half the time. It generally always works if I make sure to use my nail or the end of my finger, but just using the mod normally it's 50/50 whether it presses.
Annoying - hopefully it will loosen up. If need be I'll take it apart, but would rather not do that on day 1 if it's avoidable.
EDIT: 15 minutes in and it's a lot better now, so it is loosening up.
Annoying - hopefully it will loosen up. If need be I'll take it apart, but would rather not do that on day 1 if it's avoidable.
EDIT: 15 minutes in and it's a lot better now, so it is loosening up.
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My button works quite smooth. It's very short throw, but zero issues.
Sent with one hand, the other is busy vaping
Mine has a short throw but hasn't given me any issues, fires every time and has been smooth from the first press.
Perhaps yours has a bit of dust in it, it looks to have tight tolerances so that could make it act up.
Perhaps yours has a bit of dust in it, it looks to have tight tolerances so that could make it act up.
I'm glad we will see the numbers and accuracy finally
I've been so busy I haven't had time to get any wire, all my free time goes on my other hobbies currently. I really want SS to work correctly as this is the wire I'm most interested in.
I've been so busy I haven't had time to get any wire, all my free time goes on my other hobbies currently. I really want SS to work correctly as this is the wire I'm most interested in.
I'm too selfish to recommend you send it back "immediately". I want you to run it through the paces first so we can hear the performance reviews. Then you should send it back for a free replacement... imo.
I think it was already free, open it up and see what's up with the button and take some internal pics
For those who have one in hand -- is the button clicky or does it have a soft press? (Apologies if this was addressed earlier in the thread, but I didn't see it). Also, how easy/difficult is it to remove the battery door? I assume it's a screw on plug on the base - correct?
Have one in my cart. Still thinking about it. The 30% off makes for an attractive price.....
Have one in my cart. Still thinking about it. The 30% off makes for an attractive price.....
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