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

[gorman]

Great, TheBloke, sorry if I wasn't clearer. And I agree that we couldn't care less about the frequency of measurement, it's the power curve we are interested in (didn't ever get any "rattlesnaking" so far, in any case) and the temperature accuracy.

Wanted to point out something that happened to me yesterday. The mod appeared to be incapable of firing the atomizer, from time to time. At first I dreaded a problem with the fire button but then, looking at the screen, I saw it fired but applied something like 0.1W. Turned out one of the posts in the atomizer got loose and that's what the Reliant was doing with that situation. I never got any error message, nor I think I was ever placed in a dangerous situation (0.1W it's like... irrelevant I suppose), but I thought about sharing this in case anyone else finds him/herself in the same situation, wondering what the hell is happening.

 

[TheBloke]

Yeah, what had happened was your resistance shot up - the loose post was causing a very weak connection for the coil, so where your resistance had been, let's say, 0.30Ω, it was now 1.0Ω or something.

A TC mod associates higher resistance with temperature. Therefore the mod thought your coil was now at a high temperature. Therefore it applied as little power to it as it could, because it thought it was already at (or way over) the target temperature.

What was the temperature reading at the time, do you recall? Sometimes when that happens, at least on other mods, you might see it say the temperature is 600°C or so!

Resistance is everything for TC mods.

Oh, and as we're mentioning fire buttons - @f1vefour it's a lot better, most of the time it's completely fine. Occasionally I grab it from a different angle and it doesn't fire. It happened the other day when I was temp monitoring it, so I had the mod on the desk, reaching down over it from above, and trying to press three buttons at once to change the TCR. That was harder and less reliable than it should be. But in normal usage I don't notice any problems any more.

 

[KenD]

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 meh When 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.

About the Opus; it's great, but not that accurate for measuring internal resistance. I believe that much more accurate and specialised (and expensive!) gear, with more solid connections to the battery, is needed for proper ir measuring. Still, that particular feature will let you compare batteries and check when they're starting to go bad, though in a limited capacity.

Sent from my C6903 using Tapatalk

 

[TheBloke]

About the Opus; it's great, but not that accurate for measuring internal resistance. I believe that much more accurate and specialised (and expensive!) gear, with more solid connections to the battery, is needed for proper ir measuring. Still, that particular feature will let you compare batteries and check when they're starting to go bad, though in a limited capacity.

Sent from my C6903 using Tapatalk

Ah great, thanks! So you have one? Do you find its extra features useful, like discharging/recharging cycle to check actual capacity etc?

I just have the single 4 bay Lucv4 at the moment, which I'm pretty happy with. I very much like that it can do 4x1A or 2x1A if I'm in a rush. I bought it on a whim and in a rush in a B+M as my first charger, after I'd received my first replaceable 18650 mod and didn't have a charger for it. Only later found out it was relatively rare to be able to do 4x1A, so I was pleased.

I thought I would soon reach a point where one charger might not be enough. It hasn't yet happened, though it's always possible - every now and then I get a bottleneck where three mods all run out at the same time. It's not like it's ruining my life or anything But another charger will probably become more useful as I get yet more mods, and if I'm going to get another I'd like it to be an analyser, just to see what it can show me.

 

[KenD]

Ah great, thanks! So you have one? Do you find its extra features useful, like discharging/recharging cycle to check actual capacity etc?

I just have the single 4 bay Lucv4 at the moment, which I'm pretty happy with. I very much like that it can do 4x1A or 2x1A if I'm in a rush. I bought it on a whim and in a rush in a B+M as my first charger, after I'd received my first replaceable 18650 mod and didn't have a charger for it. Only later found out it was relatively rare to be able to do 4x1A, so I was pleased.

I thought I would soon reach a point where one charger might not be enough. It hasn't yet happened, though it's always possible - every now and then I get a bottleneck where three mods all run out at the same time. It's not like it's ruining my life or anything But another charger will probably become more useful as I get yet more mods, and if I'm going to get another I'd like it to be an analyser, just to see what it can show me.

I have a v2.1. I do really like it, and the features are helpful, though I haven't used them much since the honeymoon period Definitely a good idea to have spare chargers! I have a Nitecore i2 as well, which I don't use due to it being too slow, and recently bought an xtar vc4 that I try to use as my primary charger. The Opus pulse charges, which apparently isn't as good for batteries as the way other charges do it. I don't understand any of that, just what I've read

Sent from my C6903 using Tapatalk

 

[f1vefour]

I have the Efest Bio v2, I love it because it can do 2A charging and I'm impatient

I have been eyeballing the Efest LUC Blu6 for an upgrade.

 

[cigatron]

I have been eyeballing the Efest LUC Blu6 for an upgrade.

Efest? Just make sure you divide the claimed amperage in half for real life spec.....just kidding....couldn't resist.

 

[f1vefour]

They make awesome chargers, batteries...not so much

 

[TheBloke]

Yeah my two "3100mah" EFest are by far my worst batteries. They sag by up to 1.0v when they get down to ~ 3.5v. Well I say two, I only have one left - the other I hard shorted, the only battery I've ever done that with. Can't blame the battery for that, but I can be glad it was that battery I shorted and not any of my Sonys or Samsungs

My EFest Luc v4 charger on the other hand is awesome 4 x 1A / 2 x 2A is still pretty rare, and very useful. And yes those rates have been tested (not by me!)

 

[TheBloke]

Speaking of batteries, my recent big run of new mods has left me one battery short of full occupancy, and that's before I get two new Smok Koopors in the coming week.

So I bought 6 of a new battery i'd not heard of before: LG DB 18650 HG2 INR 3000mAh 20A 35A HIGH DRAIN Li-Mn IMR.

Same amperage as the 25Rs but a bit higher capacity. Don't think much of the colour though

 

[f1vefour]

The LUC V4 is 4 x 1A/ 2 x 2A

 

[TheBloke]

Thanks - typo

 

[AlaskaVaper]

Speaking of batteries, my recent big run of new mods has left me one battery short of full occupancy, and that's before I get two new Smok Koopors in the coming week.

So I bought 6 of a new battery i'd not heard of before: LG DB 18650 HG2 INR 3000mAh 20A 35A HIGH DRAIN Li-Mn IMR.

Same amperage as the 25Rs but a bit higher capacity. Don't think much of the colour though

Bright yellow right? Or maybe not. I just got 8 LG HE 4's for $37, just could not resist them at the price. I am running 2 in a series box and put one in the mini Koopor and they seem good so far. These are bright yellow.

 

[TheBloke]

Bright yellow right? Or maybe not. I just got 8 LG HE 4's for $37, just could not resist them at the price. I am running 2 in a series box and put one in the mini Koopor and they seem good so far. These are bright yellow.

No, yellow would be fine!

 

[Croak]

Could be worse:

18650 Battery PVC Wrap Lavender Pink (Pre-cut, 10 Pieces)

 

[TheBloke]

I don't know. I think I prefer pretty in pink to poo brown

 

[Croak]

Well, for about a quid you can pick up a pack of wraps in colors more pleasing to your eye. I don't mind the brown myself, doesn't remind me of poo, reminds me of my military days. Easier on my eyes than Sony "Fukishima" green or Samsung "UN" blue.

 

[BigEgo]

Could be worse:

18650 Battery PVC Wrap Lavender Pink (Pre-cut, 10 Pieces)

That's the color of the Samsung 30Q.

 

[AlaskaVaper]

No, yellow would be fine!

Yes, I have seen these and wondered what they were.

 

[GeorgeS]

No, yellow would be fine!

When I switched to dual battery mods I got some of these. I like LG. I like 3000mAh even better.

There are plenty of graphs and test reports elsewhere on ECF so won't venture off topic here.