Bad Vape Day Back on Analogs Need Advice

[TheJester]

Hi everyone, here's my little intro and then I could use some help/advice. Edit - Feel free to skip my intro, it's kinda long.

Introduction
I'm new to forums and recently got back in to e-cigarettes. I started out with what are now called 'cig-a-likes' back in 2009? It's funny how they used to cost 50$ and now they are toss aways at almost every gas station around. Those cigalikes consequently drew me away from vaping after my batteries died out. A friend recently pressured me in to trying it out again. Given that I have been a cigarette smoker for ~12 years now, I reviewed the kind of technology available now and said why not?

So I purchased a DNA20 box mod clone off of fast-tech and a big dripper atomizer. I really fell in love with vaping, and was down to one cigarette a day in a week(winter helped the transition). Its been fun making my own flavors and trying new builds. Something was missing from my vape experience though. So I tried upgraded my chipset to an authentic DNA40 from hyperion vape. Unfortunately I messed up placing the screen and it cracked so I was screenless. I sent Evolv a request for information on how to replace the screen and reccomended that they use a disconnect ribbon to make modding easier. Especially for people with disabilities. Also it would save them time in refurbishing chips. Interestingly the new big screen DNA 40 chip has the detachable ribbon! Not sure if that was because of me or not but I am really happy they did that because it might help someone else from experiencing what I did.

Anyways, I love the DNA40. No more dry hits! Which was a plus for me not knowing how/when to drip like a lot of people do. Then I realized maybe it was the "big dripper" and it's large chamber size. Side-note: for all those youtubers saying they can't do nickel builds on certain atomizers, I just don't buy it. If a new vaper can build many successful Ni builds on a big dripper I don't think any atomizer is off the table.

So I was screen-less but my DNA40 was working fine I knew it was 18 down button clicks to get to the setting I wanted. Then my down button stopped working... Then my 510 'adjustable' (yea right...) connector went to hell. Fast-forward, it was 25 days without analogs today. While trying to adjust my 510 connector with the live circuit I shorted two connections with a screw driver (never work with live circuits... ). now my DNA40 is toast, my box is pretty much garbage (down button and 510 are useless). I nearly cried trying to test the DNA40 board with my voltmeter before I gave up and I bought a pack of smokes.

What I learned is this. Don't put a nice chip in a crappy box with crappy components! Don't ever tinker with a live circuit (duh). Don't give up. So now time for some advice....

Advice
Being a broke college student(senior in chemistry woo!)I am now mod-less with a marquis dripper and some new flavors on the way. I need a new mod, I don't want to smoke analogs anymore. I could use some help in finding a well-built mod with a warranty. My budget is under 200$ as that's literally I all I have to my name right now.

Requirements -
18650 Battery compatable,
DNA40 chip,
WARRANTY (atleast 6 months or so)
< $200 USD

What are my options? So far the only device I have found is the vapor shark but that is dangerously close to leaving me penniless. Are there any other mods out there, or should I try to build my own again?

If I do build a mod, are there any USA based webstores that are close to "one shop stop's" so I don't have to smoke analogs for a month waiting for Shenzen to ship me some more low quality components?

 

[Sir2fyablyNutz]

Hang in there Jester, you CAN quit! I'm relatively new but I'd suggest looking in the "forum suppliers" section at the top of the screen. I've found many companies and have ordered different material from 4 different vendors this past week alone. For your budget you should be able to find a great MOD and overnight shipping. Also look at the "Coupons" or google for coupons if you find a vendor or product you like.

 

[Sir2fyablyNutz]

Forum Suppliers <--- has a large list, most of whom give forum members discounts!

 

[TheJester]

In return for advice I would like to offer/contribute some idea's I've had.

Filtering wire 'dust' from e-cig vapor
I have heard a lot of concern bordering on paranoia pertaining too nickel and/or "Kanthal" (iron chromium aluminum) being incorporated into the ecigarette aersol. Although I do not think there is a huge cause for concern for this even occurring except under red/orange/white hot coils it does seem like a possibility to me. Because I don't have access to a machine shop or really have a way to test this idea I want to offer it for the community to look in to. A neodymium or 'rare-earth magnet' could be used to collect any heavy metals being passed through it (in theory). Try it for yourself, take a magnet to your wire, yes, even Nickel is magnetic. So why not design a drip-tip with a neodymium magnet inside of it? See if over the course of a month there is any noticeable metallic residue.

Open source box-mod enclosure
I get kind of sick of seeing the hana mod design on basically every cloned box mod out there. Then again, I understand why. It's the only box mod enclosure that's readily available that doesn't require milling, unfortunately due to counterfiet. It's not even that great of an enclosure compared to what other people are doing now. I see people knocking down the idea of the PVA-40 and all sorts of other mods but when you really think about it, once you have the chip, buttons, and connector, the only thing that's really needed is a box of aluminum? Why is it that a box and a penny worth of solder should add 200-250$USD of value to a chip and some buttons? It shouldn't. So I would really love to see some open source mod enclosures become available for the community. People wouldn't be as afraid to try new chips out, or who knows maybe even make their own chip (with an nano-arduino or similar) if they didn't need to enlist a machinist to do so. Could bring the cost down to like 60$ with adjustable firm-ware, and the government could never ban 2nd or 3rd gen devices.

Flavor decomposition library
It would be very easy for someone with access to a GC/MS (gas chromatography mass spectrometer) to test the effects of an assortment of flavor compounds and their decomposition/aersol in several RDA settings(wide air-flow vs constricted, etc). To access whether any hazardous compounds are generated from vaping and at what temperatures/settings they come about. I would happily do this and put the results online for free, and might start when I get into graduate school. Why not?


Anyways those are just two of my crack-pot ideas I figured I would share with you all. I hope some brave soul actually read through all of this. I know it's not really in fashion to have a lot of text on a forum post, but maybe I'm more old-school. Or loud-mouthed.

 

[Susan~S]

There's only a handful of mods in the market that use evolv's DNA40 chip. All of them are around $200 or higher last time I looked.

Have you found this part of ECF yet? =>Modding Forum. Read all the "stickies". You will not be able to post over there until you get in your first 5 posts (and the server updates at :25 past the hour).

 

[Sir2fyablyNutz]

lol I love reading the forums to get more confused.... so this title caught my eye for a possible solution... http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...sion/614573-looking-brands-dna-40-mods-2.html

 

[TheJester]

Susan-S: I have not read through the forum yet thank you for the suggestion.

Sir2fyablyNutz: Thanks for the thread. I read through it just now and it appears that there is a mod almost in my price range I wasn't aware of, the XPV DNA-40.

I'm likely going to go with the vapor shark unless something nice shows up.

 

[Rat2chat2]

to ecf TheJester. Nice to meet you and so glad yiu are hre. Make sure you have several backups so you don't put yourself in this particular situation. Even if it is just a inexpensive little something from Fasttech. Hope you enjoy your new vapor shark. Have fun and I look forward to reading more about you.

 

[TheJester]

Thanks Rat2Chat2. I'm quickly realizing how important a back-up really is.

 

[BlkWolfMidnight]

Howdy,

If your married to a certain type of chipset then you'll be paying premium prices for it (Evolve DNA boards) but there is a whole world out there to explore. I run a Sigelei 100w and though it doesn't have nor does need a temperature control system it will sill do the trick without issues (is restraining my resentment for the Temperature control functionality).

There was a long time ago an argument about what's better Variable Voltage or Variable Wattage and Wattage won because in a simplistic sense wattage is heat when referring to scientific terms. The issues I have are 2 fold with the DNA-40 chipset.

To get temperature control you need to use a very specific wire type, this would indicate that some sort of electronic voltage control functionality is being used.
Pulse width voltage mods have been out for a while, to understand what temperature control is just look to your toaster oven, the mod essentially sets an upper and lower voltage and pulses between them. I don't find this efficient or even required in a mod when you can set the wattage and be done with it.

I know a lot of folks that love the DNA-40 will chime in more then likely with negative repose but the truth is a properly set up VV/VW mod will do just fine without the need of requiring specific type of wire and the board doing the work for you. I've vaped for 6 years now without the need of any additional electronics controlling anything beyond the wattage/voltage and for a long while I ran DV(direct Voltage) manual mods with great success.

Check out some of the new chipsets that are coming out, they are rock solid and the mods won't run you 200$ on up. If your half as abusive as I was during my college years to my mods then learning to use a mechanical mod may do you well as they are cheap to replace and take one heck of a beating before giving up. I do know that there are a lot of options out there that will work just fine, keep your book of possibilities open. I'm more then sure some folks here have lots of suggestions and first hand experience with a wide variety of mods that can offer real time feedback for you.

 

[v1k1ng1001]

I think a yihi chipset will serve you well and save you $100. You can get a really solid device like the Sigelei 100w plus mod for $80 or so at elev8vape...they're running 15% off for the next few days. Eciggity has the newer 50w Sigelei. The IPVs are worth a look, and the mini features yihi chip at 30w for around $60. Unless you absolutely need temperature control, I'd save some cash and go with a Sigelei or IPV. Otherwise vaporshark's DNA 40 offerings are probably going to provide the best value.

 

[Frenchfry1942]

Be prepared, don't let an excuse appear. That being said, I got two mods before I started, two toppers and extra coils. Also, several small bottles of juice. I didn't realize that cigs had ruined my taste, but I had that Candy Cane that gave me some flavor. I also made sure that the nic content was sufficient.

I left a mod on the roof of my car and, well, I was glad that I carried the spare system in the car. I don't think I would have made it through work.

Be prepared.

Getting the right mod, and a spare, is really about money. The money adds up. The IPV Mini will cover many bases, is rechargeable and will take near anything you want for a topper.

Good luck!

 

[TheJester]

blkwolfmidnight -
I definitely know what you are saying. My friend who got me into ecigarettes also thinks that the temp control is a bit of a gimmick. I am not the best at knowing when to drip or anything like that, so I really like having the temp control there. On my DNA20(clone) device I was only using 11watts so I'm not interested in big clouds or anything intense like that. I kept getting dry hits so I figured, what the heck, I could put a temp control chip in and see if it really is worth it. I really really liked. Is it worth 200$? In my opinion, barely, but for me it is. Once I would get a dry hit I had to replace my cotton(sometimes the entire coil), and even though that only takes 5 minutes, it's something I couldn't do while driving, or at school/work, etc. So that's 5 minutes of my life spent after a yucky experience, but I had to do that maybe 20 or so times. So time-wise, and experience-wise, for me, it is worth having. For someone who is a more seasoned vaper, then probably not. It was just nice because my cotton when I would vape dry would look brand new, whereas with my DNA20 my cotton would be dark orange and black. The taste of my juice went a lot further on a build as well. Like if I wanted to change juices it didn't mean I had to rewick my atomizer or anything, I just had to finish my dripper, then add more juice.

v1k1ng1001 - I think you have some really good points and thank you for the suggestions. I think what I will do is this. I'm going to order a vapor shark and be piss broke for a while. Once I save some money and edge near the 4 month warranty time I'll order a back-up without temp control. Just so I have two devices on hand, one will be my everyday, but if something goes wrong then I can take vaporshark up on their 25$ fixing fee and not be smoking ever again.

frenchfry1942 - Sorry to hear about your poor mod. I hadn't heard about the IPV mini until now so I am super glad I made this thread. It's basically everything I want in a mod but without temp control so I think I'll get one of those for my back up eventually. I am never going to use a cheap clone with bad buttons or a bad 510 again. The smallest button is integral to complete functionality and cutting corners on those things is part of the lesson I learned. You're so right about nic levels in juice. I started at 18mg and that was what got me off cigarettes, then I cooled myself down to 10mg juice and was comfortable there.

All-
I am pretty sold on the vapor shark now. I emailed their support to ask a few questions, really it was a trick to see if they had decent customer service. I got an email back with-in 24 hours. They actually don't use an Evolv charging board in their devices which I am pretty happy about and gives me a little more confidence in battery protection/preservation verses an authentic or cloned hana. So I will be broke but I won't be smoking, and honestly, that means more to me. The freedom ecigarettes gave me and how it actually showed me I could quit if I kept up with it, is pretty much priceless. I mean, for the past 12 or so years I've had to cater everything around smoking analogs, down to the women who would consider me a romantic interest, not to mention my health.

Thanks everyone I'll keep in touch. I like this forum!

 

[AustinTom]

In return for advice I would like to offer/contribute some idea's I've had.

Filtering wire 'dust' from e-cig vapor
I have heard a lot of concern bordering on paranoia pertaining too nickel and/or "Kanthal" (iron chromium aluminum) being incorporated into the ecigarette aersol. Although I do not think there is a huge cause for concern for this even occurring except under red/orange/white hot coils it does seem like a possibility to me. Because I don't have access to a machine shop or really have a way to test this idea I want to offer it for the community to look in to. A neodymium or 'rare-earth magnet' could be used to collect any heavy metals being passed through it (in theory). Try it for yourself, take a magnet to your wire, yes, even Nickel is magnetic. So why not design a drip-tip with a neodymium magnet inside of it? See if over the course of a month there is any noticeable metallic residue.

I don't think this would work at all. As you state this would only occur at very high temperature, be aware that all magnetic material have a Curie point or a known temperature at which they lose all magnetism. Iron is at about 1300f in a pure state and less otherwise. Nickel is about 660f in a pure state and other alloys vary around +/-100*. Both of those are very low on the color spectrum of heat applied. I'm not sure if nickel is even glowing at that temperature. Chromium and aluminum are not magnetic at all, hence why true stainless steel is not magnetic.

 

[Neukom720]

Hey man, totally get why you want the dna40 chip that temp control is nuts! How it doesn't burn the cotton when it goes dry makes me scratch my head lol but anyways, that protovaper xpv dna40 is sick and I will eventually be getting one I think so I can try out that ....! But here is another option I think you should try, there are a TON of coil build options out there and there are wick less coils you can rock on your dripper and then bam no more burnt cotton or rewicking in the middle of the day. So grab a mech clone for 20 bucks and I already know you got some 18650's and some kanthol and just go to town! Got nothing to loose and then attests you can hold onto that money for a lite longer and maybe the prices will come down and or you will be able to save more money and grab your DNA40 miracle worker lol. Hope that helped.
-Kyle

 

[BlkWolfMidnight]

blkwolfmidnight -
I definitely know what you are saying. My friend who got me into ecigarettes also thinks that the temp control is a bit of a gimmick. I am not the best at knowing when to drip or anything like that, so I really like having the temp control there. On my DNA20(clone) device I was only using 11watts so I'm not interested in big clouds or anything intense like that. I kept getting dry hits so I figured, what the heck, I could put a temp control chip in and see if it really is worth it. I really really liked. Is it worth 200$? In my opinion, barely, but for me it is. Once I would get a dry hit I had to replace my cotton(sometimes the entire coil), and even though that only takes 5 minutes, it's something I couldn't do while driving, or at school/work, etc. So that's 5 minutes of my life spent after a yucky experience, but I had to do that maybe 20 or so times. So time-wise, and experience-wise, for me, it is worth having. For someone who is a more seasoned vaper, then probably not. It was just nice because my cotton when I would vape dry would look brand new, whereas with my DNA20 my cotton would be dark orange and black. The taste of my juice went a lot further on a build as well. Like if I wanted to change juices it didn't mean I had to rewick my atomizer or anything, I just had to finish my dripper, then add more juice.

I'm not saying not to go for what you want, what I'm saying is that I've survived without it for a long while, with a little bit of work and some understanding of how it all works you'll get the same performance out of a VW mod as you would the DNA-40. As for not burning the cotton that only happens for 2 reasons.
Your mod is running too hot or your wicking is not proper (it is running dry).
Both of these issues temperature control won't save you from burning your wick if its dry or if you run it too hot you'll run in to the same issue. I've always been a person who wants to teach someone to use a hammer and nail before using an air nailer. The reason behind this is you'll be a lot more accurate with the air nailer in the long run and should it break then you can use standard tools to produce exceptional results. As mentioned it would seem like you've already got your mind made up on what you want so any amount of what I will say will not change that at all. As I mentioned should you need help then ECF is here and most of us have been around even before EVOLVE was a thought in someone's head as a company. Trust me and listen to the opinions posted and the ideas that are presented as we've been through this round and round it goes.

 

[sprki]

Another option: Vaporshark rDna 40w with temp control under 200 bucks. They also have the previous one for 100.

VaporShark

 

[TheJester]

I don't think this would work at all. As you state this would only occur at very high temperature, be aware that all magnetic material have a Curie point or a known temperature at which they lose all magnetism. Iron is at about 1300f in a pure state and less otherwise. Nickel is about 660f in a pure state and other alloys vary around +/-100*. Both of those are very low on the color spectrum of heat applied. I'm not sure if nickel is even glowing at that temperature. Chromium and aluminum are not magnetic at all, hence why true stainless steel is not magnetic.

AustinTom. Kanthal is an iron chromium aluminum alloy. The Kanthal wire I have is magnetic, along with the Ni-200. I used to have a spool of Nicrome somewere but it's lost to the void, so I didn't test that. But yes I tested them both with a neodymium magnet. Feel free to repeat the experiment. You are absolutley right, the coil itself will likely be above the curie temperature of the magnetic materials.

My questions to you become these (I don't know the answers but I have some assumptions)... Are the metal particulates in ecigarette vapor/aerosol above the curie temperature? I find it hard to believe that e-cigarette aerosol is above 1300f or even 600f considering I still have lungs, atleast in any statistically significant localized regions. I don't think if an IR thermometer could give a direct reading of this either unfortunately.

Keep in mind what happens to liquids phase changing to gasses when they expand (increase in entropy -> cooling). IE why canned air get's cold to the touch after a few sprays. Also that there is significant cooling occurring durring the inhalation process. That is partially why the exhale of an ecigarette feels cool to the touch without touching other physical concepts(evaporative cooling, newtons law, blah blah blah) . I've had hot spatter of 'boiling' eliquid splash me a few times and it was maybe, maybe, on par with boiling water. Notice how coils don't glow red when they are juiced? Heat transfer. Keep in mind also that a large composition of ecigarette 'vapor' is actually an aerosolized liquid. Drip tips typically have a ~1cm path of flight from the coil(s).

Secondly, if a non-temperature control device puts the particles above their curie temp (seems unlikely to me unless someone is really frying a coil), could a temperature control device keep the aerosol cool enough to be with-in the curie point and capture these particles. Something tells me though, that temperature control devices don't have much to worry about in regards to coil degredation, and most normal users of non-temperature control devices don't either.

I wouldn't say that the idea won't work, without entertaining more of the variables. It might drive someone to perform an experiment! Technically these particles are quite theoretical, and it may take many many uses before a quantity could be visible on a magnet, but to a spot test maybe not.

 

[TheJester]

Nuekom - I had no idea there were wickless builds?! I'm going to have to look into that. I'm kind of afraid of mech mods. I know it's pure ignorance, I have an understanding of electricity and magnetism and basic circuit theory, so battery explosions wouldn't be a real issue. Also I'm kind of a geek so having a screen that says my ohms and regulates my power consumption is nice. Granted I didn't have a screen after my poor installation.

BlkWolfMidnight - I appreciate what you're saying. Don't get me wrong I know how to use a variable wattage mod and did have good experiences with it, that's why I wanted to try and swap my chip to a DNA40 in the first place. My first vape was a dry hit (so I didn't know what a dry hit was). I soaked a cheap tesla RTA from fasttech and got a mouth of bad cotton and thought "wow that really sucked". I had to talk with my friend about it before I realized that wasn't the real vaping experience. So I ordered a big dripper and things got a little better.

I think the reason why I was burning a lot of wick was because I couldn't hone in on when to drip or not. Then again I was using a "big dripper" RDTA then. Then one day I got a really really really bad dry hit (off 11 watts) because my wick wasn't wet (I tried to drip but the tank must have been empty). That RDA was basically hit it until it goes dry, or constantly remove the top cap (risky). Which the reviewers won't say, actually did leak from time to time. Not "oh a leak", like "oh theres 3mL of juice pouring out the air inlet all over my mod and I'm driving a car" :/. So part of it may of been my dripper which is happily retired. When I was googling how to avoid dry hits, I saw the DNA40 hype and said, for $60 it was worth a try.

But no, you really can't burn wick or get a dry hit with a DNA40 unless the coil has hot-spots. Atleast I never experienced one after almost a month of using it. Unless someone decided to set the temperature setting above around 430*F, but that pretty much defeats the purpose anyways. So for me, dry hit's are a serious hindrance, maybe I have a post traumatic dry cotton disorder or something, but I really like the 'assurance' that I won't be getting them anymore.

For most people, or people who figured it out quicker than me(didn't use a big dripper as a first atty), it's probably stupid to want temperature control. For me, it just makes sense, and I'm not praising Evolv, I'd buy another chipset/device if it had that feature. Hopefully yihi get's theres out soon because I know they will end up in FAR more affordable products.

I'm definitely listening to you all though. I really appreciated all of the suggestions so far and the community. I think I used to have an account here back when cig-a-likes were 60$ from china. I'm really happy that all of you vapers and innovators came up with what vaping is today!

 

[TheJester]

Thanks for the reccomendation bonnie! I currently make my own but was thinking about doing a cost analysis on doing that verses purchasing from vapewild. Vapewild has ridiculously low prices and pretty solid reviews for 'basic' flavors. Honestly basic flavors have done me well enough for now. I appreciate the link.