DNA 40 Clone Discussion

[Croak]

The Kangxin VF clone doesn't ship with batteries. SInce Sony has discontinued the VTC series and it's a crapshoot on authenticity these days, the Samsung 25r and LG HE2 or HE4 are good choices, with 20a continuous and 35a pulse.

So far, there's been no reports of anyone getting bogus LG or Samsung batteries. Illumination Supply is a good source if you're worried about authenticity, do a Google search for coupon codes, they often have 5% off.

MXJO 2500mAh and Efest 2500mAh purples are usually higher priced, lower-quality LG HE2s underneath that wrapper, so I don't recommend those to anyone unless it's all your local B&M has and you absolutely must have a battery now.

Anyway, the VF clone shouldn't see over a 20a load (actually, 18a, and that's still basically a pulse load, mind you) unless the batteries are very drained, and if they copied Evolv's battery safety features, even that won't happen as it'll just keep reducing wattage as the battery gets lower and lower, and as a consequence, the amps drop too.

 

[aldenf]

Are button tops really necessary?


Because they're run in parallel, a pair of 10A batteries is more than sufficient for 40W.

Although flat top, Panny's NCR18650PF @ 2900mAh would be a good choice for battery life. Just make sure you run them in pairs.

Many will simply recommend LG's HE2 or HE4 & Samsung's 25r.


Good luck!

 

[tchavei]

With counterfeits all over the place it's hard to know what to get.

When I "restarted" this "hobby", I ordered two AW batteries from reputable European vendors. They cost me more than twice as much as an efest for example. Imagine my face when a few months later I realized they were fake. Both of them!

Right now I only have one VTC4 (genuine, supplied with an evic supreme) and have two original samsung 25R on my way. I used to use 18350 exclusively and the best were definitely the Torchy ones (UK supplier that hand picks individually tested batteries and sells them).

Only one advice: more mah doesn't mean more power or even time in the batteries we use. Sometimes less is more. Focus on discharge capacity and even then, try to find discharge charts/graphs.

Example (real life, happened to me):

Battery #1: 700mah, 100 puffs at 13W before "low battery warning" rated at 7C

Battery #2: 850mah, 60 puffs at 13W before "low battery warning" rated at 7C

Now, how the hell is that possible? Simple. Battery #2 has a peculiar discharge curve. It loses voltage rather quickly until it hits 3.5V where it remains for almost half it's charge until it drops rather quickly to 3.2. Discharge curve of battery #1 is almost linear.

Both batteries were used in a mod that starts cutting out at 3.5V... Obviously battery #2 potential is lost because the mod will flash low battery warning when the battery has still almost half the charge!

I repeated the same experiment in a another mod that only cuts out at 3.2V and behold, battery #2 outperformed battery #1 by a good margin.

Sometimes everything is in the details


Regards
Tony

Sent from my keyboard through my phone or something like that.

 

[MattB101]

Looks nice although not my cup of tea. Your hands certainly are big because that mod is at least 100mm tall

Nice review. Thank you for your time.

Regards
Tony

Sent from my keyboard through my phone or something like that.

I like it but I'm saving my money for a SX Mini when the TC version comes out. Really nice mod and I like YiHi chips.

Sent while laying around watching the boob tube.

 

[BlueridgeDog]

It appears there is a 50w clone chip out there and the display looks like a large screen one:

Arctic Dolphin ADT 50 Watt Box Mod Variable Wattage Temp Control DNA40 DNA50 | eBay

 

[Crunchy2k]

With counterfeits all over the place it's hard to know what to get.

When I "restarted" this "hobby", I ordered two AW batteries from reputable European vendors. They cost me more than twice as much as an efest for example. Imagine my face when a few months later I realized they were fake. Both of them!

Right now I only have one VTC4 (genuine, supplied with an evic supreme) and have two original samsung 25R on my way. I used to use 18350 exclusively and the best were definitely the Torchy ones (UK supplier that hand picks individually tested batteries and sells them).

Only one advice: more mah doesn't mean more power or even time in the batteries we use. Sometimes less is more. Focus on discharge capacity and even then, try to find discharge charts/graphs.

Example (real life, happened to me):

Battery #1: 700mah, 100 puffs at 13W before "low battery warning" rated at 7C

Battery #2: 850mah, 60 puffs at 13W before "low battery warning" rated at 7C

Now, how the hell is that possible? Simple. Battery #2 has a peculiar discharge curve. It loses voltage rather quickly until it hits 3.5V where it remains for almost half it's charge until it drops rather quickly to 3.2. Discharge curve of battery #1 is almost linear.

Both batteries were used in a mod that starts cutting out at 3.5V... Obviously battery #2 potential is lost because the mod will flash low battery warning when the battery has still almost half the charge!

I repeated the same experiment in a another mod that only cuts out at 3.2V and behold, battery #2 outperformed battery #1 by a good margin.

Sometimes everything is in the details


Regards
Tony

Sent from my keyboard through my phone or something like that.

Toney...evolve only missed doing the normal qa on their concept of temp control. The clone boards have mised the evolv board's problems....What can us January Xangxin clone buyers expect. Like none of the xd40 chips have shown the Evolv DNA40 chip problems.

Boring archeology discovers the bard is golden.

 

[BlueridgeDog]

Toney...evolve only missed doing the normal qa on their concept of temp control. The clone boards have mised the evolv board's problems....What can us January Xangxin clone buyers expect. Like none of the xd40 chips have shown the Evolv DNA40 chip problems.

Evolv has stated that they "rushed" the chip out due to a desire to stem regulatory pressure. Having used each chip, I think the DNA 40 has a better TP algorithm and better resistance calculations.

 

[Croak]

It appears there is a 50w clone chip out there and the display looks like a large screen one:

Arctic Dolphin ADT 50 Watt Box Mod Variable Wattage Temp Control DNA40 DNA50 | eBay

Looks like that one is what happened to the rDNA40 clone that wasn't ready for prime-time before CNY. Kudos on jazzing the housing up a bit (not that I like it, but at least it's not a total copy of the rDNA). That extra 10 watts will be a welcome addition to a lot of folks too.

EDIT: Yep, can still get it in the cloned rDNA housing:

2015 Arctic Dolphin Authorized Original Newest Products Adt 100 Watt / Adt 120 Watt /adt 50 Watt Mod - Buy Adt 100 Watt,Adt 50 Watt Mod,Adt 120 Watt Product on Alibaba.com

 

[BlueridgeDog]

Crunchy2k: I am not certain what you are trying to talk about, but this thread is for discussion of the new TP boards coming out. Please stay on subject.

 

[tchavei]

So I stay one morning away and all hell breaks loose and I missed it? Oh well...

Toney...evolve only missed doing the normal qa on their concept of temp control. The clone boards have mised the evolv board's problems....What can us January Xangxin clone buyers expect. Like none of the xd40 chips have shown the Evolv DNA40 chip problems.

Boring archeology discovers the bard is golden.

That has nothing to do with the battery experiment I did... I think?

My new box is still unaccounted for. The new dna 40 board is resting in a dark cool room right now waiting for transplant

Regards
Tony

 

[aldenf]

Has anyone gotten to play with just a clone board like this:

$30.55 $35.36 - DNA 40 Style 40W Box Mod Chip with Temperature Control - Cigabuy


Any idea who the manufacturer is?

 

[Technonut]

Has anyone gotten to play with just a clone board like this:

$30.55 $35.36 - DNA 40 Style 40W Box Mod Chip with Temperature Control - Cigabuy


Any idea who the manufacturer is?

No idea, but the review certainly doesn't look good..

bought this chip because i thought it would be a cheap alternative to the original!
i owen an original dna40 board, and 2 clones from an other company so i think that i know how it should work!

i did put the chip in a hana mod enclosure and started to try it. with kanthal it is working "normally" wattage up and down! but if you put on a ni200 wire the temperature control doesn't work! it will always say temperature control and you cannot vape!

what's also a little bit curious the chip never wants to know if there is a new coil! i put in 0,1 ohms up to 0,2 ohms coils and it always stays in temperature control! it cuts off the whole time! so if you are looking for a 40 watt chip, this works but the temperature control doesn't work at all!!!!

i did put the price to only one star, because i did buy a chip with temperature co ntrol, but it is not working! the photo which you see from customer images is a different chip, because there are no buttons on board!
i hope that they will update the chip, or i only have got a bad one, i do not know!...

 

[BlueridgeDog]

Has anyone gotten to play with just a clone board like this:

I have looked at it, but honestly at that price, you can just add a bit and get a mod made up with one. Also at that price you are getting close to the price of an Evolv product. I have ten Evolv boards in the mail so I am not interested in modding with clone chips, but am more interested in the pre-made mods. If that makes sense.

 

[JD4x4]

FWIW, I got a HANA style clone from here because it was in stock in the US. The pics are accurate for the inside construction and buttons but the led is below the usb port rather than to the side, and it came with a small amount of Ni200 wire, screwdriver, and a charge cable that looks like the pics here, so I'm guessing it's a SmoCare device. Everything including the booklet on the SmoCare site looks like what I got.

In any event, it's nicely put together inside, and I'm very happy with the chip & operation. I don't care for the small fire button and the 510 connector is a bit wobbly with my kayfun on it but the temp control works well. I did a "ballpark" temp test with a completely dry cotton wick, holding the fire button for roughly 45 seconds and at 380F it only showed a little cotton discoloration, at 410F it got very dark brown but not actually charred. I thought that was pretty close for a totally dry wick, but I'm no expert.

I bought it to try TC until I find a housing I'm happy with for my genuine DNA40 board and am happy with it so far.

EDIT- I just noticed that very quickly right after mine starts up with Hello", it flashes "SmoCare" on the display. And, the link I posted for them is no longer good. It seems that they have stopped making the HANA style in favor of the flask style shown here.

 

[BlueridgeDog]

Thanks JD4x4...not a bad box for the price. You can easily put on a better 510 and a bigger button.

 

[Duffloop]

the Cigabuy chip arrived today. About to wire it up (no doubt to discover no temp control ;-)

Was about to desolder the in and Out wires cos it looked they've shorted them - tested with meter and no short, hmmm - on closer inspection there's a capacitor between em!

DNA 40 Clone by Duffloop, on Flickr

 

[retird]

the Cigabuy chip arrived today. About to wire it up (no doubt to discover no temp control ;-)

Was about to desolder the in and Out wires cos it looked they've shorted them - tested with meter and no short, hmmm - on closer inspection there's a capacitor between em!

DNA 40 Clone by Duffloop, on Flickr

Capacitor or fuse????

 

[HolmanGT]

the Cigabuy chip arrived today. About to wire it up (no doubt to discover no temp control ;-)

Was about to desolder the in and Out wires cos it looked they've shorted them - tested with meter and no short, hmmm - on closer inspection there's a capacitor between em!

DNA 40 Clone by Duffloop, on Flickr

Duffloop,

While it measured OK I would still be nervous about what looks like a solder bridge under the capacitor that bridges the output terminals.

I would take a small pin or exacto knife and try and remove that little solder splash that goes up the side of the inside terminal. With a razor blade or exacto knife you may be able to easily trim the splash so you don't have to worry about it causing problems down the road.

Just be careful not to put any force on the "surface mount capacitor" that is bridging the output terminals they can be kind of fragile.

 

[tchavei]

That looks horrible... I mean, who puts a "floating" smd capacitor on two drops of solder joints?

Is that capacitor really needed?

Regards
Tony

Sent from my keyboard through my phone or something like that.

 

[Duffloop]

Capacitor or fuse????

looks like a 22uF 16V Capacitor