That does look the slightest bit off, but can't tell if I'm seeing it or it's the photo angle. I haven't ripped one of these apart, but I can't imagine how it could be misaligned.I suddenly realize those stools might be the reason why my pico's body is so slanted. At first i thought the topcover was dented, then i thought the 510 pin of my tank had bended, but after a close look i found out it was the body itself. Probably cut out when seated on a saggy stool:
Eleaf iStick "pico"
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The side with the logo is appr. 5.6 cm and the other side is little over 5.7 cm, small miracle they managed to assemble it.
That... would have driven me mad. Mine came with a crooked screen and even *that* bothered me enough to pry my Pico open to fix it lol. Condolences, sir.
That said, even having opened it up, I still have ZERO idea how that could happen. Maybe the body itself was cut at an angle? More possibly it's the screw holes being out of whack though.
I'm surprised it passed QC. It should have failed and been rejected. Then again, eleaf was never known for their quality.
Yes it's the body (the cylinder-wrap) that's cut in an angle. Doesn't really bother me, since the chrome finishing of the caps and fire-button also seem to already wear off. I'll order a silicone cover and pretend i have a mint one ;-)
But even knowing that, I'll have to say that - when assembled right - the Pico is one spiffy looking piece of kit.
Funnily enough, if you look at it against the rest of the iStick family, it seems to have a *slightly* different design language then the rest... even the newer ones like the 100WTC and the iStick Nano.
Maybe it's just dat battery cap and bottom controls lol.
I guess that's the price we pay for using budget-mods. On the other hand, mods like these last me 6 months max, so being cheap is an advantage. But, to be honest my iStick tc60 seems indestructible after 6 months of intensive use, contrary to 2 Evic vtc's i managed to ruin during that same period.
I have to agree. I'm quite happy with the look and feel. However, I do find that my Plato feels like a more solid unit than the Pico. It is larger, but I have large hands and don't mind that. And while I like the tiny Pico, I did just order a Coolfire4 with the 18650 battery to have something that could hold a larger tank than the ~22 mm for the Pico. That, and it's the first Coolfire in a long time to offer a replaceable battery. With the current uncertainty in vaping, and hoping for a little longevity out of the stuff I'm getting, I don't want to buy anything with a built in battery.
Here is the Pico compared to the Plato for comparison
You're scaring me. I just passed along my TC60 to me dad and got a new VTC Mini to replace it (as it's got similar firing specs and capabilities as my Pico).
Granted, my VTC Mini is my backup (the Pico is my daily driver)... so hopefully it lasts longer than that lol.
On the upside, my dad probably won't have any issues with the TC60 dying on him (which means I don't have to worry about getting new stuff for him for a while).
Also, I do feel the Pico is slightly better put together than the VTC Mini, probably due to the fact that the 510 feels more robust and the battery tube is solid milled aluminium (vs the plastic battery sled + magnetic cover on the VTC). Heck, my Pico's already survived some drops I would rather not have with the VTC lol.
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I would love to hear more about the iStick 60 and why you like it. It seems like a good value, yet I never hear much about it. The Evic VTCs, I hear good things about all the time, so I'd like to know more about how easily they were ruined as well. Until the Deeming Regs came about, I only used iSticks with the internal batteries, so I am trying to learn more about mods with the external batteries and want ones that are rugged and hard to ruin.
Thanks in advance.
J.W.
JoyeTech, Eleaf, Wismec, all part of iSmoka. Here you can see them in action, crappy stools if you ask me:
We've been going with JT on top of Wismec and Eleaf/iSmoka, but I'm open to being corrected.
Then again... this is "Capitalism in China", so using Western terms like "corporate umbrella" and "wholly owned subsidiary" may not be entirely appropriate.
Don't worry too much, the Pico feels quite solid, the evic however has a weak 510-connector, just be careful with it. The istick 60 feels rocksolid, and they're dirtcheap, so you can always get another one for the price of two packs of cigs, might you be a former smoker.
Like many, I've moved past the workaround of running SS in Ti mode, so the 60TC (and my 40TC) is no longer a viable new purchase. YMMV.
The smaller isticks have no replaceable batteries, they die after a while; iStick 50 had some problems with the firebutton getting stuck; the 100 never became very popular, not sure why not, it's a decent mod; the istick 60 is rocksolid, dropped it many times, did have to polish the display recently because it was very scratched, but... the tc60 never got and never will get any FW-update, so no TC for SS. The battery covers however just won't scratch, no matter how hard you try. It has a depth of 28mm if i'm correct, you can put huge tanks on it. And the 510 connector is right in the middle/center, combined with its oval shape it gives me a nice grip/ergonomics.
The VTC is the most popular budget-mod out there: TC for all wires; FW upgrades; Flappy Bird compatible; nice clean look; decent chip with precise TCR handling; ...enter more pro's here.... But the 510 connector failed twice on me, notice that not everybody has problems with it, could be some crappy batches.
So far people are very positive about the Pico, it does feel quite solid, and it's very very small, nice looks with a small tank. Same chip as the Evic i think, so you can't go wrong with it. It's not been on the market that long, i can't tell how it will hold, especially the moving parts, buttons, mechanics, but so far it looks promising. I can live with my slanted Pico, the only thing i'm worried about is the top and bottom covers look like the chrome wears off, not sure yet. I thought it was supposed to be SS, but it doesn't look like it.
So your VTC failed there (the 510)... hmm.
Having sifted through all the information I've encountered regarding VTC failures, I came to the conclusion that for the VTC in particular, the main failure points would be either the 510 or the microUSB.
Being units from the same "stable", I'd expect our Pico to have similar weaknesses.
As I charge my batteries externally (and use the mUSB only for emergencies/firmware upgrades), all that's left is to be careful of the 510, I guess. The less tank changes, the better, and as my Pico is practically married to my Baby Cado, I plan to pair the VTC up with a VeloClone V2 and be done with it.
That said, having gone through a whole bunch of VTC minis while choosing mine (they were on open box clearance, so I could practically choose whichever), I did notice some of the other units having awfully misaligned 510 pins (even to the point of not being "flat" and coming up at an angle).
Maybe it's these types of pins that are causing the VTC 510s (and also the ones on Cuboids and RX200s) to fail so easily when overtightened. Maybe.
As for the Pico top/bottom caps, they seem to be made out of brushed zinc alloy of some sort, and rather than the "chrome" peeling off, I think the finish is actually just "patina"-ing and turning dull-whitish.
Apologies for the long post though. It's 6am here where I am and I haven't actually slept yet lol. So yeah, long stream of disorganised information.
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Yes, not overtightening your tank and making sure the pin of the tank isn't too long helps. Also when refilling my bottom-fill STM, i leave the base on the mod. Some people opened their wobbly VTC and glued the 510 connector from the inside, or put an extra o-ring between the tank and the mod to stabilize it. But if your VTC isn't wobbly and you handle it gently i'm sure you'll be OK. After using my 3rd VTC for 3 weeks and making sure it worked ok and wasn't wobbly, i put it back in the box and added it to my vapocalypse collection, for future use.
The top/bottom caps of my Pico aren't turning whitish, more coppery as if the chrome layer wears off and brass begins to shine through. I tried cleaning it but no success. I'm considering to file it off to see if it's really massive SS, but then if it's not i pretty much screwed the mod. Not sure yet. Maybe try a hard green sponge first.
I no longer have the .1 problem either. And yeah you loose showing voltage in wattage mode but at least the battery readout looks better.
I'm digging the Smart mode so far but I'm not sure I like the readout. I thought it would just be a smart feature in wattage mode, remembering your wattage settings for each coil, but instead it's its own mode with a different read out.
You choose Smart instead of Wattage, Bypass or TC....
Then use the plus/minus buttons to set your power in 1 watt increments for that coil....
Then when firing, this is the display readout.....
Works like a charm though. I don't have to change anything when switching between my .4 and .5 coils.
The battery meter is quite a bit more exact now that it's so much larger. Still, I wish they'd made it so we could switch between the new and the old displays in VW mode with 4 clicks of the fire button.
The addition of the Smart Mode is pretty cool, and must be a new idea, as I haven't seen it on any other Joyetech mods yet.
I would also prefer a time display instead of the custom logo, but hey, it's tough to complain about free updates that add features to an already fantastic mod.
I've heard it mentioned briefly here and there that JayBo had something to do with the Pico's development, but I don't know if that's true. It would make sense, though. He comes up with some pretty great designs.
I think the main problem with the VTC 510 connection is that it is not actually spring loaded. It actually has a rubber tube under the 510 that creates the spring effect. The rubber tube will wear out over time.
probably be fine at lower power (<50w maybe)
what W / Ω's ya gonna be running at ?
and due to the design of the Pico (screw on battery cap)
you might be able to get away with those nipple tops...
surely worth a try
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