Hello everyone! This is my first real post of substance. I recently purchased a Smaug 150W box mod and since it's so new and there isn't a lot of information to be found, I thought I'd do a little tear down and post what I've found.
(Usual disclaimer: I'm the idiot who decided to open mine a couple of days after I bought it because I like taking stuff apart and seeing what makes it tick. I'm sure my warranty is now void, and yours will be too if you do the same. Whatever you do is totally on you and I cannot be held responsible for the results, even if you carry the same strain of idiocy that I have.)
The official specifications from Luxyoun's website:
1.Output voltage: 3.7-17.3v, 7-150w
2.Input voltage: 3.2-4.2v
3.Supports .3-3 ohm Atomizer
4.Features a 5 click On/Off switch
5.LCD display
resistance, voltage/wattage, settled vaping time, battery level and puffs)
6.Short circuit protectionï¼Low voltage warning
7.Compatible with dual 18650 battery, big capacity last long, made of high grade aluminum metal material
Googling around various retailers who are selling the Smaug have some varying reports on the further details of what's inside. The most common is that it runs on a custom Yihi SX350 chip and has a USB port for charging. It's true it does have a USB port and the display shows that it's charging when you plug it in to power. Other sites (I apologize for lack of references, I don't feel like looking for them now, but if you Google enough you'll find them) report that it has a SX330 chip, an SX1500 chip (which doesn't exist on Yihi's website, at any rate) and that it can take software updates via USB. I plugged it in to my computer, but it wasn't recognized as a USB device. Anyway, this is some groundwork for what we find as we tear this thing open.
Nothing new and groundbreaking here, photos of this thing are everywhere. I run mine with an Aspire Atlantis at 26W, give or take depending on my mood at the time. Yes, my battery is low and my desk needs cleaning. This is about what's inside the box, not what's around it (Pretty cool website in the background, though, right?)
The only two screws in this entire mod are the two holding the battery cover on. Once you take it off, you're presented with the battery holder. If you read the imprinted plastic closely, it gives you alternate positions for the batter saying "parallel" and "series". You can put it in series all you want, but the battery holder is wired and configured for parallel use only. If you were to flip a battery to make it series, all you'd be doing is adding +4V and -4V, delivering 0V to the unit. Won't hurt it, but it won't do you any good either. This unit is definitely parallel only, giving you a higher amperage capacity for when you run it up to 150W.
To get inside the unit,all you have to do is pull the trim around the left and upper edge of the mod. It's basically a sticker and will come right off with a little effort.
Now we're seeing some wires and stuff! You can see what's underneath is all entirely held in by glue. The battery holder itself is held in by nothing. NOTHING. Only the pressure from the surrounding plastic and components keeps in place, there isn't any glue around or underneath it. (At least not in mine.) I was able to remove it simply by working it out gently with a pair of pliers. Once it's out then you can unplug the two connectors to the PC board. Pull out the couple of drops of glue holding the PCB in place and it comes right out.
The two connectors go to the up and down buttons and to the USB charging port. There are only two wires going to the USB port, meaning that it is for power only and this mod is not software upgradeable. Now that we can see exactly how it's wired up, it's also clear how the USB charger works. If you recharge your batteries using the built in charger then it delivers the charging current in parallel to the two batteries, sharing the current between them and charging them regardless of what each battery's actual charge level is. So, I am hesitant now to use the built in charger at all, because there's no guarantee that the battery charge levels are going to remain precisely in sync as they are discharged from use. Most likely if you install a brand new set of batteries in the unit you'll be okay, since they will discharge and recharge together. However, if you bought one and threw in a couple of 18650s you had lying around, you're asking for trouble if you recharge it via USB. I might experiment more later and hook up an ammeter to monitor the actual current being delivered to the batteries with a variety of USB sources to see how much power it delivers over time, just to see what kind of consistency it has, if it steps down the power as the batteries charge, etc.
In looking at the quality of construction, the fact that everything is held in only with glue makes it easily serviceable (as long as you have a hot glue gun for when you put it back together), but it still makes me twitch a little bit. A couple of the solder joints appear to be cold on mine - meaning that the solder either wasn't adequately heated when melted onto the joints or it was moved too soon afterwards, making a poor joint that is easily broken by force. In fact, the positive wire going to the battery pack broke loose and I had to resolder it back on after taking these pictures before I put it back together. If you own one and it suddenly quits working after it's been dropped or hit, or has intermittent firing issues, then I'll bet a cold solder joint will be the likely culprit.
The board itself is what really interested me. If you look at all of Yihi's boards on their website they look NOTHING like this. If they did in fact make this for Luxyoun it is a seriously custom one-off. None of Yihi's boards use a giant inductor like this one does and the other chips look entirely different. The four ICs on the right side of this picture also don't have identifying print on them, so I can't figure out what they are or who made them. I'm hesitant to believe that this is a custom SX350. The only identifying number is "LLG702-8.0" and the manufacture date. No brand name or other indication of manufacturer. Googling LLG702 pulls up some auto components, but I can't find anything else. I'm hoping maybe someone recognizes the layout or design and we can pinpoint who actually makes this thing.
As far as USING this goes, it has been pretty solid for me so far. I haven't had any misfires, I didn't need to adjust the firing pin (which is a screw, not a spring, you just thread it up and down to get a good fit for your atomizer of choice) and after 776 hits I'm satisfied with its use. I'm not a vaper who is going to use it for is power capacity, however... at least not yet. With a 2 year warranty even if the manufacturing issues I notice become an issue it's likely that failure should occur in that period of time and you'll get fixed up. General feedback I've read from resellers all indicate that Luxyoun seems to be a good warranty partner and will stand behind their product.
So, now that I've thrown this out there, I'm curious to hear from other Smaug owners and gearheads like me who like to see what makes our toys tick.
(Usual disclaimer: I'm the idiot who decided to open mine a couple of days after I bought it because I like taking stuff apart and seeing what makes it tick. I'm sure my warranty is now void, and yours will be too if you do the same. Whatever you do is totally on you and I cannot be held responsible for the results, even if you carry the same strain of idiocy that I have.)
The official specifications from Luxyoun's website:
1.Output voltage: 3.7-17.3v, 7-150w
2.Input voltage: 3.2-4.2v
3.Supports .3-3 ohm Atomizer
4.Features a 5 click On/Off switch
5.LCD display
resistance, voltage/wattage, settled vaping time, battery level and puffs)6.Short circuit protectionï¼Low voltage warning
7.Compatible with dual 18650 battery, big capacity last long, made of high grade aluminum metal material
Googling around various retailers who are selling the Smaug have some varying reports on the further details of what's inside. The most common is that it runs on a custom Yihi SX350 chip and has a USB port for charging. It's true it does have a USB port and the display shows that it's charging when you plug it in to power. Other sites (I apologize for lack of references, I don't feel like looking for them now, but if you Google enough you'll find them) report that it has a SX330 chip, an SX1500 chip (which doesn't exist on Yihi's website, at any rate) and that it can take software updates via USB. I plugged it in to my computer, but it wasn't recognized as a USB device. Anyway, this is some groundwork for what we find as we tear this thing open.
Nothing new and groundbreaking here, photos of this thing are everywhere. I run mine with an Aspire Atlantis at 26W, give or take depending on my mood at the time. Yes, my battery is low and my desk needs cleaning. This is about what's inside the box, not what's around it
(Pretty cool website in the background, though, right?)
The only two screws in this entire mod are the two holding the battery cover on. Once you take it off, you're presented with the battery holder. If you read the imprinted plastic closely, it gives you alternate positions for the batter saying "parallel" and "series". You can put it in series all you want, but the battery holder is wired and configured for parallel use only. If you were to flip a battery to make it series, all you'd be doing is adding +4V and -4V, delivering 0V to the unit. Won't hurt it, but it won't do you any good either. This unit is definitely parallel only, giving you a higher amperage capacity for when you run it up to 150W.
To get inside the unit,all you have to do is pull the trim around the left and upper edge of the mod. It's basically a sticker and will come right off with a little effort.
Now we're seeing some wires and stuff! You can see what's underneath is all entirely held in by glue. The battery holder itself is held in by nothing. NOTHING. Only the pressure from the surrounding plastic and components keeps in place, there isn't any glue around or underneath it. (At least not in mine.) I was able to remove it simply by working it out gently with a pair of pliers. Once it's out then you can unplug the two connectors to the PC board. Pull out the couple of drops of glue holding the PCB in place and it comes right out.
The two connectors go to the up and down buttons and to the USB charging port. There are only two wires going to the USB port, meaning that it is for power only and this mod is not software upgradeable. Now that we can see exactly how it's wired up, it's also clear how the USB charger works. If you recharge your batteries using the built in charger then it delivers the charging current in parallel to the two batteries, sharing the current between them and charging them regardless of what each battery's actual charge level is. So, I am hesitant now to use the built in charger at all, because there's no guarantee that the battery charge levels are going to remain precisely in sync as they are discharged from use. Most likely if you install a brand new set of batteries in the unit you'll be okay, since they will discharge and recharge together. However, if you bought one and threw in a couple of 18650s you had lying around, you're asking for trouble if you recharge it via USB. I might experiment more later and hook up an ammeter to monitor the actual current being delivered to the batteries with a variety of USB sources to see how much power it delivers over time, just to see what kind of consistency it has, if it steps down the power as the batteries charge, etc.
In looking at the quality of construction, the fact that everything is held in only with glue makes it easily serviceable (as long as you have a hot glue gun for when you put it back together), but it still makes me twitch a little bit. A couple of the solder joints appear to be cold on mine - meaning that the solder either wasn't adequately heated when melted onto the joints or it was moved too soon afterwards, making a poor joint that is easily broken by force. In fact, the positive wire going to the battery pack broke loose and I had to resolder it back on after taking these pictures before I put it back together. If you own one and it suddenly quits working after it's been dropped or hit, or has intermittent firing issues, then I'll bet a cold solder joint will be the likely culprit.
The board itself is what really interested me. If you look at all of Yihi's boards on their website they look NOTHING like this. If they did in fact make this for Luxyoun it is a seriously custom one-off. None of Yihi's boards use a giant inductor like this one does and the other chips look entirely different. The four ICs on the right side of this picture also don't have identifying print on them, so I can't figure out what they are or who made them. I'm hesitant to believe that this is a custom SX350. The only identifying number is "LLG702-8.0" and the manufacture date. No brand name or other indication of manufacturer. Googling LLG702 pulls up some auto components, but I can't find anything else. I'm hoping maybe someone recognizes the layout or design and we can pinpoint who actually makes this thing.
As far as USING this goes, it has been pretty solid for me so far. I haven't had any misfires, I didn't need to adjust the firing pin (which is a screw, not a spring, you just thread it up and down to get a good fit for your atomizer of choice) and after 776 hits I'm satisfied with its use. I'm not a vaper who is going to use it for is power capacity, however... at least not yet.
With a 2 year warranty even if the manufacturing issues I notice become an issue it's likely that failure should occur in that period of time and you'll get fixed up. General feedback I've read from resellers all indicate that Luxyoun seems to be a good warranty partner and will stand behind their product.So, now that I've thrown this out there, I'm curious to hear from other Smaug owners and gearheads like me who like to see what makes our toys tick.
