My experience with SS316L and TC Mode / And a question

[Michael_S]

Hello everybody.

Since 3 weeks I own a smok Xpriv. I bought their RBA and a small selection of pre-built coils (SS316l). With that I tried the TC mode. Some people saying, it doesn't work well on smok devices....let's see..

Ok, here write down what I experienced so far. All wires are SS316l. And, I used always a dual coil setup. I really would appreciate it when some other vapers could share their experience.

1. I installed 0.5 Ohm 28GA*2+38GA parallel. (Or ribbon...I'm not sure about it). I set TCR at 92. Temp control didn't work well. Sometimes it got to high temperature, sometimes too low. Then I raised the TCR to 105 and it worked much better....but not really satisfying.

2. 0.5 Ohm 28GA*2+38GA twisted. Works much better. With 92 TCR. That was actually quite good.

3. I red that TC mode is more accurate with higher Ohm. Due to the long legs I was able to add 2 Wraps. This raised Ohm to 0.62. And...boom...TC experience is fantastic. 230Celcius, TCR 92 and Preheat (if you so will at 75 Watt. That's amazing.

4. I tried some other coils...one of them was I guess clapton, but somehow flat wire. Sorry guys, these different kind of coils are confusing me somehow. However, this coil didn't work at all with TCR. Didn't matter waht I set as TCR.

5. Then I bought 30GA SS316l wire. Single wire. I built two 2.2 Ohm coils and tested it. Yes, TC worked fine. But I had to lower the temperature dramatically that it may even hit it.

Now: Methinks, at least for my setup: Simple coils works better for TC. Btw, I spaced all the coils above a little bit. I have to order single wire SS316l 28GA. With 28GA I think I can build coils easy within the Ohm target(0.6-0.9).

I wonder If other users could confirm that simple single coils works best. To the point 3, I guess that is a simple twisted coil 28GA core and 38GA which is very tin. If I find exactly such wire, I'll order it. But I think single wire (not twisted) might work even better. this 28 gauge seems to be very pretty on TC mode. Never the less, I would prefer a slightly thinner wire which provides a faster ramp up. I'll try the 30GA wire with lower ohm like 1 or 0.9.

Then, I would like to try also NiFe52 or Nife48. Have to order from Germany. Easy since I'm anyway from Europe.

For now I installed back the twisted 0.6 Ohm coils. They are fantastic. Smooth consistent vape, no dry hits...but I guess there is more

Thank you guys. Would love to hear your opinions. I'm a complete newbie who only ties to find my sweet spot.

 

[stylemessiah]

Okay, first up the best TC mod i own to this day is my TreeBox Mini, and i own a much more expensive and fancy ePetite with DNA60 onboard, and ive owned other DNA mods, sold on. No really, mostly because the TreeBox reads the resistance once and leaves you be, whereas the DNAx boards constantly refine the reading. The TreeBox changes the vape far far far less puff to puff, day to day.

Having said that i went on to buy a H-Priv and quickly onsold it as it wasnt a patch on the TreeBox, mostly as i hated the insane preheat profiles on it, and the almost instant fire (which people back then and to this day seem to think is a value added feature) - im a coolish to warm vapist, so it was jarring and even the lowest preheat (you cant completely turn it off) was too affronting. I even downgraded it to a version of firmware where people, no doubt cloudz bro types, were complaining the preheat was weak I sold it after 6 hours of getting it.

3. I red that TC mode is more accurate with higher Ohm. Due to the long legs I was able to add 2 Wraps. This raised Ohm to 0.62. And...boom...TC experience is fantastic. 230Celcius, TCR 92 and Preheat (if you so will at 75 Watt. That's amazing.

Spot on, due to the low measurable TCR value of 316L, building 0.5+ will give the mod more measurable TCR to work with = more stable TC vape. In the early days of 316L and newer DNA mods people building 0.5- were banging on about how bad it was for TC, and when told by myself and a few others the obvious - build at 0.5 or above and it will work fine, the complaints went down (Evolv eventually issued an update with a better 316L alogrithm)...ive been vaping 316L at 0.6 for over 2 years now...never a bad day. And in general 0.00092 is the go for 316L, and is fine on the Smok mods (its what ive used forever), but on occasion, dependent on the mod, you may find you do indeed need to raise it. Also spaced coils = yes for TC

Now can you build at 0.5 and below, dual coils etc?, yes you can, but its down to the accuracy and efficiency of the firmware in the mod (you should check periodically for an update in firmware updatable mods - this is how Evolv went on to make better 316L profiles available for those on DNA boards)

I cant comment on all coils as i dont use anything but a simple single wire single coil - 7/8 wraps of 26Ga on 3mm coiling tool....0.6 ish

Ill make a few general comments though, hopefully still useful

4. I tried some other coils...one of them was I guess clapton, but somehow flat wire. Sorry guys, these different kind of coils are confusing me somehow. However, this coil didn't work at all with TCR. Didn't matter waht I set as TCR.

Always check the wire type of the coil youre putting on, and setting your mod to the corretc mode, before firing. Not all wires will work in TC mode and some should NEVER be fired in Wattage mode. I suspect you may have had a kanthal clapton...that will not work in TC mode

A quick guide...

Wattage mode only:

Kanthal

TC mode only:

Nickel
Titanium

Kanthal or TC mode:

SS


5. Then I bought 30GA SS316l wire. Single wire. I built two 2.2 Ohm coils and tested it. Yes, TC worked fine. But I had to lower the temperature dramatically that it may even hit it.

The higher the gauge, the quicker she heats up

In general the more eloborate the coil, the more *possible* (not definite by any means) chance of flaky resistance readings leading to possible TC stability issues. Always make sure you have the coil legs trapped well (connectivity is far more important in TC mode than wattage mode). You may also want to pulse fancier coils at low wattage (16watts or there abouts, to make sure they heat evenly (lightly brush with tweezers or something similar across the coil gently, while NOT hot or pulsing it, then pulsing and repeating until it heats evently), not something ive bothered to do in 2 years with my single coils as they are far, almost unlikely, to suffer this, but with claptons etc, theres more than one wire and a lot of mass....your mileage may vary.

Another general tip is to keep the 510 pin threads on both your mod and tank clean as dirt/grime here can cause havoc (you want to keep all points of conenctivity clean for the best TC experience), so quick clean when you have the tank off for a rebuild is good practice. Takes a few seconds, can save you from frustration down the track.

p.s. Worth pointing out youve done more wire fiddling in 3 weeks than ive done in 3.5 years , im a simple vapist, single coils (as noted above) and repeat forever

 

[Michael_S]

Thanks stylemessiah for your post. Hope other members will bring their experience into it as well. The wire of all the coils I tried was indeed SS316l. My early conclusion, higher Ohm (>0.5) works more accurate, which you confirmed. That's great. The more simple the coil (single wire) the more accurate TC.

Yet, there isn't a firmware upgrade for the X-Piv. I'll keep an eye on it. I found this blog Firmware Upgrade | Smokstore Blog which list the latest updates.....

 

[UlkaHuren]

I’ve been using TC mode for a couple years now mostly with SS 316L. With the 5 different mods I’ve had it’s worked well. My typical dual coil setup is twisted 24g at 0.1 ohm. Having a mod that accurately senses the resistance is important. My 2 best TC mods are the VBoy 200W and Polar. Both set to a coefficient of 0.00092 vape the same.

The big enemy to TC mode is poor connections that drift or jump the resistance, which causes hot and cold spikes. More than once I’ve taken apart new tanks to clean and polish connection points (usually threads of the 510 contact screw) to stabilize it. My personal spec is to not have anymore that 0.002 ohm of variance. The lower the coil resistance is the worse effect small resistance variances have on it. Early on i was building on older RDAs or tanks and I have that up since the connections were just too poor quality and have very inconsistent vape temperature. I’ve had no issues using SS and I’ve made 4 strand twisted coils at times. You always want to use spaced coils or you wind up risking sketchy operation and heat spikes from partial or full shorts.