New Kangxin 50W TC device - Mini VF KX-50D: single 18650; LED torch; USB charge; multiple colours

[Croak]

I don't see it as a failure to fix something, per se, but rather a conscious design decision. By not polling resistance regularly when idle, they avoid the drain-while-idle problem that genuine DNA40 boards have. As a side-effect their implementation of refinement (and they do have it on the Rayn boards) is both more limited and less problematic than Evolv's, since it can only refine in the periods between "deep sleep".

 

[Shigura]

I don't see it as a failure to fix something, per se, but rather a conscious design decision. By not polling resistance regularly when idle, they avoid the drain-while-idle problem that genuine DNA40 boards have. As a side-effect their implementation of refinement (and they do have it on the Rayn boards) is both more limited and less problematic than Evolv's, since it can only refine in the periods between "deep sleep".

I can't read this and agree with it more then enough thats for sure. My rDNA40 problem was sucking the battery dry in about 2 days, tested for 24 hrs and lost over 50%. Hell the mod came with a completely drained cell on its way to me. Sorry for the off topic bit. So honestly if it its to avoid that then thats gold in my book.

 

[Nailz]

Oh, here's another test: Next time you're going to be leaving it for a few hours, could you try locking it first? Full lock, fire-five-times. Then leave it and when you come back to it X hours later, can you see if it's still locked?

Test result - locked and left for just over 2 hours, pressed fire button, got start up screen and then did fire without having to unlock it.

I never lock my mods, so not a big deal to me, but is a pointless having a lock mode, if it unlocks itself.

 

[Shigura]

Test result - locked and left for just over 2 hours, pressed fire button, got start up screen and then did fire without having to unlock it.

I never lock my mods, so not a big deal to me, but is a pointless having a lock mode, if it unlocks itself.

Right shouldn't really have to, unless of course putting into pocket yadda yadda yadda.

 

[TheBloke]

Test result - locked and left for just over 2 hours, pressed fire button, got start up screen and then did fire without having to unlock it.

I never lock my mods, so not a big deal to me, but is a pointless having a lock mode, if it unlocks itself.

OK thanks for confirming Nailz. Again, not at all unexpected.

It's a side-effect of the way they implemented 'sleep' which is more like a shutdown. After X minutes, where the genuine goes into a deep sleep, the Kangxin shuts down - or perhaps 'standby' would be a better term. That's why you see the welcome again when you press fire, and have to press again to read resistance/vape. The lock state is not saved when that happens.

I don't see it as a failure to fix something, per se, but rather a conscious design decision. By not polling resistance regularly when idle, they avoid the drain-while-idle problem that genuine DNA40 boards have. As a side-effect their implementation of refinement (and they do have it on the Rayn boards) is both more limited and less problematic than Evolv's, since it can only refine in the periods between "deep sleep".

Yeah could be I guess. But if so then I think they went too far. If battery drain is a big concern, then wouldn't it have been better to have it just not poll resistance when 'asleep'. Then do so on the first press of fire, as it does now anyway on second press of fire. That would avoid the double tap and non-persistent lock while also greatly reducing or eliminating battery drain and refinement issues.

It might be really simple: the timer that currently turns it off could instead unset resistance, putting it in the same state as when an atty is removed. In that state it doesn't probe resistance because it doesn't know if there's an atty until fire is pressed. Everything else should then just work as expected, with no double tap to wake & fire, no extra welcome message, and a persistent lock.

 

[Croak]

Well, unlike a real DNA40, it does basically turn itself off completely while sleeping, and the low performance ARM processor on-board all these things takes a wee bit of time to boot. There's delay one. And since there's no heartbeat while sleeping, it has no idea of an atty change occurred during this time, so it can't assume anything and just revert to last known settings, it has to check. That's delay two.

 

[TheBloke]

Yeah, I was wondering why they couldn't do it differently: not turn itself off at all. Instead, when the timer indicates it's time to sleep, set itself to the same state as when an atty is removed. Resistance changes to 0.00 and as a consequence, resistance reads are automatically disabled as it never probes for resistance after atty removal, until fire is pressed. Therefore during 'sleep' it stops probing, but also remains in a state where it can respond immediately to a press/hold of fire - no boot up delay.

The user returning to it in that state would pick it up and hold fire and that would trigger a resistance read and a vape with a single press and less delay than there is now. It would operate from sleep exactly as it operates now when a new atty is put on and fire is then held down - reading the resistance and firing in one go.

It would have the benefits of the current Kangxin sleep - no resistance read and so no refinement and no battery drain - but because it never shuts down, it wouldn't take a double tap to fire and it wouldn't forget lock.

It would potentially be extremely easy to code, as well. When timer is exceeded, branch to the same code that gets executed when it detects an atty is removed. Or just assign resistance=0.00 if that achieves the same result. The main operation loop already knows not to probe resistance when it thinks an atty has been removed (or when resistance=0.00) so resistance reads would be disabled immediately with no special code required for 'sleep' mode. Just the timer that's already there, setting the NoAtty state/resistance=0.00 instead of calling Shutdown().

Maybe they were so scared of battery drain they felt it had to shutdown to avoid it, but I can't see how it drains all that much power when it's sitting there not sleeping but with no resistance probes.

Oh well, it is what it is!

 

[Shigura]

Yeah, I was wondering why they couldn't do it differently: not turn itself off at all. Instead, when the timer indicates it's time to sleep, set itself to the same state as when an atty is removed. Resistance changes to 0.00 and as a consequence, resistance reads are automatically disabled as it never probes for resistance after atty removal, until fire is pressed. Therefore during 'sleep' it stops probing, but also remains in a state where it can respond immediately to a press/hold of fire - no boot up delay.

The user returning to it in that state would pick it up and hold fire and that would trigger a resistance read and a vape with a single press and less delay than there is now. It would operate from sleep exactly as it operates now when a new atty is put on and fire is then held down - reading the resistance and firing in one go.

It would have the benefits of the current Kangxin sleep - no resistance read and so no refinement and no battery drain - but because it never shuts down, it wouldn't take a double tap to fire and it wouldn't forget lock.

It would potentially be extremely easy to code, as well. When timer is exceeded, branch to the same code that gets executed when it detects an atty is removed. Or just assign resistance=0.00 if that achieves the same result. The main operation loop already knows not to probe resistance when it thinks an atty has been removed (or when resistance=0.00) so resistance reads would be disabled immediately with no special code required for 'sleep' mode. Just the timer that's already there, setting the NoAtty state/resistance=0.00 instead of calling Shutdown().

Maybe they were so scared of battery drain they felt it had to shutdown to avoid it, but I can't see how it drains all that much power when it's sitting there not sleeping but with no resistance probes.

Oh well, it is what it is!

You sir are using too much common sense. We all know that doesn't fly lol ah I'm not contributing anything of value. Personally I worry about battery drain myself as my VS felt like it was addicted to it.

 

[MegaVap]

You sir are using too much common sense. We all know that doesn't fly lol ah I'm not contributing anything of value. Personally I worry about battery drain myself as my VS felt like it was addicted to it.

Hey @Shigura when/how did you notice the VS was draining the battery. I have one but I use it all day every day so I'm not sure if mine has the same affliction as yours.

 

[Shigura]

Hey @Shigura when/how did you notice the VS was draining the battery. I have one but I use it all day every day so I'm not sure if mine has the same affliction as yours.

After noticing it losing over 20% in an 8 hour period with no atty attached. I decided to fully charge it one day and let it sit for a full 24hr period with or course no atomizer. Came back home from work and then tossed on an atlantis to check the battery. Fired it a few times to get an accurate reading and it lost over 50% battery life. It was sent out on friday so now the waiting games begin.

 

[Nailz]

OK now this is strange, this afternoon I picked up the mini and got the start up screen as normal when left for a few hours, but this time it asked me 'new coil, same coil' message like the full size flask, thought it was just a one off, but nope, left it a hour and it did the same thing again, maybe there is a time frame when it ask for coil, and if goes past 2 hours it goes into deep sleep and doesn't ask if same coil, don't know why it would change, got the same tank on since I got it.

 

[Shigura]

OK now this is strange, this afternoon I picked up the mini and got the start up screen as normal when left for a few hours, but this time it asked me 'new coil, same coil' message like the full size flask, thought it was just a one off, but nope, left it a hour and it did the same thing again, maybe there is a time frame when it ask for coil, and if goes past 2 hours it goes into deep sleep and doesn't ask if same coil, don't know why it would change, got the same tank on since I got it.

Could it possibly be an issue with the 510 connection? I know I can't compare this to a cloned device that I own. But it would do the same thing randomly.

 

[Nailz]

Could it possibly be an issue with the 510 connection? I know I can't compare this to a cloned device that I own. But it would do the same thing randomly.

Well I've not taken the atty off, but it is now asking same coil or new when left for about 30 minutes, but I am use to that from the full size flask, just strange it started doing it out of the blue.

 

[Shigura]

Well I've not taken the atty off, but it is now asking same coil or new when left for about 30 minutes, but I am use to that from the full size flask, just strange it started doing it out of the blue.

Right it did that as well on my jankety vs clone (crooked 510 pin) with any atomizer attached. Hopefully I can get my money back because it does it permenantly now and shortly after I sent my authentic in lol.

 

[MegaVap]

OK now this is strange, this afternoon I picked up the mini and got the start up screen as normal when left for a few hours, but this time it asked me 'new coil, same coil' message like the full size flask, thought it was just a one off, but nope, left it a hour and it did the same thing again, maybe there is a time frame when it ask for coil, and if goes past 2 hours it goes into deep sleep and doesn't ask if same coil, don't know why it would change, got the same tank on since I got it.

Wow I hope this isn't a common occurrence. I can see how that can be aggravating. Please keep us updated on this behavior.

After noticing it losing over 20% in an 8 hour period with no atty attached. I decided to fully charge it one day and let it sit for a full 24hr period with or course no atomizer. Came back home from work and then tossed on an atlantis to check the battery. Fired it a few times to get an accurate reading and it lost over 50% battery life. It was sent out on friday so now the waiting games begin.

I need to perform the test you did, I am curious if my VS is the same way. Is this considered to be defective chip or mod?

 

[Shigura]

No clue, posted in the VS rDNA thread for any light on this situation. Also to see if anyone with the atty-lock big screen had the same issue (other then a VS rDNA40) to which no reply to that. No where near as common as the glitch to which I have yet to see using the VS nor HB40.

 

[KenD]

I received my black Kangxin mini today. Been vaping it for a few hours, and I'm quite happy with it. The light on top of the mod lighting up while vaping doesn't bother me at all. It's quite subdued, and it's worth it to have a flashlight. The strobing mode is completely unnecessary though. Weighs about the same as a Cloupor mini, 159 grams with a battery. The battery compartment threads were quite rough, but it's possible to use the cap without a tool. Kinda like it that it's possible to switch the mod off (three clicks on the up and down buttons simultaneously). The buttons rattle, especially the fire button. Don't like that at all. It does behave differently from my Waidea flask. Doesn't show "Temperature Protection" (though the screen placement makes it hard to see. Guess I've been spoiled by the flask). It also has a very noticeable fluctuation when regulating down after hitting the temp limit. In that regard I really prefer the flask, where you don't really notice the down-regulation and can simply leave it set for max wattage, unless the temp protection message bothers you. All in all I'm happy with the device.

 

[TheBloke]

Looks like I might be getting my green one - from Focal - tomorrow!

It's been quite interesting tracking my packages

• Both dispatched same day, last Wednesday; one from FT and one from Focal.
• The Focal one was marked as shipped three hours earlier than FT (4pm vs 7pm HKT)
• But then FT overtook it, gliding into the lead - the next day it was sent to Shenzen airport three hours earlier than Focal
  • Focal showed up slightly differently on the tracking - I'm guessing either because they're in a different area of Shenzen or because they used a different local courier
  • FT packages are always marked "Shenzhen post office express couriers, receiving and sending."
  • Where the Focal package was "Bantian, Center Sales Department, receiving and sending."
  • Bantian is an area of Shenzen.
• They were neck and neck again the next day, both leaving on the same flight to the UK (or at least they were scanned as leaving for GB within three minutes of each other.)
• They would have landed in the UK on Friday afternoon
• I therefore expected them both to arrive on Wednesday, as they couldn't clear customs Saturday to Monday (Monday, today, is a public holiday here)
• But amazingly, against all odds, the Focal package retook its lead by somehow leaving customs and appearing on local tracking on Sunday??
  • That's an exciting first - I have had several packages arrive in the UK before a weekend, and they have never before cleared customs on Saturday or Sunday.
• Therefore it seems there's a good chance that Focal will arrive tomorrow, Tuesday!

The fun and games of 17Track shipping tracking

 

[TheBloke]

I received my black Kangxin mini today. Been vaping it for a few hours, and I'm quite happy with it. The light on top of the mod lighting up while vaping doesn't bother me at all. It's quite subdued, and it's worth it to have a flashlight. The strobing mode is completely unnecessary though. Weighs about the same as a Cloupor mini, 159 grams with a battery. The battery compartment threads were quite rough, but it's possible to use the cap without a tool. Kinda like it that it's possible to switch the mod off (three clicks on the up and down buttons simultaneously). The buttons rattle, especially the fire button. Don't like that at all. It does behave differently from my Waidea flask. Doesn't show "Temperature Protection" (though the screen placement makes it hard to see. Guess I've been spoiled by the flask). It also has a very noticeable fluctuation when regulating down after hitting the temp limit. In that regard I really prefer the flask, where you don't really notice the down-regulation and can simply leave it set for max wattage, unless the temp protection message bothers you. All in all I'm happy with the device.

Great - I was wondering what had happened to yours!

Glad you're liking it and that the light is no problem. Yeah the lack of TP message doesn't surprise me as most/all recent Waideas didn't have it, either - seems they removed it from all the new Kangxin chips. Not great news about the power regulation though, I wonder why that could be.

And yeah I like that you can turn it off - definitely a worthwhile addition! I never understood why that wasn't possible on the original, and not added by any clones (until now.)

How are the buttons on yours, @Nailz ? Rattly? I'll see about mine, maybe it's just some units.

 

[Nailz]

Great - I was wondering what had happened to yours!

Glad you're liking it and that the light is no problem. Yeah the lack of TP message doesn't surprise me as most/all recent Waideas didn't have it, either - seems they removed it from all the new Kangxin chips. Not great news about the power regulation though, I wonder why that could be.

And yeah I like that you can turn it off - definitely a worthwhile addition! I never understood why that wasn't possible on the original, and not added by any clones (until now.)

How are the buttons on yours, @Nailz ? Rattly? I'll see about mine, maybe it's just some units.

I hadn't noticed they rattle till it was brought up, yes they rattle if shake the mod around, but can't say I shake my mod while vaping so is not a big deal at all for me