No 'Amps' display on Smok Mag - Are you kidding me?

[Baddog]

I finally purchased a 'smok Mag' the other day (I know I'm really late to that game!) ... anyway I absolutely couldn't believe it when I found the device does not display amperage! Are you kidding me? Is it just me or is amperage not the single most important piece of information that any device should be displaying?

 

[bombastinator]

It’s probably not JUST you, but there aren’t a ton of people who think that afaik

 

[Baditude]

Is it just me or is amperage not the single most important piece of information that any device should be displaying?

Not really all that useful, in my opinion. As long as you are using appropriate batteries for the wattage setting you use and for the way you vape, amps displayed is pretty insignificant.

Convince me that I am wrong having that opinion.

 

[Topwater Elvis]

The amperage displayed on power device screen's is a meaningless output amps.
None display input amps which could be useful.

Output - from chip/board to delivery device.
Input - from batteries to chip/board ~ the actual amperage demand from the batteries used.

 

[bombastinator]

Not really all that useful, in my opinion. As long as you are using appropriate batteries for the wattage setting you use and for the way you vape, amps displayed is pretty insignificant.

Convince me that I am wrong having that opinion.

Can I simply berate you with nontopical, pointless, and ridiculous insults instead? It seems a lot simpler. Plus looking at politics these days it’s all the rage right now

 

[tailland]

I guess you'll have to learn to trust... your Smok mod

 

[Zaryk]

Amps are important for mech users to keep track of. But with regulated devices it really isn't as important. The CDR of the battery can tell you how many watts the battery can supply in regulated devices. But as said above, on regulated devices the screen doesn't even tell you the amps being drawn from the battery anyway, so it's kind of useless info.

15a = 45w
20a = 60w
25a = 75w
30a = 90w

If you are running more than one battery, multiply the wattage by the number of batteries. (Two 20a batteries = 120w)

 

[Baddog]

So some kid puts on a shiny new .15 ohm coil on his TFV12 and dials in 100w using a 15 amp CDR battery and it's not important to display the amperage why exactly?

 

[Hawise]

So some kid puts on a shiny new .15 ohm coil on his TFV12 and dials in 100w using a 15 amp CDR battery and it's not important to display the amperage why exactly?

Because the amperage that other mods would display isn't the amps coming from the battery anyway.

With a regulated mod, the energy drawn from the battery is altered by the chip before being sent to the coil, meaning that the amps drawn from the battery aren't the same as the amps sent to the coil. Sadly, and very ridiculously, the amps displayed by mods are the amps going to the coil, so they're of no use in any case.

Here are the numbers for your example

Amps to Coil

Resistance - 0.15 ohms
Wattage - 100 w

Amps: 25.82 amps (courtesy of Steam Engine's Ohm's Law calculator)


Amps from Batteries

However, the maximum amp draw from the batteries is calculated as follows:

watts / minimum voltage / 0.9
= 100 / 3.2 / 0.9 = 34.7 amps

So, if the mod did show amps it would show the 25.82 amps going to the coil, but the actual draw from the battery just before cutoff would be considerably higher at 34.7 amps.

 

[sdennislee]

The most important display on a regulated mod is wattage, next resistance, followed by battery status (don't want to head out with low batteries. Amps on a regulated mod would just be slightly more important than the puff counter.

Again when regulated mods show amps it is the amps from the chip to the atty, not amps from the batteries to the chip.

From Zaryk's post above this is what you need to know with a regulated mod.
15a = 45w
20a = 60w
25a = 75w
30a = 90w

Watch Mooch's video series he explains in in great detail. My guess your concern goes back to the days of mech mods where understanding amps kept you safe.

BTW don't be surprised by anything you find lacking in a SMOK product, they are not really known for a quality build.

 

[Zaryk]

So some kid puts on a shiny new .15 ohm coil on his TFV12 and dials in 100w using a 15 amp CDR battery and it's not important to display the amperage why exactly?

Correct.

I, and many others have already stated why in the above posts, please read them. Especially post #10, sdennislee shows exactly why a regulated mod's amp display is useless to battery safety.

"Some kid" needs to turn his down his wattage by 10 and he will be fine, using the batteries you mentioned if it is a dual battery device. If it is a single battery device, he needs to rethink his approach at vaping, as he has the wrong equipment to achieve his goals.

 

[diagrammatiks]

Correct.

I, and many others have already stated why in the above posts, please read them. Especially post #10, sdennislee shows exactly why a regulated mod's amp display is useless to battery safety.

"Some kid" needs to turn his down his wattage by 10 and he will be fine, using the batteries you mentioned if it is a dual battery device. If it is a single battery device, he needs to rethink his approach at vaping, as he has the wrong equipment to achieve his goals.

Plus a good chip won’t fire. And a if it’s a bad chip he’s screwed any way.

Op has a misunderstanding about how amp displayed works.

Now if regulated mods would display actual input amps that would be great.

 

[Hawise]

Plus a good chip won’t fire.

Why not? The chip has no way of telling what the batteries' CDR might be.

 

[diagrammatiks]

Why not? The chip has no way of telling what the batteries' CDR might be.

I’m not a scientist. I just know my triades won’t fire when they can’t draw enough amps.

 

[Zaryk]

I’m not a scientist. I just know my triades won’t fire when they can’t draw enough amps.

It's actually cutting off when it can't draw enough volts, not amps.

 

[Hawise]

I’m not a scientist. I just know my triades won’t fire when they can’t draw enough amps.

True, but that only happens once you're well past the CDR and into unsafe territory. The chip doesn't know whether you've got 15 amp batteries or 30 amp batteries, and most will happily try to pull more than 30 amps from either. The CDR is more-or-less what you can take from a good condition battery without damaging the battery significantly. The chip will keep asking for power all through the 'doing damage' territory until it reaches the point where the battery fails. What (usually) happens then is that the mod demands more power than the battery can supply, the battery's voltage collapses and nothing happens. What very rarely happens is that the battery vents or (even more rarely) enters thermal runaway.

Summary: If you've reached the point where your mod won't fire, you passed the safe limit a long time ago.

ETA: @Zaryk is also correct. Your chip should shut you down if you're asking for too many volts, but it won't stop you if you request too many amps.

 

[diagrammatiks]

True, but that only happens once you're well past the CDR and into unsafe territory. The chip doesn't know whether you've got 15 amp batteries or 30 amp batteries, and most will happily try to pull more than 30 amps from either. The CDR is more-or-less what you can take from a good condition battery without damaging the battery significantly. The chip will keep asking for power all through the 'doing damage' territory until it reaches the point where the battery fails. What (usually) happens then is that the mod demands more power than the battery can supply, the battery's voltage collapses and nothing happens. What very rarely happens is that the battery vents or (even more rarely) enters thermal runaway.

Summary: If you've reached the point where your mod won't fire, you passed the safe limit a long time ago.

I’ve monitored this in escribe and I feel like there’s some safety mechanism going on.

Not that I disagree with you. Putting 3 10a cells in a mod and asking for 300 Watts is not safe. But it’s less dangerous with a chip then a mech. Still not great.

The wattage wars are super stupid when there aren’t standardized batteries that can even hit a lot of advertised numbers.

But pertaining to the op. There are no mods that I know of that give you this information as an option. Escribe will do it but it has to be monitored in the software.

 

[Hawise]

I’ve monitored this in escribe and I feel like there’s some safety mechanism going on.

Not that I disagree with you. Putting 3 10a cells in a mod and asking for 300 Watts is not safe. But it’s less dangerous with a chip then a mech. Still not great.

The wattage wars are super stupid when there aren’t standardized batteries that can even hit a lot of advertised numbers.

But pertaining to the op. There are no mods that I know of that give you this information as an option. Escribe will do it but it has to be monitored in the software.

Yes, the voltage limit is a safely mechanism that I wasn't thinking about when I wrote the above post. The real problem is that there's no way to keep the current within safe limits (other than understanding the issues and using proper and authentic batteries), yet a number of people I've encountered believe their regulated mods will do just that.

 

[diagrammatiks]

Yes, the voltage limit is a safely mechanism that I wasn't thinking about when I wrote the above post. The real problem is that there's no way to keep the current within safe limits (other than understanding the issues and using proper and authentic batteries), yet a number of people I've encountered believe their regulated mods will do just that.

I agree. It’s like the left hand doesn’t know or care what the right hand is doing in the industry.

I have a set of hb6. But even those won’t hit the max on the triade safely by any of the standards that mooch suggests.

 

[Baditude]

So some kid puts on a shiny new .15 ohm coil on his TFV12 and dials in 100w using a 15 amp CDR battery and it's not important to display the amperage why exactly?

Coil resistance is only relevant when using a mechanical mod. This type of setup uses Ohm's Law.

With regulated mods the coil resistance is irrelevant because they use Watt's Law. Aside from the fact that the chip has a factory preset for the lowest resistance it will fire (usually 0.1 or 0.2 ohm; check the user's manual or website), what matters is the highest wattage setting that you will use. Based upon that, you choose the appropriate battery with the coresponding amp rating to achieve that wattage setting.

The amps on the display of a regulated mod is usesless info, as already explained by everyone who has responded. The amps displayed has no relevance to coil resistance or the battery.

WATTAGE PER SINGLE BATTERY on REGULATED MOD:
(Total wattage doubles using 2 batteries; Triples using 3 batteries.)

Up to 45W:

Samsung 18650 30Q, 3000 mah 15 amp CDR

Sony 18650VTC6 3000mAh 15 amp CDR

Up to 60W:

LG 18650HG2 3000mah 20 amp CDR

LG 18650HE4 2500 mah 20 amp CDR

Samsung 18650-25R, 2500 mah 20 amp CDR

Sanyo UR18650NSX, 2500 mah 20 amp CDR

Sony 18650VTC5, 2600 mah 20 amp CDR

Sony 18650VTC4, 2100 mah 23 amp CDR

Up to 75W:

LG 18650 HD4 2100 mah 25 amp CDR

LG 18650 HD2 2000 mah 25 amp CDR

Samsung 18650-24S, 2500 mah 25 amp CDR

Sony 18650VTC5A, 2500 mah 25 amp CDR

Up to 90W:

LG18650HB6 1500mah 30 amp CDR

LG18650HB2 1500mAh 30 amp CDR

LG18650HB4 1500mAh 30 amp CDR

Samsung 18650-20S 2000mah 30 amp CDR

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