Hi All,
I'm currently working on a review for the RX gen 3 but as since it's not ready i felt it important to get this warning out to potential buyers. I also felt it important to explain exactly why.
I'm gonna start off by saying i was actually sent the mod for review from elementvape.com they wanted me to be able to check the 510 pin and see if it's fixed, I really appreciate that as it seems many reviewers can't tell a good 510 from a bad or just don't want to say anything negative about such a large company. I also wanted to take this opportunity to discuss 510 pins.
So lets start off with what exactly is a "510 pin" on a mod it's basically a generic term for the connection we use from the mod. "510" is a measurement that has become the standard size for vaping mods and atomizers. Now what makes up the 510 pin?
1st you have the "positive side" this is usually done via a plate with a nub that sticks up in the middle or a pin that has the positive wire soldered onto it and has a spring to allow it to have a range of depth to accommodate different lengths of 510 pins. The positive makes contact with the positive pin of the atomizer to make a connection. Ideally you want a strong spring that has a lot of throw or "depth" this will allow you to use both long and short 510 pin atomizers while maintain a good connection
then you have the "negative or ground" side. this is the threading part that the atomizer screws into. The positive and negatives are separated by insulators.
OK now that we know what makes up a 510 pin, lets talk about how it should be. The 510 is an important part of the circuit. like any circuit you want a few things. you want a good connection all around. To complete the circuit the positive load wire needs to be soldered or secured very well to the positive pin/plate and the ground wire off the chip needs to be soldered or secured to the ground (510 threading on the 510 pin) to complete the circuit.
next is the securing of the ground of the 510 pin. there are a few ways to accomplish this
1) press fit - this is the worst way possible as we seen with the predator
2) glue/epoxy - while not ideal, it should work fine as long as the user isn't wrenching down on the atomizer or dropping the mod
3) screwed down - this is an ideal way. seen on a lot of higher end mods the 510 pin is physically screwed into the body of the mod
4) locked in place under the enclosure - usually done with glue or press fit as well but by putting it under the enclosure it won't be able to pop out, not ideal but it'll work
5) secured from inside with locking nut - this is an ideal way for sure. using a locking nut to screw in the 510 ensures it isn't going to move or pop out under any circumstance
1 is bad, 3 and 5 is ideal, 2 and 4 are acceptable
Now lets talk about the importance of a solid circuit with a good ground. You need a solid ground because of the nature of the mods. the mods need to read really low resistances accurate and be able to adjust it's output (especially in temp control) without a solid ground that can't be done. The best way of explaining is if you put a build into an atomizer but don't screw down the negative post screw on the coil you'll see your resistance jump. that's why most atomizers made the transition to grub screws for a solid connection.
A good example of an ideal 510 pin can be seen here
from my vfeng review. as you can see in the pic the positive wire is soldered onto the positive pin, the ground wire is run from the chip's ground to the ground of the 510 pin and soldered on. positive and ground are separated by insulators and the 510 pin itself is secured from the inside via a locking nut.
Now this brings me to the wismec RX gen 3. as you can see here
in the DJLsb teardown there is no ground to the 510 pin. So then you may as, how does the chip ground itself? the chip grounds itself by contacts at the bottom of the chip and uses the body of the mod as a ground wire. This is an extremely bad and inefficient design compared to running a simple ground wire. So lets talk about the issues that it causes
Much like when your build isn't secured in your RBA correctly, it causes resistance to jump around. jumping resistance leads to incosistent output and poor temp performance. Now you may think shouldn't the mod throw up errors? well 1st off it does. "atomizer short" and "getting kicked out of temp control" are 2 errors caused by this. Now it doesn't happen all the time right? True but from my talks with the arctic fox devs wismec/joyetech is so aware of the issue, that they built a tolerance into the firmware to ignore it. AF didn't do that which caused to their forums being flooded with "atomizer short" issues that "didn't happen with stock firmware" i believe they have since added it in their firmware as well due to all the issues. i'm not 100% on it. last i spoke with them, they were considering it. They even made guides about adding a ground wire like this one here
here is a few more posts from AF devs explaining the issue of the poor grounding here
here
and biggest one here
where they say there firmware makes mods worse due to the poor grounding. and they thanked me for trying to bring it to people's attention.
Just in case people don't know who AF is, they are the developers of a free firmware for many joyetech (and sub brands) mods that provide a DNA like feature set to the chip. They disassembly the mods to understand the chips and make firmware for them. really smart dudes and really nice people as well. I have nothing but the utmost respect and love for what they do.
So now lets discuss why joyetech mods kick you out of temp control. It's a built in protection. in temp control the way most mods work is by reading the resistance of the coil, as TC wire coils heat up, their resistance rises. it uses the change in resistance to calculate the approx temp. The reason you get booted is due to poor grounding, the resistance drops when you fire it. this makes the chip kick you out of temp control to protect you. Anytime a joyetech mod kicks you out of temp control (as long as it isn't your atomizer actually shorting due to a bad build) it's due to poor grounding and is an instant indicator of a bad ground and hence bad 510 pin. This info is from the AF devs. I'm no firmware expert but i trust their information. and they are firmware experts. hell they made firmware and a software suite that surpasses any actually manufacturer except maybe evolv and even that's debatable.
So even though i haven't done my formal review of the RX Gen 3 yet i wanted to issue this warning not to purchase it. I see too many "510 is fixed" comments from reviewers and vapers and it's all BS. I've seen people focus on the depth of the 510 and say it's fixed after pushing down on it a few times. it's an absolute joke and ignores what is the real issue which is the lack of a proper grounding. No way should any reviewer have given this mod a pass, and it's a real shame too because i love the size and form factor of it. 1 little 50 cent piece of wire would have made it a great mod
I hope you all find this useful and pass along the information as well, If you have any other questions please AMA I'll do my best to answer them.
I'm currently working on a review for the RX gen 3 but as since it's not ready i felt it important to get this warning out to potential buyers. I also felt it important to explain exactly why.
I'm gonna start off by saying i was actually sent the mod for review from elementvape.com they wanted me to be able to check the 510 pin and see if it's fixed, I really appreciate that as it seems many reviewers can't tell a good 510 from a bad or just don't want to say anything negative about such a large company. I also wanted to take this opportunity to discuss 510 pins.
So lets start off with what exactly is a "510 pin" on a mod it's basically a generic term for the connection we use from the mod. "510" is a measurement that has become the standard size for vaping mods and atomizers. Now what makes up the 510 pin?
1st you have the "positive side" this is usually done via a plate with a nub that sticks up in the middle or a pin that has the positive wire soldered onto it and has a spring to allow it to have a range of depth to accommodate different lengths of 510 pins. The positive makes contact with the positive pin of the atomizer to make a connection. Ideally you want a strong spring that has a lot of throw or "depth" this will allow you to use both long and short 510 pin atomizers while maintain a good connection
then you have the "negative or ground" side. this is the threading part that the atomizer screws into. The positive and negatives are separated by insulators.
OK now that we know what makes up a 510 pin, lets talk about how it should be. The 510 is an important part of the circuit. like any circuit you want a few things. you want a good connection all around. To complete the circuit the positive load wire needs to be soldered or secured very well to the positive pin/plate and the ground wire off the chip needs to be soldered or secured to the ground (510 threading on the 510 pin) to complete the circuit.
next is the securing of the ground of the 510 pin. there are a few ways to accomplish this
1) press fit - this is the worst way possible as we seen with the predator
2) glue/epoxy - while not ideal, it should work fine as long as the user isn't wrenching down on the atomizer or dropping the mod
3) screwed down - this is an ideal way. seen on a lot of higher end mods the 510 pin is physically screwed into the body of the mod
4) locked in place under the enclosure - usually done with glue or press fit as well but by putting it under the enclosure it won't be able to pop out, not ideal but it'll work
5) secured from inside with locking nut - this is an ideal way for sure. using a locking nut to screw in the 510 ensures it isn't going to move or pop out under any circumstance
1 is bad, 3 and 5 is ideal, 2 and 4 are acceptable
Now lets talk about the importance of a solid circuit with a good ground. You need a solid ground because of the nature of the mods. the mods need to read really low resistances accurate and be able to adjust it's output (especially in temp control) without a solid ground that can't be done. The best way of explaining is if you put a build into an atomizer but don't screw down the negative post screw on the coil you'll see your resistance jump. that's why most atomizers made the transition to grub screws for a solid connection.
A good example of an ideal 510 pin can be seen here
Now this brings me to the wismec RX gen 3. as you can see here
Much like when your build isn't secured in your RBA correctly, it causes resistance to jump around. jumping resistance leads to incosistent output and poor temp performance. Now you may think shouldn't the mod throw up errors? well 1st off it does. "atomizer short" and "getting kicked out of temp control" are 2 errors caused by this. Now it doesn't happen all the time right? True but from my talks with the arctic fox devs wismec/joyetech is so aware of the issue, that they built a tolerance into the firmware to ignore it. AF didn't do that which caused to their forums being flooded with "atomizer short" issues that "didn't happen with stock firmware" i believe they have since added it in their firmware as well due to all the issues. i'm not 100% on it. last i spoke with them, they were considering it. They even made guides about adding a ground wire like this one here
Just in case people don't know who AF is, they are the developers of a free firmware for many joyetech (and sub brands) mods that provide a DNA like feature set to the chip. They disassembly the mods to understand the chips and make firmware for them. really smart dudes and really nice people as well. I have nothing but the utmost respect and love for what they do.
So now lets discuss why joyetech mods kick you out of temp control. It's a built in protection. in temp control the way most mods work is by reading the resistance of the coil, as TC wire coils heat up, their resistance rises. it uses the change in resistance to calculate the approx temp. The reason you get booted is due to poor grounding, the resistance drops when you fire it. this makes the chip kick you out of temp control to protect you. Anytime a joyetech mod kicks you out of temp control (as long as it isn't your atomizer actually shorting due to a bad build) it's due to poor grounding and is an instant indicator of a bad ground and hence bad 510 pin. This info is from the AF devs. I'm no firmware expert but i trust their information. and they are firmware experts. hell they made firmware and a software suite that surpasses any actually manufacturer except maybe evolv and even that's debatable.
So even though i haven't done my formal review of the RX Gen 3 yet i wanted to issue this warning not to purchase it. I see too many "510 is fixed" comments from reviewers and vapers and it's all BS. I've seen people focus on the depth of the 510 and say it's fixed after pushing down on it a few times. it's an absolute joke and ignores what is the real issue which is the lack of a proper grounding. No way should any reviewer have given this mod a pass, and it's a real shame too because i love the size and form factor of it. 1 little 50 cent piece of wire would have made it a great mod
I hope you all find this useful and pass along the information as well, If you have any other questions please AMA I'll do my best to answer them.
