Sigelei Zmax V3 and V5 Telescopic: User's Group

[poobaca]

Im thinkin about picking up a zmax v5 to use with my atomic rda. I usually build 1.4-1.8 ohm micro coils. From reading the last few pages, stacking 18350's gives you better performance? Ive been vaping for a couple of years now, but have been using mvp's and other devices that dont require separate batteries. Looking for something with some better performance w/ rda's, but dont know if I want to dive into mechs yet.

 

[JeremyR]

An MVP limits you to 11w. With stacked 18350 in the zmax you will get the best performance you've ever got before. With longer battery life than any of its competitors that can't handle stacked batteries; like the provari. This will give you double the battery life compared to a DNA mod that only takes a single battery. Stacked is not completely nessasary, but highly recommended for maximum capability. Also, almost no mod can put out true 15w to 1.5ohm with out stacked configuration.(unless it's DNA)The zmax will not fire below 1.4 so you'll have to stay just above it to avoid issues or fluctuating to 1.3 and not firing. With stack you can fully power a 1.5 ohm coil to 15 true watts. Or even higher with the voltage settings, all the way to 4 amps.

 

[yzer]

But, if you like vaping carto tanks like I do under 10W the smaller form factors of V3 and V5 with single batts are hard to beat.

 

[fairmana]

An MVP limits you to 11w. With stacked 18350 in the zmax you will get the best performance you've ever got before. With longer battery life than any of its competitors that can't handle stacked batteries; like the provari. This will give you double the battery life compared to a DNA mod that only takes a single battery. Stacked is not completely nessasary, but highly recommended for maximum capability. Also, almost no mod can put out true 15w to 1.5ohm with out stacked configuration.(unless it's DNA)The zmax will not fire below 1.4 so you'll have to stay just above it to avoid issues or fluctuating to 1.3 and not firing. With stack you can fully power a 1.5 ohm coil to 15 true watts. Or even higher with the voltage settings, all the way to 4 amps.

The lower resistance limit is actually 1.2 ohms for both the V3 and V5, but we know what you were getting at Jeremy.

 

[AndriaD]

Hey, remember that post a few days ago about using one of the kayfun rings as a beauty ring, to avoid the slight gap with the Sigelei "flat-top"?? Well I got my nano kit today, and this works beautifully!!!

I'm so tickled I'm absolutely dancing!!!


Andria

 

[JeremyR]

The lower resistance limit is actually 1.2 ohms for both the V3 and V5, but we know what you were getting at Jeremy.

Your right they do state 1.2. Mine seems to cut off at 1.3, or should I say the lowest I've been able to get it to fire is 1.3.. I have trouble below 1.4, possibly my coils fluctuate too much hitting 1.2 causing it to low load. It goes from 1.3 to low load. I tend to have an issue if I go below 1.4 - but that may just be the fluctuation +/- with a resistance to no-resistance coil. Nothing like building an awesome 1.3 ohm coil and having it low load half the time if it fluctuates at all.

--
Andria - wow really nice!

 

[MegaVap]

My V3 works best at 1.4 ohm anything lower it will give low load error

BTW, I have had my V3 for over a year, since April 2013, and it is still kicking! Fire button sometimes has few misfires (starts going into the menu) and the internals are slightly pushed up, probably from a few good drops on concrete, but other than that, not bad since I use it everyday!

Still impressed with this mod!

 

[JeremyR]

Good to hear megavap ! ... and the selling point is you still use it every day a year later.

 

[yzer]

Good to hear from you MegaVap. Love it when other one year owners check-in.

 

[JeremyR]

Hey yzer, I'm really starting to think the zmax can put out 20-24w with stacked batteries. IM working on trying to figure it out. Right now it seems like it goes over 15 when turned up in voltage mode. 6v@1.5ohms with stacked would be 24w if it can achieve it. So far I know that I can get a 7v reading off the 510 when fired, compared to 6v with single battery. I'm going to try to rig a testing method under load.

 

[yzer]

Sounds fun, JeremyR. Let me know how it works out. I've also heard that 15W+ can be squeezed out by running in Mean voltage setting as opposed to RMS but can't find the review that stated this.

 

[tunggua]

Hey yzer, I'm really starting to think the zmax can put out 20-24w with stacked batteries. IM working on trying to figure it out. Right now it seems like it goes over 15 when turned up in voltage mode. 6v@1.5ohms with stacked would be 24w if it can achieve it. So far I know that I can get a 7v reading off the 510 when fired, compared to 6v with single battery. I'm going to try to rig a testing method under load.

I'm really interested to know too,as in how much power it can actually deliver.

Could it be that the 7v reading you got when stacked is the peak from the PWM wave? From what I understand, these 33.3 boards will boost up to 7v and pulse the signal from there when stacked.
For single battery, it will boost up to 6v and actually achieves a flat DC signal when set to the max 6v.

I'm trying to get my hands on a true rms voltmeter so that I can measure the voltage under the preferred load in both RMS and Mean.

All the charts I've seen from reviews of mods using this board/chip shows Mean mode can put out quite a bit more power when maxed out.

 

[fairmana]

I'm going to try to rig a testing method under load.

Hey Jeremy, I've also thinking about a good way to "break in" to the 510 connection. The main reason for me is because I want to put the V3 on my O'scope. I'm curious to see what the pulse width modulation (PWM) voltage and duty cycle is for different power levels. I've seen the Busardo video but it doesn't give much specific info.

It might be worth buying one of those "inline voltmeters" that you screw between your device and your tank. I was thinking I could open one up and rig test points for the O'scope (or voltmeter). You could even rig a switch to break the positive wire so you could run your multimeter test leads on each side of the open switch for current measurements. You could close the switch anytime for normal operation. The switch would obviously need to be rated to handle the max current.

The in-line meters that come in a small box might me easier to work with than ones that come in a tube. I'm just not sure if it would be worth paying $15 to $25 just to end up gutting it. The voltmeter won't work on a PWM device anyway, so the meter in these would be useless. The best part of these would probably be the 510 connectors.

Another option would be to buy a small project box and a male and female 510 connector like those sold by MadVapes, and just build a test box from scratch. There would also be more room to mount everything and run the wires. I'm just not crazy about the 510 connectors MadVapes sells because they look flimsy and don't appear to have a nut or any way to mount them solidly in a test box. I don't like the idea of gluing them in (that doesn't seem very strong or reliable). Do you know of a place that sells 510 connectors that you can mount firmly in a hole? I haven't had any luck finding anything on the web in the past. The project box and test sockets you can get from Digikey or Radio Shack.

Any thoughts?

One last thing... as tunggua touched on, you need to be sure your meter can measure the output PWM. Hopefully your digital meter will show you the "average" voltage/current of the PWM signal accurately. I've read that many digital multimeters will do it but you'd want to be sure. For example, a 6 volt PWM square wave at 50% duty cycle should read 3 volts on the meter.

 

[tunggua]

Ok, after posting the above, I got into thinking, what is preventing me from doing the test myself? It doesn't have to be comparable to the other tests I've seen, all I want to know is whether the V5 actually puts out more power in Mean mode and if possible, how much.

The test is actually quite simple,since my nimbus rda is due for a coil change, I'll do the test using that coil as the load.
Took out my most trusted multimeter, a Pro'sKit MT-1210,no idea whether true RMS or not, but I figured whatever values it gives will be in relative to the 'other' values.

APVs:
1. SVD powered by stacked AW18350s set to 6v
2. Sig V5 powered by stacked AW18350s set to 6v in both RMS and Mean
3. Sig 20w powered by VTC4 set to 18w

Test leads on the multimeter are already soldered with alligator clips so it's simple to just clip 'em to the posts of the nimbus with the 2.2ohm coil still intact.

1st up is the SVD. Fired at 6v, the meter reads 5.45v. Did a couple times to make sure the value is consistent,even redo the connections.
Hmmm, that's not too bad,I thought it'll be way off.

Next is V5 in RMS mode, Fired at 6v, the meter reads 4.9v. Huh? Remount on the SVD and same 5.45v. Back to the V5 and still 4.9v double checked everything.Odd
Set to Mean 6v, fired it and the meter reads 5.98v! Set it to 5v and meter reads 4.98v. Hmm seems very close to what I set at the menu,I thought it's the other way round? RMS should be close to what I set and Mean should be way higher?

It's the Sig 20w now, at 18w it indicated a voltage of 6.29v for my 2.2ohm coil. Fired it and the meter reads 6.25V. That's pretty close.


I removed the coil and left the wires on the nimbus just to test with no load readings:

SVD = 4.67v

V5 RMS = 4.25v
V5 Mean = 5.83v

Sig 20w = 6.7v (it defaults to 2.5ohm and 6.7v at 18w with no load)


Made a new 1.9ohm coil and mount it on the nimbus, then retest:

SVD = 5.2v

V5 RMS = 4.95v
V5 Mean = 5.92v

Sig 20w = 5.64v (indicated 5.69v for 18w)


Phew, just for fun, mount my KFL+ with 1.9ohm to the V5 set at 6v Mean and vape it. Instant burnt cotton taste

 

[JeremyR]

In the zmax v3 with stacked high drain 16340's reading 7.9v .. I rigged a coil with two 26g copper no res legs on each side of the 1.4 ohm coil.. So the coil has 4 legs. one connected to atty, the other to my digital meter right off the coil.

1.4 ohm fired in rms at 6 v showed 5.5-5.7v output
So 5.6 avg = 22w at 4 amps!
This would indicate a 1.5 ohm would achieve 6v , 24w , @ 4 amps!

With stacked batteries of course. Single battery would only put out 3.8v@1.5

Unloaded voltages are wierd not sure what's up. In voltage mode it doesn't read right unloaded, must not ramp up, its was like 4s @ 6v. but in wattage mode at 15w unloaded is where I got 6v single & 7v stacked

But I also noticed in mean unloaded in voltage mode it was reading close to accurate too tungua.

 

[tunggua]

Hmm, that looks more like it. Did you try Mean mode on it?

I'm still baffled why my V5 in RMS reads a much lower voltage, like 1 whole volt lower.
Could it be my V5 is 'not quite right'? Or the V3 runs 'differently' than the V5? Or the RMS is screwed and the Mean is somehow correct?

If not for having the SVD and Sig 20w as reference, I would have put it down to my meter playing up.

At least I do know that it can truly deliver 20w.

 

[KDCart]

Hey guys, maybe you can help figure out a problem I'm having. Just got my Zmax v5 in the mail today. Running an AW IMR 18490 battery with a Kanger Aerotank Mega with a 2 ohm coil. It seems no matter what wattage I set the zmax at, the display will only show 5.2 watts... and even when I crank it all the way up to 15 watts, the vape is the same and I can tell no difference. The same thing goes for voltage mode, even set at 6 volts it won't read higher than 3.2. I've emailed the vendor about this (Sweet Vapes) but they are closed and I will probably hear from them tomorrow. So, did I get a defective unit? Oh, in RMS mode, as well.

 

[yzer]

Hey guys, maybe you can help figure out a problem I'm having. Just got my Zmax v5 in the mail today. Running an AW IMR 18490 battery with a Kanger Aerotank Mega with a 2 ohm coil. It seems no matter what wattage I set the zmax at, the display will only show 5.2 watts... and even when I crank it all the way up to 15 watts, the vape is the same and I can tell no difference. The same thing goes for voltage mode, even set at 6 volts it won't read higher than 3.2. I've emailed the vendor about this (Sweet Vapes) but they are closed and I will probably hear from them tomorrow. So, did I get a defective unit? Oh, in RMS mode, as well.

Hi KDCart and welcome to the group. Is the battery charged? The 18490 should read 3.3V to 4.2V at Menu Item #4.

A quick check of all settings for VW operation on the V5.

Menu Item #1: ON
Menu Items #2 or #3: try 7.0 watts
Menu Item #5: set for Display Voltage
Menu Item #6: set for ON
Menu Item #7: set for Power
Menu Item #8: set for RMS
Menu Item #9: set for Mobile OUT OFF

Is the V5 Menu Item #9 set correctly?

 

[JeremyR]

Welcome kD

That's weird your only getting 1.6 amps out of it. Should be able to get 2.5amps or 5v& 12w with a 2.0 ohm. Is the battery really old, or possibly a fake aw? Does the resistance on the v5 show 2.0 ohms

 

[KDCart]

All menus set correctly. charged battery is reading 4.1 volts. Tried a fully charged 18350 i had laying around the house with the exact same results. And the resistance reads 2.0 ohms.