Sigelei Zmax V3 and V5 Telescopic: User's Group

[yzer]

Read back a few pages here. Lots of discussion about stacked 18350s. I know one of our guys uses stacked Efest IMR red 18350s and hits over 15W.

 

[Juvecoop]

Read back a few pages here. Lots of discussion about stacked 18350s. I know one of our guys uses stacked Efest IMR red 18350s and hits over 15W.

Thanks for the info. I got a little worried when i saw originally 310 pages. I would have never made it through all 310 thanks for letting me know it was only a few pages back.

 

[tchavei]

Now I'm a little confused... your zMax shows another W value when you fire it i.e. it shows you the actual Watts its firing into the coil? I don't think my mini does that... it always shows 10W (which is what I set it to) right until the battery dies... heck I always believed it was showing the selected Watts and not the true watts being pushed through the coil. This is a new one for me...

I'm using 18350 btw so if unless the control boards are different, I doubt mine is showing real values... rather set values?

Regards

PS: stacked 18350 are still working fine right now... 6 hours strait and I'm at 7.4V still

 

[tchavei]

Yes, a weak battery spring could certainly affect performance. These springs usually compress after a month or so of use. A new spring is about 17mm tall. It's not unusual to see them compress down a couple of mm. If this is an issue causing poor battery contact then you can stretch the spring a little.

This spring shrinkage is not so much an issue with telescopic V3 or V5 as it is with Mini and V2. If the spring has compressed you can just tighten the telescopic tube a little more to compensate.

These areas are worth checking:

-clean + and - contacts on the battery with a clean cloth
-clean the battery + contact inside of the tube, the battery spring, the inside of the battery cap and the tube and cap threads with a soft cloth dampened in alcohol. This should be regular maintenance done every few weeks, every month, whatever it takes
-apply a thin film of Noalox on tube threads to improve conductivity

Thx for the advice Can do everything besides the noalox stuff... I don't think they sell something like that over here.

Regards
Tony

 

[yzer]

Thx for the advice Can do everything besides the noalox stuff... I don't think they sell something like that over here.

Regards
Tony

Whoops, I missed your location. If home builders ever made the mistake of installing aluminum wiring in Portugal like they did years ago in the USA, then you probably have a product similar to Noalox available. If you keep the threads clean you will probably have no trouble and won't need Noalox. It's nice to have, though.

 

[JeremyR]

Just bought this regulated mod because I bought the new bvc coils for my Nautilus and felt that I wasn't getting the full potential of the coil on my MVP2. I'm using 1.8 ohm coil. My question is and sorry if I sound like an idiot but why on a full charge 18650 or 18350 when set at 15 watts the actual watts showing when I hit the fire button is around 11 watts? and drops quickly down after that, regardless if in rms or mean mode. I'm using the sigelei batteries that came with the starter kit

Correct me if I'm wrong but from my understanding from what I've been reading on here is that the 4.2 volt battery 18650 or 18350 is not enough to hit the full 15 watts so the mod will not allow it is this correct?

any recommendation on how I call hit the 15 watts as it seems like a waste if it can not.

This feature is a great advancement for vapers. It tells you exactly what your getting out of it. Knowledge and calculation are no longer needed.

The zmax and many others have an amp limit of 2.5 amps with a single battery. This means it will not fire with an output current higher than 2.5.

Based on that this is the power you can get out of it at 1.8 ohms





To get 15w you have to use a 2.4 ohm coil, @ 6v/15w its a 2.5 amp load.


With stacked batteries you get the 4 amp limit. You would be able to hit up to 20w set at 6v. The maximum potential with stacked batteries is 1.5 ohms this is the potential.




So the answer to you question is stacked batteries.

A Matched set of new 18350 imr batteries(like efest), pairs labeled & kept together. It will outlast the battery life of a single battery by 2-3 times easily.

 

[yzer]

Great explanation above, jeremyR. I keep forgetting about the 2.5A limit for single batteries.

 

[tchavei]

Whoops, I missed your location. If home builders ever made the mistake of installing aluminum wiring in Portugal like they did years ago in the USA, then you probably have a product similar to Noalox available. If you keep the threads clean you will probably have no trouble and won't need Noalox. It's nice to have, though.

Naahh... its all cooper here and I guess it always was. Never even heard there was such a thing as aluminium wiring. I do remember having a contact spray with copper particles but that stuff was sticky and would never come off. Have to check what the professionals use here for promoting contact besides stuff with graphite in it.

Thx for the heads up.

Regards
Tony

EDIT: actually that spray was the same as loctite 8065 (copper based anti seize)... should work but make an ugly mess

 

[yzer]

Naahh... its all cooper here and I guess it always was. Never even heard there was such a thing as aluminium wiring. I do remember having a contact spray with copper particles but that stuff was sticky and would never come off. Have to check what the professionals use here for promoting contact besides stuff with graphite in it.

Thx for the heads up.

Regards
Tony

Aluminum household wiring was installed in some areas of the USA during the 60's and 70's. If the wiring was not properly terminated with an oxide inhibitor (like Noalox) fires could result. Home builders went back to using copper wiring.

 

[tchavei]

Jeez, sounds pretty nasty... kinda like asbestos roofs and pipelines they used here in the 70/80... they are still removing that stuff from buildings 30 years later as it is a known cancerogenic substance.

Regards
Tony

 

[dsconnell]

Yes, a weak battery spring could certainly affect performance. These springs usually compress after a month or so of use. A new spring is about 17mm tall. It's not unusual to see them compress down a couple of mm. If this is an issue causing poor battery contact then you can stretch the spring a little.

This spring shrinkage is not so much an issue with telescopic V3 or V5 as it is with Mini and V2. If the spring has compressed you can just tighten the telescopic tube a little more to compensate.

These areas are worth checking:

-clean + and - contacts on the battery with a clean cloth
-clean the battery + contact inside of the tube, the battery spring, the inside of the battery cap and the tube and cap threads with a soft cloth dampened in alcohol. This should be regular maintenance done every few weeks, every month, whatever it takes
-apply a thin film of Noalox on tube threads to improve conductivity

See, this is what's so great about this thread.
I had to do work on my fixed tube V2 so I ended up taking the guts out of my Telescoping V3 and put all those parts in the V2. I couldn't figure out why I was still getting misfires after the transplant. It turns out the battery spring had collapsed down to about 13mm instead of the suggested 17mm. I'll test it some more but it appears to be fixed...no more problems.
The donor V3 has been my spare so I know it had very little use and I just couldn't figure out why I was getting the misfires after the transplant...now I know...spring tension. Sometimes we overlook the simple things and look for the more complicated solutions. KISS...keep it simple...stupid!

 

[tchavei]

I love being right lol

 

[dsconnell]

Was there any way to remove both halves of the broken insulator from the top cap without damaging it further? If you could do that, you could glue it back together and then put the insulator back in with your new pin. I'm not sure if your insulator is the same, but check out this post. Your insulator could be threaded like the one shown there which means you could remove it by un-threading it out of the bottom of the top cap. I was able to use a sharp dental tool to turn and un-thread the one shown in the link. It might be more challenging since it broke into two pieces, but it still might be doable. If your insulator is a different style and fitted a different way, you still might be able to push both broken halves out somehow so they can be cleaned with alcohol and super glued back together. Saving that insulator would save you the major trouble of having to find a replacement or fabricate something from scratch.

Anyway, best of luck on your fix and be sure to post back and let us know how it went. I'm sure that several of us will be interested.

The 510 pin insulator was broken into two pieces...the flat horizontal collar and the vertical sleeve. There really was no way to affix the two pieces back together although I did try, and no, my insulator didn't have threads. I ended up using a 510 pin from a donor 510 to 801 adapter, the original flat horizontal part of the original insulator and a protank pin insulator. I replaced the switch with the new digi-key switch, I colored the bottom of the switch button with electrical tape because I didn't want the yellow of the new switch showing through the actuator button, I put a very small piece of tape around the plus side of the board, where it pushes through the black disk in the tube and I made a spacer to hold the board in place. I soldered the wires back on and put the top cap back on. Now I have a straight tube V2 with the V3 board and top cap, and a V3 telescoping unit with a V2 board and V2 top cap. They both work very well, the buttons are good, the 510 connections are good and the displays are centered and straight...at least for now. The telescoping V2 will go back into the box until I need it again and all is well in my Sigelei world.

 

[AndriaD]

Jeez, sounds pretty nasty... kinda like asbestos roofs and pipelines they used here in the 70/80... they are still removing that stuff from buildings 30 years later as it is a known cancerogenic substance.

Regards
Tony

Yeah... imagine my chagrin when I heard that my old elementary school had been torn down... due to asbestos insulation! So if I ever did get lung cancer, who knows what really caused it? Cigarettes or asbestos! At least I only attended that school from 5th thru 7th grade.

Andria

 

[tchavei]

I would still bet on cigs... You can't imagine how bad I felt after a pneumonia followed by a three or four month long bronchitis that ended three days after I started to vape.

Regards
Tony

 

[fairmana]

Jeremy, I just double-checked the spec's on the V2, V3, and V5, and all of these Sigelei devices show at least a 4 amp output limit spec. Is Sigelei overstating that spec and in reality it's really a 2.5 amp limit? I may be overlooking or forgetting something in regard to that 2.5 amp limit, so please correct me if I'm off track here. I've never played with pushing the amp limit, so I have no experience regarding any "true" current boundary that might exist.

Based on what I plugged into the Steam Engine Battery Drain calculator:

Battery fully charged:
Battery charge at 4.2 V (1 x 18650)
1.8 ohm atty
15 watt setting
Atty Voltage 5.2 V
Atty Current 2.89 A
Battery Drain 3.97 A

Battery depleted
Battery charge at 3.2 V (1 x 18650)
1.8 ohm atty
15 watt setting
Atty Voltage 5.2 V
Atty Current 2.89 A
Battery Drain 5.21 A

These figures are pulling about 3 amps, so if there is truly a 2.5 amp limit, then it's being exceeded. Also based on these results, a fully charged battery will go through a range of current draw from about 4 amps at fully charged up to about 5 amps when it's at its lowest charge. The battery would need to be able to handle that 5 amp drain when it's close to being depleted at around 3.2 volts.

The Steam Calculator I used above also has a "Mod Range" calculator (see tabs at the top of the page) with mod specific values and ranges for various devices with their upper and lower limits already input for you. I can't say the values they show are completely accurate for the Sigelei's that they list, so be sure to double check them if you use them. I saw a few values that didn't seem quite right to me, but I could be wrong.

 

[fairmana]

The 510 pin insulator was broken into two pieces...the flat horizontal collar and the vertical sleeve. There really was no way to affix the two pieces back together although I did try, and no, my insulator didn't have threads. I ended up using a 510 pin from a donor 510 to 801 adapter, the original flat horizontal part of the original insulator and a protank pin insulator. I replaced the switch with the new digi-key switch, I colored the bottom of the switch button with electrical tape because I didn't want the yellow of the new switch showing through the actuator button, I put a very small piece of tape around the plus side of the board, where it pushes through the black disk in the tube and I made a spacer to hold the board in place. I soldered the wires back on and put the top cap back on. Now I have a straight tube V2 with the V3 board and top cap, and a V3 telescoping unit with a V2 board and V2 top cap. They both work very well, the buttons are good, the 510 connections are good and the displays are centered and straight...at least for now. The telescoping V2 will go back into the box until I need it again and all is well in my Sigelei world.

Great job! Glad to hear you got both devices up and running!

 

[JeremyR]

Following post is replying to fairmana

 

[JeremyR]

There is not longer a debate on the subject. I've been vindicated. lol

I've been saying this for a long time. The new v5 tells you directly. That's why it said 11w for 1.8 set at 15w. It is 2.5 with one battery. The 4 amps is totally achievable, but only with stacked batteries. The vamo is the same you need stacked to reach the max amp limit.

Also Try inputting a bat charged at. 8.4; the stacked voltage in the calculator. You'll see its half the amp drain also.

This couple with 2v of runtime is why it lasts so much longer also. Double the run time volts, half the amp drain on the battery, the chip only bucks not boosts. All this is a recipe for 3 times Battery life per charge.

 

[fairmana]

Jeremy, good job figuring out there was a 2.5 amp limit when using a single battery. I was confused regarding the higher specification put out by Sigelei and the 2.5 amp limit that was being discussed here, so thanks for the clarification. As I mentioned, I vaguely recalled reading about a 2.5 amp limit in this thread, but couldn't remember the specifics. Based on what you've posted, Sigelei is definitely overstating the spec's on these devices. They should be more specific on the facts regarding a 2.5 amp limit with the boost circuit and a 4 amp limit with the buck converter.

None of this affects my current vaping habits since I use higher ohm atty's an don't vape anywhere near 15 watts, but still... A manufacturer should be clear regarding the capabilities and limitations of their products. This info would be lost on owners vaping in the lower ohms/higher watts were it not for this thread, so again, well done.