Sigelei Zmax V3 and V5 Telescopic: User's Group

[yzer]

A soldering pencil is a low-wattage, small soldering iron. This is what is needed for small solid state electronics. In the photo of the workbench the soldering pencil is on the right side of the photo. It has a red handle and is resting in a soldering iron holder. The soldering iron holder has a black base, a coiled wire holder and sponge in the base for cleaning soldering tips. It's a Weller 12W pencil and costs less than $15. The right tools are a must for this job.

 

[AndriaD]

A soldering pencil is a low-wattage, small soldering iron. This is what is needed for small solid state electronics. In the photo of the workbench the soldering pencil is on the right side of the photo. It has a red handle and is resting in a soldering iron holder. The soldering iron holder has a black base, a coiled wire holder and sponge in the base for cleaning soldering tips. It's a Weller 12W pencil and costs less than $15. The right tools are a must for this job.

Ok, I'll tell him about it; of course then he'll be following me around, just waiting for the button to fail so he has an excuse to go to harbor freight and buy a new tool.

Andria

 

[yzer]

Ok, I'll tell him about it; of course then he'll be following me around, just waiting for the button to fail so he has an excuse to go to harbor freight and buy a new tool.

Andria

I work on WWII radio gear has a hobby and use a bigger soldering gun for that. The soldering pencil is really handy. I use it for stuff around the house and on the boat, too. Once you start using tools they get very handy.

 

[67Tele]

Thanks yzer!

 

[fairmana]

The switch replacement looks to be coming along nicely Yzer.

One comment: Instead of cutting the plastic pegs completely off on the bottom of the B3W-4005 switch, I've been sanding them down until the full switch height is the same 5 mm as the original switch (the switch body is only 4.3 mm without the pegs). My thoughts were that the pegs would provide additional support for the switch at 5mm since they would rest on the circuit board. Keeping the switch at 5mm should also to keep the outer button from having any extra room to rattle or wobble around due to the extra space.

The switch should work at the lower profile you have (4.3 mm), but you might not be happy with the extra switch wobble. Here is my original post farther back in this thread regarding the switch.

 

[tchavei]

I wouldn't call it immortality mod... 1000000 clicks is about 4 years of normal use (10.000 clicks a week)

Regards
Tony

 

[yzer]

The switch replacement looks to be coming along nicely Yzer.

One comment: Instead of cutting the plastic pegs completely off on the bottom of the B3W-4005 switch, I've been sanding them down until the full switch height is the same 5 mm as the original switch (the switch body is only 4.3 mm without the pegs). My thoughts were that the pegs would provide additional support for the switch at 5mm since they would rest on the circuit board. Keeping the switch at 5mm should also to keep the outer button from having any extra room to rattle or wobble around due to the extra space.

The switch should work at the lower profile you have (4.3 mm), but you might not be happy with the extra switch wobble. Here is my original post farther back in this thread regarding the switch.

I'll let you know about the switch fit later today. The silicon plug under the button provides a tight fit on the switch. I did a dry fit with the switch on the board unsoldered and it fit fine with just enough looseness to allow the button to turn easily without rattling. I may want the fit a little more snug than that. If I do a single piece of electrical tape under the switch before soldering will probably work fine. Thanks for the heads up. If the measurement is way off I'll just trim another switch.

 

[yzer]

I wouldn't call it immortality mod... 1000000 clicks is about 4 years of normal use (10.000 clicks a week)

Regards
Tony

You are correct. I average 700 puffs per day. Let me tell you, these Sigelei folks are very special and won't be snookered. Four years is 1,022,000 switch cycles for me. That's why I have 10 replacement switches. Spoilsport.

 

[tchavei]

Heheheh. Good for you my only gripe with my mini zMax tight now is that the button (chromed plastic) is starting to show some wear. The edges start looking brass like and it's one month old... In six months I should have a brass button instead of chrome



Regards
Tony

Sent from my GT-I9195 through Tapatalk

 

[yzer]

We have seen chromed plastic buttons on quite a few V5s. They have the IEC power symbol on them. We have reports of these wearing down to the white plastic.

The solid metal button seems to be machined stainless steel. It has a flat face without the power symbol. I think fairmana has one, too. We bought ours from Desert Vapes last spring.

 

[yzer]

The true meaning of the IEC power symbol is a little more complicated. It actually means the device can be put into a standby or sleep mode.

Modern Symbol | bstouch

http://unicodepowersymbol.com/

 

[Patrick H]

We have seen chromed plastic buttons on quite a few V5s. They have the IEC power symbol on them. We have reports of these wearing down to the white plastic.

The solid metal button seems to be machined stainless steel. It has a flat face without the power symbol. I think fairmana has one, too. We bought ours from Desert Vapes last spring.

YEp, one of my V3's buttons is showing white plastic around the bottom 50% edge.

 

[yzer]

Time for the next exciting episode of Immortality Mod.

I went back and deleted what I wrote earlier about trimming down the pegs on the Omron switch. I did a lot of dry fitting and measuring and fairmana was right. This time I dry fitted everything with the button and silicon plug fully pulled out and the difference was there.

So, I trimmed another Omron switch and this time sanded the pegs down to .75mm. This worked just perfectly.

Looking down into the tube from the top cap end. The switch has been soldered in place and everything is dry fitted together. The silicon plug snugs up to the yellow plastic seal on the Omron switch but doesn't press it down. There is zero play on the button.

Soldering is done. I inspected the solder joins with a 14x loupe and they are good. Leftover flux was cleaned off parts with a Q-Tip dampened in alcohol. I threw the metal button and plug into this shot just for the heck of it.

All that is left is final cleaning, assembly and glue for the outside of the half-round housing. I was planning on using a thick polyurethane for this job but will try something different that I have on hand. Depending on how confident I am of the glue job this evening I may or may not make a spacer for between the steel 510/eGo press fitting and the half-round housing.

Thanks are owed to fairmana who dreamed up this operation, found the part and did it the first time. I'm just following in his footsteps.

 

[tchavei]

That sucks... Are there metal replacement buttons for sale?

Regards
Tony

Sent from my GT-I9195 through Tapatalk

 

[yzer]

That sucks... Are there metal replacement buttons for sale?

Regards
Tony

Sent from my GT-I9195 through Tapatalk

I don't know, tchavei. I've never seen any Sigelei-manufactured parts sold separately anywhere.

 

[tchavei]

There must be a button that will fit and that is stainless steel. It's not that important but it would be one step closer to perfection


Regards
Tony

Sent from my GT-I9195 through Tapatalk

 

[yzer]

I looked at the original glue left on the outside of the half-round housing and the more I looked, scraped and sampled the more it looked like super glue. So I forgot about using the marine polys I had and pulled out a tube of superglue.

I sanded the old glue off the plastic housing and cleaned it and the the inside of the steel tube with alcohol. I practiced dry fitting the assembly back into the tube several times without the button in place. This allowed me to look inside the button hole in the tube and compare that to how the yellow Omron button looked from the top end of the tube when centered. Metal buttons will not allow you to look through the button for alignment like a clear plastic button will. After half a dozen tries I could do this quick enough to try it with fast-setting superglue.

A couple of glue drops went onto the housing near the top end. Once the assembly was pushed into place and adjusted two more drops went onto the top edge of the housing. I let it sit and soak as long as thought wise and wiped out most of the excess.

Next was replacement of the 510/eGo assembly. This is a drift fit. It has to be pounded in. It would be nice to do this compression on a vice but mine isn't large enough. The cap had to be turned in such a way that neither of the wires came in contact with the board. I set the Sigelei upright on the work bench. With the left hand I held the Sigelei steady on the work bench while holding a piece of hardwood (Ash) flat on top of the 510 connector. I then gave the wood a sharp hit with a rubber mallet.

It took a dozen more whacks to finish this drift job. All of these remaining whacks were done with the edge of the wood placed on the flange just below the eGo threads. I rotated the Sigelei for each hit, hitting the highest point each time until the 510/eGo connector was completely seated.

All that was left to do was stick in a battery and see if it fired. No problem. The V5 booted up normally and I took a few vapes. I took battery out to relieve stress on the glue. I'll let the superglue dry until tomorrow.

The Omron switch tactile response and audible click is a little softer than that from the Sigelei switches when they new or operating correctly but they certainly feel fine to me. No gashes or dents. The V5 survived.

 

[yzer]

I'm using the V5 again today. I'll do an autopsy on the failed switch and take a picture if there is anything interesting to be seen. It wasn't making any clicking sound at all when it failed. There was hardly any tactile feedback, either.

 

[fairmana]

I'm using the V5 again today. I'll do an autopsy on the failed switch and take a picture if there is anything interesting to be seen. It wasn't making any clicking sound at all when it failed. There was hardly any tactile feedback, either.

Wow, is sounds like that switch failed hard. I'm surprised to hear it wouldn't click or provide much feedback. Of the switches that I've replaced, none displayed any of those symptoms. I wonder if the lens-shaped disk inside the switch collapsed or deformed? I can't wait to see the results of your "autopsy".

 

[fairmana]

I got a little little burring on the eGo treads from the threads breaking through the cardboard and hitting the vice jaws but they should still work. I only use 510, anyway.

I did the exact same thing on my V5 eGo threads while using my piece of bicycle inner tube. I guess I didn't realize that the rubber was a bit worn from using it several times before, so the jaws of my pliers were able to bite through. I did manage to fix the threads with a small file, and otherwise it's no biggie because I don't use those threads either. However it's a little embarrassing because it happened while I was recording my YouTube video. LOL!

Anyway, it will be the first YouTube video I've ever posted so I guess I'll be popping that cherry. I've been trying to get through the editing with some software I got my hands on and it's been time consuming as I learn to use it. Hopefully it won't turn out too bad. Looking back at the video, I feel like I could have been more organized and clearer on some points and I also seem to talk a little too softly in some places. I boosted the volume so hopefully it won't be too hard to hear. The video looks like it's going to be about 40 minutes total (not sure how that happened), so I broke it into 2 parts. I made sure to register on YouTube and went through the motions of enabling videos longer than 15 minutes, so I'm hoping the video lengths won't be an issue. I'm not sure how long it will take to upload both parts (1.2 and 1.4 gig) or how the quality will turn out once YouTube renders/compresses them. I'll be sure to post the link here when (if) I get the video up.