Sigelei Zmax V3 and V5 Telescopic: User's Group
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I've had my V5 for over 10 months now, and it's still going strong even with some serious drops. The fire button can be finicky and not fire or scroll through the menu during hits, but it doesn't happen all the time. Noalox is a must.
Recently I started building coils and wanted to know exactly the lowest ohms the V5 will still fire. I want to say it's 1.5 ohms, but I havent been able to find out for sure.
Recently I started building coils and wanted to know exactly the lowest ohms the V5 will still fire. I want to say it's 1.5 ohms, but I havent been able to find out for sure.
My Vmax is waiting for me at the office. I will meet it tomorrow. With any luck the charger and battery will be there as well.
Don't know how I did it, but looking back I discovered I have a V3 and not a V5. Still will be happy to have it. Going to be putting it to use soon, as I just busted one of my iSticks pulling up the pin to replace the oring.
Don't know how I did it, but looking back I discovered I have a V3 and not a V5. Still will be happy to have it. Going to be putting it to use soon, as I just busted one of my iSticks pulling up the pin to replace the oring.
Hello TractorWill. I agree that Noalox is a must. The symptoms you describe with your button may be the first signs that the button is starting to go bad. This happened to me on all 3 of my Zmax's after for the first couple of months until it got so bad that I had to replace the switches (two V3's and one V5). Hopefully, your button won't get any worse but if it does, this forum thread contains detailed instructions and photo's on how to replace the switch as well as a YouTube video I put together.
If you read the Sigelei V5 product description, it states that 1.2 ohms is the lowest resistance it will accept. However when I've tried anything between 1.2 and 1.3, mine didn't want to play ball (screen showed the low ohm error). The lowest I could go was 1.3, but that may differ with your device. Best of luck to you!
For those that may be interested in adding a grip to your Sigelei, believe it or not with some patience these type will work.
http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/595233/Office-Depot-Brand-Gel-Pencil-Pillows/;jsessionid=0000S0nqshXwnVIc6i5wdYcqQvn:17h4h7b45
This is in 18650 mode and its just the right spacing to allow 1/8 battery indent for the short cap.
Longevity I'm not sure of yet.
http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/595233/Office-Depot-Brand-Gel-Pencil-Pillows/;jsessionid=0000S0nqshXwnVIc6i5wdYcqQvn:17h4h7b45
This is in 18650 mode and its just the right spacing to allow 1/8 battery indent for the short cap.
Longevity I'm not sure of yet.
I'm coming upon the six month mark with my Z5s and they have performed flawlessly. Apologies for asking but, what's the procedure for noaloxing the button?
I also have two of the Sigelei 20watt thati snagged off the classifieds and should probably give them a "lube" too.
Thanks for any suggestions.
I also have two of the Sigelei 20watt thati snagged off the classifieds and should probably give them a "lube" too.
Thanks for any suggestions.
Noalox won't help anything on the button or switch. Noalox can help on the tube and battery cap threads. I have used Noalox on my two V3s but never on the 7 month old V5. I just keep the threads very clean on the V5 and haven't had any trouble.
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The threads on the V5 don't seem to be machined differently from the V3. I just used different approaches on using Noalox to see what worked and what didn't. The results were not conclusive for me.
-V3 #1: first generation V3 purchased 4/2013. Used Noalox after noticing misfire that could be corrected by tigntening or wiggling the tube. Used Noalox and problem went away.
-V3 #2: second generation V3 purchased 11/2013. Used Noalox from the very beginning. No problems of any kind.
-V5 purchased 4/2014. Never used Noalox and have never seen the need to. The switch died prematurely at four months. I replaced the switch with a better one.
The nice thing about not using Noalox is that the tube spins easily for fast battery re-sizing. Noaloxed tubes will turn but will not spin freely.
-V3 #1: first generation V3 purchased 4/2013. Used Noalox after noticing misfire that could be corrected by tigntening or wiggling the tube. Used Noalox and problem went away.
-V3 #2: second generation V3 purchased 11/2013. Used Noalox from the very beginning. No problems of any kind.
-V5 purchased 4/2014. Never used Noalox and have never seen the need to. The switch died prematurely at four months. I replaced the switch with a better one.
The nice thing about not using Noalox is that the tube spins easily for fast battery re-sizing. Noaloxed tubes will turn but will not spin freely.
Both of my V3s are working with the original switches. V3 #1 will misfire once in a while. I should replace that switch when I get around it it. V3 #2 has never misfired. I have been using the V5 (with the new switch) most of the time for the last seven months.
Well, I'm up and running. Think I might lube my threads tonight. I've never had a mod like this and I keep feeling like the thing wants to telescope open more. It will definitely take some getting used to. Big ole thing. I need to snag some smaller batteries. Just to get myself started I got an efest 18650. I think I'd be happier with with an 18350. Yes, shorter vape time, lighter for now will help me work my way up to the weight of this beast.
And would decrease the comments about my sonic screwdriver and the light saber sound effects.
And when I told him I had a new toy, he could care less. "Its your money."
Oh, ebayer did not include the second battery end cap or any paperwork.
Is there anywhere to get a replacement part? And can I use the smaller battery with this end cap? Is there a downloadable manual anywhere?
Haven't post for some time, just a quick update if anyone find it usefull.
My V5 have been dropped numerous times, to the point of the removable top cap wouldn't tighten down anymore, the board shifted up quite a bit and the misfires getting more frequent. It still works if the button is pressed down firmly.
Even though I got other mods to replace it but I still kind of felt attached to it. Obvious way is to fix it. I remembered reading here people like fairmana,Jeremy R,yzer(sorry if I've mistaken) and few others managed to remove the top cap as it is pressed fit.
I used a discarded CE5 clearo to screw down the ego threads on the V5 tightly, then wrapped the knurling portion of the CE5 with masking tape and clamped that part on a vise as tight as I could without breaking.
With batteries removed and telescoping tube all the way up, I tried wigglying it and initially don't seem to budge at all. With more patience, I began to see gap between the top cap and the body of the V5 till it finally popped out. Wires are all intact and the board slides out easily.
Cleaned up all I can then put couple drops of contact cleaner and lubricant into the gaps between the switch and switch body, press the button and rotate a few times. Assemble the board back into the body, then cut a semi-circle 1mm thick cardboard and put it on top of where the half round plastic cover is(opposite the screen) to prevent the board shifting up again.
Since my button is the clear plastic, it's easy to align it to the switch on the board. When I got it aligned, the screen sits a bit too low rather than centered on the window, but it's ok to me coz everything is readable and its straight rather than crooked. Then stuffed a small piece if cardboard between the half round plastic and body wall to make it snug and prevent the alignment from shifting when driving the top cap back on.
Took a 15mm deep socket wrench which clears the 510/ego part and bears on the flat land of the cap. I suppose I can use the vise to press it in, but I just used a small hammer to lightly knock it back in.
Chuck in the 2 x 18350 into it, and button works real good with a lighter effort to boot
Did a test on the max power the V5 can put out. It seems that mine would not fire anything below 1.4ohms.
With a 1.4ohm coil, set to Mean, 6V it fires at 5.85 according to my multimeter, that's like 24W? No wonder it hits harder than my Sig20W at 20W. If not mistaken,Jeremy R also tested it to 24-25W?
I still love this V5, been to a lot of places with me, very reliable,compact and powerful(with 2 x 18350s)
My V5 have been dropped numerous times, to the point of the removable top cap wouldn't tighten down anymore, the board shifted up quite a bit and the misfires getting more frequent. It still works if the button is pressed down firmly.
Even though I got other mods to replace it but I still kind of felt attached to it. Obvious way is to fix it. I remembered reading here people like fairmana,Jeremy R,yzer(sorry if I've mistaken) and few others managed to remove the top cap as it is pressed fit.
I used a discarded CE5 clearo to screw down the ego threads on the V5 tightly, then wrapped the knurling portion of the CE5 with masking tape and clamped that part on a vise as tight as I could without breaking.
With batteries removed and telescoping tube all the way up, I tried wigglying it and initially don't seem to budge at all. With more patience, I began to see gap between the top cap and the body of the V5 till it finally popped out. Wires are all intact and the board slides out easily.
Cleaned up all I can then put couple drops of contact cleaner and lubricant into the gaps between the switch and switch body, press the button and rotate a few times. Assemble the board back into the body, then cut a semi-circle 1mm thick cardboard and put it on top of where the half round plastic cover is(opposite the screen) to prevent the board shifting up again.
Since my button is the clear plastic, it's easy to align it to the switch on the board. When I got it aligned, the screen sits a bit too low rather than centered on the window, but it's ok to me coz everything is readable and its straight rather than crooked. Then stuffed a small piece if cardboard between the half round plastic and body wall to make it snug and prevent the alignment from shifting when driving the top cap back on.
Took a 15mm deep socket wrench which clears the 510/ego part and bears on the flat land of the cap. I suppose I can use the vise to press it in, but I just used a small hammer to lightly knock it back in.
Chuck in the 2 x 18350 into it, and button works real good with a lighter effort to boot
Did a test on the max power the V5 can put out. It seems that mine would not fire anything below 1.4ohms.
With a 1.4ohm coil, set to Mean, 6V it fires at 5.85 according to my multimeter, that's like 24W? No wonder it hits harder than my Sig20W at 20W. If not mistaken,Jeremy R also tested it to 24-25W?
I still love this V5, been to a lot of places with me, very reliable,compact and powerful(with 2 x 18350s)
Cool Tunggua! Good to hear from you.
I'm still using mine daily it's the only mod I have, my trusty zmax.
I run this baby stacked at 6v all day at 1.3-1.5. I do believe that it's putting out around 27w when fully charged at 1.3. Much stronger than 1.5. Admittedly the power output drops along with the battery but it stays well above 20 through out the charge. Yeah the 20w only adds the capability of computing up to 20w. I heard the 20w can take stacked also. But if it doesn't do voltage, then it would be capped. Both Me and Fairmana both did testing on the zmax.
My screen also sits lower than originally but it's no big deal it's not moving any more, and working great! Haven't had any problems since I did mine a long time ago. No worries about over tightening.
As many of you now mine has been through a lot. Even thrown from the second floor slamming into hard wood.
I'm still using mine daily it's the only mod I have, my trusty zmax.
I run this baby stacked at 6v all day at 1.3-1.5. I do believe that it's putting out around 27w when fully charged at 1.3. Much stronger than 1.5. Admittedly the power output drops along with the battery but it stays well above 20 through out the charge. Yeah the 20w only adds the capability of computing up to 20w. I heard the 20w can take stacked also. But if it doesn't do voltage, then it would be capped. Both Me and Fairmana both did testing on the zmax.
My screen also sits lower than originally but it's no big deal it's not moving any more, and working great! Haven't had any problems since I did mine a long time ago. No worries about over tightening.
As many of you now mine has been through a lot. Even thrown from the second floor slamming into hard wood.
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Would you believe it I still have my original switch in... In the first month I had it we deemed it faulty. Nearly a year later and it's still working all day every day with nearly no misfires. I must have done something to fix it.
- thanks guys
Well I haven't been on the forum for a long while but needed to make sure I could use flat top batteries in my Zmax v3 and I knew I could find the answer here. So I have had my Zmax v3 for 1 year and it still works. Yes I've took the end cap off to re-seat the board 2 times but no big deal. That is until I was cutting the grass. So I'm about done less than 1/4 acre to go when the plastic cover over the blades on the lawn tractor comes off. Now I've fixed the tractor 3-4 times that day and it's the last time I'll be cutting this year so I got lazy and figure I'll just fix everything when I put it up for the year. A little later I drop my Zmax it hits the deck and I watch as it goes through the blades! I kill the tractor and sit there chewing myself out for a long while. When I start looking for the pieces the first piece I find is the top of the RBA a little beat up but not bad. Then I find the bottom of the RBA, top end cap with the circuit card still attached then the rest of the Zmax. Looked for a while but couldn't find the button. So I put everything back together (with a new wick) grab a small stick and bingo it works!! I now call it my magic stick! 
Haven't post for some time, just a quick update if anyone find it usefull.
My V5 have been dropped numerous times, to the point of the removable top cap wouldn't tighten down anymore, the board shifted up quite a bit and the misfires getting more frequent. It still works if the button is pressed down firmly.
Even though I got other mods to replace it but I still kind of felt attached to it. Obvious way is to fix it. I remembered reading here people like fairmana,Jeremy R,yzer(sorry if I've mistaken) and few others managed to remove the top cap as it is pressed fit.
I used a discarded CE5 clearo to screw down the ego threads on the V5 tightly, then wrapped the knurling portion of the CE5 with masking tape and clamped that part on a vise as tight as I could without breaking.
With batteries removed and telescoping tube all the way up, I tried wigglying it and initially don't seem to budge at all. With more patience, I began to see gap between the top cap and the body of the V5 till it finally popped out. Wires are all intact and the board slides out easily.
Cleaned up all I can then put couple drops of contact cleaner and lubricant into the gaps between the switch and switch body, press the button and rotate a few times. Assemble the board back into the body, then cut a semi-circle 1mm thick cardboard and put it on top of where the half round plastic cover is(opposite the screen) to prevent the board shifting up again.
Since my button is the clear plastic, it's easy to align it to the switch on the board. When I got it aligned, the screen sits a bit too low rather than centered on the window, but it's ok to me coz everything is readable and its straight rather than crooked. Then stuffed a small piece if cardboard between the half round plastic and body wall to make it snug and prevent the alignment from shifting when driving the top cap back on.
Took a 15mm deep socket wrench which clears the 510/ego part and bears on the flat land of the cap. I suppose I can use the vise to press it in, but I just used a small hammer to lightly knock it back in.
Chuck in the 2 x 18350 into it, and button works real good with a lighter effort to boot
Did a test on the max power the V5 can put out. It seems that mine would not fire anything below 1.4ohms.
With a 1.4ohm coil, set to Mean, 6V it fires at 5.85 according to my multimeter, that's like 24W? No wonder it hits harder than my Sig20W at 20W. If not mistaken,Jeremy R also tested it to 24-25W?
I still love this V5, been to a lot of places with me, very reliable,compact and powerful(with 2 x 18350s)
Hey Tunggua! Congrats on breaking open your device and moving forward on a repair. You didn't mention it specifically, but from your description it sounds like your half-round plastic support for the circuit board broke loose from the inner wall of the tube. I've had good luck gluing that back to the inner wall of the tube with epoxy to keep the half-round plastic support from spinning inside the tube. I also like to ensure that the circuit card is free to move back and forth in the slots of the half-round plastic support (I file away the "stops" that are at the ends of both slots if they aren't already broken out). This allows the end of the circuit card to move and sit firmly up against the 2mm-thick plastic spacer I insert under the top cap. Since the circuit card is then free to independently push against the spacer, there is no longer any pressure on the half-round plastic support from the battery. That keeps the half-round plastic support from ever breaking away from the inside of the tube again. I used a micrometer with a plunge gauge and measured 2mm as the proper thickness for the plastic spacer. This keeps the circuit card at the original factory depth inside the tube lengthwise and keeps the inner button aligned with the outer button. I wouldn't recommend using cardboard as a spacer under the top cap since it will compress from the battery pushing on the circuit card (cardboard is also flammable - just an extra safety precaution). I've found that a plastic horseshoe-shaped spacer (again, 2mm thick) works perfectly and the horseshoe shape keeps the wires from getting pinched under the top cap.
Since the Zmax uses Pulse Width Modulation (PWM), most meters can't accurately measure the voltage of the output. The only exception is when you are certain the device is putting out it's maximum voltage. That is when the PWM will be at 100% duty cycle (basically a straight DC voltage with no waveform) which a DC voltmeter can read accurately. If your digital meter can measure Duty Cycle %, you can verify when it's at 100% duty cycle so you know your DC voltage meter reading will be accurate. If you want to be able to continue measuring your output with minimum hassle, a cheap solution is to buy the OmniTester made by SMOK, which can measure PWM voltage accurately enough for our purposes (about $20). I bought one for testing my Zmax's and it works quite well.
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Well I haven't been on the forum for a long while but needed to make sure I could use flat top batteries in my Zmax v3 and I knew I could find the answer here. So I have had my Zmax v3 for 1 year and it still works. Yes I've took the end cap off to re-seat the board 2 times but no big deal. That is until I was cutting the grass. So I'm about done less than 1/4 acre to go when the plastic cover over the blades on the lawn tractor comes off. Now I've fixed the tractor 3-4 times that day and it's the last time I'll be cutting this year so I got lazy and figure I'll just fix everything when I put it up for the year. A little later I drop my Zmax it hits the deck and I watch as it goes through the blades! I kill the tractor and sit there chewing myself out for a long while. When I start looking for the pieces the first piece I find is the top of the RBA a little beat up but not bad. Then I find the bottom of the RBA, top end cap with the circuit card still attached then the rest of the Zmax. Looked for a while but couldn't find the button. So I put everything back together (with a new wick) grab a small stick and bingo it works!! I now call it my magic stick!
Wow! I doubt anyone will every be able to beat your tale of Zmax abuse and rebirth! I'm glad it still works! It's a shame about losing the outer button though. It doesn't surprise me that you couldn't find it in the grass. Maybe you can make something that will work so you don't have to use your "magic stick" every time you want a vape.
If I get a chance later, I'll measure and post back the dimensions of that button just in case you feel like trying to make one yourself.Hey,thanks for that load of info fairmana
Yeah,the half-round(half-cylinder?) plastic broke loose from the wall and I can see traces of glue. I refrain from using any glue for the time being coz knowing myself, I will break it open again in the future for potential improvements and or adjustments. I have a spoiled board from a S-Max with a perfectly functioning switch, so I might transplant that switch over in case the original in the V5 fails.
That's a great idea on freeing the circuit board from the half cylinder plastic so as to remove stress from the battery pushing up. See? that's already one of the future 'improvement',thanks, haha
I temporarily stuff cardboard between the half cylinder and the wall just to make it snug. I purposely used a cutout semicircle cardboard because it's compresible so I can gauge the free space in between when I next open it up,since this is the first time I'm opening and assemble it. But since you mentioned 2mm thickness,that helps a lot,haha
I do have plastic stocks of varying thickness that I'll carve/dremel/sand to the required shape.
It's just a generic multimeter with no duty cycle option. I simply referenced it to my Sig20w(supposedly flat DC). 6V on the 20w seems to equal 6v set on the V5 although I do suspect the multimeter is reading lower than it should on the V5. It's not accurate, just relative.
From what I understand, on the V5 with 2 x 18350, it's still PWM (7v p-p) when set to 6v
Yeah,the half-round(half-cylinder?) plastic broke loose from the wall and I can see traces of glue. I refrain from using any glue for the time being coz knowing myself, I will break it open again in the future for potential improvements and or adjustments. I have a spoiled board from a S-Max with a perfectly functioning switch, so I might transplant that switch over in case the original in the V5 fails.
That's a great idea on freeing the circuit board from the half cylinder plastic so as to remove stress from the battery pushing up. See? that's already one of the future 'improvement',thanks, haha
I temporarily stuff cardboard between the half cylinder and the wall just to make it snug. I purposely used a cutout semicircle cardboard because it's compresible so I can gauge the free space in between when I next open it up,since this is the first time I'm opening and assemble it. But since you mentioned 2mm thickness,that helps a lot,haha
I do have plastic stocks of varying thickness that I'll carve/dremel/sand to the required shape.
It's just a generic multimeter with no duty cycle option. I simply referenced it to my Sig20w(supposedly flat DC). 6V on the 20w seems to equal 6v set on the V5 although I do suspect the multimeter is reading lower than it should on the V5. It's not accurate, just relative.
From what I understand, on the V5 with 2 x 18350, it's still PWM (7v p-p) when set to 6v
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