Sigelei Zmax V3 and V5 Telescopic: User's Group

[fairmana]

I wonder if sigelei would consider placing an updated board in the V3/V5 body?

If they ever update the circuitry (V6?) then I really hope they keep the same body. They kept it simple and it's quite sturdy being made from stainless steel (takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin). As far as an updated board, I'm not sure what sigelei would bother adding to make it better. I can think of several software related things they could remove. I personally don't care for a higher wattage capability beyond what it already does, so that wouldn't be an issue for me.

However, you've got me thinking about what I would do if I had total control over a "hypothetical V6". If I could have my perfect Zmax, here's what I would do:

Software changes:
- Get rid of the RMS/MEAN option (menu 8). Nobody uses the MEAN option. RMS used only. Less software code.
- Get rid of the "Mobile Power" (menu 9) battery charging feature and the circuitry involved. No adapter $$ required. Reduces costs and software code.
- Get rid of the timer feature (menu 5). Nobody cares and nobody can see the display while they're vaping anyway. Less software code.
- Instead of a "battery icon" on the screen, I want to see the battery voltage instead (what you see in menu 4). Better yet, give me the option to see one or the other.

Hardware changes:
- Better quality and longer lifespan switch (this is my #1 complaint)
- Remove or fill the empty space under the top cap to eliminate circuit board shift under pressure from the battery spring (this is my #2 complaint).
- Bring back the stainless steel outer button (not the current plastic "power symbol" button where the chrome eventually rubs off). I don't know who's idea that was at Sigelei. I hope their happy with the money they saved the company.
- A 'spring loaded' center pin in the 510 connector to eliminate any possible center pin contact issues with various toppers (ex. the "Tesla" has one of these). This would be more of a "very nice to have" feature and not critical for me. Would definitely make the V6 stand apart from its predecessors.

These changes shouldn't require a major increase in price IMO. If an extra $5 to $7 bucks is tacked on, I'll gladly pay it with a smile.

Anyone else have a personal wish list in a V6? Anything I missed or you disagree with? All comments welcome!

 

[VapieDan]

The V3/V5 configuration is just too well made. A real hunk of stainless. A real collectors item in the future? See this thread.

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/general-vaping-discussion/657342-vaping-collectors.html

 

[VapieDan]

The "deluxe" Zmax is still around to my surprise and well discounted. It appears to have a V3 board. Very tempting to put a V5 in from another unit.

Beyond Vape Spire Mod Stainless Steel (Unit Only) [bv-spire-unit-ss] - $60.00 : Beyond Vape, Premium Vaporizers and E-Cigarettes

 

[tchavei]

Just introduce temperature control

Regards
Tony

Sent from my keyboard through my phone or something like that.

 

[PaulBHC]

I'm kinda surprised to see this mod still having such a big fanbase. I found the attty gap frustrating and the minimum resistance limiting. Love the form factor though.

I see a lot of posts about various mods in all these forums about atty gap being a big deal. Thankful that it never bothered me.

The fan base is because it works well, sturdy for abuse, enough power for the majority of vapers.

Fix the switch and spring load 510 and it would be a top list vape tool.

I really like my SVD 2 but it is too long and heavy compared to the Zmax.

 

[tchavei]

Well to be honest, the gap does bother me and it's not only because of the visual. A 510 connection, although standard today, wasn't really made to hold some of those heavy and large atties out there. When it sits flush, a big part of any force applied to the atty will be transferred to the bottom edges of the atty and thus to the mod, protecting the connector. When you have a gap however, all force goes directly into the 510 connector and bad things can happen.

Just my opinion

Regards
Tony

Sent from my keyboard through my phone or something like that.

 

[PaulBHC]

You would think all of "they" could have standardized the 510 male and female by now.

Keep in mind you can always back thread the top cap up against the bottom of your atty.

Here is your Sig with 20w and spring pin

http://www.vaporbeast.com/sigelei-20w-mod.html

 

[fairmana]

Here is your Sig with 20w and spring pin

http://www.vaporbeast.com/sigelei-20w-mod.html

Wow, a little more than I'm willing to pay. It sure looks nice though. I watched the Bussardo review on that Spire and there were a few little things that I wasn't too fond of either. Shame. Be nice to have that Spire body with the V5 guts.

 

[fairmana]

Apologies for any confusion on my last post. I got my wires crossed between PaulBHC's Sig 20w link, and VapieDan's prior post regarding the "Spire". I guess I was having "one of those days"...

@ VapieDan:
You're right. The Spire would be a great APV and with the V5 circuitry in it. IMO, it would be worth doing if if the Spire was cheaper. Even discounted down to $60 from $100, it's still a costly mod when you consider you're sacrificing a working V5 to make it happen (total ~ $100 investment?). Maybe a fun future project when prices drop further? That's ignoring the fact that the V5 circuit board may not even fit or line up properly into the Spire body. Still, it would be fun to try it.

@ PaulBHC:
Thanks for pointing out the spring-loaded pin in the Sig 20w. I wasn't aware of that. I'm glad to see Sigelei starting to use those, but still disappointed they weren't included in the Zmax series of APV's. How about a V6 Sigelei?

 

[ricks]

Keep in mind you can always back thread the top cap up against the bottom of your atty.

I grinded the top of my 510 so it's fits tighter on my V5. I hate the gap too.

 

[fairmana]

Welcome to the forum Rick!

I grinded the top of my 510 so it's fits tighter on my V5. I hate the gap too.

Please be very careful because I'd hate to see you create a bigger problem associated with your 510 connector. The pin in the bottom of your Zmax's 510 sits in a white nylon (plastic) housing. It has a specific depth with not much "give". Grinding the top edge of the 510 may allow you to screw your topper down all the way, but you'll probably bottom-out hard on that center pin before your topper sits flush. If you're lucky, that white nylon housing will flex under the pressure but there's a good chance you'll crack or otherwise damage your nylon housing under that kind of stress.

If it does crack and your lucky enough that the damage was minimal, you could decide to simply press on. However there's a possibility that e-juice (or some other liquid during cleaning) can enter the body of your Zmax through a crack in the nylon housing. I've seen first hand how e-juice entering the Zmax body can cause erratic behavior and/or failure of the electronics (two Zmax's that didn't belong to me). My theory in both of these cases was that the crack in the nylon housing was caused by using those older Viva Nova tanks (they had a longer 510 and were apparently notorious for damaging 510's on a variety of devices).

Best of luck, and hopefully you don't run into the above problem. Again, welcome to the thread!

 

[ricks]

Welcome to the forum Rick!



Please be very careful because I'd hate to see you create a bigger problem associated with your 510 connector. The pin in the bottom of your Zmax's 510 sits in a white nylon (plastic) housing. It has a specific depth with not much "give". Grinding the top edge of the 510 may allow you to screw your topper down all the way, but you'll probably bottom-out hard on that center pin before your topper sits flush. If you're lucky, that white nylon housing will flex under the pressure but there's a good chance you'll crack or otherwise damage your nylon housing under that kind of stress.

If it does crack and your lucky enough that the damage was minimal, you could decide to simply press on. However there's a possibility that e-juice (or some other liquid during cleaning) can enter the body of your Zmax through a crack in the nylon housing. I've seen first hand how e-juice entering the Zmax body can cause erratic behavior and/or failure of the electronics (two Zmax's that didn't belong to me). My theory in both of these cases was that the crack in the nylon housing was caused by using those older Viva Nova tanks (they had a longer 510 and were apparently notorious for damaging 510's on a variety of devices).

Best of luck, and hopefully you don't run into the above problem. Again, welcome to the thread!

I made sure that it had enough room to take a little off first. My KF4's would barely touch the pin. Now I can feel it touch before fully screwed on. It fits a lot better now. Thanks.

Can't wait to replace that button...

 

[aikanae1]

If they ever update the circuitry (V6?) then I really hope they keep the same body. They kept it simple and it's quite sturdy being made from stainless steel (takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin). As far as an updated board, I'm not sure what Sigelei would bother adding to make it better. I can think of several software related things they could remove. I personally don't care for a higher wattage capability beyond what it already does, so that wouldn't be an issue for me.

However, you've got me thinking about what I would do if I had total control over a "hypothetical V6". If I could have my perfect Zmax, here's what I would do:

Software changes:
- Get rid of the RMS/MEAN option (menu 8). Nobody uses the MEAN option. RMS used only. Less software code.
- Get rid of the "Mobile Power" (menu 9) battery charging feature and the circuitry involved. No adapter $$ required. Reduces costs and software code.
- Get rid of the timer feature (menu 5). Nobody cares and nobody can see the display while they're vaping anyway. Less software code.
- Instead of a "battery icon" on the screen, I want to see the battery voltage instead (what you see in menu 4). Better yet, give me the option to see one or the other.

Hardware changes:
- Better quality and longer lifespan switch (this is my #1 complaint)
- Remove or fill the empty space under the top cap to eliminate circuit board shift under pressure from the battery spring (this is my #2 complaint).
- Bring back the stainless steel outer button (not the current plastic "power symbol" button where the chrome eventually rubs off). I don't know who's idea that was at Sigelei. I hope their happy with the money they saved the company.
- A 'spring loaded' center pin in the 510 connector to eliminate any possible center pin contact issues with various toppers (ex. the "Tesla" has one of these). This would be more of a "very nice to have" feature and not critical for me. Would definitely make the V6 stand apart from its predecessors.

These changes shouldn't require a major increase in price IMO. If an extra $5 to $7 bucks is tacked on, I'll gladly pay it with a smile.

Anyone else have a personal wish list in a V6? Anything I missed or you disagree with? All comments welcome!

I like this idea. Wouldn't it be wonderful if Sigelei were able to upgrade the chip to expand the range so that the newer attys could work on them? Sigelei would have a real money maker on their hands.

All the extra stuff on the V5 seemed like garbage added and more to go wrong IMO. I'll take the V3 first.

Spring loaded

Metal button

I love their brushed stainless finish.

USA based service and repair

 

[yzer]

Count me in as a fan of the V5. Yes, V5 has a couple of features I don't use but the two line display when fired is great. I like the battery charge state icon and use it often. I also use the puff counter a lot. It will tell me when one of my batteries is losing capacity and starting to go south. Every time I fire a V5 I see output in watts, battery gauge and puff counter. Nice deal.

I installed the Omron switch on the V5 last fall. I've been using it 100% of time since last April. Coming up on the one year mark, now. Not bad for $42 and a $.79 replacement switch.

My V5 came with a stainless steel button.

 

[javyn]

At the time I had a gunmetal V5 and MVP2 box mod. Even with the annoyances of the V5, it really won me over on form factor. I have since moved on to tube mechanical mods, but if they came out with something in this form factor that would max out at 30W and have the spring adjustable 510 connector IMO it would be very popular. I'd certainly give it a go since I'm most comfortable around 15W on my RTAs these days, although sometimes I do like to ramp it up.

I can't deny this mod just feels nice and solid in the hand and is hard to want to put down.

I see a lot of posts about various mods in all these forums about atty gap being a big deal. Thankful that it never bothered me.

The fan base is because it works well, sturdy for abuse, enough power for the majority of vapers.

Fix the switch and spring load 510 and it would be a top list vape tool.

I really like my SVD 2 but it is too long and heavy compared to the Zmax.

 

[fairmana]

If I have to choose between the V3 and the V5, I personally prefer the V5. I agree that there are some extras on the V5 that most of us find superfluous, but the newer display simply sets it apart IMO. I really like getting all that info at a glance.

I also like being able to display output current on occasion, which wasn't available on the V3. The vape counter is also cool if you're curious how often you take a hit or how many vapes a particular battery will get you. I could live without the vape counter, but I won't deny that it's better to have it.

All that being said, I wouldn't get rid of my V3's. If anything happened to my V5, they're my primary backup and they still work great. If I were to be completely honest with myself, I'd probably admit that I also have a soft spot for my V3's. I have quite a bit of time (and TLC) invested in repairing and improving them.

 

[ricks]

If I have to choose between the V3 and the V5, I personally prefer the V5. I agree that there are some extras on the V5 that most of us find superfluous, but the newer display simply sets it apart IMO. I really like getting all that info at a glance.

I also like being able to display output current on occasion, which wasn't available on the V3. The vape counter is also cool if you're curious how often you take a hit or how many vapes a particular battery will get you. I could live without the vape counter, but I won't deny that it's better to have it.

All that being said, I wouldn't get rid of my V3's. If anything happened to my V5, they're my primary backup and they still work great. If I were to be completely honest with myself, I'd probably admit that I also have a soft spot for my V3's. I have quite a bit of time (and TLC) invested in repairing and improving them.

My V5 has only one small problem... But with your help it will be easily fixed. That stupid button. I ordered 5 buttons today for the hell of it. One is for my V5. Other than that I like it. Nothing like the ability to use any size battery.

 

[fairmana]

Nothing like the ability to use any size battery.

Great point Rick. The freedom to put different size batteries in the Zmax is a huge, and I'll be the first to admit that I'm so used to it that often forget to appreciate it. I know I'd appreciate it a lot more if I was suddenly forced to use some other APV without that capability.

I ordered 5 buttons today for the hell of it. One is for my V5.

Glad to hear it. When you get ready to drop one of them in your V5, let us know if there's anything we can pass along that might help out.

 

[ricks]

Great point Rick. The freedom to put different size batteries in the Zmax is a huge, and I'll be the first to admit that I'm so used to it that often forget to appreciate it. I know I'd appreciate it a lot more if I was suddenly forced to use some other APV without that capability.



Glad to hear it. When you get ready to drop one of them in your V5, let us know if there's anything we can pass along that might help out.

Mine was different than yours. Mine did not have that plastic piece with the track that holds the board in place. It's together and epoxy is drying. Tested and working too.

 

[JeremyR]

View attachment 420724

So your saying yours didn't have the cradle? It came from the factory with just that retainer looking piece attached? Was this a v5?