Smoktech Vmax Owners - tips, tricks and quirks

[Cowboy Cru]

Awesome! Thanks VAPNJ! That does clear up ALOT! I definitely have a version 3 or 4 or whatever. It does reset to 3, turns off the LED w/ batt removal, will shut off red LED as option, has dimples on vertical ego connection, does feel like about .5 boosted from other mods, is SS. The only wierd thing is I have the wobbly and rattlely button, and I have never seen it do the 123.456.789 thing? Not for sure how that happened! Maybe I have some sort of wierd 1.5 internals (that don't exist) in a version 3 casing?!?!? Lol. But still super-happy with it!

 

[Optimo]

The V2 VMaxes still feel like they hit harder than most mods not because it's displayed voltage is not accurate but because of the step down PWN circuitry is much more efficient than say a Provari/LavaTubes boost circuitry. Boosting a 3.7 volt battery to more than 3.7 volts is going to give you a weaker less stable hit than stepping down two 3.7 volt batteries which is 8.4 volts fully charged. Therefore the VMax hit's much more consistent without dropping voltage during the hit your taking which makes it feel like it hits harder than other mods.

Edited for the Provari lovers: This is just my opinion after using mods with boost and mods with step down.

 

[pwyll]

Boosting 3.7 volts higher is done by converting amperage to wattage voltage. A 3.7 volt battery boosted to 6 volts is electrically identical to a 6 volt battery. There is nothing "weak" or "unstable" about the voltage coming from a Provari or a Lavatube.

As has been explained several times in this thread, the reason that the VMax seems to hit harder at 3 volts is because it does hit harder. Electrically speaking, a Provari that says it's putting out 6 volts actually is putting out six volts, but a VMax that says it's putting out 3 volts is not putting out 3 volts--the VMax is putting out 7.4 volts (or so) in microbusrts so that the amount of time it's on and the amount of time it's off averages out to 3 volts for the duration of time the firing button is pushed.

This is also why the VMax has problems with some LR atties/cartos--as far as your vaping goes the average voltage is 3 volts, but as far as the coil is concerned it's still getting 7.4 volts when the electricity is going through it.

The calibration is not "off." The display is not "wrong" (it's showing what it's supposed to--the average voltage being applied). The difference between the Provari and the VMax as far as how "hard" they vape is that the Provari is actually doing what it says it's doing while the VMax is, in a sense, "pretending" to do what it says.

Think of it like a car. The Provari has an accelerator pedal that has a smooth travel path to the floor, and half way down runs the engine at half its power. The VMax simply has an on/off switch, and when it's on the engine runs at full power. To go 50 mph in the Provari you push the pedal half-way down and the car runs at 50 mph. To go 50 mph in the VMax you have to keep turning the engine of and on very quickly. If you're travelling a mile (a high res atty/carto) or a block (a standard atty/carto) you could probably get good enough so that most people couldn't tell much difference between the two. But if you're only going to the end of the driveway (a low res atty/carto) the VMax is going to give you a lot harsher ride no matter how good you are at pulsing the button...




EDIT: incorrectly used "wattage" when I meant "voltage"

 

[Optimo]

Boosting 3.7 volts higher is done by converting amperage to wattage. A 3.7 volt battery boosted to 6 volts is electrically identical to a 6 volt battery. There is nothing "weak" or "unstable" about the voltage coming from a Provari or a Lavatube.

I have a LT V1 and V2...when I take a toke off it at 6 volts with a 3.5 ohm single coil you can just feel the drops in voltage as you take a drag. Very weak and very unstable hits. Do the same thing with a VMax and it has no voltage drop feeling to the hit at all. This is what I based my comment off of. Boost is weak crap, step down PWM is the ....

 

[billherbst]

Think of it like a car. The Provari has an accelerator pedal that has a smooth travel path to the floor, and half way down runs the engine at half its power. The VMax simply has an on/off switch, and when it's on the engine runs at full power. To go 50 mph in the Provari you push the pedal half-way down and the car runs at 50 mph. To go 50 mph in the VMax you have to keep turning the engine of and on very quickly. If you're travelling a mile (a high res atty/carto) or a block (a standard atty/carto) you could probably get good enough so that most people couldn't tell much difference between the two. But if you're only going to the end of the driveway (a low res atty/carto) the VMax is going to give you a lot harsher ride no matter how good you are at pulsing the button...

pwyll,

I understand what you say. Nice explanation.

The only fly in the ointment is that the ProVari is not a constant voltage device. From the FAQ on the ProVape site:

Does the ProVari use PWM (pulse-width modulation)? Yes, the ProVari is using PWM technology​

Obviously, there's a difference in the implementation of PWM in the ProVari versus the Vmax. I've read about (and seen videos of) "nano-spikes" of voltage at the beginning of each square wave "micro-pulse" in the on-phase of the duty cycle. Could this be the difference? Might the ProVari have either no spike or a very small one, while the Vmax has a larger spike? That could mean that a simple average of on-pulse voltage to off-pulses via ratio in time may---in vaping terms---be an incorrect measure of the true voltage impact. I'm not an engineer, so I'm just thinking off the top of my head.

 

[pwyll]

I have a LT V1 and V2...when I take a toke off it at 6 volts with a 3.5 ohm single coil you can just feel the drops in voltage as you take a drag. Very weak and very unstable hits. Do the same thing with a VMax and it has no voltage drop feeling to the hit at all. This is what I based my comment off of. Boost is weak crap, step down PWM is the ....

Just because a particular device does not operate to your satisfaction at the fringes of its design parameters does not mean that the method it uses to regulate electricity is faulty. A poorly wired house that blows fuses constantly does not indicate that the electric company's power delivery is unstable. The inability of my '91 Fifth Avenue's 3.3 liter engine to push the 1.75 ton car to 200 mph does not mean that gasoline-powered internal combustion engines are incapable of high speeds. And the inability of a Lavatube to maintain voltage under load at its maximum setting does not mean that voltage-boosting circuitry is "weak crap." The only function of the ignition coil in your car is to boost voltage--scrape the insulation off your spark plug wires and hold on to a couple while someone starts your car if you want to find out first-hand how "weak" voltage boosting is.

I have absolutely no interest in the Lavatube. I am, at best, mildly curious about the Provari. I love my VMax. But spreading disinformation and baseless insults about other PV's does not make the VMax look better and puts this thread in danger of devolving into the same bickering and arguments that got every other VMax thread closed and/or deleted.




EDIT: added quote to make it clear to which post I was replying

 

[Optimo]

Just because a particular device does not operate to your satisfaction at the fringes of its design parameters does not mean that the method it uses to regulate electricity is faulty. A poorly wired house that blows fuses constantly does not indicate that the electric company's power delivery is unstable. The inability of my '91 Fifth Avenue's 3.3 liter engine to push the 1.75 ton car to 200 mph does not mean that gasoline-powered internal combustion engines are incapable of high speeds. And the inability of a Lavatube to maintain voltage under load at its maximum setting does not mean that voltage-boosting circuitry is "weak crap." The only function of the ignition coil in your car is to boost voltage--scrape the insulation off your spark plug wires and hold on to a couple while someone starts your car if you want to find out first-hand how "weak" voltage boosting is.

I have absolutely no interest in the Lavatube. I am, at best, mildly curious about the Provari. I love my VMax. But spreading disinformation and baseless insults about other PV's does not make the VMax look better and puts this thread in danger of devolving into the same bickering and arguments that got every other VMax thread closed and/or deleted.

Was just pointing out why everybody says the VMax hits so much harder than other PV's because some people thought that it's a flaw in the design. Never said anything was faulty just that it's weak compared to step down....this is my opinion because of what I experienced first hand using both boost and step down in multiple PV's.

 

[AnsonJames]

I have a LT V1 and V2...when I take a toke off it at 6 volts with a 3.5 ohm single coil you can just feel the drops in voltage as you take a drag. Very weak and very unstable hits. Do the same thing with a VMax and it has no voltage drop feeling to the hit at all. This is what I based my comment off of. Boost is weak crap, step down PWM is the ....

The Provari doesn't drop voltage during vaping. If you set it to 4 volts and kept your finger on the button for 10 seconds it would still be outputting 4 volts on the tenth second. With the Provari, even with step up (instead of buck) you'll still get a day and a half's vaping with an 18650.


The PWM is set incorrectly on the Vmax (the reason everyone likes it) if it was set correctly then 3 volts would be 3 volts.
You can't really criticise the Provari for outputting at the voltage it's supposed to be outputting at.

You're more than welcome to criticise the price of the Provari!

 

[Optimo]

And the inability of a Lavatube to maintain voltage under load at its maximum setting does not mean that voltage-boosting circuitry is "weak crap."

If it can't maintain voltage under load at it's max setting....sounds weak to me.

 

[Optimo]

The Provari doesn't drop voltage during vaping. If you set it to 4 volts and kept your finger on the button for 10 seconds it would still be outputting 4 volts on the tenth second. With the Provari, even with step up (instead of buck) you'll still get a day and a half's vaping with an 18650.


The PWM is set incorrectly on the Vmax (the reason everyone likes it) if it was set correctly then 3 volts would be 3 volts.
You can't really criticise the Provari for outputting at the voltage it's supposed to be outputting at.

You're more than welcome to criticise the price of the Provari!

I never said it actually drops, I said it feels like it does...why? I have no clue. Step down PWM just feels like it holds so much more true power when vaping at higher voltages than any boost mod I have used....specially once you're into a long chain vaping session and things start to warm up.

I'll go back and delete my posts if ya'll feel like that was just such a big bashing....not trying to bash anything.

 

[pwyll]

pwyll,

I understand what you say. Nice explanation.

The only fly in the ointment is that the ProVari is not a constant voltage device. From the FAQ on the ProVape site:

Does the ProVari use PWM (pulse-width modulation)? Yes, the ProVari is using PWM technology​

Obviously, there's a difference in the implementation of PWM in the ProVari versus the Vmax. I've read about (and seen videos of) "nano-spikes" of voltage at the beginning of each square wave "micro-pulse" in the on-phase of the duty cycle. Could this be the difference? Might the ProVari have either no spike or a very small one, while the Vmax has a larger spike? That could mean that a simple average of on-pulse voltage to off-pulses via ratio in time may---in vaping terms---be an incorrect measure of the true voltage impact. I'm not an engineer, so I'm just thinking off the top of my head.

It would be interesting to see what they claim their implementation is. They explain it uses a boost circuit and have a link to wikipedia about it--but they don't have a link for the PWM claim. If they did, they would be showing people that PWM can only regulate power down. The only way that I can see they could be using both a step-up converter and PWM would be to boost the voltage to a constant 7 or 8 volts and then to modulate that constant voltage down. Seems sort of pointless to me, but I'm not an electrical engineer...

 

[pwyll]

If it can't maintain voltage under load at it's max setting....sounds weak to me.

But that doesn't make boost circuitry weak, it just means the Lavatube is a relatively poor implementation of it

 

[pwyll]

I never said it actually drops, I said it feels like it does...why? I have no clue. Step down PWM just feels like it holds so much more true power when vaping at higher voltages than any boost mod I have used....specially once you're into a long chain vaping session and things start to warm up.

I'll go back and delete my posts if ya'll feel like that was just such a big bashing....not trying to bash anything.

I'm pretty sure the voltage does drop on a Lavatube. I don't have one and have never tried one, but I am pretty sure I've read that people who've tested them saw the voltage drop at any setting as the resistance of the *tomizers lowered and at the higher settings no matter what the resistance was. I do know that the Lavatube has a low enough amperage rating that the circuitry should drop the voltage just to protect the switch from burning out...

And I, personally, don't think you need to delete anything. We just all need to remember to think about how we word things. As many people love the LT and the Provari, we need to be careful not to accidentally insult them when expressing our love of the VMax. There's enough of them out there that if they showed up here in force to defend their favourite PV's by turning the thread into a battle-ground, we could lose it.

In a year, when the VMax is mature, VMax users out-number Provari users, and it's respected in its own right rather than viewed as a Provari rip-off by the majority of people who've even heard of it, we should be okay--but for now we're the red-headed step children of the VV vaping world and we just need to be careful around our older siblings

 

[kurtus]

As I explained in a earlier post....their are ONLY "2" VERSIONS OF THE VMAX AS FAR AS INTERNAL CHIPSETS"

The V1 : A tad wobbly and rattlely button.
Absolute crazy power that was almost too much....almost
Simply put.....A BEAST!! (as Freddie put it by starting the pun)
Voltage feel didn't match up to voltage set output (ex. 4v felt like 5v)

The V2 : Button fixed, no rattle...no wobble...much tighter
Power was "de"-tuned a bit (not enough to really notice IMO)
3 volt "default" startup
On startup the led display is default to "OFF" (must go to menu "[6.Lo]" and turn the display on[L.on] )
Diagnostic screen sartup showing: 123..456..789
New "added" function/ability to turn off the red number led display while blue fire button stays on
The voltage feel to voltage output setting now feels more like .5v difference (ex. 4v "feels like 4.5v) IMO

Version 3 (or what vendors and people are "calling" V4: Everything listed above in Version2 but now with a eGo style top cap connector that is 1/2" longer in height with the milled dimples on the vertical riser instead of on the tapered slant. The connector is also larger in diameter at the inner drip well recces to accommodate for the added diameter of the eGo style connections (stardust, eGo clearo's, eGo mega carto's,etc...)

** The absolute ONLY difference from V2 to all the other Versions that are said to be out there are "STRICTLY" aesthetics. EVERY unit ""after"" the V1 has the SAME internal chipset and board. Although their IS now a "blue" led option on some models out there which is very sweet...looks like my prototype Slick bodied Blue led VMAX is finally going to get some company.

I really hope this clears some questions up and eliminates any and all guess work as to what version you all have / are going to get when you go to order. Take care all...and enjoy your weekend !!!!!

I agree with you on all this but my v2 ss vmax has a really rattly button almost worse than my v1 so I'm starting to think the button repair was more of an internal thing rather than tightening the button up itself and some peeps are luckier than others getting better tolerances with the button. Mine has about a mm of play in both v1 and v2.

 

[Optimo]

All I know is when I vape mods with boost I always think to myself wtf why am I getting such weak hits now when a hour before it was hitting like a champ. This has never happend to me with the VMax.

 

[AnsonJames]

The Lavatube is a pig for dropping voltage as the battery drains and it can't sustain voltage over time when you're using fresh batteries either. The Provari will maintain voltage up until the second the battery runs out.

 

[Optimo]

The Lavatube is a pig for dropping voltage as the battery drains and it can't sustain voltage over time when you're using fresh batteries either. The Provari will maintain voltage up until the second the battery runs out.

I'm not just talking about the LT....a mod with boost that I'll be vaping can do this either within the first few hits with a fully charged batt...5 mins of vaping or a hour or 2 hours ect....just dosen't seem stable at all and gives weak hits while trying to chain vape.

 

[AnsonJames]

Buck is more efficient than buck but voltage drop in all boost chips certainly isn't the case.

 

[MrEctions]

My new Stainless Vmax came in today. LOVE IT! So happy with the purchase. Got it from madvapes with their 10% off coupon, came to 80.99 shipped. Couldnt be happier, and man this thing hits like a freight train. Might have to pick up another now for a...uhm....backup? yea thats it, a backup.

 

[AnsonJames]

Forget everything!
This is the device that will overshadow all others!

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