Vapor Flask V3 DNA40 Clone thread

[aldenf]

Looking at the pictures again there is no way of getting negative power direct from the battery as the sled does not have a negative post to tack onto

Cleaning up the underside of the top plate & mating surface of the case as dwcraig1 did is the only option

Or soldering a link wire between the top plate/510 & the casing

What a ball ache

Why not tack 22 gauge from the battery negative pad to the body and the 510 ground to the proper ground on the board?

 

[Quantum Mech]

Ok so I cleaned out the battery cap area pretty well. But how clean do they need to be. I would say it is much more metal than anodizing/powdercoating. What of it is too loos in the battery cap. Is there something I could rap the battery cap in to make sure it is making a good connection? Just a though I am no at the mod and have not fixed the insulation issue. But once I do and put it back together, if it is still giving me issues. Is there something I could puns on the battery cap to make sure it is making a good connection. It is working with my applying a good amount of pressure to the battery cap

They should have been kept clean from the start thats bad QC if you have found paint inside the case threading for the caps

As its only aluminium you cant clean it with wire wool with out damaging the threads so paint stripper is all I can think of

 

[Quantum Mech]

Why not tack 22 gauge from the battery negative pad to the body and the 510 ground to the proper ground on the board?

Yeah that's what they should have done

 

[Matty316]

This is the fifth problem I've heard from the latest batch of Black devices. @JAlexander 's are in a sense the most severe. Two further guys on the FT thread both had 0.00 / Low Res, and both have the black. One of those has already done the top plate/"mating surface" sand and it fixed it immediately, the other hasn't attempted yet. Then two other guys are having uneven battery draining, but that was the battery tube threads not the ground, and seem to be fine since they cleaned those out.

@JAlexander you should do the sanding whenever you can, it's really easy.

So far we know about:

• batch 1, Silver x3: all fine (Mine, @Unior, UKV_Kenneth of FT forum - assumed as he reported it fine at least 4 days after getting it, and no further posts since)
• batch 2, Silver x1 : ground issues (@dwcraig1 )
• batch 2, Black x3 : ground issues (@JAlexander , sahe69 on FT forum (fixed by sanding) jayceebee on FT forum (fix not yet attempted) )
• batch 2, Black x2 : tube thread issues - uneven battery draining - no ground issues reported (Artvandelay and ChummyBoy on FT forum)
• batch 2, Black x1 : mod turns off when battery caps are screwed on more than half way - seemingly problem with the brass positive pin, first report, perhaps isolated
• batch 2, unknown : no issues (@Matty316 what flask do you have and can you confirm it's still working fine, besides the standard low resistance problem?)

If Allen @ SXK replies to my first email I will send him this list along with whatever other data I have by then. But so far, not so good - it was looking so good with Batch 1 but admittedly they were all silvers and silvers are less susceptible, though not immune as @dwcraig1 is finding.

Perhaps something went further wrong with batch2, or perhaps it's just that we didn't see any blacks and that was where the faults mostly lay. We still only have one reported silver fault in batch2 so it may be silvers are generally OK, or at least better.

@TheBloke

Thanks for all your help on this mate.
I can confirm mine is the silver 60W from batch 2 (the ones with new coil check). So far the only problem I have found is the low resistance reading.

 

[dwcraig1]

the red arrow shows where the 510 ground wire is soldered to the board, the board is using it also for the board's battery ground (which is chassis ground)

The green arrow shows the unused pad, internally they are the same

When I posted this I assumed SKX made a copy of the Evolv DNA 40 board just the way Rayn did but that is not the case. The pin out on the SXK board is entirely different.

 

[Matty316]

so @dwcraig1 you have a coil that is 0.12, the SXK shows it as 0.07, but then it sends the voltage appropriate for 0.12 at your current wattage setting?

If so, it could be more evidence of a deliberate scam? The resistance reading is fine, but it displays always too low so it can claim to fire down to 0.06.

Then again, I am a firm believer in the maxim: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

If they really wanted to pretend to do 0.06 then it only makes sense to do -0.04 at 0.10-0.14, not all the way up - and not getting worse and worse as it goes up. One might argue that it's both a scam (deliberate lowering displayed ohms) and a screw up (applying it more than is needed for the scam.)

Then again, if it's really firing the right voltage for the real ohms, wouldn't it also use the real ohms for the TC calculation? Meaning TC would be accurate without NP adjustment? But it isn't. It definitely seems to use the wrong, lowered ohms for TC calculations.

Very weird.

i will try probing my voltage today see if I can find the same thing as @dwcraig1

Checked mine to see if it was delivering the voltage for the displayed resistance or the actual resistance heres what i found:
In wattage mode: coil resistance displayed 0.81 ohms, actual resistance 0.96 ohms.
Fired at 30W: Voltage displayed 5.04V
5.04x5.04 divided by 30 = 0.84672 ohms

Edit: small typo actual resistance was 0.94 not 0.96

 

[aldenf]

When I posted this I assumed SKX made a copy of the Evolv DNA 40 board just the way Rayn did but that is not the case. The pin out on the SXK board is entirely different.

I noticed the differences between the Evolv board and the photos that JAlexander posted. Next to the "Fire +" solder joint there is another joint that is unlabeled. This appears to be the fire button pin. The board seems to not have an actual 510 ground pin. Without having one in my hands, it's difficult to troubleshoot...

ETA: Why not simply add a short length of 22G wire to the Bat- pin and run it, with our without a crimped eye, to a topcap screw, between the body and topcap? That should ground the board and still make dis-assembly simple.

 

[JAlexander]

Yea there are two black wires coming out of the fire button area. On of those it the wire with the torn insulation

 

[TheBloke]

Checked mine to see if it was delivering the voltage for the displayed resistance or the actual resistance heres what i found:
In wattage mode: coil resistance displayed 0.81 ohms, actual resistance 0.96 ohms.
Fired at 30W: Voltage displayed 5.04V
5.04x5.04 divided by 30 = 0.84672 ohms

Thanks!

So it is using a lower resistance than real resistance to calculate volts. But it's not using the displayed lower resistance, but one slightly higher.

Because that would make too much sense.

Unless of course the displayed volts is wrong as well!

Jeez what a mess.

 

[aldenf]

Yea there are two black wires coming out of the fire button area. On of those it the wire with the torn insulation

Since we can't see one side/end of the board due to the blue electrical tape, it's somewhat difficult to make out. But it appears the fire +/- pins are at the top of the board, next to the fire switch. Where does the thin red wire, soldered to the pin next to the "Fire +" pin terminate?

 

[AtmizrOpin]

From those pics posted, I don't even see a pin out for a second ground. I guess if I had one that was giving me problems with connectivity, I'd sand top plate mating surfaces and wire brush battery tube threads. Also I'd use a tiny amount of noalox for the top plate. Noalox is designed for aluminum to aluminum electrical connections, at least that's what I use for service panel installations in homes.

 

[JAlexander]

Here are some more up close photos. to try and help everyone and then you all to help me

both black wires out of the fire button terminate to the top of that blue board in the back

front side of board up close

Back side of board up close

I don't think this picture will be helpful haha

Topside to show exposed metal for ground

I taped the exposed wired put everything back together. still not working. I feel confident though that this is not a board issue. As i play with the battery cap or apply pressure, it works and can vape well but then if i release the pressure it stops working. i can not understand how this could be anything but a connection issue. but i still can not understand what the connection issue could be

 

[dwcraig1]

^^^ Do you have a volt meter?
I was thinking earlier about this, take a piece of wire (bare ends) hold one end to the outside of the battery cap (battery installed) and hold the other end against the outside (neg) of an atty that's screwed into the 510 and see if the board stays on this way. This will determine if it's on the ground side or not if it is a connection issue.
Show a good picture of the top of one of your batteries also if you would.

 

[AtmizrOpin]

I'm not liking the solder joint with the three red wires. Looks like the solder blob could be touching other components. Could be wrong but I don't think the daughter board is causing your problem. Is power still intermittent if you put 3.7 volts directly to the board B- and B+? Do you have the means to run such s test? That could tell you if you have a wiring problem and or cold solder joint.

 

[dwcraig1]

I just took some voltage readings off the posts of a triple Nichrome dripper that's 0.32Ω best I can determine. Setting is 23.5 watts on both Evolv power Hana style box and SXK flask. TP is off on both
Hana reads 2.87volts on display and 0.34Ω on display. Voltage at posts when firing was 2.49 volts.
SXK reads 2.58 volts on display and 0.25Ω on display. Voltage at posts when firing was also 2.49 volts
Crazy

 

[dwcraig1]

I'm not liking the solder joint with the three red wires. Looks like the solder blob could be touching other components. Could be wrong but I don't think the daughter board is causing your problem. Is power still intermittent if you put 3.7 volts directly to the board B- and B+? Do you have the means to run such s test? That could tell you if you have a wiring problem and or cold solder joint.

It does look pretty close to the capacitor ( the single one)

 

[JAlexander]

i do have a volt meter.


That worked @dwcraig1 , you are genius! ahhh i don't get it why did it work?


Here are more photos of it working with the wire, my batteries, the battery cap, and battery cap threads

 

[JAlexander]

I'm not liking the solder joint with the three red wires. Looks like the solder blob could be touching other components. Could be wrong but I don't think the daughter board is causing your problem. Is power still intermittent if you put 3.7 volts directly to the board B- and B+? Do you have the means to run such s test? That could tell you if you have a wiring problem and or cold solder joint.

Saw that too. Not sure how I could do that test. If you could tell me i could try and do it.

 

[dwcraig1]

Do you have a gun cleaning kit ( for the little wire brush)?
Go to Home Depot and get a brush for cleaning pipe prior to solder.
Or Dremel with wire brush attachment.
What ever to clean those threads without damage.

 

[dwcraig1]

Saw that too. Not sure how I could do that test. If you could tell me i could try and do it.

I'd start with a magnifying glass and an ohm meter
Note red line is spot of interest, it's pretty close but close is OK, touching is not.
It's possible that internally they're connected anyway.