Yihi SX350J Technology Discussion Thread

[RGLP4Lyfe]

I want one of these so bad I've been hearing about them for a while now. Me and Tom CH were talking about the chip.

My budget is blown though I've got 4 gdeal mechanical Pekos in the last few months and just 4 days ago I received my Gdna 4.2 printed mod by gdeal and received my dna 40 large screen that day also. I've been soldering the board and getting everything ready but dang it's way more soldering than I've ever done. And some of the wires and solder are so close they may move ans touch one another :0

That 350j chip looks way more simple to solder it into a mod. That dna 40 is small and all the gold ports are stuffed so close to one another.

-Mark

 

[tchavei]

I want one of these so bad I've been hearing about them for a while now. Me and Tom CH were talking about the chip.

My budget is blown though I've got 4 gdeal mechanical Pekos in the last few months and just 4 days ago I received my Gdna 4.2 printed mod by gdeal and received my DNA 40 large screen that day also. I've been soldering the board and getting everything ready but dang it's way more soldering than I've ever done. And some of the wires and solder are so close they may move ans touch one another :0

That 350j chip looks way more simple to solder it into a mod. That DNA 40 is small and all the gold ports are stuffed so close to one another.

-Mark

As far as I know, the 350j board comes with the wires pre-soldered and covered with some black stuff so people don't solder on the board. It should be easier to install but also less flexible. Screen, USB and control buttons are fixed on the pcb.

Regarding the dna 40, use a third hand with a magnifying glass, a fine tip iron, a lot of flux and good copper wire. The better the wire, the easier it will be soldered. I would suggest silicon insulated wire instead of normal pvc just because you can push the wire insulator over the hole (you solder on the other side) and it won't contract and expose the inner copper which then can short if you manipulate the wires afterwards.

Regards
Tony

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

 

[dam718]

As far as I know, the 350j board comes with the wires pre-soldered and covered with some black stuff so people don't solder on the board. It should be easier to install but also less flexible. Screen, USB and control buttons are fixed on the pcb.

Regarding the dna 40, use a third hand with a magnifying glass, a fine tip iron, a lot of flux and good copper wire. The better the wire, the easier it will be soldered. I would suggest silicon insulated wire instead of normal pvc just because you can push the wire insulator over the hole (you solder on the other side) and it won't contract and expose the inner copper which then can short if you manipulate the wires afterwards.

Regards
Tony

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

To add to this, it takes a lot less heat than you think. If you're using anything more than a 20W iron for fine PCB work, you're probably using too much heat. I typically use between 12-15W with my adjustable solder station for fine work, and a very tiny tip! Tin your leads and your board contact pads before you attempt to make your joint. Heat the wire, not the solder, etc, etc... LoL If you need help, just ask. There are a lot of folks here willing to help!

 

[Jazzman]

As far as I know, the 350j board comes with the wires pre-soldered and covered with some black stuff so people don't solder on the board. It should be easier to install but also less flexible. Screen, USB and control buttons are fixed on the pcb.

Regarding the dna 40, use a third hand with a magnifying glass, a fine tip iron, a lot of flux and good copper wire. The better the wire, the easier it will be soldered. I would suggest silicon insulated wire instead of normal pvc just because you can push the wire insulator over the hole (you solder on the other side) and it won't contract and expose the inner copper which then can short if you manipulate the wires afterwards.

Regards
Tony

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

This is incorrect. The board, as received from YiHi has a black covering over appropriate places on the board and no black covering over the typical parts of the board that a modder might want to change. For example, there are uncovered solder holes to easily add your own switches if you want to not use the onboard switches. Onboard switches are an option, not a requirement. The chip package also includes a separate 9v serial USB charging board if you decide to use dual serial batteries instead of a single battery or a dual parallel configuration. There is very little black potting material on the board, and they are in obvious places black potting material should be used like securing the screen to the board, the inductor, and securing the buttons and USB. And anyone with a few mods under their belt could easily remove the black potting material if they wished.

This is a very flexible chip for the modder and you can pretty much customize the mod to whatever you want. I just received mine and I'm pleasantly surprised at the options available to me out of the package. Well done YiHi.

 

[Jazzman]

To add to this, it takes a lot less heat than you think. If you're using anything more than a 20W iron for fine PCB work, you're probably using too much heat. I typically use between 12-15W with my adjustable solder station for fine work, and a very tiny tip! Tin your leads and your board contact pads before you attempt to make your joint. Heat the wire, not the solder, etc, etc... LoL If you need help, just ask. There are a lot of folks here willing to help!

I prefer to solder with temp control and set the iron temp to the wire ga. I'm using and the size through hole and board thickness. I haven't worried about wattage for years and just adjust to the appropriate temp. While wattage will certainly work as a heat limiting control, I just think temp is even better.

 

[dam718]

I prefer to solder with temp control and set the iron temp to the wire ga. I'm using and the size through hole and board thickness. I haven't worried about wattage for years and just adjust to the appropriate temp. While wattage will certainly work as a heat limiting control, I just think temp is even better.

Ahh, yeah my iron doesn't have temp limiting, I need to look into that!

 

[tchavei]

This is incorrect. The board, as received from YiHi has a black covering over appropriate places on the board and no black covering over the typical parts of the board that a modder might want to change. For example, there are uncovered solder holes to easily add your own switches if you want to not use the onboard switches. Onboard switches are an option, not a requirement. The chip package also includes a separate 9v serial USB charging board if you decide to use dual serial batteries instead of a single battery or a dual parallel configuration. There is very little black potting material on the board, and they are in obvious places black potting material should be used like securing the screen to the board, the inductor, and securing the buttons and USB. And anyone with a few mods under their belt could easily remove the black potting material if they wished.

This is a very flexible chip for the modder and you can pretty much customize the mod to whatever you want. I just received mine and I'm pleasantly surprised at the options available to me out of the package. Well done YiHi.

Glad you gave us more insight on the modders board. In what casing are you planning to install it?

Regards
Tony

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

 

[Vlad1]

Can we establish once and for all if this thing is firing in PWM? And if not what the hell is that Humming sound coming out of my SX Mini M Class? Ill be a little ...... if this thing is firing temp control in PWM because besides from that i love this thing better then my DNA40

I'm not real sure why you'd be ...... if it runs PWM if you love it. I think the main goal is to give you a good / great vaping experience. And for me they have. I don't care if it runs on PWM or propane if it continues to work as it has. Anyway I'll give my opinion and link some traces of why my thought process is where it is.

IMO this is not PWM at least up to the point that temperature limiting is engaged. I'd have no idea what they are doing to accomplish the temp limiting aspect and since the humm / buzz is present prior to that I haven't looked in depth at any of those signals.

These tests were done prior to reaching temperature limiting as well as having the humm / buzz or whatever you want to call it. On my device my son says the noise is present as soon as I hit the fire button. Now you can see there is some switching on and off and I'm not sure what the purpose of that is but it's persistent at 49hz in all.

This was done on a test atty and I don't recall the resistance but thinking it was somewhere around .3Ω
The three samples were run at 10J, 20j & 30J settings. As you can see there is little to no difference in the duty cycle. The one different 30j was at 92.7% I attribute to inconsistency in my equipment. You will see however that the amplitude "RMS" voltage does not stay the same. 10j - 2.09v, 20j - 3.17v, 30 j- 4.26v increasing at each higher test.

If this were PWM we should be seeing an increase in the +duty cycle at each increment we tested and we don't. Instead we see an increase in the RMS values.
Pulse Amplitude Modulation, Switched DC??? I don't know but it definitely is not PWM in my opinion.

Note: All testing was done on cheap probably inaccurate equipment.
I make errors and mistakes and at times I'm just wrong. Please use this information at your own risk.


10 joule setting
http://i570.photobucket.com/albums/ss143/vlad_019/10joule.png

20 joule setting
http://i570.photobucket.com/albums/ss143/vlad_019/20joule.png

30 joule setting
http://i570.photobucket.com/albums/ss143/vlad_019/30joule.png

 

[dam718]

It certainly doesn't look like PWM the way we've seen it implemented before in an eCig (think, VAMO / Vmax / ZMax style)...

That 49Hz pulse is most likely the buzz we're hearing, as it's only present in TC mode...

Seems like that's a polling frequency where it's evaluating the resistance of the coil. You can see it's pulsing a voltage spike at quicker intervals to get it up to temp, and once it stabilizes it's pulsing a voltage spike at a more steady rate of every 7 (+/- 1) polling cycles. Prior to it reaching temp limits it was applying voltage every cycle. Did you happen to be in soft mode when you did these readings?

Whatever the case, that wave form is different than anything I've seen implemented before. It's different than the DNA40, to be sure. But even with those quick little pulses, my experience is nice and smooth vapor.

It's magic... LoL

 

[Jazzman]

Glad you gave us more insight on the modders board. In what casing are you planning to install it?

Regards
Tony

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

My own design. Now that I have the chip in hand I can finish the cradle and get the project done.

In all fairness I should mention all the black potting material you were describing was pretty much how the original SX350 board was done. And it was a PIA to remove to add alternates switches. I'm really glad they decided to allow easy access on this chip. I was really surprised a separate serial charging board was included
in the kit. I didn't expect that and didn't see it listed in the product description so that was like a really nice bonus. Now I have to figure how the logic works in the chip to determine what charging method to use. I'm trying to find out if the USB charging port for single/parallel batteries is programmatically disabled if series batteries are installed. That would be really nice, but I haven't found the specs on that yet. I'll probably have to email YiHi to find out.

I'm also pleased to see 4 mounting holes on the board so I don't have to use glue or an interference fit cradle for this board. It's going to be fun to work with.

 

[RGLP4Lyfe]

So where is the best place to order this board? At a fair price and good customer service if needed replaced? Thanks yall! I just got my DNA 40 large screen and haven't even got to try it yet but this yihi sounds better in each and every way. Although evolv does have a great rep and they will replace the board if ANYTHING is wrong. They are an awesome company. If I'm not mistaken yihi is based in China right? So getting a replacement would be a hassle?

-Mark

 

[Vlad1]

I'm not really seeing the quicker spike your referring to. But these captures were after a few seconds of firing. Due to the lag of my pc scope I have to wait for the signal to stabilize once I start / stop the capture so It's not reflecting the initial signal from firing. I think the 30j image is a little distorted due to me trying to do the capture a little fast because it was becoming harder and harder to keep from hitting temp limiting and I didn't want to burn my sons ear accidentally Also this thing has a few millivolts of noise so not completely a clean signal to begin with so if your looking at the little blips that may not be of much value. But yes I believe I was in soft mode but like I said I was probably past that when I started / stopped the capture.


Edit:
I do see the .2 v- .5v spike on the leading edge of the signal but that stays persistent at 49hz. The little blips I was referring to are mainly only seen in the 20j image and I think that's just noise.

 

[Portertown]

This is incorrect. The board, as received from YiHi has a black covering over appropriate places on the board and no black covering over the typical parts of the board that a modder might want to change. For example, there are uncovered solder holes to easily add your own switches if you want to not use the onboard switches. Onboard switches are an option, not a requirement. The chip package also includes a separate 9v serial USB charging board if you decide to use dual serial batteries instead of a single battery or a dual parallel configuration. There is very little black potting material on the board, and they are in obvious places black potting material should be used like securing the screen to the board, the inductor, and securing the buttons and USB. And anyone with a few mods under their belt could easily remove the black potting material if they wished.

This is a very flexible chip for the modder and you can pretty much customize the mod to whatever you want. I just received mine and I'm pleasantly surprised at the options available to me out of the package. Well done YiHi.

Info on adding remote up/down switches on the J board.......

Only one of the solder holes is "active" for remote switches and you have to solder two other wires to the surface mount pads on the onboard switches. This is a very tight space to be soldering on these switches and doing so will most likely void your warranty.
Here is a link to an ECF thread with instructions on doing this task:
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo.../559302-yihi-sx350-35w-chip-varitube-204.html

There are several posts, with pictures, in the above listed thread that shows how one person did this modification.

I know my soldering skills are not up to this task and I will just be using the onboard switches on the J board I am installing.

 

[dam718]

All the little blips along the bottom of the signal on your scope are not being introduced by the mod, but instead by your scope? That does us no good! LoL

 

[Jazzman]

Info on adding remote up/down switches on the J board.......

Only one of the solder holes is "active" for remote switches and you have to solder two other wires to the surface mount pads on the onboard switches. This is a very tight space to be soldering on these switches and doing so will most likely void your warranty.
Here is a link to an ECF thread with instructions on doing this task:
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo.../559302-yihi-sx350-35w-chip-varitube-204.html

There are several posts, with pictures, in the above listed thread that shows how one person did this modification.

I know my soldering skills are not up to this task and I will just be using the onboard switches on the J board I am installing.

Good catch Porter! And thanks for the link. Just checked the board and this method is not really any harder than 30ga wire in the through holes. This will work great since I don't intend to use the onboard buttons. A lot of good information in that thread, I'll be sure to browse through it to see what others have found out about the SX350J

 

[Vlad1]

All the little blips along the bottom of the signal on your scope are not being introduced by the mod, but instead by your scope? That does us no good! LoL

The blips are irrelevant when identifying if the signal is PWM or not.. The blips are noise but the signal definitely show's it is not PWM IMO. I've edited one of the graphs so you can see / understand the trace better. I don't think you're understanding where ground is.

 

[dam718]

I was referring to a different graph... This one:

I was referring to all the small blips across the bottom of the graph.

 

[Vlad1]

That was a capture from the other night of a full signal capture that was going into temp limiting. I didn't post that in this thread in regard to PWM since the buzz / humm is present as soon as the fire button is pressed I've tried to keep temp limiting out of the captures for that.

But those spikes your looking at are a result of the temp limiting feature. I have not looked at them in depth but they do not seem to be constant which was why I had linked the periods of a couple other images in that other thread that were different frequency when I originally linked to them..

Edit:
If you haven't seen the previous post & captures these are what I was referencing here in regard to PWM.

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...hnology-discussion-thread-3.html#post15642453

 

[dam718]

Right, but those spikes do seem consistent with the 49Hz frequency. It never goes away, even when you hit temp limiting. It's there, just smaller.

 

[JohnD0406]

So it's measuring resistance at 49Hz... Explains the buzz, and why it's only in Joules mode.