DICODES No6

After very successful 2380 and Extreme tube mods the Dicodes enhanced its offer with box mods: DANI Box and DICODES No6. Are they so good as predecessors? Let's see at the example of the DICODES No6...

1. The FINISH.

It's just PERFECT (again). The body is made with high quality anodised aluminum. The head and bottom plates are made of solid stainless steel:

So the mod is VERY solid but at the same time INCREDIBLY ergonomic. Despite the 26650 battery bay No6 lies very well in the hand (right hand) - as I remember I haven't used yet such ergonomic mod, even the VaporFlask was not so good.

 

Mod is equipped with three buttons for menu operation and firing. FIRE button is very reliable - it works 100/100.

 

 

At the top we have quite big and easy readable OLED display and spring loaded 510 socket with center pin made of copper beryllium: 

 

 

Bottom:

 

Battery bay has quite long thread, so there is no problem with longer/shorter batteries.


2. FEATURES.

* power: 5-60 W,
* coil resistance: 0,05-5 ohm,
* temp. control: 120-280 *C (250-540F),
* adjustable TCR coefficient,
* 10 boost modes,
* 10 heater protection modes,
* battery: 1x 26650,
* dimensions: ~ 80x55x30 mm.

In my opinion it is more than enough for 95% of vapers.

It's a good moment to mention about menu. At first sight it looks complicated [1]:

 

But it is very well thought and perfectly optimized. You will learn it in 1-2 days.
NOTE for Dicodes tube mods users: two additional buttons makes menu navigation MUCH easier!


3. VW MODE.

Measurements were done on real 0.25 ohm coil and Tektronix TPS2012 oscilloscope:

 

 

Voltage is ROCK STABLE and very smooth - just PERFECT. The same with efficiency - power setting accuracy is ideal: you get exactly what you set.


4. TC MODE.

Ni200 first:

 

TC regulation is at REFERENCE level - soft rising edges, with no peaks and modulation. We can see again how the temperature control should look like. ONLY DNA200 may keep pace.

Now SS316. No6 has predefined "inox" mode for ss316 but I decided to test the manual TCR settings. So I set the TCR=110 and fired ss316 coil:

 

 

As we can see when the wick gets dry we have about 1 second voltage dip, then voltage rises a little. In my opinion it is caused by low TCR value for ss316: big changes of temperatures coused only slight changes of resistance so the regulation is quite difficult. Anyway, after that what I saw during the tests of other mods I can say: it is VERY GOOD.

 

5. COMBINED MODES.

5.1. Heater protection mode.
The heater protection mode is periodic interruption of the power applied to the coil. The duration and the repetition rate of the interrupts is predefined as shown in table below [1]:

 

According to the manufacturer: the repeated power interrupts helps to avoid a break in liquid flow and thus an increase in temperature. Hmm, if I need a modulation I will buy Vamo :-)

5.2. Power boost mode.
YEAH!!! The power boost mode enables an initial (or PERIODIC) short term boost pulse with different length and repetition rate. The types of power boost are shown in table below [1]:

 

The first three are quite common (used in SXmini, ProVari, The Eye, etc.) - it is initial boost with different length [1]:

 

But the next 7 are the periodic [1]:

 

 

Higher power pulses are applied cyclically at defined time intervals. As I know at this moment No6 is the only mod with such feature! RESPECT!


6. BATTERY.
 

How long can we vape using 26650 battery? Using the No6 counter feature I compared the number of puffs and pure vaping time on 26650 and 18650 batteries. The test was done at power 20W:
* 18650 (LG HG2) - 579 puffs, 22 minutes,
* 26650 (green Efest 40A) - 947 puffs, 34 minutes.

Half time longer - NICE.

 

7. DRAWBACKS.

 

After a month of intensive use I noticed ... one :-) display on top plate. Especially in case of RDA which leaks through airhole the liquid drips on the screen and it needs to be cleaned often.

The second issue: No6 is asymetrical and it is tailored to the right-handed person. But it is only my opinion - I know few left-handed people who are also very satisfied with No6 ergonomy.

 

8. CONCLUSION.

Electrically: HIGH-END, one of the best mod on the market.
Finish and Ergonomy: PERFECT (especially for right-handed).
Competition: the only natural competitor - ProVari Radius - stays far behind...

I highly recommend it!

References:

[1] Dicodes No6 Manual.