TESLA nano 60W TC

Thanks to the GearBest I could test the TESLA nano mod  - let's see wheter it is worth to spend about 40$.

TESLA nano 60W TC + Radius RDA

1. FINISH.

Is very nice - according to the manufacturer the body is made of zinc alloy, for me is just similiar to the steel. Anyway the Tesla is quite solid piece of mod - impression of solidity is at the level of HCigar vt40 or Dicodes No6, so it is very good.

Up/down buttons are quite big and easy to use and the FIRE button is just PERFECT -  big, with short jump and clear click, so far it fires 100/100. Spring loaded 510 connection handles well all my atomizers:

At the bottom we have typical vent holes and micro-usb port for charging:

Tesla looks very neatly but the ergonomy should be better (for me) - so far I can not find convenient position of mod in my hand. Of course it is highly individual - impresions will be different for each hand.

2. FEATURES.

* power: 60W,
* temp control: Ni200 and Ti,
* resistance in VW: 0,1 - 3,5 ohm,
* resistance in TC: 0,05 - 1 ohm,
* battery: built-in 3600 mAh LiPo,
* dimensions: 7x2,5x5,2 cm,
* weight: 210 g.

It is more than enough for me (I rarely use more than 30W and for TC usually  use Ni200).

Built-in battery. Hmm... for me it's disadvantage, but I can imagine that for some users it could be the advantage - we don't have to buy batteries and charger.

NOTE - the manufacturer recommends to use 5V/2A charger. It is typical specificaction of tablet (for example) chargers. Of course Tesla could be charging also by use of our mobile phone charger - but it will take 2-3 times longer. Real current consumption measured during charging is ~1.4A.

It is worth noting the "MECH" mode of Tesla - which means applying a voltage direct from battery, with no regulation.
Finally we can look at the display:

to see typical parameters for TC mods.


3. VW mode.

Measurements were done on real 0.23 ohm coil and Tektronix TPS2012 oscilloscope:

 

Of course it is not level of DNA or ProVari, the converter still "pumps" a voltage, so the graph is "thick", but most importantly there is no PWM modulation and such little oscillations are neutralized by thermal inertia of coil.
It should be emphasised the Tesla sets the voltage with very good accuracy. The SET-vs-GET power difference is below 5%. It is not so obvious for mods from China ;-)


4. TC mode.

Oscilloscope again, now the Ni200 coil:

Again it is not level of Dna or Dicodes but is quite decent, with no PWM modulation.


5. CONCLUSION.

Generally I do not recommend mods with built-in batteries. But recently friend of mine asked me about mod "without having separate charger and batteries". And I think I will recommend him the Tesla.


What I LIKED?
* very solid finish,
* FIRE button.

What I DISLIKED?
* ergonomics could be better,
* a little lag-time of powering.

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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.

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VaporShark DNA200 vs Wismec Reuleaux RX200 TC

There are more and more powerful mods with expensive dna200 chip on the one hand and a budget ones on the others. Is it worth to pay 3-5 times more for dna200 mods? Let's have a look at VaporShark DNA200 for around 200$ vs Wismec Reuleaux RX200 for around 40$...

1. The FINISH.

It's just PERFECT in both mods. The Wismec is made out of stainless steel and lies well in the hand. The battery flap is hold on solid magnets and there is no way to move it during regular use. The VaporShark is made out of aluminum, but then is more complex: finish starts with a black anodization process, followed by black paint and then a light rubberized coating completes the finish. And ... IT WORKS! The coat is quite difficult to scratch (even at the 510 head) and is very pleasant to the touch. Anyway, in both mods everything is very well fitted, including buttons - they are well-fixed.

510 socket without complaint in both cases:

With spring loaded center pin all the atomizers I used worked with no problems.

If we look at the Wismec display:

we can see:
* battery status,
* power,
* coil resistance,
* temperature setting,
* type of wire.

In VaporShark the display is at the bottom of mod and at first sight it looks typical for Evolv chip:

but IT IS CUSTOMIZABLE in dedicated Escribe software - so we have a lot of parameters to show:

 
Wow!

Both mods are ergonomic when in use, the Wismec even better (it perfectly lies in the hand) BUT the Wismec has one disadvantage: the WEIGHT - around 300g with battery installed (no atomizer), so it is definitely NOT for outside. The VaporShark weighs around 170g.

The comparison with other mods:

2. FEATURES.

- power: 200W,
- resistance range for VW mode: 0.1-3.5 ohm / 0.03-3 ohm(*),
- resistance range for TC mode: 0.05-1.0 ohm / 0.03-3 ohm(*),
- temperature range: 100-300*C (200-600 F),
- battery: 3x18650 / 3S LiPo 10 Wh,
- size: 50x40x84 mm / 48x24x89 mm.
* - according to the manual dna200 starts from 0.01 ohm but I do not recommend it.

The VaporShark is powered by 11V | 900mAh | 10Wh LiPo battery with quite easy access to replace:

 under the flap with magnet and latch.

In Wismec we have 3x18650 battery bay with spring loaded negative pins:

Polarity is clearly identified and battery exchange is quick and quite easy. 

You may easily guess that difference in battery operation time will be HUGE between these mods (more on that later).

Both mods have microUSB slot for battery charging and firmware update. Additionally the VaporShark is FULLY CUSTOMIZABLE by use of Escribe software - and it is significant advantage over every other mods (not only rx200). At this moment there is absolutely no competition for Escribe.

NOTE - I do not recommend using the internal battery charger in Wismec (more on that later).


3. VOLTAGE SHAPE and EFFICIENCY.

Measurements were carried out by use of real atomizer with coil resistance 0.26-0.33 ohm:

Velocity with dual AWG22 coils.

And the results:

We can see several things:
1. Voltage of the dna200 is ROCK STABLE. It is nothing unusual - it is DNA :-)

2. RX voltage flows a little - if we expand the timebase:

we will see slow oscillations with around 0.5V amplitude - of course it is nothing terrible and unnoticeable during vaping.

3. With dna200 we get exactly what we set up to 70W - the differences in wattage are below 1%. Then the differences get bigger - up to 8%. But it is still VERY GOOD - remember: at 200W we get around 30A in coils.

4. RX has a bigger differences between set and obtained wattage - could reach even 15%. Of course having so much power we can easy compensate it (setting a higher wattage) but it is worth to keep in mind.


4. TEMPERATURE CONTROL

Setup was made as regular coil with Ni200 wire, ~0.1 ohm, 30W and 250*C, the oscilloscope was set for longer acquisition time and go...

 

As we can see for the Dna200 temperature control is ABSOLUTELY PERFECT. After the preheat pulse (setting in the Escribe software) we get very smooth regulation with no modulation and oscillations - there is only one mod with such good regulation: Dicodes.
TC for RX200 looks worse but not so bad, especially when the wick is wet. Only when wick is almost dry the strong modulation appears.

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