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The Evolv DNA75C

Posted on by Rob Ellard

 

“From a technology standpoint, and from an Evolv standpoint, everything we’ve done from wattage, in the beginning, has layered one thing on top of another,” says Brandon from Evolv. “Our goal is to solve the e-cigarette. We’re different from cigarettes in that way. Cigarettes are an agricultural product these are engineered products, and with engineered products you can change them. Problem? Oh great, we can fix that.”

So, here it comes: the Evolv DNA75C. It’s another layer on top of the products produced by Evolv, to take out the glitches and add in more usability & ease of function. The C in DNA75C stands for “colour”, obvious from the first glimpse at the large new colour display, but there’s more to it than that. “I almost wish we hadn’t put ‘colour’ in the name,” Brandon explains. “That’s not what’s really cool about this. We listen, we listen carefully.”

What Evolv heard was that no matter how much people liked the DNA chips, they wouldn’t recommend them to new vapers or users looking for a simple experience. He added: “We wanted to take all the power and functionality of the DNA, which people love because it does temperature control extremely well, and make it simpler to use.”

The big changes Evolv has made are all “under the hood”, according to Vape Droid. The old 75 proved itself to be “a reliable, consistent and accurate chip. You can’t ask for much more than that.” So, rather than reinventing something, Evolv has implemented a series of tweaks to make what was good even better.

“It took the industry a long while to come over to wattage. It took them a lot less time to come over to temperature,” continues Brandon.

This is a massive leap forward in form and function that raises the bar for all boards. Power delivery has been improved, temperature control is more accurate and efficient. All of the chat on the Evolv forum points to the board being suitable for a single battery device, like the DNA75 before it. The board will have enough energy storage to preserve the clock through quick battery changeovers, but the device monitor will also correct the chipsets time whenever it connects to a device. Also, according to an Evolv forum admin, “if you use ECigStats, it will correct the time after it synchronizes with the device (if you have made one or more puffs since the last time you plugged in).”

What we have ascertained, although no data has been released on the Evolv site yet, is that the screen is 160x80px. It will be able to operate in both orientations. At any time, it can hold up to three background images of any dimension. The chipset will accommodate any font; up to three different sizes, and they can be from different font families.

Escribe was recognised as being a brilliant advance at the time, but some didn’t get on with it – and Mac OS users didn’t have the option unless they ran it in a Wine app or a virtual engine. Casual vapers weren’t keen on hooking up to a PC either. Now the functionality has been put onto the board, so vapers can adjust settings on the mod itself.

Evolv’s “Theme Designer” is a second piece of software, separate from Escribe, designed to make simplicity the operational byword. It places the functionality on the device itself rather than by hooking it up to a computer, and everything is customisable.

It will allow everyone to adjust the background image, the fonts, the colours, logos, screen appearance all on the fly. While this will appeal to many, it doesn’t cover all of the advantages offered up by the new chipset. Should you wish, you can now change all of the menu systems so that you can change screen content, order, how they interact with each other and you can upload you own gauges to identify things like temperature, battery level and so on. It means the mod can have a menu that is as simple or as complex as the user desires – rather than being laid down by the chip manufacturer. Also, this means that individual mod producers can design devices with a unique experience for their customers.

Some vapers will be saying to themselves “hang on, this doesn’t sound simple at all. It sounds like I’m going to have to do a load of design work.” Good point, but no. Evolv are going to open up something they call ‘The Theme Park’. It will build on all of the work and community sharing that took place following the launch of the DNA200. Generous souls who want to show off their themes can upload them to Theme Park where others can look at them and, if they wish, download them in their entirety for use on their mods.

It comes with an extra select button, which can be seen in operation on Vape Droid’s prototype. While some might see this as added bulk, the Evolv admin explains: “It really does need an extra select button, when you get your hands on one you will see how easy it is to use, being able to change your resistance and preheat when you are out and about is awesome.”

VapnFagan demonstrates a Lost Vape Therion prototype utilising the new Evolv DNA75C below:

 

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Choices, choices, choices

Posted on by Rob Ellard

 

In fact, we’re seeing an unprecedented deluge of mods and atomisers from that part of the world with new models being announced on an almost weekly basis. And this is a problem. Well, to you this might not be a problem. To you problems might be what kind of curry to order tonight, whether to go with wine or beer and the fact that the postman still hasn’t delivered your vapemail.

In life I have three main problems: firstly, now the weather is nice I have the doors of the lounge open while I work. No problem there, you say. Now factor in the neighbours who shout a lot, have screaming children they swear at and possess the worst combined selection of music any person could have inflicted upon them. Odds are that you have or had neighbours like this or, if you are my neighbours, turn the damn tripe down.

My second problem is quite a challenging one – I own fourteen mods. No man or woman can possibly use all fourteen at once, not even in rotation. But the constant updates on websites make it impossible not to buy more. I’m currently waiting for my invoice from Mikro Engineering for my Challenger Mk.II – that’ll make it fifteen. To be honest, this isn’t the real problem it’s what it leads to.

It creates problem number three. It is the one thing that vexes me most about vaping. I’ve got a toolbox; in the top compartments I store my charged batteries and my drip tips. On the wooden rack I built from part of my daughter’s ex-bed sit my range of attys. So the issue is that at any given moment I have to choose one from fourteen mods, one of three different battery sizes, one from fourteen attys, one from thirty drip tips and one from twenty four flavours.

That’s 423,360 possible combinations.

Four hundred and twenty-three thousand three hundred and sixty possible vape combinations! This ridiculous array of options for a man who struggles to decide whether to have a Jal Frezi or a Madras. When standing in the drinks aisle I can never decide between imported or home-brewed beer. This is the first time I’ve ever looked at this as a number, frankly I’m stunned.

But this problem doesn’t sit there, there’s the option of whether to go for Voodoowool, cotton, mesh, A1 Kanthal wire (which diameter?), ribbon (which width?), number of wraps, what resistance I think I might fancy and if to opt for single or dual wicks.

And then there are aesthetic considerations. For example, there is no way you could get away with a blue drip tip on a tarnished brass Kraken sitting proudly on a red aluminium Nemesis tube with a polished stainless switch & stealth cap and a polished brass lock ring. One minute you’re constructing a set-up to vape with, the next you’re looking at something as gaudy as a house covered in Xmas lights

I probably spend more time pondering whether or not the combination goes together than I do wicking and vaping the thing.

Life was so much easier when all I had was a Vamo and a Protank. I need a 21st Century Kepler to plan out a simple law of mod selection; either that, or a 21st Century Brahe to threaten to run me through with a sword if I don’t make my choice in 60 seconds flat.

I haven’t even touched upon the time spent online window-shopping.

 

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The F5 button

Posted on by Rob Ellard

 

I’ve been vaping for 18 months now and have never had the inclination to enter into a competition of wits and bandwidth. Well, probably not a lack of inclination but rather a lack of money or knowledge anything requiring an F5 key was taking place.

This changed on the day I swapped a Panzer for a GP Paps 2.5 Lux.

You know the feeling you probably had as a kid when an Aunt, who always gave socks as presents or cards with the wrong age on, suddenly appears as though she was struck down by an incurable dose of wonderful? The present you were opening didn’t feel soft and you were racking your brain trying to invent a different plausible ‘thank you’ from the rehearsed “I really needed some new socks and these are brilliant – I love flowers, thank you Auntie!’

And you opened it. And it was truly awesome; like a robot with real lasers or a jetpack or something.

And you were speechless.

That was me.

I’d never seen a Paps before bar pictures and, to be frank, I wasn’t that impressed. Holding its 350 mightiness though, pushing the button, it was just one of those moments when you shout, “Yes!” as a whisper. Gold glinting from the battery adjustment screw may rank up there with Chav bling but it just works as a whole. A shiny whole where less is more, understated by virtue of the simplicity of the device and the quality imbued by attention to detail during manufacturing.

A new world opened up, curtains drawn from that aspect of vaping reserved for those who find the gaudy Pinoy engraving offensive to the eye. I got it, I really understood why a simple tube could hold a fascination.

With some savings in the bank I went hunting online for videos, reviews, anything related to Vapourart. Even languages I didn’t understand were fair game as long as I had music playing and a full pint next to me.

I’ll sing the virtues of a Mac computer everyday of the week but I was stumped. If I wanted to buy an X 1.5 Lux I had to be online this Tuesday, at 7pm prompt, and compete with the rest of the world after one from the limited stock going on sale.

It was easy to see what was missing when I lost out on the race for the affections of Caroline Phillips. My best mate had a motorbike. On the nights she told me she was going to stay in for a bath and some TV she was really grabbing onto his midriff. She was feeling the twist of the throttle pressing her back into the seat and making her hug on even tighter. With every peg-scraping corner her thoughts were driven by adrenaline and excitement – I could never compete by offering her a croggy on my 10-speed racing bicycle.

It was easy to see what was missing from my quest to net this Paps too – I have no F5 button.

How in the blue blazes of flip do you compete in an F5 war without an F5 button? Especially if your computer has a dodgy keypad, no mouse and massive cracks from where I’d hit it the night before with a Nemesis after tripping over one of the dogs.

No F5 button, no mouse, knackered screen, malfunctioning Magic Trackpad ™ and a pair of children. It’s at times like this you need special reserves of patience and to discover the hitherto unknown cmd-R Macbook function.

In the village we have broadband powered by a couple of field mice; when you have a daughter watching Netflix and a son using his Xbox (to kill pedestrians and prostitutes) it is slower than an old man driving on a motorway wearing driving gloves.

I’m not patient by nature.

At 7pm twenty-seven minutes of frustration, anger, more frustration, panic, even more frustration and some added fear ensued. I was all keyed up; this had gone from something I fancied buying to something I had to get. Why wasn’t this an episode of Star Trek? Why couldn’t I command someone to “Make it so”?

What I got was the screen going blank, the account not being recognised, refreshing, creating a new account, the screen going blank, refreshing, the website not appearing, refreshing…it seemed as inexplicable and longer lasting than Hugh Grant’s acting career.

The adrenaline buzz at the end though, the rush when I got to the order accepted stage – I’ve experienced some highs in my time, this was up there. Utterly ridiculous, I know, that a grown man should get so intense and immersed in the process of buying a metal tube. But, hey, this one comes with a pouch.

I caught the gaze of pity combined with disappointment from across the room. The wife is still searching for my personal F5 button.

 

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One’s too many, ten’s not enough!

Posted on by Rob Ellard

With the growth of the Internet and the possibility to grab an answer from the ether I keep trying to find out where it originated. And I can’t. Transpose ten for a thousand and you have a logical answer in that it refers to drink…or any vice of your choosing.

It could quite easily be that they used ten in place of a thousand so that the syllables canned the line. I don’t know. What I do know is that it is a truism of vaping.

When I started I bought two CE4s and an Ego-style battery. My first mistake was not factoring in charging time and so I bought a second battery.

I’d not quit smoking, I’d achieved that seven years before, this was all about not taking up smoking again. For various reasons I was as close to a return as you can get – suddenly all of those triggers were clicking.

Whenever I parked the bike up and removed my helmet, whenever I’d finished a meal, whenever I’d got a beer…you know the things, you’ve been there. The notion of smoking was beginning to consume me. I thought getting a pipe might work as a controlled step so I spent around four weeks wandering about puffing on an empty pipe. All it did was increase the craving.

A friend introduced me to eCigs and I began my research. I was going to buy an ePipe but didn’t want to pay the prices being asked. The solution seemed to be a rubber pipe-like attachment to an Ego.

But the grip was now there; the quest for a better vape was on. Internet forums had to be the solution, someone would help me, and someone would suggest a bit of kit that would solve my problems.

So, I joined Planet of the Vapes and asked the question every noob asks. The wife, bless her, was fully supportive of anything that stopped me returning to smoking and as this advice was to be the solution she agreed to stump up and buy a Vamo with a pair of Evods and an Aga-T2.

But, like you all know, it never stops there. Not just ‘there’ but it never seems to stop, period.

From time to time she will look at me slightly oddly as I wave around something I’ve received in the post – that quizzical look you get from a dog when it hasn’t got the faintest idea what you are talking about but may involve food or a good walk.

I’ve got the mod rack trimmed down to ten smashing bits of kit and loudly proclaimed that, while waving around a copper Akuma, that this would be the very last mod I buy as I don’t need any more.

Which puts me in mind of another lyric:

“It seems so simple but they just don’t get it.

I meant what I said at the time that I said it.“

http://youtu.be/usAIvf5gRVQ

And I did mean it.

I meant it as much as any vow taken or any promise made. But…

I’ve just ordered another one, it seems ten wasn’t enough. Giving up fags was easy compared to giving up buying different mods and atomisers.

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Dangers

Posted on by Rob Ellard

 

Either by luck or judgement I avoided consuming one of the many liquids stored under the sink as a child, but it’s only time. Friday night is coming and the drinks shelf is empty, creative cocktail thinking is called for when needs must. Quite how I managed to stay alive this long, considering the filtering I did through traffic to get to my last job on my GSX1400, beggars belief.

The papers have a new candidate for a Darwin award every week as they plug their Ego battery into the mains using a charger made from a Blue Peter guidebook (using string, some baking foil and a roll of sticky-backed plastic) and then video themselves impersonating Fantastic 4’s Johnny Storm.

You’d like to think that someone who has a degree would be able to remember to turn the lock button on a mod when setting it down – but I’m typing this very gingerly after leaving the Viggo firing the .4ohm Magma while making a coffee. There’s nothing like grabbing hold of a mod that is approaching the same temperature as the core of the Sun. The body is programmed to automate a drop reflex in such situation. I have discovered that the brain operates an over-ride function when dealing with a valued mod.

Just last night I had sparks flying from the Atmomixani Dome after the positive screw had managed to drill itself through the insulating piece and short to the build deck. Going through my spares kit I had a replacement for everything on the atty except that one item; lucky for me my inability to self-organise stretches to throwing away bits and lo, in my vape kit, I found a suitable replacement.

Apart from the large dose of stupid I consumed for breakfast it would appear I also have magnetic properties. Out in public I attract nutters, my inbox is full of bizarre requests and every single lost piece of Kanthal has now been found. They can located in my left foot which, had that been the plot of the film of the same name, would have made far more enjoyable viewing; I would be played by Rutger Hauer.

Out of all the dangers I face by far the greatest is the temptation to hurl a genny at the wall. Even Bear Grills would crumble if he had to redo a coil and wick four times before it worked. I suspect the earthquake in Britain this week had something to do with a genny-related tantrum.

Of course, as so often the case, when we think of dangers we focus on the physical. Wild bears, zombie apocalypses and zombie wild bears consume most of my daily worries – but it is the mental anguish which vapers will be most familiar with.

For weeks the children are denied access to food other than beans, forced to hang around Tesco waiting for empty boxes to plug the holes in their shoes and listen to my old LPs instead of downloading Now 251. For weeks they endure deprivation just so I can sit and repeatedly refresh my browser because the greatest atomiser known to mankind.

It is the mental torment that afflicts us because it’s a pain no one can see. Well, no one who isn’t looking through our French windows as the product goes out of stock before Firefox kicks back into life.

And what about the poor vapers who eventually give up waiting, break down and buy something different only to see the object of their dreams suddenly appear on a website but the money has been spent? What support mechanisms do we have in place for them? None, that’s how many.

The MRHA can go on all they want about efficacy of products but what I want to know is are they going to ensure that I can buy a Hellfire? Are they flip. I will keep clicking on the site in the knowledge that the day one is for sale I will be reduced to a wreck of my former self.

Once I couldn’t decide which girl to go out with and so I made a list of pluses and minuses. By the time I’d finished the list the girl who’d won had decided she’d rather be going out with a bloke who owned a Lada – a ten-speed bicycle can’t compete when the stakes are that high.

I have a feeling that a similar situation will happen as I weigh up which mods will have to be sold on. But, on thinking about it, I could always just cut off my left foot and take it to a scrap metal merchant. It’s that or putting the wife on a corner and the last time that happened someone traded her for a used sofa.

All of this pales in comparison with the greatest mental danger that can afflict a discerning vaper; the choice of what atomiser to put on which mod.

If you are fortunate enough to live with one mod and one atty then you are in that blissful monogamistic state, you don’t have to suffer the worry that the drip tip contrasts garishly with the top cap and that people will mock you as you vape in public.

I’ve developed a Mormon approach to device ownership and, like the notion of having more than one wife, it isn’t as carefree as you’d imagine. Just imagine having eight women telling you to put the toilet seat down and put your used pants in the wash basket, not on the floor.

Every…single…day. *Shudders*

All the mods, attys and drip tips demand attention. On my last visit to the doctor she asked me what I thought my major problems in life were. She was clearly not a vaper judging by the brevity of the appointment – but at least I now have a clean bill of health. I probably spend as much time deciding on the mod/atty/tip combo that I do actually vaping the thing. Of course that’s actually a bad thing as it cuts down on having to recoil, injur myself and get more Kanthal jabbed into my flesh.

There ought to be a warning about vaping, someone should seriously get on that.

Dave Cross

 

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Options

Posted on by Rob Ellard

 

Thing is, and there’s a truism from football, that form is temporary and class is permanent.

I’m not a dedicated follower of fashion and resolutely refuse to accompany my daughter shopping. She’s 13 and apparently clothes are important to 13yr-old girls. I know this because I stood with her for twenty-three minutes and nineteen seconds as she attempted to decide which top to buy. Once, never again, will I spend twenty-three minutes and nineteen seconds before leaving the store and go listen to the radio in the car.

It’s got to that stage at home where my teenagers mock me for my clothes but I’m OK with that, it’s all part of my anti-fashion/anti-brand stance. My teen punk ethos bleeding into my middle age spread. Or so I thought.

As much as I refuse to countenance paying more than a tenner for a shirt or £20 on shoes I keep finding myself pulled out by the rip tide of vaping fashion into deep waters. One minute I was happy paddling with my Kayfun-lite, the next I’m sitting looking at a Dome wondering how on Earth it floated onto my desk. And then it struck me that I am my daughter; I spend far more time flitting from browser tab to browser tab comparing vape gear than she ever does with clothes. I’m not knocking the KFL, far from it. As someone who was using Evods and learning to swim in vaping circles I was given an almighty push in the back to flounder about with it.

The Kayfun, in its present iteration, is still the only silica atty I keep going back to again and again. Yes it dribbles a little bit from the fill hole even though Svoemesto have now put an o-ring there but it doesn’t have the hit or miss quality of the Taifun or the ridiculous size. I got a GT because everyone was going on about how they were better than Kayfuns and, being more sheeplike than the ones that cartoon wolf tried to steal (only to be pounded by the dog), I followed the crowd.

Now it’ll sit here on the desk and be used once in a blue moon either because of its bulk or because the exact same wick and coil set-up will dry hit or leak. More than anything I’ve learnt that going with the pack only leads to frustration.

It’s not an easy thing to do if you are me and have my vast list of bad choices I’ve made. If I just reel off the unaided vehicle-based decisions I’ve made you’ll get the picture:

  • A Vauxhall Victor estate – 2 months, dead in the drive
  • A Polski Fiat – 1 hour, died after one mile
  • A Moto Guzzi – three days, shaft seized
  • A Leyland Princess – one month, died on the A1
  • A second Moto Guzzi – died while doing 80mph in the outside on the M6
  • A Volvo 440 – died during test drive when I was selling it
  • Trust me, it goes on…

So, I was quite proud of myself that I gave the Aqua a wide berth. Especially when I looked at how fussy it was inside at a recent vapemeet. That was a real bullet-dodging moment for me. It ranks up there with the time I avoided being arrested with my mates, for driving around Northampton throwing lit bangers out of the window, on the way back from the pub.

It seemed a great idea at the time. Stupid.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

This is the person who has lived through two major housing-price crashes and both times they came days after I bought a house. It wouldn’t have been so bad had they been decent houses but I opted for quirky and unique. People don’t buy quirky and unique. I should be kept away from money, decisions and cheap Chinese fireworks.

The second proper mech mod I bought fell into that quirky subset. I loved the design in the way a mother loves her hideously ugly baby. After two large price drops on the vendors website I couldn’t give it away. Well that’s not true because I have just given it away, no one would have bought it.

When it came to mods there was one I resolutely stayed away from, I didn’t buy a thing from Atmomixani because the world and her husband had one, real or clone. For months I resisted until my birthday loomed and the wife wanted to know if there was anything I’d like.

Figuring that I would never pay for a Nemesis I suggested it. What do you know? I made a decent call for once. But then you already know that because you’ve probably got one. I guess when you make the volume of poor choices in life that I do then some of them will come good; it’s like the roomful of monkeys with computers.

I’m doing myself a disservice. For a start I’ve never read a Dan Brown novel, watched Titanic, listened to One Direction or dialled to have a contestant evicted from a televised house/jungle. Not all my choices have been stupid.

The mods and attys I have now may not be anybody else’s cup of tea but what does that matter? The wick in my Pulse-G may look like a monstrosity but it’s my disaster and it vapes brilliantly.

Living in the now and exploring is what makes vaping the journey it is because, like travelling, the wrong turn can often take you to the most interesting of destinations. Just don’t follow my lead.

Dave Cross