Istick Pico on TC with NI coils

[gabrielpanoussi]

I have been experimenting with building coils and using the TC mode on my eleaf pico. I purchased some 32AWG Ni200 Nickel wire. I made some coils for my velocity RDA and even tried to rebuild a melo 3 coil using Ni wire.
After figuring out number of wraps and different styles (round, twisted round) using the steam website as a rough guide I made some coils. I made one out of a twisted pair of the wire which had an initial resistance of .25 at room temp.
I wicked my coils added juice put mod in TC Ni mode and locked in my resistance. I started at 400 degrees and noticed I was not really getting any vapor. Why is that? I mean if it is TC and it is 400 degrees would that not begin to vaporize the liquid? To get a somewhat decent vape I bumped it up to 520 degrees. The vape was very cool and not much flavor compared to wattage mode on kanthal coils or wattage mode on nichrome.
I heard the Pico works really well with TC so what am I doing wrong?

I have purchased a rebuildable melo coil that I had hoped to use in TC mode. As of right now the TC vape is just not satisfying.

 

[HondaDavidson]

What is wattage set at? beyond that I'd be guessing...... Only tried Ni once in the Melo tank. Didn't like it, or Ti..... Tanks OK otherwise.. But I've been pretty exclusive with an Avocado on the Pico. Lot's easier to build on a 18MM deck than a 8MM Coilhead. Have since went To SS wire.. works just as well in TC as it does in VW.

 

[HondaDavidson]

Where did you get the wire.... maybe it's not the grade the mod is programed for. Try playing with it in the TCR mode, see if you can dial the vape in.

 

[gabrielpanoussi]

I bumped the wattage on t mode from 30 to 45 to get it to heat up faster. I noticed if I went to high on that ramp up voltage I was spending most of the time at max temp with the coil not firing.
I was looking at the Wismec Theomin but I heard bad things. I am going to look into the Avocado. I also have some SS316L coming on a slow boat from china.

Wire is Lightning Vapes.

 

[HondaDavidson]

Lightning Vapes is in Florida.... So it's probably on a bus not a boat.

The coil not firing means it is at the temp you set. Thats kinda the goal of TC regulation. If you let it bounce the limiter it will maintain the heat using a fraction of the set wattage. .
But I get you I like to keep my wattage as low as possible. basically I want it to run at 50-70% of set wattage. For SS and Nichrome I set the watts to about 33% higher than I would vape the same coil in VW. For Ni and Ti, I would set it so the TC kinda flashed on and off. With SS it starts flashing about 3/4 to 1 second into the draw, then flickers...... wattage is set so it fires at 25watts but one at temp runs at 10-14watts and dropping.

 

[gabrielpanoussi]

Lightning Vapes is in Florida.... So it's probably on a bus not a boat.

The coil not firing means it is at the temp you set. Thats kinda the goal of TC regulation. If you let it bounce the limiter it will maintain the heat using a fraction of the set wattage. .
But I get you I like to keep my wattage as low as possible. basically I want it to run at 50-70% of set wattage. For SS and Nichrome I set the watts to about 33% higher than I would vape the same coil in VW. For Ni and Ti, I would set it so the TC kinda flashed on and off. With SS it starts flashing about 3/4 to 1 second into the draw, then flickers...... wattage is set so it fires at 25watts but one at temp runs at 10-14watts and dropping.

I will try to bump up the ramp up watts. The SS wire is from a difrent vendor that is in china. The Ni wire I am playing with now is from Lightning Vapes in Florida. I can also try the TCR settings as soon as I find it in the Pico menu. I also need the info for the wire 32G Ni200. I wish I had a DNA200

 

[HondaDavidson]

I will try to bump up the ramp up watts. The SS wire is from a difrent vendor that is in china. The Ni wire I am playing with now is from Lightning Vapes in Florida. I can also try the TCR settings as soon as I find it in the Pico menu. I also need the info for the wire 32G Ni200. I wish I had a DNA200

No you dont... the tcr range is listed in the manual by material.

I. Would start at the mid point of the listed range... there are 3 tcr modes.. do 3 different ranges. You can find the coefficient numbers on Steamengine.org. I know they are on thw forum might come up in a search.

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[gabrielpanoussi]

No you dont... the tcr range is listed in the manual by material.

I. Would start at the mid point of the listed range... there are 3 tcr modes.. do 3 different ranges. You can find the coefficient numbers on Steamengine.org. I know they are on thw forum might come up in a search.

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so I got to the tcr settings 600 to 700 did not change much but then something strange I took out my battery and replaced it and the screen came back m1 tcr mode but when I vaped I got a ton of vape. Now it is at 320 and producing not sure what happened. Also was not aware that I could go so low in resistance with the ni200 on this mod. I broke out the old manual and had a good read. I should also mention that my resistance was locked after I put the battery back in only this time the coil read .33 ohm could of swore it was lower before.
I visited steam engine and here is my output based on what I remember about building that 32g 2 wire twisted 10 wrap 1/4". Out o this information what do I use for the TCR setting?
Results
Resistance 0.408 Ω
Resistivity 1.5 Ω/m
TCR in vaping range 6000 ×10-6
TC precision 2447
Heat flux per Watt 2.89 mW/mm²
Heat capacity 70.75 mJ/K
Current per Volt 2.45 A
Power dissipated 100 %
Width 0.4 mm
Thickness 0.4 mm
Length 229.92 mm
Surface area 345.62 mm²
Cross section area 0.06 mm²
Volume 17.45 mm³
Mass 155.16 mg
Density 8.89 g/ccm

 

[HondaDavidson]

TCR range of 6000 = 600ish on the pico........ I would start there.
Fwiw I think most do Ni coil a lot lower .like 0.3 ohm and less. But like I said nickel isn't my thing.

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[gabrielpanoussi]

TCR range of 6000 = 600ish on the pico........ I would start there.
Fwiw I think most do Ni coil a lot lower .like 0.3 ohm and less. But like I said nickel isn't my thing.

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Well I have done several builds now using the Ni and I dont really like it. Hope the SS is better.

 

[HondaDavidson]

Well I have done several builds now using the Ni and I dont really like it. Hope the SS is better.

SS is better because until you get it dialed in under TC you can vape it in VW....

I can't get a good vape from Nickel or Titanium. Could be I just haven't figured out how to build for TC...... Even with SS I still prefer VW regulation or unregulated.



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[gabrielpanoussi]

SS is better because until you get it dialed in under TC you can vape it in VW....

I can't get a good vape from Nickel or Titanium. Could be I just haven't figured out how to build for TC...... Even with SS I still prefer VW regulation or unregulated.



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Totally would have to agree. I figure the ss wont go to waste. I dont get it though. I get killer rips using kanthal or nichrome. with resistance ranging from .3 to recently 2.8 ohm. I am finding I like the tiny 34g kantal at about 2 ohms in a dual coil using 1/16" nail to wrap. This build gives great flavor with awesome cool vapor at 12W in wattage mode.
I noticed there is wider tcr range for ss. so maybe it will actually work. I also have that rebuildable melo coil coming so maybe something will come about from that.

 

[HondaDavidson]

You know.... you could rebuild the factory melo coils you already have.............. Google how to rebuild an Atlantis head or nautilus heads or Protank heads using verticle coil...

IDK which RBA head you ordered but there are 2 I know of one with posts.. the other is postless compression factory style head.

The factory style IMO will be easier to build on.



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[MannyScoot]

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