DNA 40 - Temperature Control

[Proetus]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8j_Za5RaTU

UPDATE:

Ok folks, I have been given the go ahead to open my mouth as of midnight. We were all told to wait until Phil Busardo posted his video, I dont have the link yet but check out his site for it. I hope you all appreciate me staying up past my bedtime to post this!

As most of you know, I have been on the Evolv beta Team for this one and I have been testing the unit for several weeks. It has become my "go to" mod without doubt. By dialing in the temp to suit my juice and coil combo, I then get very repeatable hits, and no dry hits ever, even when dripping.

The new DNA40 from Evolv - 40 Watt Variable Power Module with Temperature Protection

The blurb from Evolv:

Features:

• Input 3.1 to 4.3 volts
• Output 1vdc to 9vdc
• Max input current 16A
• 16A max continuous output current, 23A pulse
• Atty resistance (Kanthal) 0.2Ω to 2.0Ω
• Atty resistance (cold NI200) 0.1Ω to 1.0Ω
• Adjustable from 1 to 40 watts (Buck/Boost)
• Temperature protection adjustable from 200-600 degrees F
• Over/Under Voltage protection
• Over current protection
• Reverse polarity protection (finally)
• Battery monitoring with "soft limiting"
• New detachable side rails with screw holes for easy mounting.

The new DNA40 has all of the safety features of the previous DNA30 and finally adds reverse battery polarity protection to the mix! It also now has a buck circuit and can regulate as low as you want to go, down to 1 watt.

(Hear that Tibs?)

The big new feature though is Temperature Limiting. Yeah, I know..... "Why do I want it?"

Temp protection adds several nice characteristics.

• You will never get a dry hit.
  • By limiting temperature, as your wick gets dry the coil will heat up and the Temp Protection will throttle back the watts to keep from overheating, consequently no dry hits, just weak nothing hits to let you know you need juice.
• You will not burn your sensitive wicks nearly as easily, imagine cotton lasting for weeks.
  • If you set your temp below the melting/burning/deterioration point of your wick material, it wont burn.
• You can optimize the experience according to the juice you are vaping.
  • Different juices, ratios of PG/VG, even flavorings and sweeteners etc vaporize at different temperatures. Heat them up beyond their vaporization point and you are cooking/caramelizing/burning/scorching them.
  • In a traditional VV/VW build you could potentially heat your PG/VG up to the point where it decomposed and creates toxins. This gives you the ability to stay well below those thresholds.
• Your hit will be the same from the first second until the last!
  • Whether you pause your draw, hit harder, hit longer, the Temp Protection will keep the heat the same throughout your entire hit. More airflow across the coil cools it and the board allows more watts, a pause slows the airflow and the board cuts back the wattage.

In order to use Temp Protection you need to use NI200 (nickel) wire.

Commonly available at Temco,, some of you may know this as "non-resistance" wire used in some attys like the Ithika etc.

The reason it works is that NI200 has a known "temperature coefficient". In other words the coil resistance changes with temperature as the coil heats up. This relationship is known and well documented. The DNA40 constantly monitors the resistance while you fire and can then accurately calculate the temperature.

You can still use your old Kanthal builds, but you wont have the Temp Protection feature. The board will automatically sense whether you are using Kanthal or NI200.

Some other "good to know" things.

• You need a battery capable of 16A continuous
• If you remove the mounting rails it has the exact same footprint as the DNA30, the buttons are also in the exact same location.
• The locations for the Up/Down/Fire button wires to hook up to the board have changed. All six button terminals are across the top of the board now.
• If you are accustomed to snipping off the fire button to save space, you will have to do things differently now. One option is to cut the button off as before then solder 2 jumper wires onto the board. The other option is to just pop the top cover off the switch, removing the button but leaving the base. The reason is because there are 4 terminals on that switch, 2 terminals on each side of the switch are by default an electrical short or path. The board uses this path, so if you totally remove the switch you are breaking the circuit.
• The mounting rails just snap off, but if you leave them on, there are 4 nice holes that you can put screws through to mount the board.
• Because the NI200 wire changes resistance as it gets hotter, if you fired the atty then removed it to refill or whatever, when you put it back on the coil is still hotter than normal. This means that the resistance will be higher and it would throw the boards calculations off. Consequently the board will ask you if it is a new coil or the same old coil. It remembers the last coil resistance (read on insertion of an atty at room temp) which is what is always displayed since the actual resistance is always changing as it heats and cools.

My personal experience has been very positive. I never liked drippers before because of the inevitable dry hit, but with this, you dont get them. It actually allowed me to warm up to drippers for the first time (well.... the Taifun dripper and S.O.D. atty helped). I tried a number of different attys, resistances, gauges of NI200, and coil types. What I saw is at 35-40w and 420ish degrees, the watts will start out high then quickly taper down as you achieve temp, the hit however was consistent from start to finish. The board was reliable, I had no issues whatsoever, however a few beta testers did encounter the 0 ohm issue that has been seen on the DNA20/30s as well. Disconnecting the battery to reset the board resolves this.

Check out Phil Busardo's video, I think it will be on TASTEYOURJUICE.COM (and/or YOUTUBE.COM/pbusardo) it's about an hour long and has a good interview with Brandon from Evolv talking all about this new board and lots of info I may have missed.

Cheers,

Mike

Edited October 10, 2014 by Proetus

[Proetus]

Spec Sheet for those interested in things like that.

[Bushwick]

Cool! I wouldn't mind snagging a box with one of these babies in it!

[jasonculp]

This does look like a good board. I would like to have a box with it in it.

The temp thing looks good, but I have never built with Ni200.

I also like the fact it will go down to 1 volt or 1 watt. Some of the newer boxes don't go below battery voltage which could be bad for people who like a lower volt/watt vape.

Reverse polarity protection.

Now if I could just find a dark wood/polished brass dual 18650 box, with this chip in it, for around $100 I would be set!....lol

[SteezeOG]

Since I've been waiting on my darkstar 30 forever I finally got an email saying they are going into production on a darkstar 40 presumably with this chip. I don't know for sure but I asked. If not I'll probably cancel my order unless it's going to be quick. If it is this chip I might wait another month or two and still get it. It's intriguing at least.

[subnuclear]

I ordered one of these. it will be intersting to see how it performs compared to some of the others i have. it is a little pricey but i am really looking for a nice mod with good performance. I have heard a lot o good things about vaporshark and figured this would be a good mod to give them a try on.

[Tony Mike]

Can't wait have …new mod and 2 boards on order..converting my existing DNA Mods to the 40 and ordered a new rdna.

[copper]

I have been using an XPV by Protovapor with DNA 40 for two weeks but I cannot make myself like this board.

Ni200 is a serious pain in the *** to work with, and almost impossible to dual coil and stay above 0.1.

But most importantly, I just can't get the same quality of vape that I get with Kanthal builds. I have read all of the spec and data sheets and tried every variable I can find, but I'm not feeling the love.

I haven't given up yet, but I'm getting close.

Keep your eye on classifieds if you want one to play with.

[copper]

UPDATE:

This thing just went totally dead on me. No display of any kind. Does not fire. It does appear to be charging the battery but it's only been 4 hours since a full charge so that is likely not the problem.

Contacted Protovar who have already provided return shipping for repair. A++ for support & service.

Just when I thought I was one of the lucky few who got a good board, welcome to the real world.

[Proetus]

Got my three boards over the weekend. Just waiting for my shells so I can build a dna40 bottom fed mod.

A lot of stuff I read indicates it doesn't deal with dual coils well. I've been talking to a few of the beta test guys and the dual coils are not needed. All flavor n vapor production needed was accomplished with a single coil.

[copper]

There is a Facebook Group for DNA 40 support called "DNA-TP User Group".

Anyone interested in the DNA 40 should check this out before ordering a board or a device.

[Tony Mike]

I have 3 vaporshark RDNA 40s and absolutely love these these. Knew has an erlkonigin, the other two I swap around dripping Atty because I can't find one Atty that: absolutely love.

Nickel is a pain in through rectum to work with but with the temp limiting I'm getting much more durability out of through cotton wicks so I don't see myself having tl mess with through coils as often.

I did notice that with 28g nickel and the temp control I have much more freedom to make the coils bigger; hence, offsetting some if the softness with through nickel.

- (for the erlkonigin) I normally wrap 26 or 28 g lanthanum St 2.25 mnemonic and 7-8 wraps. now I'm wrapping my coils at 3mm with 2

10-11 wraps. For my dual build on the clit 2 and tobh i did through same but dual coil.

I also pulse and squeeze the coil more than I would lanthanum to add more rigidity. Setting that up making sure both the mod and Atty are cooled down before calibrating seem to work phenomenal. I don't see Amy of my other mods being used much more.

[Monkeyman]

My Vapor Shark rDNA (DNA30 version) died after just 3 months. I sent it in, they allegedly fixed it and it's supposed to be on it's way back. I asked if they could swap out the DNA30 for one of the new 40s but they refused. Not happy with VS ATM. I wonder how difficult it would be to swap the 30 board for a 40 board in the VS since the warranty will only have less than a month left. Who sells the 40 board? I'm not too bad at soldering.