A inexpensive mod, with a few (mostly pleasant) surprises up its sleeve. Two very similar versions are available, the Z80 and the Z80 Nex. Both have almost identical firmware but the Nex sports side-mounted up/down buttons in a similar fad to the new Lost Vape Thelema Solo Pro. Personally, I don't think I can tolerate these, hence why I chose the original Z80.
Both have some unusual and potentially useful features, but also what I believe to be a couple of placebo modes, with unrealistic claims. Fortunately, most nonsense can be concealed by leaving in power mode where it performs nicely - but only if using Ni80 or Kanthal coils. Yes sadly, the Z80 suffers from the Stainless Steel bug (for an explanation, see the mod guide, scroll down to Inaccuracies: Dialled-in Vs Actual Wattages), so might not be ideal for emesh. But if you're primarily interested in sub ohm, use Ni80/Kanthal wires and can find one at the right price then (coupled to a suitable tank like the Dead Rabbit V3), the Z80 Coolfire will indeed be perfectly capable of providing the full range of experiences that the Dimitri world has to offer.
It's physically small, similarly sized to the Geekvape Z50 & Smok Rigel Mini, incorporating a removable 18650 battery, with a similar screw cap to the Solo V1 & V3. Straight from the box, the fold-out loop came off in my hand (see pic). A repair appears impractical, so I now keep a penny handy, which fits perfectly.
The remainder of the external build is nice(ish) but imo nowhere near as impressive as the Voopoo Agus MT, or Vaporesso Armour Ultra.
There's a curious mix of functions. Thankfully (to me), there's no "Smart" mode which is a surprise since the Z80 can also be supplied as a kit including a Zenith 2 tank which supports Innokin Z MTL/RDL coils. Another surprising omission is the lack of display intensity control, and yet included are options for adjusting display timeout and Fire Cycle duration, not to mention those questionable modes mentioned above.
As expected, there's no credible info describing F0 and Refresh modes (the user manual and Innokin website are equally useless). Only from bench testing was I able to determine their operation & evaluate usefulness.
F0 Innokin fancifully (and imo absurdly) claims this "extends coil life & boosts flavors using alternating current to produce a waveform that runs continuously while you vape"
In F0 mode, regular DC is applied for the first ½ second of the fire cycle, after which the Voltage switches to an AC sine wave between 20-500Hz (user settable) with a pk-pk amplitude equating to an RMS value which virtually matches the DC level, hence maintaining the set Wattage (albeit still affected by the SS bug). I personally consider F0 as identical to power mode, except for a low level audible hum at higher power settings.
DC Voltage = AC Peak to Peak Voltage ÷ √ 8
F0 mode, set to 150Hz 10 sec fire cycle. Did someone at Innokin discover CPU analogue pins & build them into new marketing gimmicks? I imagine so. Any inductance, which might reduce Wattage, would be negligible with so few coil turns, lack of ferrite core, not curved into a circle, low waveform frequencies etc.
Refresh Innokin claim "revitalizes flavours and extends coil life. Powers the coil at 40% of your set wattage, with alternating current, drawing in more liquid into the coil"
During tests, the refresh cycle did power the coil with AC, at around 40% ish of the set Wattage (difficult to calculate accurately owing to the weird square waveform). The "Auto" mode of refresh applies power at 48Hz for ~4 seconds following a single button click. In my opinion, Innokin's claims for this are ludicrous and certainly useless for Dimitri.
Power has two sub modes:
- Wattage (plain old Power mode). There's no option for Hard/Normal/Soft or similar. For Ni80/Ka1 coils, delivered power is about 1.5-2W less than the Solo V1 standard at 30W 0.3Ω (acceptable to me), but SS coils are affected by the Stainless Steel Bug as previously mentioned.
- Voltage Seems to work OK, but of limited use unless driving carts or other atomisers normally hooked to Voltage-specific batteries
4 sec "auto" refresh cycle, giving a reduced Wattage AC square waveform at a fixed ~48Hz.
But why the square wave? Possibly a sneaky attempt to generate harmonics & maximise chances of emitting a reassuring audible humming sound during the refresh cycle? (inaudible if using a sine wave AC at such low Wattages)
Settings Menu
- Timeout Allows the user to set the display timeout between 5-180 secs. I've found myself set this at minimum for tripping in darkness, so quite handy for me.
- Cutoff Allows adjustment of the Fire Cycle max duration from 3-18 secs. I can envisage this being handy for Dimitri use
- OP Screen adjusts the level of detail on-screen. Options are "Pro" & "Minimal". Even "Pro" is ultra-basic, so just leave it on this.
- Device ID & Reset - self-explanatory
🙂 Easy To Live With - Fairly annoyance-free when used in power mode with Ka1 or Ni80 coils, although personally, I'm not overly keen on the 'hold-to-adjust' up/down buttons
🙁 Affected By The Stainless Steel Firmware Bug - Present on Power and F0 modes, so perhaps unsuited to emesh
🙂 Unusual & Handy Settings The ability to configure display timeout and fire cycle cutoff might be handy for Dimitri in some circumstances
🙂 Nice little info screen displaying exact measured coil resistance to 3 dec places and battery Voltage (press & hold the "up" and "fire" buttons to show)
🙁 Becomes Unexpectedly Warm During Charging Charge current at USB supply was measured at only 1.45A, so nowhere near enough to heat the battery. Therefore, the mod's charging circuit may be generating heat, perhaps via an old-school linear charging chip. If so, something will be getting pretty hot inside the mod during charging.
🙁 Lack Of Display Intensity Control
🙁 IMO, Very Questionable Claims For Use Of AC Current - I personally consider Innokin's claims for the use of AC as an elaborate marketing hoax. I sometimes wonder how much deeper mod manufacturers will dare push into what appears to me to be quack science and still avoid the withering ridicule that I believe they richly deserve.
What looks possibly like an illuminated fire button is actually just orange paint on the outside 😥
The Z80's Stainless Steel Firmware Bug
Recap The SS bug is caused by a mod failing to adjust the coil's Voltage up (during a fire cycle) to maintain the desired Wattage as coil's resistance increases naturally with temperature.
The Z50, Thelema Solo/Grus Quest and Geekvape Max V1 (which all have this bug) take a resistance measurement when a Fire button press is detected, and calculate the Voltage to apply for the entire fire cycle using this formula. Others which have this bug (Voopoo Argus MT and Smok Scar 18) take a resistance measurement only when a new coil is detected
Volts = √ (Wattage setting x cold coil resistance measured immediately upon Fire button press detect)
This is fine for Ka1 and Ni80, as these don't increase their resistance with temperature, however with stainless steel the increased resistance of a hot coil results in a dropoff in power.
On the Z80 Coolfire
The bug affects both Power and F0 on the Z80. Coil resistance is measured when a new coil is detected and displayed, rounded to 2 decimal places, in the resistance field. This is repeated immediately upon detection of a fire button press, which differs from the Thelema Solo in that although resistance is read (and Voltage is calculated upon this resistance) upon a fire button press detect, the latest resistance isn't updated on the display.
On the Z80, coil Resistance is not re-read (or resistance field on-display updated) the Fire button is pressed again, or a new coil is detected. The Voltage calculated on the resistance upon the fire button detect is fixed throughout the fire cycle, and therefore the usual Power dropoff occurs with SS coils as they heat up (and naturally increase their resistance)
Volts = √ (Wattage setting x Coil resistance measured upon detection of Fire button press (i.e. cold coil)
Unlike the Voopoo Argus MT (which only ever reads resistance upon a new coil detect), this means that a quick off-on pulse of the Fire button during a fire cycle will restore power to virtually the set value so care might be advisable to avoid this. Or better still, avoid SS wires and stick to Ni80 or Kanthal
