Hotcig DNA 200 1st impresions

[phatfil]

The delivery surprised me today arriving 4 days after being shipped (in the UK warehouse???)

well the packaging received a knock or 2 and the card box was a bit mishapen..

included was
 1 x uk plug adaptor
1 x Lipo charger
1 x battery section
1 x dna200 mod section.

the battery and dna halves of the mod pull appart easily and gop back together easily ..
Separation and reconnection of the battery resets the mod to 1w..   

(spare batteries can be bought for $22 + shipping email [e-mail])

the mod is finished with a rubberised coating, never owning a vapour shark i can only hope it wont deteriorate as some of those did

for £74 - im chuffed with it..  spare battery on its way too ($30 dhl shipping tho BOOOOOOOO)

unfortunatly that sale price is no longer available and its back at £90


www.gearbest.com/temperature-control-mods/pp_235371.html

[phtumshk]

Ah, the DOnCA box.
Nice review phatfil

[decoy]

peps have been having probs with the charger killing the batts(or thats what its been put down to)
if you dont have a good balanced charger it might be worth getting one

[phatfil]

Cheers decoy I will look into that, could you recommend a good charger?? i assume its the supplied charger thats causing probs and not the dna200 governed usb charging?? ive got mine plugged in for usb charging atm, 3 puffs out of the box and the battery was flagged as having a weak charge
- plugging into a PC with the escribe toolkit installed warned and performed once authorised a system software upgrade as soon as i connected the dna box up..

[VapingBad]

Oct 14, 2015 15:35:41 GMT decoy said:

peps have been having probs with the charger killing the batts(or thats what its been put down to)
if you dont have a good balanced charger it might be worth getting one

Good advice, the onboard USB charger is better than the external one, if you get a hobby charger you will need a lead with 2 female 2 mm banana sockets I think going by the pictures, just measure the gold pins.

[decoy]

www.hobbyking.co.uk/hobbyking/store/RC_PRODUCT_SEARCH.asp?strSearch=charger
i dont know the good ones anymore but the last time i was in to rc thats the place i got all my gear from

[phatfil]

is it a JST-XH charge plug thats needed to mate with the battery?

[VapingBad]

Oct 14, 2015 16:38:46 GMT phatfil said:

is it a JST-XH charge plug thats needed to mate with the battery?

You will need to make your own lead with 2 female 2 mm banana plugs (double check the diameter of the pins)
The JST-XH is the balance connector, 3S in this case and most chargers do not charge through this just read the cell voltages.

The on-board USB charger is very good, you can just use that, that is all I do even though I have a decent hobby charger.

[phatfil]

ok im a lil confused VapingBad the supplied lipo charger has only 1 connector which is the 4 pin white socket which accepts the 4pin plug from the battery module ????


i would take a snap or 2 but i cant find me camera right now..

So?? if using a 3rd party lipo charger it wont have the 4 pin socket into which i plug the battery instead i will charge via the current out terminals with some diy plugs??

a pic i lifted of GB

[VapingBad]

Oct 14, 2015 20:13:36 GMT phatfil said:

ok im a lil confused VapingBad the supplied lipo charger has only 1 connector which is the 4 pin white socket which accepts the 4pin plug from the battery module ????


i would take a snap or 2 but i cant find me camera right now..

So?? if using a 3rd party lip charger it wont have the 4 pin socket into which i plug the battery instead i will charge via the current out terminals with some diy plugs??

a pic i lifted of GB

You still have the 4 pin, but that is only for monitoring not normally for charging, the charge current is applied to the 2 sockets in the battery.

[VapingBad]

Here is a charger connected to a 3S battery, the charge goes through the red & black wires, see the bank of white sockets to monitor different number of cells, upto 6 series cells on this model. You may get one that chargers just through the JSX, but charging vis the USB will likely be safer as that would only be a 3S only cheaply charger.

[decoy]

couldent find it at 1st
i would not use that to charge anything

[phatfil]

ok slowly i think im beginning to digest this new info.. thanks for your patience guys..

so the 4 pin JSX socket IS used by a 3rd party charger but not for charging but for providing real time feedback on the 3 cell battery status during a charge.

if you haddnt guessed ive not used lipo batteries for anything in the past...

If relying on the single battery i would rely totally on usb charging, I have however ordered a 2nd battery, so i wont be relying on usb charging and will hopefully be swapping out dead /low batteries with fully charged ones so will need an external charger it seems..

thanks again for bearing with me while the penny slowly dropped.. Cheers VapingBad decoy your both superstars!!

[VapingBad]

I think the pins on the battery are 2 mm, if so you gould get an XT30 lead (as in my pic) and cut off the yellow plastic and be left wit 2 mm bananas that would be what you need phatfil.

[decoy]

not a prob
its a shame i really like the way they built it as the swapable batt makes it for me but the charger is bin fodder
i dont think you are supposed to charge using the balance leads (white plug)which is prob whats causing peps to have dead batts after a week or so

just be careful when connecting a new charger to get the poss and neg the right way round ,it might even be worth building your own charging dock so you can get em wrong way round