The Screwball by Vapvana

b4ditude

Member
Got a new cocobolo SB handle from @DFreeZ_Designs. It's nice and lightweight, medium length, beautiful wood. It installed easily and issue-free.
IMG-7009.jpg
I love it! Personally I'm waiting for some SB handles in a burl or something with a nice contrast in it like spalted tamarind, want the matching male diffuser bowl and bowl handle for the SB bowl
 

dtrdrk

Well-Known Member
Two questions:

Is there still any discount action?

How much watts at 230v? And how long does the unit need to be up to temp from cold?

Thanks!
 
dtrdrk,

Kaptan

Well-Known Member
Two questions:

Is there still any discount action?

How much watts at 230v? And how long does the unit need to be up to temp from cold?

Thanks!
FC10 is the discount code. 230 volts? The PID shows the actual set temp on the head. It usually takes about 10 minutes for the rubies to be heat soaked and ready for vaping.
 

General Disaster

A Country Member
Two questions:

Is there still any discount action?

How much watts at 230v? And how long does the unit need to be up to temp from cold?

Thanks!
Don't quote me but I believe the 25mm enail has twice the wattage of most 'normal' ball-vape enails. The temp is recorded in the coil itself (again like most b-v's), so is only really an indicator to let you dial in to the temps that work for you.

Personally I found the controller whacks the enail up to temp very fast, even within a minute to two mins, but once it hits that temperature on the read out, it sticks to that value when in fact it's wavering up and down by maybe 10 to 20 ℃! I usually find giving it another couple minutes gets it close to a steady state. But you then need to also be aware of conduction once you pop it on the bowl. The thin Ti and the high surface area of the mating point between bowl and heater means a lot of heat quickly passes to the bowl reducing the heaters temp.

So some playing around with a routine helps repeating the same effect - e.g. I pop the heater on the bowl for about 20 secs then remove and give the heater a min or two to heat up again, before popping it on to start drawing on it. This makes the final effect a little more consistent (especially if conductions wanted).
But you'll find you're own way round it I'm sure, real message is don't trust that display once it hits what you set it to! Go by feel and result too! And it's such a forgiving beast, you have to work at totally messing up a hit on it!
 
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VapingYogi

Pranayama; of a sort.
Personally I found the controller whacks the enail up to temp very fast, even within a minute to two mins, but once it hits that temperature on the read out, it sticks to that value when in fact it's wavering up and down by maybe 10 to 20 ℃!
I have been wondering about that... what is the PID not showing... with every other device I have there is a 15-30f drop in temperature when hooking up a bowl, or when I place a assembly in a wireless coil... but when I attach it to the green PID it doesn't display any variation in temperature which confused me... there is no way its staying exactly the same...
 

Grass Yes

Yes
Staff member
I have been wondering about that... what is the PID not showing... with every other device I have there is a 15-30f drop in temperature when hooking up a bowl, or when I place a assembly in a wireless coil... but when I attach it to the green PID it doesn't display any variation in temperature which confused me... there is no way its staying exactly the same...
We discussed how the included SX Crossing PID controller behaves previously in this thread. The most concise explanation of came from @SixStringToker :

Sounds like the deadzone/deadband setting is enabled. High Five does that with their LDC controller, too - annoying as hell! When the active temperature reading is within XX degrees of the Set/Target temperature, the display will only display the Set temp. There's probably a setting in the service menu to disable that / set it to 0.

The temperature probe in the SB's coil is down past the ball chamber over the thin wall that extends down over the bowl. I'd expect to see the temp drop quite a bit more than the B0 as a result of that since the bowl will immediately start leeching heat from those thin walls with no balls to buffer the heat transfer. That loss should show up quickly on the coil. Same story with the T360 (likely an even larger drop in the coil temp) and my own tethered Steamroller heads. I've seen as much as a 35-degree drop in the coil with the Steamroller, with barely any change within the actual ball chamber.
 

b4ditude

Member
Has anyone tried heat anodizing their housing?

What's the highest safe temps for the coil and the rubies?
90% sure that the screwball is the second second one....
Yeah the Screwball is compatible with CH, Auber and Freight Train ones according to the site.
We discussed how the included SX Crossing PID controller behaves previously in this thread
What's one of the better PID controllers that show this variance in temp?
 
b4ditude,
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VapingYogi

Pranayama; of a sort.
Yeah the Screwball is compatible with CH, Auber and Freight Train ones according to the site.
I have the FT Pro so I am going to pug her in and see what sort of drop it has when I use it a bit later, I very much doubt it will have as big a drop as the T360 does as the bowl is so much thinner - but curiosity killed the cat so... better go try that then

Has anyone tried heat anodizing their housing?
Unintentionally adonized mine - 900f for 30 minutes (done 3 times) to clean the coil (which didn't work and I have to revisit that later) turned mine blue and brass looking...
 

General Disaster

A Country Member
I have been wondering about that... what is the PID not showing... with every other device I have there is a 15-30f drop in temperature when hooking up a bowl, or when I place a assembly in a wireless coil... but when I attach it to the green PID it doesn't display any variation in temperature which confused me... there is no way its staying exactly the same...
🤣🤣🤣
Sorry, but I just realised I started the message with the phrase "don't quote me", and you've quoted me! I hope that was deliberate!!! 👍

I have been wondering about that... what is the PID not showing... with every other device I have there is a 15-30f drop in temperature when hooking up a bowl, or when I place a assembly in a wireless coil... but when I attach it to the green PID it doesn't display any variation in temperature which confused me... there is no way its staying exactly the same...
I tried hooking the Screwball heater up to a CH pid I got with my B2, calibrated it (or whatever that option actually does) so it was set correctly for temp with the different coil, and tried it out. I found the original pid is much much quicker on that initial heat up, up to when it passes the temp you've set it to. But then it continues up the scale while the display stays the same between about 10 to 20 degrees (depending on conditions etc), then drops as those rubies start really pulling the outer heat into the centre of the capacitor, then it gradually goes back up to the set temp.
Just using the CH pid from cold, it takes a lot longer, maybe double to time, but shows all the oscillations of temp unlike the SB pid.

Take all that with a pinch - some of it I discovered by quickly swapping from one pid to the other, some from comparing the two separately.
Temps are measured at the end of the coil I believe (so I've heard, anyway) being where the thermocouple rests. So nothing like the temps in the capacitor, or the bowl when drawing on it, just a way of trying hotter, or colder, by a set number of degrees. I also checked on the temp on resting the head on the bowl for some conduction, and again, I see a significant drop pretty quickly as the heat soaks into the bowls Ti (I give the bowl a pre-heat, then remove the head for a min for it to heat up again).

And again, the SB's pid doesn't show this change. I think it's tuned to be more user friendly and less confusing, and especially powerful for big temp jumps (e.g. cold to full heat), but must be given a few mins to settle even though the read out says all is steady. I made a big mistake when I first started using it, thinking it was somehow resistant to the fluctuations other ball-vapes showed (i.e. so much more powerful it kept a steady state), but that's deceptive. It was being used to the CH unit and it's behaviour that fooled me at first (plus the fact the screwball is very forgiving).
 
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General Disaster,
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Grass Yes

Yes
Staff member
I believe the T360 uses China Shop XLR and the Screwball is Auber XLR it?
Ah of course I forgot. We're a one pin out household so I forget folks have both around.

What's one of the better PID controllers that show this variance in temp?
The Auber RDK 300B shows live temperature changes. I thought that the xmt7200 controllers (in the CH, CC, maybe the q-shop) did too. I do not have one of those to verify.
 

General Disaster

A Country Member
Ah of course I forgot. We're a one pin out household so I forget folks have both around.


The Auber RDK 300B shows live temperature changes. I thought that the xmt7200 controllers (in the CH, CC, maybe the q-shop) did too. I do not have one of those to verify.
I only know the CH (non-Auber) pid, and the Screwball's.
But I can say the CH pid seems very responsive in terms of following the change of temperature. It looks like the display fairly accurately follows the actual temp at the thermocouple in close to real time, but I have no idea what sort of delay it may actually have. If I had to guess I'd say it's good enough to take the display as being 'accurate' at reading temperature change. And it seems to give a good idea of when the temperature comes to equilibrium through the head. As a tool for learning more about the heads behaviour it's much better, but as a device to simply use the vape, the SB's pid seems a better consumer unit.
 
General Disaster,

Grass Yes

Yes
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As a tool for learning more about the heads behaviour it's much better, but as a device to simply use the vape, the SB's pid seems a better consumer unit.
I think that's an odd conclusion. They are just different. Obviously people reach a lot of wrong ideas about the screwball in this thread because the crossing PID doesn't show live updates near the set temperature.

Similar to the offset for DC PID controllers. It's not wrong for ball vapes, just different
 
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Grass Yes,

General Disaster

A Country Member
I think that's an odd conclusion. They are just different. Obviously people reach a lot of wrong ideas about the screwball in this thread because the crossing PID doesn't show live updates near the set temperature.

Similar to the offset for DC PID controllers. It's not wrong for ball vapes, just different
That's exactly what I was saying, different pid's with different uses and different advantages.
If you think I've judged the workings of either wrongly, I'd be interested to know in what way. I've not had as much time or different types to play with as some people, so I can only analyse what I've used, not really sure what you mean that I'm saying it's wrong (guessing you meant the SB's pid? Is that the Crossing?).

Obviously people reach a lot of wrong ideas about the screwball in this thread because the crossing PID doesn't show live updates near the set temperature.
I was saying exactly that thing in my previous post above - you may have taken my message wrongly?
 
General Disaster,

Grass Yes

Yes
Staff member
guessing you meant the SB's pid? Is that the Crossing

Crossing tech makes the PID controller that comes with the screwball kit.

I was saying exactly that thing in my previous post above - you may have taken my message wrongly?

I can see how my message was confusing. I was saying that your conclusion that one PID was better than the other for new vapers was odd, and doesn't match my experience.

The wrong ideas in this thread are that the screwball is somehow superior at holding a steady temperature because the controller display doesn't update.
 

General Disaster

A Country Member
Crossing tech makes the PID controller that comes with the screwball kit.
Ah! I had wondered who makes that, as I couldn't find any manufacturer or serial or anything on it. I know it has more functions than we're told of (I found one, and quickly left it alone as it wasn't clear what it changed!!!! <gulp!>). Thanks!

I can see how my message was confusing. I was saying that your conclusion that one PID was better than the other for new vapers was odd, and doesn't match my experience.
Ah, sorry, I misread your message and was totally confused! (not that that's unusual! 😉)
I quite agree about the misunderstanding of the Crossing pid, as I said that caught me out big time too! And it's one of the few things I'm usually good at, but here, not enough experience with pid's obviously. I never considered the read out would be done differently to the CH and other types, and assumed wrongly that the double wattage and bigger coil were making that difference. With hindsight, even that extra power wouldn't prevent temp fluctuation.

But all that said, I actually like the Crossing pid purely as a device to do the job it's there for. So fast! I can't leave a ball-vape running, I have to turn on every time I want to use, so that really fast heat up, vs. the CH (non-auber) pid is a big help. I just didn't at first realise I needed to allow an extra min or two after it hit the set temp. But now I do, I prefer it for everyday use.
The CH one is better for understanding the way the ball-head works with heat absorption etc. (for me) and great if leaving the kit turned on all day, but the Crossing is the regular one I use now.
 
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HengefulOne

Well-Known Member
I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post links, but on AliExpress search

"Tiodw Heat Stand with 6061 Aluminum Base and Shield/18&29mm Female Grade 2 Titanium Post"

and get the "Color: 18mm Heat Stand" version.

You can see it in the background of this video and they briefly mention it.

Thanks, just picked up the Screwball and was looking for a protected stand.
 
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