so unless im misunderstanding, of which is very possible lol, id say the difference in that .01ohm can be considerable. and i would imagine this would be the case regardless of the material being heated...?
Having the wrong resistance reading can certainly have downstream effects. When vaping nic juice, where the juice is directly in contact with the coil, this is pretty easily noticeable. However since our wire is encased in ceramic, and in the case of the QQ the ceramic is in contact with the quartz, we're a few degrees removed from the end user of the heat, so to speak. Since it's the ceramic heating the concentrate, or the ceramic heating the quartz heating the concentrate, getting the precise resistance of the wire is a little less important.
Correct, and correct. The Ω being off by as little as 0.01 can translate into a 10-15F difference / inaccuracy measured at the surface of a donut IME. Before I started using myEv / AF, the random fluctuations in measured, cold coil Ω one could expect with the stock FW on the joyetech mods could frustrate me greatly, because I would "know" my donut to have a certain, lower Ω, but the mod would insist on a higher Ω at times when switching attys, and it could throw your settings off quite alot, and it could be tricky to force the proper Ω on the mod. That's partially why I accumulated so many mods, to keep a dedicated mod/atty paired up, with the same Ω locked in, not thrown off by switching up attys.
Now with AF, being able to manually adjust coil Ω and easily set up profiles that auto-detect, the need for so many mods to pair with each atty seems unnecessary, but at least it saves some of my 510 connectors from the abuse of repeated screw on/offs
plus it leaves me with plenty of vapes that sit at rest, 100% ready to go at the press of a button, to enjoy different strains on-demand
And yes, also..in the case of the QQ, those minute Ω differences aren't going to make much difference, since there are those layers of separation in the heat transfer and contacts.
But regarding shaky, unstable live-resistance Ω that you can observe with a cheap mod on AF, or the fluctuating coil Ω you might see with the same atty on stock FW, which may be caused by the cheaper 510 connectors, I see how this can affect temp accuracy for dabbing directly off donuts and metal coils.
I've found it's easy to correct for this with AF by simply observing the live coil Ω for a while, give it quick power pulses, let it cool off good, remove it, re-screw it in, wiggle it, ensure all contacts are good, and observe the Ω. It will go up and down some, it may be very stable. Some spikes will be flukishy high or low and momentary, yet some of my cheap mods give really stable live Ω at rest. Just watch, and pick the lowest, stable, non-flukish reading you see, and lock that in, and you can enjoy stable, accurate repeateable temps even with the cheap mods, even switching using multiple attys with profiles + smart mode. Of more than a dozen joyetech mods I use, only 2, an evic basic and a vtc mini, had some spikeyness in the live coil Ω. But by manually locking a good, low coil Ω, I enjoy excellent, stable TC, even if the cold live Ω is a bit jumpy
I think it's all about starting the TCR calculations with the key variables (importantly Ω) at the right point. Even if the mod's sensors are less precise, I think it gets more accurate as your coil heats up?
question about the leads on the donuts, and my apologies if this has been covered, but why are the leads so delicate? why not use a more rigid material for the leads?
It's not so much the wire leads themselves that are delicate, but rather the solder that joins them to the donut that are somewhat delicate, or they are the weak point on the whole donut or ceramic rod.
You can bend and move the nichrome wire about as much as any other vaping wire, even though it's pretty short. The metal wire can get a little brittle with extended use and especially being burned clean, but it is where the wire joins the solder you must be most careful with.
When bending / manipulating the wire, do it from the middle or bottom half, not from the top part of the wire close to the solder, or it may snap off. Using pliers to straighten the wire leads helps sometimes too since it can be hard to do just with your fingers. And when inserting / removing the donut from the cup, don't force things too much and make sure the leads are straight to avoid breakage, especially if you're crusted up with reclaim
UPDATE: i am very pleased to say that when i got home from work yesterday i put the V3 on my DNA device and it has been working perfectly since. its like the issue above never happened at all. and i did nothing different. i use quality LG and samsung cells, but the same brown LG was used every time with this V3. same mod. same atty/donut. must have been a connection issue somewhere, but im good about identifying bad connectionsz. idk. strange indeed.
anyway, i am really enjoying the V3 so far. i am still getting an odd taste though, but its not off putting and im getting plenty of flavor. also from everything ive read there is no reason to be concerned with material safety here so im ok with it. what i do really like is how easily cleaned it is after each use, but i assume that nee donut bright white will never be achieved again? lol
Nice to hear you're enjoying the V3 now 2clicker! That was pretty weird how it wasn't TC'ing for you on 2 good mods, when TC'ing this atty is usually a breeze on a decent mod.
That's weird how it seems to have "fixed itself" without changing anything, because it normally doens't work out that way, but I guess you'll just have to enjoy this mystery
When first using any new donut or almost any new vape (that doesn't have a cotton/fiber wick)
it's always good to do a dry fire / burn off to remove any residual flotsam. After 2 puffs, a new donut makes no more smoke / emissions that I can notice and tastes neutral to me. I'm wondering what the odd taste is you notice? Maybe it's just a "ceramic" flavor that is new to you but has become natural and un-detectable to many of us donut veterans? At least you're still enjoying some great flavor and the overall experience, and surely you can rig up some other interesting builds with those extra donuts and RDAs you have
You can get them back to "new" white a couple ways. Burn off with the mod (higher temp or wattage mode) which I'm not too fond of or with a torch while disassembled. I've been using the same donut for about 6 months now. I q-tip after every 5-10 loads and disassemble and torch the donut and cup every 6-8 weeks and make sure there's no leakage into the base. I will occasionally hit it upside down which helps with the stuff under the donut and I cover one intake and blow backward through the other (with a bit of heat) when q-tipping to help soak up extra reclaim. A paper towel rolled like a ciggarette is also great for soaking up reclaim (better than q-tip actually). I've found (with a thermocouple) that the donut is hotter in some areas than others and those are the spots that seem to get darker first.
Yup, after swabbing no longer gets your donut clean enough, and it has some hard crust left over that won't swab off, it's time to burn it off. I like to burn it clean under the mod's power, only 10w for the medium donut or about 14w for the large. Some people will burn clean at higher watts but that's inadvisable IMO, because too much watts in VW mode for extended periods is the other easy way to break a donut. 10 or 14w for 10/13mm donuts may take longer to burn clean, but you can pulse the fire button for minutes at a time at the lower watts and it won't break. 20 or 30w may burn it clean quicker, but you can bust it real easy if you hold it down for too long
Burning clean makes it
nearly as white as new, like a slightly off-white cream with some "seasoning" lines but all the crust is gone and max flavor is restored, so that's what really matters
By watching the donut glow red during a burn off you can observe the hotter and cooler spots bizwax is talking about. (a little cooler closer to the solders)
Even after re-assembling a freshly burned-clean donut, I see a couple more wisps of vapor / emissions when firing in TC mode which I assume is just residual moisture or maybe oils from my fingers when assembling? So generally, dry-firing to ensure cleanliness is good
thanks
@bizwaxzion!
when you swab are you heating it just before swabbing?
I hold the power down as I swab, but to a lower temp than I vape at. If I vape at around 400, I lower to ~340-350F as a I swab, b/c I feel swabbing at full vaping temp with no air flow almost makes more crust and off-flavor as you are cleaning it, and puffing the donut dry and empty after a full-heat swab tastes slightly more reclaimish/crusty vs. a low temp swab. Like biz says, the point is only to make the reclaim run out during the hot swab, not to vape it.
I had a session or two where I overheated this stuff and much of the flavor was sacrificed 
but I've also gotten it right and enjoyed some great flavor from the first 2 hits and enough good taste to chase another carefully pulsed 6-8 hits before I swab up very little from the cup after. For this very terpy stuff, flavor can be as good as the V3, but it takes more caution, and low-temp hits with the V3 are so much easier and reliable. Maybe a donut tastes smoother because the overall air can be around ~400F instead of ~500F on the quartz? 
I was going to borrow one of these things from work to observe / tune my QQ and V3s, but I looked up the specs for the model and it only detects up to 300F 
