I love it! Mod-autopsies 
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Can’t wait for the next modtopsy. Hurry hurry!
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Thanks for dropping the hammer. I hope this makes manufacturers more responsible and look forward to other reviews.
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@Sprkslfly:
Truth finder in the dark alleyway of mod manufacturing. You sir, are awesome. Forget people blowing clouds into a camera, and posting how hot a mod is after maybe 8 hours of real usage, this is the kind of thing we really need. Thank you for putting the time into really delving into the innards, it really is appreciated. I absolutely love what you are doing, and if there is anything we can do to help this along, let us know. I’ll do whatever I can to keep this going. 
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Well sir your research just saved another vaper on another forum. Mod was reading atomizer short with no atomizer. Had him fix his jeans button and viola! Working mod! Keep on keepen on. You’ll be the next Mooch before ya know it!
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smok products suck , the quality ,durability is really poor , bought my girl the alien , it lasted 3 weeks , screen went dead then the fire button got stuck on , total crap
I have had hit and miss. The first two we bought lasted a little over a year. The third one had to be fixed because the screen went out right away. And our fourth one is still kicking but ive barely used it.
The tanks are well built. Swivel top caps and leak proof. Not good for rba though…
When a company is all about numbers, quality control becomes low on the priority list…
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LOL, now you put this up, wish i had known before I got mine… 8 days after warranty… Mine looks even cheaper… they didn’t even put the little box/shield over the copper coil thing. All started when 510 just started spinning. Down hill from there.
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I can’t be the only one that thinks SMOK should be confronted with these pictures, with a big ol’ ‘Why?’ on the subject line.
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To echo sprksfly “Not safe. Not in the least.” You don’t have to be a technician to know what happens when one of these batteries goes to ground. It may just vent, or it may very well catch fire. There is a tremendous amount of stored energy.
edit: I’m not saying this will happen, but it looks to me like it could
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Alrighty folks! My apologies for being basically MIA since posting… but I’ve been dealing with getting a tooth pulled (and the remnants of all that entails) for the past week. And longer before that spent in pain.
So the fact that I got most of the first post out (substantially coherent, and intact) is pretty shocking to me. 
Anyways, I’ve got a bit of editing to do, and adding a couple of pics (didn’t feel right at the time not having the jeans ‘travel-limiting-keeper’ pictured, and won’t until I get these pics edited and posted).
And then I’ve got a bit to fill in on the firmware etc.
At any rate, I’m still here, and have been reading the comments, but haven’t really been able to focus long enough in most instances to reply as I go like I’d have preferred to. I’ll be trying to rectify that shortly… 
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This is age-old wisdom that I was imparted with as well, and it very much remains true IME as well!!
It’s also worth noting that it applies across the board. The product doesn’t matter. 
It’s exceptionally rare that a product that’s newly released has been researched and tested thoroughly enough (as well as long enough) especially in this day and age…
But the higher the price, the longer it’s worth the wait before adopting! 
/thinks Iphone 10?, or the new Google phone for example… $1000 for a phone? /SMH
Sadly, I’m not surprised. A lot of folks jumped on the Alien, and I don’t blame them. It’s a nice design, with a very nicely laid out LCD. It’s just unfortunate that they have the issues they have.
It does seem though, that some aspects are systemic to Smok (design choices, customer support, lack of organization in the IT dept that manages the web support section (firmware bundled files: see the “firmware post” above shortly…)
Well, it’s a bit different animal trucking through newly released items, and getting hands on with (what’s turning into) different variations of the final released products, and ongoing (and unannounced) revisions.
I’ve got a ton of respect for DJLSB, and Phil Busardo both, for what they do, and this is partly why I am hoping to fill a niche they don’t fill. While their’s is significantly more useful (as an early indicator), I’m hoping that if this becomes “a thing”, that I’d be able to present information like this while it’s still relevant. But that’s going to be dependent on whether I continue to have the time, as well as folks being willing/able to send me their newly deceased/problem-child. So far, that’s looking good though. 
The longer the life-cycle of the mod, the better the chances of being able to put together a valid sample set, and in return, submit observations for the community’s awareness and input.
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A few more than that from the looks of it. 
Again, the one’s in post one, have so many differences, but are being classed by Smok as the same revision (Rev. A chipset, the NUC220LE3AN).
IF it turns out that the revised chip (NUC220) is to blame, then you could look at it as needing to have been two separate revisions (for that chip alone). And it’s possible that perhaps that was in fact the case of WHY they changed chips for Rev. B (and went with the NANO120LE3BN). It’s also possible that Nuvoton EOL’d the chip (End of Life). /shrugs
Really no way to know since I’m not going that far at the moment.
But the fact that it’s such a small sample set so far, makes it impossible to do anything more than hypothesize ATM.
Thank you ma’am! -I wouldn’t have had a chance if it weren’t for the kind folks like you and @VapeyMama (who unknowingly started the idea rolling in the back of my head a year or so ago) and @Silhouette, and @juice_junkie_lover for donating the problem children to me to rip into!! 
If you can/want to/do great!! But even if you don’t, if the top spins it’s my opinion that it’s unsafe, and you’re only asking for problems. There’s a variety of ways that things could go wrong. Most of them minor and many harmless. But in my opinion, it’s simply not worth the risk. If that top ground wire breaks loose, and dead shorts against the “jeans” rivet’s white wire, then you’ve got only the mod’s protections to rely on.
So far, I’m not impressed with Smok. I’ll leave it at that.
Now, I’m not saying they can’t do anything right, nor am I saying their protection on this device doesn’t work, or any other such things that someone may want to twist/read into. I’m simply saying, I wouldn’t rely on it in that condition if it were mine.
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Good eye. You’re not alone.
Traces aren’t so bad (overall), but the wave soldering they’re using leaves a bit to be desired IMO as well.
Seems like they’re either running them through so fast that the pool doesn’t have time to get back to temp, or they are using cheap solder.
Either way, it’s not pretty, and doesn’t really instill confidence in the connections (at least for any type of longevity).
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Nice!!! Curious if you got it fairly early after they were released? Or…
(If I were a betting man, at this point, I’d be inclined to guess that it was one of the first batch and uses a 621GCFA chip and original version lcd!)
That would be much appreciated! =) 
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I am all out of loves at the moment, but I loved, loved, loved this! It is absolutely a niche that needs to be addressed! I hope that you have a lot of success with it! I loved the writing style, and knowing nothing about electronic assembly practices, I could follow along and clearly understand what you were explaining.
Things could go very bad at the fault of the manufacturer’s poor product, not the user. The manufacturers should be accountable for making a safe product to use. Period. And hopefully what you are doing here willl shine a light on the fact that you aren’t always getting what you pay for. I would assume a $100 Mod would be safer, better built and longer lasting than a lower priced one with the same features. But you have shown that to not necessarily be the case at all! Thank you!
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Thank you sir!
You and me both! 
I think he’s proven amazingly reliable though
Honestly, the only thing I’d ever want to see/hear from them, is “We’ve learned from past mistakes.” and prove it by what hits the market from here forward.
There ARE NO excuses for their 510 design at this price-point in my opinion, and the previous decision to release it as designed (referring solely to the 510 situation) only says to me that there’s a problem at the top.
This is the 510 from @VapeyMama’s “cheap” Eleaf Istick 40 TC for example…
A single assembly, yet far more reliable.
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