My Vapor Record, or MVR is the software put out by Joyetech to adjust settings and map progress on the eVic. I know I promised in my review of the eVic to do a separate review for MVR. Mac and PC compatible versions of the latest release, version 1.2 have finally been released. Essentially, both versions are the same, so I’m going to base this mostly on the Mac version. I’ll note any places where the PC edition differs in this review.
Installing MVR 1.2
Installation of the software on both platforms is fairly straight forward. More so on Windows actually. Nothing is unusual there. The Mac version uses a .mpkg installer, there’s no issue running it on Mountain Lion, so it seems to have been properly signed. When installing the software, the installer notes you will need to restart your mac when it’s done. After my installation finished, I was greeted with the error message below. However, after a restart it seemed to run fine.
eVic Firmware Upgrade
MVR 1.2 also includes firmware version 1.2 for the Joye eVic. On the PC version, it will immediately prompt you to upgrade the firmware when you connect an eVic running 1.0 or 1.1. Since I was already upgraded when I tried the Mac version, I’m not sure if it prompts or not. Unlike the PC version, the Mac version doesn’t auto run MVR when the eVic is connected via USB.
MVR Main Menu
After launching the software, you’re greeted with the home screen. There are 5 icons here: Connect eVic, Vapor Set, Configuration and Device Info and myVapors. The first option lets you pull down the information about your vaping patterns from the device as well as upgrade the firmware. Vapor Set and Device Info replicate the settings on the eVic itself (as well as let you set the custom vaping profile). myVapors is the reporting section.
eVic Settings Options
As I mentioned in the last section, the middle 3 options replicate the features found on the eVic under firmware 1.2 as well as a control some features that can’t be controlled via the device itself. I’ll run through the highlights of each menu, starting with Vapor set.
Vapor set is where a lot of the fun stuff happens with the eVic. You can choose your wattage and voltage settings here as well as using the MVR voltage and wattage profiles.
Within this menu, there are 4 submenus. Switch, mode, Homescr and puff set. The Switch section is where the MVR-only vaping profiles live.
Before the vaping profile table, there’s a drop down menu, this will let you change the operating mode from variable voltage to variable wattage as well as the MVR VV and VW settings. The last two will use the profile set by the table below.
The way it works is there are two rows and several columns. The top row is the voltage or wattage setting and the bottom is the duration. You can adjust the values to output a certain amount of power for a specific amount of time. For some reason, you have to set the duration longer than the previous setting. In other words, if you set the first column for 1 second, the next one would have to be 1.1 seconds or greater. The minimum setting is .5 seconds.
I’m still playing around with this feature to figure out if it’s actually useful. Currently, my theory is if I start at a lower wattage and then ramp up, that should allow liquid to wick better as I puff so the coil is nice and wet when I crank it up to 10 watts. I have no idea if its working or not to be honest.
The rest of the sub menus are kind of boring. Mode lets you toggle manual or automatic mode. Automatic mode has a setting for duration. Basically, you press the fire button on the eVic for a second and then you can let go and the eVic will continue to fire for the duration you set. Manual mode runs things in the typical way. I played with this feature but didn’t find it terribly useful.
HomeScr (why they couldn’t spell screen is beyond me) lets you choose one of the 3 displays on the eVic, there’s the original puff counter, time and date, or my favorite, the voltage and resistance for variable wattage mode.
Finally, the last option is something or another about puffs. You can reset your puff counts and the such there. To be honest, I seriously don’t care. Why the factories are so obsessed with puff counts remains a mystery to me.
Next up is the Configuration menu. There’s two sub items here. Not terribly sexy stuff, but there are a couple of very useful settings in here.
Under the General submenu, there are a few cool features that are new to the 1.2 version of eVic firmware. The settings existed before, but the never and custom options are new. This is particularly useful under the system section. It always annoyed me the eVic would go to sleep after an hour. Now, I can just tell it to not shut off. You can even do the same with the display, if you’re so inclined.
The Calendar settings are pretty much the same as they were under MVR 1.0. You still can’t switch the clock to 12 hour format.
Next up is the Device Info section. This is also similar to the 1.0 version, except most of the editable fields have moved to the previous two sections. There’s two sections, the general section displays info from the eVic such as atomizer resistance (if one is attached) and remaining battery life. The User info tab lets you add your name to the device, and age… if you really want to.
Finally there’s myVapors section. This is the reports for the eVic. You can view the changes in voltage, wattage, resistance and puffs over time. I suppose for some, this might provide interesting data. Particularly watching puffs over time to spot trends for days you vape more or less. The other stats are measured in puffs instead of days, I find that makes it hard to provide any sort of frame of reference. To be honest, I’m just not feelin’ the stats page, but maybe that’s a personal thing.
Software Quality
Before bringing this MVR review to an end, I wanted to talk about quality. The PC-only 1.0 version of MVR was a horribly buggy, terrible piece of software. My biggest pet peeve was that it seemed I had to remove and reinstall the software almost any time I wanted to use it for anything. I’d install it and it’d work. The next time I tried to use the software I’d be greeted with the error message “Has not found the hardware equipment!!!” Re-installing would clear it up, but I couldn’t get more than 2 uses out of the software before I’d have to repeat the process.
Further, 1.0 had no real redeeming qualities since most of the settings couldn’t be changed from the software, and I don’t care for the reports. The only thing it was useful for was updating the firmware.
MVR 1.2 for OS X doesn’t have the crashing problem 1.0 for Windows had. I’ve used it several times in a row, and other than the initial error on installation, I haven’t been plagued with the hardware not found errors. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same thing for the PC version. I still have to reinstall each time I want to use the software. In this regard, the Mac version is better than the Windows version. I guess they mean it when they say it’s a beta.
The other remaining bugs are the same and both and are relatively minor things like spelling errors and weirdly translated grammar. Since MVR 1.2 actually does useful things, that certainly makes it better than version 1. If you don’t have it yet, you can download MVR 1.2 for PC or Mac at Joyetech’s site. And if you don’t have an eVic yet, you can get one of those at VaporAlley.
