dl12345

So that was the problem it seems - the cable. Curious, since it's the exact same cable I've always used. I first tried connecting the mod to a different charger and cable and it charged fine. Then I used the cable from the second, working charger with the first charger that threw the error and it also worked fine. And finally, the original cable with the second charger also threw the same error, so undoubtedly the cable at fault. Thanks - that was a nice easy fix

The board in my HCIGAR VT250 died, so I just replaced it this afternoon. Everything is wired as per the original. It all seems to work fine too, when configured with the VTC5A discharge profile that I'd previously generated a few years back. When I connect the device to my PC for uploading escribe profiles, I noticed it charges fine too via the USB port. However, I just connected it to an external USB charger like I normally do and got a "warranty service" message the moment I connected it. Anyone able to point me in the direction of what might be the problem? I'm guessing it's the higher charging voltage causing this, but not sure why...(it's a 5v 2A "intelligent" Anker charger; I use this one always to charge my mods)

A couple of more calculations solving for multiple variables seems to show that I can't really rise above 164w on a 2 cell capable of 30A continuous output either while remaining above battery cutoff voltage, unless I'm mistaken? The Molicell P42A can do brief spurts up to 40A according to Mooch's test, but for continuous output he rates it at 30A. So it looks like I could lower the coil resistance to 0.184 and stay within battery cutoff voltage and rated amps at power up to 164w Am I getting this right - I'm trying to solve here for the situation when the battery pack is reaching empty...

The error always shows at the beginning of the puff, never the end. However, using that calculator and solving for V And keeping my fully charged mod connected to Escribe the whole day, so I have something like 160k data points, I can see that maximum voltage sag takes the battery pack down to 7.4v at the point of maximum sag if I use a preheat of 200w. So it's not hard to imagine that with a less than full battery, even 80%+, that it could sag below 7.3v and trigger the weak battery message during the preheat phase. This would be consistent with the symptoms I'm experiencing (mostly happens at the beginning of a puff when I have not taken one for a while, so the coil has cooled down). So what I really should be doing here is keeping the preheat power no higher than probably 140w..I'll need to experiment and look to see what the battery pack sags to when it's reaching 30% charge or lower to determine what would be the maximum setting for preheat. Thanks for the help @dwcraig1 and @retird

I'll need some time to try and replicate the problem. What I posted was a normal puff, where the weak battery message did not appear. It seems quite random. so I'll probably need to try for a while before I can record the problem - I'll do as you suggest and check a bunch more boxes

Max voltage draw and battery sag values highlighted. Does this shed any light?

Thanks, I'm coming from a 3-cell device so I was aware that power should be reduced, although according to the spec sheet you so kindly linked, it should be capable of 200w on a 0.26 ohm coil if I'm reading it correctly (the chart on page 6)? Unless I should be referring to the Nickel chart instead of the Kanthal chart, in which case it looks like it maxes out at around 140w? That said, I'd previously reduced the pre-heat to 150w and I still get the same symptom...I'll try decreasing pre-heat below 140w and see if it fixes things....failing that I'll need to make a coil with a lower resistance than 0.26 ohms it seems.

Every so often, randomly it seems, I'm getting a weak battery warning with my Dovpo twin 21700 mod using two brand new Molicel P42As. Not sure what's causing it - the problem happens even at well near to 100% battery. My preheat is set to 200w (dual coil SS304 claptons @ 0.26v) punch 11 and then normal power is 120w My battery setup is below Anyone have as to what in my setup might be causing this? I doubt I have dud batteries as I bought them from the official UK distributor

See my comment in the first post. I've done this already but it has no effect.

I've just acquired a 250c. I've been using two DNA200s, a DNA75 and a DNA250 for the last few years in TC mode. I'm accustomed to having the live temperature displayed when I press the fire button. It's a great way to assess fairly quickly if the atomizer isn't making contact properly (juice on the plate, not screwed in fully, etc.) as you can blip the fire button and if you see a high temperature immediately, you know there is something wrong. In theme designer, I simply cannot seem to get the temperature display to update live. I've tried everything (clicking the checkbox for update while firing is the obvious first step). I tried to put in a similar field for live ohms and get the same result - either the set maximum temperature displays (not updated live) or I get a field with an On or an Off statement in it (live ohms) Does anyone know if it is possible to get a live temperature in the same way as with the DNA75/200/250?

If you don't lock the ohms the board will auto-adjust

I'm not sure if anyone has pointed this out before - a cursory search revealed one reference to a similar problem, but no other discussion. In both of my mods that use the JST connector instead of having the balance wires soldered directly to the board, the JST connector is a significant point of failure due to corrosion of the positive terminal of the JST connector over a period of time. In one case the corrosion was actually so bad that the terminal partially broke, leading to to intermittent failure of the mod. This corrosion takes some time to build up to the point of failure, roughly two years of regular use in both cases. The problem typically manifests as turning the mod on and seeing the battery as completely depleted, getting a "check battery" message, seeing a "short" message and having the mod turn on and off while pressing one of the bottom two buttons (this latter behaviour occurred in one of my boxer mods due to flexing of the board while pressing the button which in turn caused the JST to move slightly and break contact on the positive balance connector). Future mods I build will not use the JST connector and I'll solder the balance wires directly to the board, which is what I just had to do now with one of my mods since the positive pin on the JST actually broke off when I touched it due to the corrosion.

Actually, I will answer my own question since I just pulled it apart. The problem is threefold 1. A poorly thought-out design decision to use a screen where the ribbon cable folds up towards the fire actuator. It's a problem waiting to happen 2. A very flimsy screen / cable interface. It seems where the ribbon cable meets the screen is not very robust. A little touch on the black insulation tape to press it down causes the screen to flicker or even go off. 3. A badly designed firing button on the boxer that is too big and that, when pressed, causes repeated stress on the ribbon cable Unfortunately, I don't think it can be fixed. And if I buy yet another new screen, it's likely to happen again.

I've been vaping SS coils in TC mode exclusively for the last two years or so. I've tried pretty much every wire on the market: SS316, SS316L, SS317L, SS304 and SS430. I've tried spaced and non-spaced coils as well and until a few months ago my best results were coming from SS304 spaced coils. The SS304 profile works pretty well and I find the wire itself quite resilient. It doesn't tarnish in the same way as the SS316 and gives me better results (surprisingly) than SS430, which is much harder to work with. I'd previously tried claptons (non-spaced) in TC mode and had a particularly poor result. I usually find I need to replace my single wire coil every 6 or 7 days. Note that I don't dry burn my coils - I clean them with a toothbrush and diswashing liquid, which dislodges most of the gunk. A few months ago I decided I would try claptons again. This time I thought I would make my own clapton wire, which I did. I used a 27AWG SS304 core and a 32AWG SS430 wrap. I then made spaced clapton coils, about 4 and a half wraps, giving me somewhere around .25 ohms in a dual coil atomizer. I've been using them in my Geekvape Peerless RDTA. Of course I needed to bump up the pre-heat and power significantly for the claptons. I'm running a 100w preheat with punch of 10 for 2 secs for and power is 55w. Once it gets up to the correct temperature, escribe shows that the mod pushes about 25w through constantly, although I needed the higher power settings to get up to operating temperature quickly enough. I've been getting a really nice vape from this (using a standard SS304 profile) and the bonus is that my coil just seems to last forever. I still have the same coils in my Peerless RDTA that I put in just over a month ago. I change my cotton every 3 days or so and a quick scrub with the toothbrush and the coil is clean and ready to go another round. It really beats having to replace coils every six days or so, and making the wire itself is a fairly quick job.

I've got a boxer mod v1 (two battery mod) with a DNA200 chipset inside. A while back I had a problem where the screen started flickering. The problem got worse and eventually the screen died. The mod itself was still working fine, because I could connect it to escribe and change all the settings and it vaped perfectly fine, just no screen. So I bought a new screen and replaced it, roughly a month ago. Now, the screen is starting to do the same thing again - light flickering. If it pans out the same way, soon my screen will be dead. Looking at the case, the 3D printed firing button is quite large and I suspect would possibly be pushing down on the screen connector ribbon which may or may not be the cause of the problem. I put a little piece of foam in the U of the ribbon so that it has a little protection, but this doesn't seem to have done anything. Has anyone seen a similar problem, with any other mod or even better, specifically with the boxer mod?

What atty are you using? I find many atomizers will vary in resistance. Ones with floating pins such as the Uwell Crown are particularly prone to this, especially when condensate gets into the bottom of the airflow control ring and seeps between the 510 pin and the base of the RBA deck. Other ones that use a spring loaded 510 pin can also exhibit similar behaviour, often due to the spring (some of my old Taifun GT IIs did this until I replaced the spring with a brass solid brass cylinder). I would most often suspect that the atomizer is the cause of this, given of course that your coil screws are fastened down correctly. Other times, the coil changing resistance is a sign that your coil is shot and it's time to make a new one.

And as an aside, I'd also be interested in hearing about how any of you owners find this device. How does it perform in real world use, how is the 510 connector, etc..... All the reviews out there on the net read like a copy/paste of Vaporshark marketing material. No real info beyond a few lines extolling the ergonomics of the box and how Vaporshark is such a great company. I'm just so fed up buying substandard devices that look good on paper but under-perform in daily usage.

Thanks, good to hear. Be interested to hear more as you become more accustomed to it over the next day or two. I assume you're using it in TC mode, of course....

Judging by this thread perhaps I should not go ahead and purchase a 75C mod

Anyone have any photos of a teardown of the Vaporshark Switchbox DNA 75? I'm interested in seeing the internals / 510 connection and wiring. I'm currently trying to decide between one of these and an HCigar VT75 Color. The latter appears to be ok (none of the problems with using the thread for the ground connection suffered by the original VT75), but I've yet to see the inside of a Switchbox. I'm currently leaning towards the Switchbox because of the issues reported with the 75C that leads me to believe that a vanilla DNA75 would be a better choice.

I'm looking to potentially buy one of these devices. I've also got a VT75 nano, which I have been less than impressed with due to boneheaded engineering. I've watched DJLSB Vape's tear down of the VT75 Colour and it looks like it's better engineered (no relying on the 510 plate's thread to make the ground connection and a better mounting for the 510 plate, for example). What's the feedback on this device from any here who own it? Is it a worthwhile purchase? Does it read resistance consistently? How is it on pocketability - easy to fit in a jean pocket (I don't have the option to purchase it physically, so I can't judge the size properly)?

A week later and it's still functioning perfectly. I'd agree that this could be the definitive solution

This has been mentioned before on the forum, but I and others have had very inconsistent results from SS316L. I've bought from many different vendors and the alloy varies greatly. Some wire labelled as SS316L I would go so far as to say is something else entirely. SS430 is good but difficult to work with due to the springiness of the steel. Frankly, my favourite is SS304 - it's easy to work with, the coils tend to last longer and the TC control is more consistent.

My VT75 nano had gotten to the point that it was unusable - the threads on the body, 510 plate and battery plate needed to be cleaned every few hours. I made this fix using the 510 ground tab from a fat daddy V4 (it's already the right size with a solder tab on it) and a wire from the board battery negative directly to the battery negative. The wire touching the battery negative I spread out and applied a bit of solder to the end to prevent fraying or stray wires; I did this so that I could change the battery - with a plate on the negative you cannot remove the battery and must charge it with the USB. I needed to dremel a little channel in the battery housing to pass the wire through. Even with a thin wire touching the battery, the battery plate doesn't screw in fully, but stands a little proud of the housing. That said, the fix seems to make a lot of difference. My multimeter continuity tester was beeping on and off when checking the connection between 510 base plate and the thread of the battery plate. With the mod done, no connectivity issue at all - just one constant tone from the continuity checker. So far, after two days it's been performing perfectly. This was a very boneheaded engineering decision by Hcigar. If they'd bothered to test it properly for even a week they would have noticed this issue and gone with a modified design. Thank you @Kostant for posting the link. It's an elegant fix that works very nicely.

As a followup to the last post, I find I still need to remove the 510 plate regularly and clean the threads on the plate as well as the threads on the case. It appears that (possibly) oxidation builds up in the threads over time and messes with resistance. If it's not oxidation I'm not quite sure what it is (it's not liquid I don't think because my attys don't leak). Cleaning it with a cotton bud and isopropyl alcohol works