BillW50

It's not the HOG DNA400C thank goodness. It is the HOG 400 using the VC HotSwap 400 board just released a few days ago.

@dwcraig1 also has a Z100C. Hopefully he will chime in here soon and mention if he has experienced this too.

Oh it will power up with one cell reversed, it is just 2 cells cancel each other out. And it isn't healthy to run it that way with the reversed cell. If your theme displays error codes, it should display unbalanced battery. All of the wiring is on one end. The other end (door) is fixed with stamped out contacts. And the door has + and - how the batteries should be facing. Two diagonally are facing up and the other two diagonally are facing down. If it works with the batteries placed that way, it isn't miswired.

Well session mode isn't useful nor there for vaping. It is there for heating other things that requires much longer time. By the way, did you ever investigate why the HOG theme crashes? It is a low priority for me, but I am still curious. I was hoping my second HOG would have a working theme, but no such luck.

Yes once the board goes into deep sleep, the drain drops down to microamps (or is it nanoamps, I forget) and I have left the batteries in some of them for years with little drop. You know it is in deep sleep when select, up, or down buttons won't wake it up anymore. You can force it into deep sleep also by removing the cells and then reconnecting. Pressing the fire button or connecting the USB will wake it up and the deep sleep timer starts from zero once again. I forget whether removing an atty and reconnecting wakes it up or not, but that is easy to check. Some people are unhappy with higher than SP33 battery drain when they check a sitting DNA250C everyday. It makes sense since they are never entering deep sleep mode. A typical 2 cell DNA250C will drain about 4% per day if it doesn't enter deep sleep. Another important thing happens in deep sleep. The puff counter gets saved. You won't lose puffs if the board is already in deep sleep when you swap batteries. This is true of not only of C-boards, but all DNAs with a puff counter. The only real lifetime puff counter on a C-board is the number that each puff info gets assigned with. That one is unaffected by sleep mode or not. As far as reloading working parameters... I have never timed it, but I it seems like about 200ms and normally I wouldn't even notice.

It breaks my heart when I hear stories like this. I also have two HOG DNA400C myself and I haven't had a single problem with them. Well except the HOG theme crashes I believe when you select Info or something. They also install firmware SP33 which is the oldest firmware version for the DNA250C when you purchase your HOG. I also run this firmware on all of my DNA250C mods since it stops draining the battery after 60 minutes of non-use (I have over 25 DNA250C mods). The newer firmware versions keeps draining for 24 hours. And the latest versions have session mode which allows firing until you press the fire button again. It is used for non-eliquid stuff. You can disable session mode within EScribe if it is enabled in a Profile. I don't want it or use it, so I don't know much about it. If I were you, I'd use another theme and use the original firmware SP33 just to try and see if the problem is still there. I can't see how a theme could cause this, but you never know. I'm not real hopeful that SP33 will fix it either. But both are easy to change and just maybe, something wonderful might happen.

Yes, the strongest level is very hot. All of the defaults are too warm for me. So I connected mine up to the EScribe software and turned off preheat and lowered the wattage of all of the settings.

Oh man! Those are so sweet! They use that double firing switch design. I'd be looking there for your short. Maybe just disassemble it and repositioning things and put it back together might be all that is needed. And Wayneo's idea isn't bad either if that is still an option.

Gosh @Jimmi5, two DNA60 auto firing... what is the make and model of this mod? My first thought is if there is some juice leaking on the boards?

The pad came loose and the solder has cracked. There's your cell 3 voltage jumping around.

That cell 3 jumping around could be a serious problem with external charging and with the DNA250C balance charging. It is most likely dirt or something on the balance plug most likely the pin next to the red wire or the one that is the red wire. Those two are the cell 3 voltage. Either the battery plug or on the board side has the problem.

Ah... well the battery voltage (also known as the pack voltage) with EScribe is showing 12.19v. Cells 1 and 2 are showing 4.18v. And cell 3 is showing 3.84v (also jumping around). And when you add 4.18 + 4.18 + 3.84 it equals 12.2v. All this adds up just right. If these readings are indeed correct, the DNA250C is in balance charging mode to raise the cell 3 up to 4.18v. This will take the DNA250C like more than 24 hours to finish for being 0.4v off. It will look like the mod isn't charging since the current is very low during balance charging mode. And please set it to 3 cell or it won't fix it. There are more things I want to cover like the cell 3 jumping around and external charging. But more on that later.

He is referring to that red plug.

Let's see if I have this correct. You had a previous DNA250C mod with a 3 cell lipo that was doing this. Now you have another DNA250C mod that is also doing the same. And you have two lipos that were doing the same thing on both mods. Is this right?

dwcraig1 wants you to measure the battery voltage on the DNA250C board side while it is firing.

Yes it looks like the battery chip on the DNA250C board is bad. Maybe someone else might have something else to add.

Does the lipo balance plug plugs directly into the board? And this is a 3 cell lipo and not a 4 cell right? Also check with EScribe software and check whether it is set for the correct cell lipo. If you don't know where it is in EScribe, just ask.

When a DNA gets too hot, I'm pretty sure that is set to 100°C. And it doesn't lower the wattage, but just displays Too Hot error and refuses to fire. Oh works fine with .37Ω? Oh I tested with a .4Ω Kanthal coil. I don't have anything built right now at .15Ω (which is weird since I commonly do). But I am positive I have many times even on a DNA100C and its not a problem. But that does tell me the problem is at the final stage on the board (which is no surprise really, as there was better than a 50% chance it was there anyway). I'm glad you found out everything you did. Because that really narrows it down perfectly. Bummer getting a faulty board though. That is super rare.

I'm running the International firmware version, same for you? I'm trying to think of a reason for your experience outside of a problem with the board itself. But everything externally looks fine in your screenshots. A faulty board could cause this i.e. temperature sensitive faulty chip or a cold solder joint. In either case, it needs to be replaced or repaired. Is it less than a year old? If so, Evolv covers it under warranty.

Does it happen at 50 watts too? Chain vaping here at 50 watts I got the board reading over 130°F and power out is solid. The battery is only a 15A battery (so 50 watts is pushing it) and the battery is at a low charge and the battery voltage drop is at 2.9v (not surprising) when firing. Running SP55.1 here.

Ok, I'm going to try duplicating this on one of my DNA100C.

Sorry, so you want to fire at 100 watts and have to wait for the board temperature to fall below 40°C (104°F) between firings and then it works perfectly right?

What troubles me is why are you firing a DNA100C for 60 seconds? This isn't what the rest of us are accustom to using our DNA100C for. And to handle such abuse, you're probably going to need heatsinks and possibly fans.