My DNA 200 (HCigar VT200) is going bonkers

[bingbling]

Hey.

I've been having weird issues with my device for a while. Three things mainly. Firstly the battery meter is acting weird. What's happening is I set it to charge lets say at 0% and charge it to 30% for instance. Then I unplug and vape for a bit and let it rest. Then after a while, like a few minutes when I fire it up again, the battery meter suddenly says I have 50% battery instead of the 30% I had when I unplugged it. And its always off by 20%-ish.
Secondly since this started happening the device rarely signals "Weak battery", the vape just gets very weak/no existant so I know the battery is down, but no weak battery signal.
And lastly, the device sometimes fails to read the correct resistance when switching attys/builds. And I have confirmed a numerous times that the connections are tight, and my other ohm meters reads the resistance correctly.

What gives? Is there anything I can do? Should I do a soft/hard reboot?

[Spector NS5 RD]

post a screenshot of your battery settings in EScribe. you might have an incorrect number or something input.

weak battery is also tied into your lipo. post a screenshot of Device Monitor with pack and cells 1-3 ticked

wrong read resistances can be a case of "mod internal resistance" set incorrectly. what is the value input in EScribe?

[bingbling]

ChunkyButt200 said:

post a screenshot of your battery settings in EScribe. you might have an incorrect number or something input.

weak battery is also tied into your lipo. post a screenshot of Device Monitor with pack and cells 1-3 ticked

wrong read resistances can be a case of "mod internal resistance" set incorrectly. what is the value input in EScribe?

Well, the thing is I have been running the exact same settings for a year, and its been spot on. Until now that is. I haven´t changed a single thing. And about the incorrect resistance reading, it doesnt affect all my attys or builds. And yeah I know ur thinking its probably the build/connections that are loose or something. And I thought so too, but I have confirmed the actual correct reading on both a 2nd device (vaporshark dna40) and with my USA Ohm meter, and it always reads the same resistance, its weird rly. If the connections were loose there should be some variance on those two units as well. But its just the DNA200 device that gets the reading wrong sometimes. And its not like its just a tad off, its off by alot. The build that is currently giving me headache is a .17ohm, and that one reads between .17-.22.

Anyhow on to the rest. Here's the screenshots u asked for:

[Spector NS5 RD]

honestly, everything looks in order. 3.41 for cutoff is a sliver high but nothing major. i set it to 3v for all my lipo dna mods. not any lower, as lipo's lose there muscle after the 3 volt mark and become very unbalanced the lower you take the cells. 3.41v will extend the life of your lipo but you do sacrifice some capacity, a trade off. what might be conflicting with the battery meter is you have 9.8 as the WH capacity but battery analyzer came up with 9.473. try putting that value back into the capacity field. also,with over 50k puffs the lipo could be on it's way out. maybe starting to get weak and unable to provide the current the board needs. you would be able to see this while firing the device and watching device monitor, looking for a drastic voltage sag under load. you'll get the weak battery warning when you're reaching your cell soft cutoff value. 

as for the res reading off, try cleaning the 510 threads, pin etc. other than that you can re-test you mod's internal resistance with one of those copper threaded plugs. that's what i use.

http://smokefreemods.webs.com/apps/webstore/products/show/6619269

[retird]

A loose case ground or loose screw holding the board to the chassis (chassis ground) can cause the issue also...

[bingbling]

ChunkyButt200 said:

honestly, everything looks in order. 3.41 for cutoff is a sliver high but nothing major. i set it to 3v for all my lipo dna mods. not any lower, as lipo's lose there muscle after the 3 volt mark and become very unbalanced the lower you take the cells. 3.41v will extend the life of your lipo but you do sacrifice some capacity, a trade off. what might be conflicting with the battery meter is you have 9.8 as the WH capacity but battery analyzer came up with 9.473. try putting that value back into the capacity field. also,with over 50k puffs the lipo could be on it's way out. maybe starting to get weak and unable to provide the current the board needs. you would be able to see this while firing the device and watching device monitor, looking for a drastic voltage sag under load. you'll get the weak battery warning when you're reaching your cell soft cutoff value. 

as for the res reading off, try cleaning the 510 threads, pin etc. other than that you can re-test you mod's internal resistance with one of those copper threaded plugs. that's what i use.

http://smokefreemods.webs.com/apps/webstore/products/show/6619269

Yeah it's set at 3.41 because the battery sux, and it's getting unbalanced below that. Could very well be a dying battery. I am gonna change the Wh capacity and see what happens. I'll check the device moniter during a puff, what voltage drop would be acceptable, and what vdrop is a dying battery? If I can't get this sorted I guess I will get another device.

Edit.

I took your advice and changed the Wh. The weird thing is, now it says it has 1% charge, it had like 75% before I uploaded the settings? 

Here's a screenshot



Edit no2. After letting the device charge for about an hour it jumped from 9% charge to 100%. Now I am gonna see if the meter stays "normal" and not fluctuate 20%.

[Spector NS5 RD]

bingbling said:

Yeah it's set at 3.41 because the battery sux, and it's getting unbalanced below that. Could very well be a dying battery. I am gonna change the Wh capacity and see what happens. I'll check the device moniter during a puff, what voltage drop would be acceptable, and what vdrop is a dying battery? If I can't get this sorted I guess I will get another device.

Edit.

I took your advice and changed the Wh. The weird thing is, now it says it has 1% charge, it had like 75% before I uploaded the settings? 

Here's a screenshot



Edit no2. After letting the device charge for about an hour it jumped from 9% charge to 100%. Now I am gonna see if the meter stays "normal" and not fluctuate 20%.

lol, you said it yourself, the battery sux. the lipo for the VT200 is scarce. if you find it somewhere buy it.
i did find this.....

http://www.ebay.com/itm/LAVABOX-EFUSION-MINI-HOBOX-HCIGAR-LIPO-BATTERY-UPGRADE-3S-950mAh-DNA-200-900mAh-/281993080875?hash=item41a818f02b:g:xWgAAOSwjwlXA2i2   

[bingbling]

Fasttech carry this:

https://www.fasttech.com/products/0/10023554/5088900-authentic-hcigar-vt200-replacement-1300mah-li-po

Looks like the real thing. However, since I know that battery sux I'm not sure I want to buy that. I might look in to a new device instead, after x-mas when I am not broke haha. Not sure what one though.

[dwcraig1]

The replacement batteries are said to be better than the originals...just what I read, no experience with them. 

[bingbling]

dwcraig1 said:

The replacement batteries are said to be better than the originals...just what I read, no experience with them. 

I see. Might give it a go then, and its not a fortune lost either if it sux dit. Its becomming apparent. the battery is dying. When at 100-50% charge the vape is alright. But below 50% the vdrop is significant to the the point where the vape is below subpar. Its dropping to 3,0V at 50% charge. Luckily I have an rdna40 as backup. My builds are all titanium though, so I gotta rebuild some atty to kanthal I guess. I refuse to use Ni200 lol. I never could get a satisfactory vape with nickel.