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Ground question


jamtwo

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So I was attempting to repair my Efusion DNA 200 with a board transplant, everything was going smoothly until the 510 ground pad on the transplant board began pulling away from the board, while trying to maneuver the board into place, it finished itself off and tore off completely. So, my question is, is there a SAFE alternate place I may be able to ground the 510 or is this board junked too? Thanks!!

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You are not the first and won't be the last.  You can use the battery -ve or any of the 3 mounting points, but bend the wire before soldering as the thick wires can wick up the solder, become very stiff and rip the pad off when you apply a lot of force to the wire as you found, or use a heat shunt on the wire when soldering.  But be careful with the +ve as I don't think there is an alternative for that.

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VapingBad said:

You are not the first and won't be the last.  You can use the battery -ve or any of the 3 mounting points, but bend the wire before soldering as the thick wires can wick up the solder, become very stiff and rip the pad off when you apply a lot of force to the wire as you found, or use a heat shunt on the wire when soldering.  But be careful with the +ve as I don't think there is an alternative for that.

Thank you so much, I did this and it appears to have worked. On to a separate issue now though unfortunately. So I put it all back together, threw it on the charger and it seemed to be charging intermittently. I plugged into my PC and ran escribe, did a hard reboot, updated the battery settings to 1300mAh and now it doesn't look to be charging at all. I did get the "imbalanced battery" alert a couple times. I would guess that maybe the battery is shot due to sitting for roughly 4 months not being charged or used? I know LiPo packs can get finicky when they're stored. Does this sound like a fair guess?
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If one or more cells are below 3 V (not sure the exact figure it could be 2.5 V) normal Li charging won't work (this is common to most chargers) and you can try EScribe - Tools - Diagnostics - USB Recovery Charge to get it above 3 V, it may take a few goes as there is a safety time limit.  It could also be dry joints or dirty pins on the balance connector.

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VapingBad said:

If one or more cells are below 3 V (not sure the exact figure it could be 2.5 V) normal Li charging won't work (this is common to most chargers) and you can try EScribe - Tools - Diagnostics - USB Recovery Charge to get it above 3 V, it may take a few goes as there is a safety time limit.  It could also be dry joints or dirty pins on the balance connector.

I appreciate all the help. It looks like cell 1 is only reading out at 1.3v but the recovery charge doesn't appear to be doing much.
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VapingBad said:

It takes a while, that cell is in a state where they can't use the usual charging method.

see here 37 mins, he name checks some looser though
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxP0FFnF2-8&feature=youtu.be&t=2221

Haha awesome, got a name drop from Grimm Green, pretty badass man. I'm gonna try this and see if I can't get it going. Either way, thanks for all the help!
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VapingBad said:

It takes a while, that cell is in a state where they can't use the usual charging method.

see here 37 mins, he name checks some looser though
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxP0FFnF2-8&feature=youtu.be&t=2221

So one last question for yah VapingBad. I bought a new lipo for it, the other didn't seem to be salvageable. I managed to find another 1300mAh lipo, also 3s, same 11.1v, but the replacements look to mostly be a 25c-50c discharge rate, this one is 20c (25c max). Any idea if this will be safe to run?
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I appreciate the info Awsum. Unfortunately, I changed out the connector, hooked the battery up, pressed the fire button and the mod wasn't showing any battery icon on the screen, nor was it charging, and escribe was showing straight zeros. So, after dumping nearly $80 into fixing a $180 mod, I've decided I'm done with it. The mod and everything along with it is in the trash can, and seeing as Evolv told me that they can't do anything since it is "likely a short in the 510" which was proven wrong once the second chip was put in, I will no longer support the company. At this point I feel burned, spending that much money on a mod only to have the first chip randomly fail after 6-7 months, and then have the second chip not recognize a brand new battery. Just evidence of a cheap company taking advantage of a market with cheap crap destined to fail. /endrant.

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All I can say is that your experience is an exception, not the rule.  I will also say I've had excellent customer support from Evolv, even when the failure was from my own mistakes.  All of my DNA mods, 40's, 75's and 200's have been hand built by me so I've never had to deal with a third party vendor, other than myself.

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@jamtwo,  I've seen, many times, where  Evolv has replaced boards that were damaged by the end user during installation, or even out of warranty, even though it was not covered by the warranty. I understand your frustration but can't agree with your evaluation of Evolv as a company and their product(s).  

Can you post  pictures  of your build showing only the board (front and back) and the wiring as we may be able to do a bit of long distance visual troubleshooting and possibly assist you. I do see cold solder joints and a missing ground pad in your post 1 picture. A picture of the battery and the attached connector (s) would be helpful also.

Lots of folks here that really try to help .......  :thumb:




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retird said:

@jamtwo,  I've seen, many times, where  Evolv has replaced boards that were damaged by the end user during installation, or even out of warranty, even though it was not covered by the warranty. I understand your frustration but can't agree with your evaluation of Evolv as a company and their product(s).  

Can you post  pictures  of your build showing only the board (front and back) and the wiring as we may be able to do a bit of long distance visual troubleshooting and possibly assist you. I do see cold solder joints and a missing ground pad in your post 1 picture. A picture of the battery and the attached connector (s) would be helpful also.

Lots of folks here that really try to help .......  :thumb:




Agreed, 110%. Evolv's customer service is second to none. I can't tell you how many boards they have helped out with, including direct phone calls from Nick w/ Evolv. As others have posted; show us the build. Retird has helped many people here by zooming in on those photos and literally diagnosing problems on the fly. Dont give up on Evolv, or your mod. They are a great company in the US doing amazing work for us vapers. One last thing; I was having a good deal of trouble with boards, and ultimately trashed (in a bag I kept) many boards. I have since refined my soldering and build skills and resurrected boards that had actually went "poof" with a bit of smoke! Evolv's products are damn close to as bulletproof as possible.
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Here are some photos of the second chip. I appreciate the help from the members of this forum. I'm glad to hear of others great experiences with the company, it just rubbed me wrong when the response from Evolv was to pass the buck onto someone else.

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I'll leave the solder evaluation to Retird, he's got eyes like a hawk!

Did you use a voltmeter to check the balance connector on the battery to make sure it is set up in the right sequence and that red is truly positive power on the main power connections?

If you soldered on that ground lead to the 510 did you check for a short in it after soldering?

Not trying to be a smart guy, just looking for the obvious first and I've "been there and done that" myself.

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You have lifted the battery negative pad, you should never put the strain of bending wires on solder pads, especially these very thick wires.  Always bend the wire to it's final shape before soldering, you can get more flexible wire with finer strands, but if the solder wicks up the wire it will still become stiff.  Also holding the heat on for too long can cause the pads glue to melt. 

You may get away with connecting to a mounting point, but you may have damaged some of the nearby tracks.

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VapingBad said:

You have lifted the battery negative pad, you should never put the strain of bending wires on solder pads, especially these very thick wires.  Always bend the wire to it's final shape before soldering, you can get more flexible wire with finer strands, but if the solder wicks up the wire it will still become stiff.  You may get away with connecting to a mounting point, but you may have damaged some of the nearby tracks.

That pad lifted after the fact. When I initially jumped the 510 ground to it, the pad was still good and it was still not functioning.
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ChunkyButt200 said:

open a ticket, be patient in waiting for a response and they should help you out........  attach a couple pics of the lifted traces in the help ticket.

https://helpdesk.evolvapor.com/index.php?a=add

Yeah, I already have an open ticket, their initial response was that it sounds like a problem with the 510 wiring, which it isn't.
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jamtwo said:

Yeah, I already have an open ticket, their initial response was that it sounds like a problem with the 510 wiring, which it isn't.



So, have you replied back to them (feature inside the ticket whereby you can reply back) and have you given them more info...may help.....
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