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Hcigar VT200 battery options


Milkweed

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TheRedBaron said:

Nope. Didn't think I'd be doing a write up on this. Background. I bought the Hcigar Thinking it was a above average battery, above average form factor and i was sold on the DNA200 after using a Vaporflask DNA40. DNA200 Day one, I threw a dripper on it and it blew the flask away at 40%+ battery. When it dropped into the 30% range something changed. I charged it over night and I was back to total bliss. I noticed when it got into the 30% battery range it got weak. I learned to start charging in the 40% range. I checked online, correct battery setting for 1300mah battery should be set to 14.43 and confirmed in my escribe. Suspicions of Hcigar using 1000mah battery is found on the web and it makes sense. I got a wild hair and measured the VT200 battery and compartment. Battery size is .780x1.158x2.565. Compartment size is .825(21mm)x1.44x2.7 estimated. Searched and found Turnigy was a popular brand and the 25c nano tech 1300mah was the closest fit. Unfortunately when received it didn't fit. At 22mm thick this was going to require some tinkering. Out came the Dremel and soldering iron. Once I made the swap i was surprised to find I was the first to put a 1300mah battery in a Hcigar VT200 and even more surprised to find 20mm thick 1300mah battery from a better brand was easily available. ;) Post swap notes. I was vaping between 450f to 530f with the stock battery and between 3pm to 5pm it was time to recharge to keep above 40% on the battery meter. Now I'm vaping between 400f and 430f and blowing thicker clouds, going through more juice and haven't needed to recharge until bedtime. Last night I vaped down to 3% on the battery meter and it was still hitting strong. Tonight I'm giving up at 7%. I'm looking forward to doing the escribe battery analyzer with this battery.

What 20mm think battery were you talking about?
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That's a good one but I was actually thinking of the Thunder Power mentioned earlier in this thread. Thunder Power RC LiPo 3S 11.1V 1350mAh ProLite+Pwr 25C http://www3.omnimodels.com/cgi-bin/woi0001p?&I=THPA1140&P=SM But I'm no Lipo guru. If I was I wouldn't have bought a battery that didn't fit to start with. ;) Last night I did the Escribe Battery Analyzer with the Tunigy 1300mah nanotech 25-50, same as sy5tem has pictured above. Results ended up a disappointing 13.892. Perhaps it was because I smashed the battery in a vise 3 or 4 times trying to get it to fit :) or Perhaps it was my redneck test setup. I used one strand of 24 gauge kenthal 8 3/4" long for 1.5 Ohm on a Dark Horse RDA set to 40 watts with a simple 12" house fan blowing on it to keep things cool. If anyone can make a logical suggestion on a better setup without buying resistors and large heat sink, I welcome it. Two days ago I vaped this battery down to 3% trying to get a weak battery warning (3.11 volts) and it still hit fine at 430 degrees, 0.08 Ohm Ni200 build, at 50 watts and battery capacity set to 14.43. That's what makes me suspicious it was not an accurate test. I've seen the Hcigar battery test 11.07, 10.93 and 10.77 in this thread: https://forum.evolvapor.com/topic/65611-topic/ And the Turnigy test at 14.83 in this thread. https://forum.evolvapor.com/topic/65816-topic/?do=findComment&comment=890993 I would like to see mine test better. I may try varying the Ohms load and see if that changes the end result. Maybe she just isn't a good test taker... :)

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i just installed the thunder power 1350 in my vt200. had to remove the plate separating the chip and battery compartment . had to shorten the leads from the chip and change the plug on the battery. i removed the tabs on the battery side of the case also. i removed the lipo wrapper and rewrapped it with electrical tape. fits good and i got 14.23 for the first analyser test 20151111_223727.jpg  20151111_223742.jpg  20151111_223851.jpg  20151111_223858.jpg

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Outstanding kraze6548! That looks GREAT! Good news is at least now people have choices. Bad news is they both require a dremel. :( How long did it take to modify yours? I just completed my second battery analyzer test. First time I used a 1.5 Ohm loop and scored a disappointing 13.892. This time I made four 1 Ohm loops for a .25 Ohm load test as suggested by John from Evolve at the end of this page. https://forum.evolvapor.com/topic/67481-topic/

John said:

4 one ohm coils would work quite well. 

This is my battery analyzer test setup. It is somewhat... larger... than strictly speaking necessary (it will handle 200 watts continually) and it is permanently soldered to a test board (but I have thousands of those)


Needles to say I was expecting much better results. WRONG! Second test with the Turnigy 1300mah 25-50c Nanotech came in at 13.93.

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I've been watching these threads with interest, but shudder at the thought of taking a dremel to a new device! :( 

What is the maximum capacity aftermarket battery that can be installed in the VT200 'as is' without taking a dremel to the mod? I'm guessing it's limited by those silly 'shelves' in the battery door, are there any that are a similar size to the original battery size, but offer a slightly better capacity?

Cheers! 

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as much as i disagree with the way hcigar have 'bent ' the truth about their batteries capacity, they do have a 12 month warranty. 

my vt200 developed a fault where it was discharging the battery on its own as soon as it got down to 20% . (using a battery analyser test done on the device set at 11.09WH  1000mah)

I phoned the vendor (vapegeek in UK) and he first changed the battery and sent it back, but the fault was still there.. 
sent it back and he said Hcigar were good with warranty issues and a new one is on its way.

Now I am not so sure that they would be so forthcoming if it had been butchered to accept a different battery.

Just saying this as a warning to those of you thinking about going down this route.


Evolv have been brilliant changing faulty boards either caused by the boards or caused by incorrect build practices even going to the point of repairing mods where the manufacturers have not been helpful with replacements.

But Evolv is a business and I know I would be more than a bit miffed if I was constantly replacing boards that were damaged, overheated when soldering, during the mod making process and no fault of the board at all

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I have just finished replacing the battery in my Hcigar VT200. My device would not wake from sleep unless I plugged it into a USB charger. The battery would not charge, infact while hooked up to Escribe the WH reading would decrease as I tried charging it. I contacted Gearbest and they wanted me to make youtube video so they could view the malfunction online. I've never made a youtube video and have no interest in starting now. So, f*ck them I thought. I replaced the battery myself with http://www.ebay.com/itm/361309525989
This battery does not require modding the box or battery. It seems to have fixed the problem.

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ChunkyButt200 said:

why don't you run battery analyzer for yourself and find out what your specific wh's are. i got 11.275 wh's at 80 watts on a .29 ohm load.



I wish. I don't have anything to test it. I have no resistor. Just my Hcigar, tank and escribe is all I have
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augtism said:

[QUOTE=ChunkyButt200]why don't you run battery analyzer for yourself and find out what your specific wh's are. i got 11.275 wh's at 80 watts on a .29 ohm load.



I wish. I don't have anything to test it. I have no resistor. Just my Hcigar, tank and escribe is all I have[/QUOTE]


use your 0.5mm A1 ,  about 20cm long , two pairs,  curves like rabbit ear,,,,     it will be about 1 ohm ,  with any  RDA or RTA , like that ,   this is a perfect  "Resistor"  for 40W , battery analyzer .

just try it, 

IMAG0231_edit.jpg 


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  • 5 months later...

I probably should have done a search but this seems like the right place to post this.

It looks like hcigar has put out a replacement LiPo that is supposed to truly be an actual 1300mah battery. Has anyone tried this newer battery in their vt200 to see if there is any difference from the original LiPo that was "1300mah"? Is this just a repack of some other company's battery?

(I'm still really po'd at hcigar for lying, I'll think twice before recommending this mod or most anything from hcigar in the future).

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Jerry J said:

I probably should have done a search but this seems like the right place to post this.

It looks like hcigar has put out a replacement LiPo that is supposed to truly be an actual 1300mah battery. Has anyone tried this newer battery in their vt200 to see if there is any difference from the original LiPo that was "1300mah"? Is this just a repack of some other company's battery?

(I'm still really po'd at hcigar for lying, I'll think twice before recommending this mod or most anything from hcigar in the future).

can you post a link to this new improved lipo? i'm curious to see it.
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I couldn't figure out how to quote but...I'll figure that out soon enough.

http://sweet-vapes.com/hcigar-vt200-replacement-lipo-battery.html
http://vapenw.com/vt200-lipo-battery-by-hcigar

Here are a couple of places that have the battery listed.

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i guess what i'm looking for is, how do we know the replacement lipos are ANY different from what hcigar used previously. i'd guess to get the actual 1300 mah (14.4 wh), the new lipos would have to be slightly bigger than it's falsely advertised predecessor. i can confirm the original 1300 mah (1000 mah) hcigar lipo is an exact/tight fit in the vt200. i dunno, maybe a diff batt chemistry. 

 

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