Jump to content

Battery stops charging at 72%, then at 69%, and now 67%


stuartro

Recommended Posts

I have a VaporShark DNA200 (about 10 months old) that has started acting weirdly. I plug my mod in at night to charge and by morning it is at 100%. Until a few days ago it always charged to 100%. Then, 5 days ago I noticed that it was "stuck" at 72%---but still showing the lightning bolt icon on the battery indicator, with the fire button glowing red, indicating that it was still "trying" to charge. Three days ago I decided to see if the battery was flaky and installed a new FullyMax (from http://sweet-vapes.com/vaporshark-dna-200-lipo-battery.html) battery. On the first charge the device charged to 100% and I thought I was good to go. However, after using the device most of the following day and charging it overnight, it only charged to 69% (on the brand new battery). Now, today (still on the new battery) it only charges to 67% before getting stuck.

Does anyone know what might be going on here? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well if all cells are a perfect clone of each other, they would stay in balanced. But any slight difference and they get slightly imbalanced. This is all perfectly normal. What is important is they are close enough to work well with each other and the act of balancing cells keeps them that way. You probably haven't let it to complete the balancing for a number of recharges. So it just keeps getting worse and worse until you let it complete.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the help, Bill. My mod is currently stuck at 73% (showing charging current of 0.05A). I'll leave it charging overnight and see what happens---at the current rate it will probably still be balancing by morning. Is there a way to accelerate balancing? Also, I'm curious as to what is going on electrically as part of the balancing process. Is something that is specific to the DNA200 board, or a general LiPo thing? Thanks again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ah. Thank you. From time to time I'm amazed when I stop and think about the fact that I'm vaping on a device that's pushing 80 – 90W through a quad coil titanium build of 0.11?, while continuously monitoring resistance, interpolating against a set of TCR values, and varying power to give a near perfect vape. Sure is a long way from the first disposable "e-cigarette" I bought at the corner store 2 years ago.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
BillW50 said:

Oh it is doing cell balancing (voltages are not the same) and that process is slow. Just leave it on charge when you are not using it and it will slowly correct it. You can still use it, but it needs time to balance the cells.



Not always , as a matter of fact I have a DNA 200 that was at 100% battery. I ended up leaving the house and left it plugged in to  a usb charger for about 24 hours. came back home to notice my battery was at 80% .  Cell 1 3.86v , cell 2 and 3 both at 4.2v.    kinda sad  the board sucked down 0.4v at an idle while hooked up to a charger.   


Also noticed that the boards only really want to balance charge when the charging screen brightness is turned down to 0%, at 60% brightness it goes idle and stops charging when 2 cells hit 4.20v 
Link to comment
Share on other sites

CaptainTripps107 said:



Not always , as a matter of fact I have a DNA 200 that was at 100% battery. I ended up leaving the house and left it plugged in to  a usb charger for about 24 hours. came back home to notice my battery was at 80% .  Cell 1 3.86v , cell 2 and 3 both at 4.2v.    kinda sad  the board sucked down 0.4v at an idle while hooked up to a charger.   


Also noticed that the boards only really want to balance charge when the charging screen brightness is turned down to 0%, at 60% brightness it goes idle and stops charging when 2 cells hit 4.20v 

i'm really curious as to why you think screen charging brightness affects the balancing cycle. what happens at other brightness percents? you're saying it will fully balance all cells ONLY if you can't see the charging screen (0%)? i don't see how screen brightness determines whether the cells get fully balanced or not.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have unbalances a set of batteries for my Realeaux (3.92, 3.87 & 40.3 V), it charges normally until the cells reached 4.20, 4.10 & 4.5 V and it does balance charge with the screen at 50% brightness.  It is slow as I would expect and only draws up to 120 mA from the USB.  The lightning bolt on the batter icon flashes some of the time.  When the cells had been at 4.11, 4.06 & 4.20 V for a good while the lightning bolt stopped showing, maybe that is what you think of as Idle.  It is still drawing 20 - 80 mA from the USB and the cell voltages are raising, very slowly. 12 hours after my cells were @ 4.12, 4.07 & 4.20 they have only reached 4.21, 4.16 & 4.20 and it is still balancing with screen brightness at 50%, USB current draw is up to 40 mA by a cheap USB metre.  Because the charge rate is limited to that suitable for the high cell(s) and discharge of the low cell(s) is also at a low rate it takes a really long time.  Balancing with one cell down 0.4 V could literately take day or more.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...