stuartro Posted June 24, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 24, 2016 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 More sharing options...
BillW50 Posted June 24, 2016 Report Share Posted June 24, 2016 What does the Device Monitor show for cell voltages and pack? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuartro Posted June 24, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 24, 2016 It's not "fully" charged (i.e. at 67%) as I've been using it a bit. Device Monitor currently shows the following:Pack: 12.14VCell 1: 3.99VCell 2: 40.8VCell 3: 4.08VOdd that the cells aren't all the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillW50 Posted June 24, 2016 Report Share Posted June 24, 2016 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuartro Posted June 24, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 24, 2016 Okay, I'll give it time and see what happens. Any idea why the cells would be unbalanced? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillW50 Posted June 24, 2016 Report Share Posted June 24, 2016 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 More sharing options...
stuartro Posted June 24, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 24, 2016 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 More sharing options...
VapingBad Posted June 24, 2016 Report Share Posted June 24, 2016 It will cycle between discharging the high cell(s) and charging the whole battery until they are all fully charged, the discharge is very slow and the charge is also at a low rate because it is in the final part of the constant voltage stage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuartro Posted June 24, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 24, 2016 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 â 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 More sharing options...
BillW50 Posted June 24, 2016 Report Share Posted June 24, 2016 Hahaha... so true. Anyway here is how balance chargers generally work.[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIbHLacozFo[/video] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuartro Posted June 25, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 25, 2016 That's a superb video. The mystery has disappeared. Thanks a stack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptainTripps107 Posted July 5, 2016 Report Share Posted July 5, 2016 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 More sharing options...
Spector NS5 RD Posted July 6, 2016 Report Share Posted July 6, 2016 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 More sharing options...
VapingBad Posted July 7, 2016 Report Share Posted July 7, 2016 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 More sharing options...
Wildman199 Posted July 8, 2016 Report Share Posted July 8, 2016 Does anyone know if a 14.2 volt power supply will be ok to power the DNA 200? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillW50 Posted July 8, 2016 Report Share Posted July 8, 2016 If I recall correctly, I believe it was James who said 16V max. So you should be fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VapingBad Posted July 8, 2016 Report Share Posted July 8, 2016 The spec sheet has max input voltage as 12.6 V, min 9 V & typical as 11.1 V. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillW50 Posted July 8, 2016 Report Share Posted July 8, 2016 (Absolute) Max Input Voltagehttps://forum.evolvapor.com/topic/65655-topic/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wildman199 Posted July 8, 2016 Report Share Posted July 8, 2016 Thank you for your quick response. 16v max. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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