Puff counter resets automatically?

[BillW50]

All of mine, Profile 1 is my wattage profile. And Profile 2 is my Ni200 TC profile. And when I remove the cells and put them back in it pops back to Profile 2. I guess you can change which one it defaults to (maybe).

Oh crap! I put my nickel coil back in and now it is doing it in TC mode too.

[dwcraig1]

I have a Hotcig DX200 here, 3 cell, it does the same thing. I thought it was maybe because I turned temp off with the up/down buttons so I selected a profile with it set to "off".....same thing.
I have to glue one of the magnets back in now....LOL

[VapingBad]

It is a side effect of these boards not saving their settings and data to memory every time it changes to save power, they save when the go to sleep or you do a soft reboot.

[BillW50]

Ok, I think we have a bug that is toasting DNA200s. Getting the puff counter to screw up in wattage mode, it also messed up the puff counter in TC too. Not only does it count back for the reset puffs (what the screen displays), but also the total puff counter in the Device Monitor.

Trying to fix the puff counter, I did.

1) Reinstall firmware (no help)

2) Download from device then upload back (no help)

3) Soft Reboot (no help)

4) Hard Reboot - Here caused cell 1 to read zero volts. Error message says check battery when fired (both batteries are 3.65v with multimeter - swapped with two cells which tested as 4.16v each - no help)

5) Restore Defaults (no help)

6) Tried Soft and then Hard Reboot again (no help)

7) Tried reinstall firmware (no help)

8) Fires if power supply selected on 3.65v batteries

Is that Hard Reboot sometimes causing the DNA200 to fail reading the cell voltages correctly?

[VapingBad]

It is by design Bill see post #28, it was designed for a permanently connected battery and has not been an issue for the vast majority as this issue taking 10 months to be raised demonstrates, sorry I don't mean to sound unsympathetic.  There is no modes for temp or normal just one operating mode where you can turn off temp limiting so that should not make a difference.

[JaI Haze]

see the problem could be solved by adding a setting to go into sleep mode faster maybe?  Maybe a way to do a soft reboot, or when you take power OUT OF it it tries to save the setting maybe?  The fact more and more people are coming forward with the issue and more issues with it in TC mode now, it should be able to be fixed right

[VapingBad]

I suggested they save when locking so you could force it without having to learn a new button combination.

[JaI Haze]

wait are you saying if i lock the device NOW before swapping batteries it wont change, or you saying for future firmware upgrade does it

[BillW50]

@VapingBad: Five of mine were working fine off of 18650 cells in TC. Not one hint of any trouble and I was replacing cells all of the time. JaI Haze has been having this puff counter jumping back for sometime now. Nobody else was seeing it at all. Having sometime today, I spent more time working on this and found out that if you swap batteries in wattage mode, it screws up the puff counter.

Fine. Now we know. So I go back to TC and that puff counter is now messed up there too. Fine. Do a Hard Reboot and your DNA200 is now toast. You know how many have DNA200s not reading cells correctly since I have been here? Even those with lipo DNA200? Must be a dozen at least in the last few months. And if all of them failed after doing a Hard Reboot, this is a serious problem! It is a failure related to using wattage mode.

Not having neither the source code or the schematics, I could only guess from here. Evolv has to have seen many of these sent back to them by now. And I am sure they know what component is failing. What they may not know is why? Well I believe it is reproducible now. And it will be easy for them to fix. Maybe not existing ones, but at least future ones.

[JaI Haze]

Bill I am sorry if I caused you trouble.  I just wanted people to see it since some people didnt get how it was happening.  I think the easiest way to do it would be do the locking trick but apparently the wound goes deeper then just my superficial problem.  Could also use a flash memory of 2mb to save the data

[BillW50]

JaI Haze, you didn't cause any problems for me. You opened the door for me to see a huge warning about using Hard Reboot. As under certain conditions it can ruin your DNA200.

[VapingBad]

Actually reading your last post Bill maybe having temp limiting active could well causes it to save more often, saving refinement data.  Nobody else seeing it probably means nobody else noticing it, the puff counter gets very little interest from users from what I can see. 

I am concerned about you saying that a dozen of your mods are failing during hard reboot, I almost never do hard reboots as IMO the only thing that help with is clearing temporary memory of refinement and battery data, the same for forcing fw updates as I don't believe it does anything 99.9% of the time despite both getting recommended often.

[JaI Haze]

@vapingbad as far as the lock mode save, this is something your saying for a future firmware correct? I tried locking it and then taking batteries out

[VapingBad]

JaI Haze said:

@vapingbad as far as the lock mode save, this is something your saying for a future firmware correct? I tried locking it and then taking batteries out

It is just something I suggested in the past for the DNA 75, but had not implemented I believe they are working in another way of doing it.

[dwcraig1]

BillW50 said:

Ok, I think we have a bug that is toasting DNA200s. Getting the puff counter to screw up in wattage mode, it also messed up the puff counter in TC too. Not only does it count back for the reset puffs (what the screen displays), but also the total puff counter in the Device Monitor.

Trying to fix the puff counter, I did.

1) Reinstall firmware (no help)

2) Download from device then upload back (no help)

3) Soft Reboot (no help)

4) Hard Reboot - Here caused cell 1 to read zero volts. Error message says check battery when fired (both batteries are 3.65v with multimeter - swapped with two cells which tested as 4.16v each - no help)

5) Restore Defaults (no help)

6) Tried Soft and then Hard Reboot again (no help)

7) Tried reinstall firmware (no help)

8) Fires if power supply selected on 3.65v batteries

Is that Hard Reboot sometimes causing the DNA200 to fail reading the cell voltages correctly?

Are you able to measure the voltage off the pads on the board that the balance connector attaches? Or at the balance connector. I assuming you made sure it's plugged on there good.

[BillW50]

@VapingBad: No, I was talking about all of the people who post here of having the problem of their DNA isn't reading the cell voltages correctly. Sure, I first thought they must have had a bad cell in their lipo. That happens from time to time. But a few of them have digital meters and the lipos are fine, just the DNA isn't reading them correctly.

So far, those of us here don't know why that happens. But this time, it happened to me. And it happened during a Hard Reboot with a messed up puff counter. Now if the rest of the other failures also did a Hard Reboot before everything went to hell... well guess what? Maybe nobody should use Hard Reboot until Evolv figures it out. Otherwise they they be receiving more dead DNAs and having more upset customers. I am sure they don't want that.

Yes so true about the puff counter is often ignored. I too wouldn't have bothered logging the puff count except I was curious about battery life. And the good news is that the DNA200 wins as far as battery capacity vs. per ml of juice used. I didn't know whether I would need the puff count in this research or not, but the DNA had it so I recorded it. And I know the puff counter works perfectly in TC. I had no idea about wattage mode, since I rarely used it.

And as far as blaming the lack of saves... that is minor compared to blown DNA200s. The DNA200 probably uses an A/D converter (ADC) to read the cell voltages and converts it to a digital value. Things were working right (except the puff counter) until a Hard Reboot command was issued. Now it can't even read cell voltages correctly and makes the DNA200 totally useless for most users.

[BillW50]

dwcraig1 said:

Are you able to measure the voltage off the pads on the board that the balance connector attaches? Or at the balance connector. I assuming you made sure it's plugged on there good.

Nope, I haven't cracked it open yet and I probably don't have a lot of time tomorrow to do much either. But I wouldn't be surprised I'll find what others have found. That all the voltages are good going into the ADC. And it would be a good guess that some gate or amp opened or shorted inside of the chip during the Hard Reboot.

[Spector NS5 RD]

BillW50 said:

Nope, I haven't cracked it open yet and I probably don't have a lot of time tomorrow to do much either. But I wouldn't be surprised I'll find what others have found. That all the voltages are good going into the ADC. And it would be a good guess that some gate or amp opened or shorted inside of the chip during the Hard Reboot.

you saying you think you killed your board doing a hard reboot? i dunno, that's strange. it could be you just have a board that as made on a monday or a friday. i wouldn't get hung up on the hard reboot death nail. i use it now and then and haven't had anything die yet. i'd try a few more things with the board before writing it off. but rest assured evolvs rma is top notch. two boards sent on a monday, two boards back on a thursday. but then again i live only an hour away from them.

[VapingBad]

It is well document around this forum that the DNA 200 does not save settings and working data to non-volatile flash memory every time it changes, this is not a case of the board changing the puff counter value just that it hasn't written the latest value to storage before the batteries were disconnected.

I fail to see how the misreading of cell voltages could be connected to the puff counter which is what this thread is about.  As to the hard reboot killing boards IDK it is the first I've heard of it and don't know that it has anything to do with the misreading of cell voltages which I have seen people report.  There is a 12-bit ADC in the main processor, but I think it far more likely the voltage measurement for the cell monitoring is done by the battery management chip not the main processor.  Making the battery management chip and it's associated components a more likely area to look at for misread cell voltages.  The main processor handles the USB so I suppose it could be affected by a power spike, but it looks like all the inputs are protected with discrete components. 

But it is all speculation as to what the fault is you believe is caused by hard reboot Bill and even if it is is a single fault, in the CPU, discrete components or battery management chip, not saying that there isn't a fault but 10 months or 3 months since the last fw is a vary long time for it to have gone unnoticed if it is that cut and dried. 

[retird]

Have been following this discussion and have a question for you guys.

So you read the puff counter and then you download and save the *.ecig file from the device before removing the batteries.  Then remove and replace the batteries, check the puff counter, and then uploading the saved *.ecig file. Check the puff counter again. What are the results?

[BillW50]

No retird, saving a ecig file, disconnecting and unplugging the USB, change batteries, reconnect USB and upload ecig file to device, the puff counter still jumps back.

Although just having USB power and changing batteries, puff counter behaves correctly.

[BillW50]

ChunkyButt200 said:

you saying you think you killed your board doing a hard reboot? i dunno, that's strange. it could be you just have a board that as made on a monday or a friday. i wouldn't get hung up on the hard reboot death nail. i use it now and then and haven't had anything die yet. i'd try a few more things with the board before writing it off. but rest assured evolvs rma is top notch. two boards sent on a monday, two boards back on a thursday. but then again i live only an hour away from them.

That is what it looks like to me. I have five more perfectly working DNA200s to run in wattage mode, change batteries and watch the puff counter screw up. Use a TC coil and watch the puff counter is now screwed up in TC too. Do a hard reboot and now the DNA200 won't fire since it reads the cell voltages incorrectly.

[retird]

Billw50, have you tried "Restore Defaults" to see if that makes any difference?

[BillW50]

VapingBad said:

It is well document around this forum that the DNA 200 does not save settings and working data to non-volatile flash memory every time it changes, this is not a case of the board changing the puff counter value just that it hasn't written the latest value to storage before the batteries were disconnected.

Fine, that is annoying but understandable.

VapingBad said:

I fail to see how the misreading of cell voltages could be connected to the puff counter which is what this thread is about.  As to the hard reboot killing boards IDK it is the first I've heard of it and don't know that it has anything to do with the misreading of cell voltages which I have seen people report.  There is a 12-bit ADC in the main processor, but I think it far more likely the voltage measurement for the cell monitoring is done by the battery management chip not the main processor.  Making the battery management chip and it's associated components a more likely area to look at for misread cell voltages.  The main processor handles the USB so I suppose it could be affected by a power spike, but it looks like all the inputs are protected with discrete components. 

But it is all speculation as to what the fault is you believe is caused by hard reboot Bill and even if it is is a single fault, in the CPU, discrete components or battery management chip, not saying that there isn't a fault but 10 months or 3 months since the last fw is a vary long time for it to have gone unnoticed if it is that cut and dried. 

You failed to see how it can't read cell voltages is related to the puff counter? And you failed to make the connection how performing a hard reboot causes the cell voltages to read incorrectly? Well it is obvious to me. Cause the puff counter to mess up, then do a hard reboot. Poof! Can't read cell voltages correctly anymore. I have 5 working DNA200s right here. Want be to get the puff counter to act up and do a hard reboot on them too?

@retird: Yes I did a Restore Defaults. It does restore defaults (doesn't change the temperature protect show/no show), but doesn't fix anything. Hard Reboot is suppose to revert settings. But all of the old settings are still there.

[VapingBad]

BillW50 said:

Fine, that is annoying but understandable.



You failed to see how it can't read cell voltages is related to the puff counter? And you failed to make the connection how performing a hard reboot causes the cell voltages to read incorrectly? Well it is obvious to me. Cause the puff counter to mess up, then do a hard reboot. Poof! Can't read cell voltages correctly anymore. I have 5 working DNA200s right here. Want be to get the puff counter to act up and do a hard reboot on them too?

@retird: Yes I did a Restore Defaults. It does restore defaults (doesn't change the temperature protect show/no show), but doesn't fix anything. Hard Reboot is suppose to revert settings. But all of the old settings are still there.

You could say user tries hard reboot and a fault reading the cell voltages appears, I don't see that it is connected to the puff counter. We have seen this fault a few times and it is just once (you in this thread) that the puff counter has been mentioned, I'm not sure that hard reboot is a common pre-condition either. 

You keep saying cause the puff counter to mess up like it is overwriting with some random number, it seems to me it just has the last value saved to the flash memory and the value in RAM was not saved, they have worked like this for the past 10 months.  Sure that is not desirable and therefore a bug, but I don't believe it is any kind of software or hardware malfunction.