"Dumb" PCC's?

[susan28]

so i just got the long-awaited 410-compatible PCC and am having a bit of a glitch with it: it completely discharges itself if i leave a battery on the charger after it's full. i fell asleep last night while testing it, and after i'd charged 2 batts with it, left the 3rd in til morning to find that batt charged but the box totally dead. not even the red "box dead" light, hehe - we're talking doornail here.

i'd think that after the batt was charged it would cease to be able to draw anymore from the box, but it seems to have. i also don't think the 3rd batt drained it just from charging. the "output" of the PCC says 150mA (not mAH), so that couldn't be the total it holds (not sure what it means, maybe total charge per batt). it's supposed to charge 5 batts.

so i think it has something to do with maybe needing to unscrew the charged batt a bit to deactivate the charger once a batt is charged or it will drain the box?

is this why the new m702 ones are called "smart" PCC's? because they don't do this maybe? are the old ones (without the meter on front) "Dumb" PCC's? if so, that's not too convenient since you'd have to constantly check on charging batts to make sure they're not charged and draining the box.

any insights from the techies here?

[Can_supplier]

First the PCC shouldn't be completely dead. It should be "protected" so when it reaches under 2.2ish Volts, the protection circut shuts it down.

What you did was use up all the juice in the PCC so it shut down.

The PV batty didn't cause this to happen after it was charged, as it would not acept any more power at that point. For power to be wasted, it would have to produce heat, and melt the thing down. Power just doesn't disappear to a charged batt (remeber newtons law that energy cannot be created or distroyed)

[Wench]

I know I had a 510 pcc that would drain it's charge if I left a batt in it. It's actually a common problem with those. The "smart" m702 hasn't done that to me yet.
The new 401 I'm not sure about as I don't have one yet but sounds like it may have the same issue. You just have to make sure to pop the batt out when done.

[susan28]

First the PCC shouldn't be completely dead. It should be "protected" so when it reaches under 2.2ish Volts, the protection circut shuts it down.

What you did was use up all the juice in the PCC so it shut down.

The PV batty didn't cause this to happen after it was charged, as it would not acept any more power at that point. For power to be wasted, it would have to produce heat, and melt the thing down. Power just doesn't disappear to a charged batt (remeber newtons law that energy cannot be created or distroyed)

right that's what i figured, and wondered where it went. thought maybe a short somewhere or something. i guess it's only good for a few charges of the full-size 401 batt, maybe it gets the claimed 5 with 402 batts.

what threw me is i expected to see the red light come on when it got down to bare-minimum, but there was no light at all, just dead. i guess the red/green box-charge indicators only function when it's on the charger so you know when it's done. which saves some juice, so i guess that's a goodness.

i charged the box this morning and just for certainty i'm gonna leave the batt that's now charging in for 8 hrs or so to see what happens. then i'll try charging one after another and see what this baby can do.

[susan28]

I know I had a 510 pcc that would drain it's charge if I left a batt in it. It's actually a common problem with those. The "smart" m702 hasn't done that to me yet.
The new 401 I'm not sure about as I don't have one yet but sounds like it may have the same issue. You just have to make sure to pop the batt out when done.

i wonder how the one that comes with Modern Vapor's Sidesho does. that's an improved 401, so maybe the pcc's improved too. but it's not advertised as "smart" and doesn't have the meter or charge button on it, so it's probably the old design (the 401 pcc is actually "new", but seems to be an adapted version of the ones that come w/other models.

how's that 702 working out for ya? it's a cartomiser right? any problems refilling? do the attys last as long as "non disposable" ones?

[ryanSTi]

Are you talking about the one marked 808E-PACK? I have this one also and normally leave the battery screwed in also. I noticed that I was able to charge 3 batteries with it, the short ones mind you, before it wouldn't charge the PV battery. After the PCC is done charging the PV battery the lower light for the PV battery goes on and off, sometimes for a half of a second, sometimes a couple seconds. Any idea why or if I should take the battery out? It's really annoying when it's loose and rattles...

[Wench]

i wonder how the one that comes with Modern Vapor's Sidesho does. that's an improved 401, so maybe the pcc's improved too. but it's not advertised as "smart" and doesn't have the meter or charge button on it, so it's probably the old design (the 401 pcc is actually "new", but seems to be an adapted version of the ones that come w/other models.

how's that 702 working out for ya? it's a cartomiser right? any problems refilling? do the attys last as long as "non disposable" ones?

The 702 isn't a cartomizer. It's just like the M403's except the threads are reversed (m401 female atty where as the m702's are male)
They're pretty decent, very similar to the m4XX model. Takes the same cart's as well so I can interchange them.

[Charlie58]

I have one of what I believe is one of the first J118 PCs and it has the same problem.
If I leave the PCC plugged in all night with a battery in it it is ok.
But if I forget and leave a battery screwed in while it is off of wall power it drains the battery unless I unscrew it untill it doesn't make contact.
I believe it occasionaly runs a charge cycle for a few seconds every minute to test the charge on the battery. this cuts down on the charge time left for the discharged battery when I swap them out. Ie 2-3 recharges as opposed to 4. Also i dont believe they engineered the charging circuit for the ecig batery to be only one way as I have read of them draining the charger and then draining the ecig batery until neither had a usable charge left.

[susan28]

ryan: no, mine's marked model# VOGUE-pcc401.

Charlie: yea, Modern Vapor's "902" is a J118, and i believe their "Sidesho" is a J108. same generation, probably same pcc except for the plumbing.

how do you like the J118 as a PV, pcc notwithstanding? any noticeble diff from a 901?

[Can_supplier]

What might be interesting to try is, take a fully charged PCC, and a fully charged (both on different sources), and leave the batt in the PCC over night and see what happens. That will solve the question.

I think what is happening is a batty goes in the PCC and charges, once it charges the PCC is left with say 5% power left. When the batts are on a charger they do seem to cycle on and off even after betting fully charged. That 5% left in the PCC might very well get used up over night by the cycling, but I can't see a full PCC charge worth, without it melting down from emiting the energy.