Disappointment with the EverCool!

[j21blackjack]

Well, it was bound to happen eventually. I was working hard all night last night on making another evercool variable. Finally got the last solder done at 10 PM. I pop in two batteries, flip the switch to on, get one LED, but when I hit the button, I get nothing, no LED, no vapor, just nothing. I re-checked all of my wiring and solder connections. I checked for short circuits, open circuits, etc. I can't find anything wrong with it at all. I get full battery voltage to ground on pin 2, but nothing out of pin 4 at all. I'm thinking the chip is the fault since I haven't found anything else. I built two more earlier today that work just fine, so I'm not quite sure what happened last night. Maybe bigblue30 could chime in with a troubleshooting guide or something.

Oh, and I almost forgot.... TI is back-ordered on both chips (the 6A and 10A) until October now. I guess quite a few people have been stocking up on these.

[Madshock]

Awwww, maybe u just got a faulty one? revived my broken pin one and got it working on my box. Love the handiness with it to find my sweet spot~ found it at 4.5V on my wierdly high resistance atty at 2.5ohm.

look on the bright side, you have 3 working units now . 1 faulty one shouldnt blow your day~ =)

You are also one which is stocking them up no? haha..

PS: i got a spare but im not sharing! =)

[roadrash]

Well, it was bound to happen eventually. I was working hard all night last night on making another evercool variable. Finally got the last solder done at 10 PM. I pop in two batteries, flip the switch to on, get one LED, but when I hit the button, I get nothing, no LED, no vapor, just nothing. I re-checked all of my wiring and solder connections. I checked for short circuits, open circuits, etc. I can't find anything wrong with it at all. I get full battery voltage to ground on pin 2, but nothing out of pin 4 at all. I'm thinking the chip is the fault since I haven't found anything else. I built two more earlier today that work just fine, so I'm not quite sure what happened last night. Maybe bigblue30 could chime in with a troubleshooting guide or something.

Oh, and I almost forgot.... TI is back-ordered on both chips (the 6A and 10A) until October now. I guess quite a few people have been stocking up on these.

You Might want to reword this thread to. Disappointment with TI regulator and not with Big Blues Mod the EverCool. Might give peeps the wrong impression.

[j21blackjack]

That's a good point, but how the heck do I edit a thread title? I tried using the edit function, but it didn't change the the actual thread title.

[bigblue30]

Well, it was bound to happen eventually. I was working hard all night last night on making another evercool variable. Finally got the last solder done at 10 PM. I pop in two batteries, flip the switch to on, get one LED, but when I hit the button, I get nothing, no LED, no vapor, just nothing. I re-checked all of my wiring and solder connections. I checked for short circuits, open circuits, etc. I can't find anything wrong with it at all. I get full battery voltage to ground on pin 2, but nothing out of pin 4 at all. I'm thinking the chip is the fault since I haven't found anything else. I built two more earlier today that work just fine, so I'm not quite sure what happened last night. Maybe bigblue30 could chime in with a troubleshooting guide or something.

Oh, and I almost forgot.... TI is back-ordered on both chips (the 6A and 10A) until October now. I guess quite a few people have been stocking up on these.

blackjack,

It sounds like you just have a bad one. If it was your first build...I would say:

Any time you put battery +voltage on pin 2 and ground on pin 3 you should have an output, as long as pin 1 inhibit is not low. Check pin 1,2,and 3 at the chip not just on the board.

As far as pin 5 .. If it was not connected to the adjust resister the output would be 0.5 volts. If it was shorted to ground then the chip would go into "protect" and you would not have any output.

I think you just have a bad one.

[j21blackjack]

blackjack,

I sounds like you just have a bad one. If it was your first build...I would say:

Any time you put battery +voltage on pin 2 and ground on pin 3 you should have an output, as long as pin 1 inhibit is not low. Check pin 1,2,and 3 at the chip not just on the board.

As far as pin 5 .. If it was not connected to the adjust resister the output would be 0.5 volts. If it was shorted to ground then the chip would go into "protect" and you would not have any output.

I think you just have a bad one.

That's interesting, I get 0.59v output, not 0.0v. Right now, I have removed the POT and have an extra 220 ohm resistor in its place for a total of 440 ohms on pin 5. I know I have good contacts between pin 5 and 3, but maybe whatever inside the chip that controls pin 5 is broken.

[bigblue30]

I just looked at the spec again.....0.6 is the default voltage. Looks like you might have a pin 5 problem or like you said...bad chip.

With 440 you should have around 3.4 volts out. does the 440 have a good ground (pin3).