Provari 3 battery life indicator inaccurate???
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[Raising hand] that includes me. I've used Noalox for half a decade, mostly on mech mods like Super T, GG and Paps. It's a slightly thicker, more viscous kinda grease (that's also harder to clean and requires alcohol). With the P3's I just went ahead and used what ProVape recommended, which was No-ox; both work just fine for me.
Sorry to hear that, you may want to get an RMA and sent your unit back to ProVape to have them look at it. All the problems people mention with battery life indicator, I also experienced, and all of them were fixed with the ver 38 firmware updates. I now have 4 P3s, and all of them work Just Fine. Killing your batts isn't a design feature! Send it back and let them look at what's wrong would be my opinion.
p.s., The Return of annoying das blinkenlight = strongly agreed. "Oh hey, your battery is almost dead! Here, lemme annoy you about it and run it down faster!" - I'd love an option in the next firmware revision to Make It Go Away Again and turn it off. Just sayin'
That's what I am waiting for, the annoying battery light to go away.
When it does, then I'll update.
When it does, then I'll update.
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I have been in contact with provape. I have actually sent my unit in twice, for this issue.
The first time they said "there is nothing wrong with your unit, it was just really dirty!". After asking for more information the "really dirty" was regarding noalox on the threads which they apparently now don't recommend anymore? (I still had it laying around from use on my old provaris).
Anyway, they just cleaned the noalox off my threads and sent it back. Obviously, still problematic.
Next action was that all of a sudden they said "ah yes but some isers have reported issues with AW batteries. We're actually recommending a samsung battery now which should never have this problem!". So they sent me one of their new batteries for me to test out, which is a nice gesture. However, I still had the "saying it's empty at 3.7V" problem with that battery. The conversation of the support ticket stopped after that, because I had the feeling that my problem was not going to be resolved.
Then I read about the firmware update. And I saw some hopeful comments from people here on ecf saying that the update solved their problems. So I sent it in for a firmware update. Being so sure that it would fix the problem, I actually ordered a P3 stealth around that time from a local reseller here too.
Unfortunately, after receiving my original P3 with the new firmware on it, my unit is still prematurely cutting off.
And that new P3 stealth? Yeah. Same problem...
In short, my conclusion is this: the chances of me buying 2 faulty p3s are pretty small. So I think this prematurely reporting the battery as empty is just a normal behavior for any P3 (and it shouldnt be), but most people don't notice it because they just throw the batteries on a charger again, without checking the voltage.
Hell, I only noticed because I got a new charger that displayed the voltage of batteries, and saw that the ones that I put in when coming from my old provaris were always at 3.3-3.4V, while the ones coming from the P3 were still reading 3.7-3.8V.
I would like to ask a question to you fellow p3 users: does anyone actually have a P3 that you use with 18650 batteries and only cuts out at the 3.3-3.4V mark, like the classic ones?
That's a great read!
But it's more about what the p3 does when you don't use it than anything else here.
I have tested with multiple batteries and 2 different p3s the following scenario:
- put in a freshly charged 18650 battery (charged to 4.2V)
- vape until p3 says it's empty
- remove and read voltage (for the record for this testing I have used both a Fluke 179 and the voltage indicator of my charger)
--> consistently reads around 3.7V
I want to note that I also can get it down to the 3.5V range, if I unscrew/rescrew the bottom cap and vape some more. This will give me like 15 extra minutes of vape time for each rescrew.
If you can confirm to me that your unit is NOT doing the first cut off at 3.7V and consistently vapes until the ranges the older provaris cut off, then I will open a new ticket with Provape, hope that they acknowledge the issue this time, and just allow me to send them in for completely new units. I love my P3s but I hate that I can get double the mileage out of my old provaris.
Perhaps I missed it...
But, I would like to know the tank and settings.
It may be unimportant, or could make all of the difference in the world.
Operating parameters please.
Thanks, Jim
Please read post 70 of this thread, also read Page 31 of the manual. posted here.
When considering these factors in this unique application, ProVape engineering has designed the energy
gauge display of Available Energy to provide a more TRUE display. Because of this, it will work differently
than what you are used to using. It will work differently in the following ways:
1) When a battery is initially installed, the energy gauge will display ?? instead of a
percentage for about 1-2 button presses. It is arriving at its initial estimate of the
battery’s Available Energy. Remember, the battery you install may not be fully
charged. It has to determine what is the initial state of charge.
2) Each time you press the button to use energy from the battery, it makes a new
estimate using all the factors above.
3) The energy gauge displayed percentage could go up or down. That is TOTALLY
different from other gas gauge displays, but perfectly normal for the P3. It is
important to remember that the P3 gas gauge is NOT displaying the amount of
energy that is in the battery but instead the amount of Energy that is Available to the
atomizer. This can change from button press to button press depending on the
factors described above. An analogy is to compare the miles you can get out of a car
gas tank. You will get more miles if you drive slower because the air friction is less.
But, at the same time, realize that a battery is a completely different kind of chemical
energy supply system compared to the chemical energy in a car fuel tank. You wil
get more uses out of a battery if you let it rest longer between button presses. This is
NOT the case with the fuel in a car’s fuel tank.
My highlight in red to call attention to it.
When considering these factors in this unique application, ProVape engineering has designed the energy
gauge display of Available Energy to provide a more TRUE display. Because of this, it will work differently
than what you are used to using. It will work differently in the following ways:
1) When a battery is initially installed, the energy gauge will display ?? instead of a
percentage for about 1-2 button presses. It is arriving at its initial estimate of the
battery’s Available Energy. Remember, the battery you install may not be fully
charged. It has to determine what is the initial state of charge.
2) Each time you press the button to use energy from the battery, it makes a new
estimate using all the factors above.
3) The energy gauge displayed percentage could go up or down. That is TOTALLY
different from other gas gauge displays, but perfectly normal for the P3. It is
important to remember that the P3 gas gauge is NOT displaying the amount of
energy that is in the battery but instead the amount of Energy that is Available to the
atomizer. This can change from button press to button press depending on the
factors described above. An analogy is to compare the miles you can get out of a car
gas tank. You will get more miles if you drive slower because the air friction is less.
But, at the same time, realize that a battery is a completely different kind of chemical
energy supply system compared to the chemical energy in a car fuel tank. You wil
get more uses out of a battery if you let it rest longer between button presses. This is
NOT the case with the fuel in a car’s fuel tank.
My highlight in red to call attention to it.
I mostly use an Aspire Nautilus with P3 connector, with the 1.8 ohm coil heads.
On occasion I also use carto tanks with 3.0 ohm boge cartos.
Edit: forgot to mention, I always vape in VW mode, at 10 to max 11W
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I understand this (more or less, because I don't really understand WHY they implemented it like this), but I am using (genuine) AW batteries rated at 20A. I'm not sub-ohming at ridiculous wattages so this shouldn't be an issue for me. (As stated above; regular habit is 1.8ohm nautilus atties at around 10-11W, calculates to about 4.5V operating voltage most of the time)
Just for the record, I'm not trying to stir the pot, I'm just looking for answers
What we don't know is the batt voltage under load. If that drops below the set safe limit then the empty batt with rest voltage of 3.5 makes more sense.
Just vaped an old style AW 18350 down to cut off in a P3, still running ver 37, and it read 3.36V as soon as I put it on the charger. Sometimes they will read as high as 3.5V at that point.
I've had batts out of a 2.5 read as low as 3.2 on occasion at cutoff which I am pretty sure means that the battery may have been going below 3.2V under load before cutoff.
That's not someplace the ProVari peeps want their devices going at anytime imo.
That may be why ProVari went with this new way of managing power through the P3.
I think any perceived difference in battery life I've noticed is due to the boost feature.
YMMV
I've had batts out of a 2.5 read as low as 3.2 on occasion at cutoff which I am pretty sure means that the battery may have been going below 3.2V under load before cutoff.
That's not someplace the ProVari peeps want their devices going at anytime imo.
That may be why ProVari went with this new way of managing power through the P3.
I think any perceived difference in battery life I've noticed is due to the boost feature.
YMMV
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Just to mention: currently (haha) running 8W, 1.87ohms.
Those higher cutoff readings seem to happen when running more power than that.
Those higher cutoff readings seem to happen when running more power than that.
You are not alone.. I sent in 2 p3 for this issue and the new update did not fix the battery empty issue.. Used all sorts of batteries to isolate the issues with no luck. I have another p3 that I decided not to send in as it was a waste of postage on my end.
Hmm. I was just vaping at 10W with a 2.0 ohm coil. The light was blinking, warning that my battery is getting low.
I changed it to 8W and the battery percentage jumped up to a little over 40 %. Interesting... Gonna try and finish the remainder of this battery at 8W to see if that makes a difference
I think they are being conservative with battery loading. The more you push it the less you get.
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