5-pin regulator shuts off

[BadState]

I just finished putting together my first five volt mod, using two 14500 batts in a 2AA switchless box with the 5 pin regulator from MadVapes. Well, it seems to work OK with an old L2 SLB 510 atty I have, but shuts off with a real joye 510 atty. The resistance on the SLB is about 3 Ohms and the Joye is around 2.5 Ohms, I think. Once it shuts down, it won't fire the SLB atty either, until I pull a battery out. I didn't wire in a kill switch. Not enough room.

So, is this the expected behavior for the 5 pin regulator? Is there any way to make it fire the Joye atty without shutting off?

One more question. One of the reasons I chose the 5 pin regulator instead of the 4 pin one is that the description suggests it can be used on a 3.7 volt mod to take advantage of the control pin and safely use a lower rated switch. I tried this mod with a single 14500 (jumpered the other battery contacts) and it fired up, but only at around 3.2 volts at the atty connector. The battery itself read about 4.1 volts. It vaped OK, but I wasn't expecting the voltage drop. So, is this also expected behavior running this regulator on 3.7 volts, or did I do something wrong?

Thanks!

 

[paso]

I made my copper pipe mod with the 5 pin regulator and it reads 4.9 on the 510 conector. I have used my joye510 atty's with no problem and used the new brauway atty with no problems. I am useing 2 18350 1200mah batteries.

 

[hoogie76]

Hi Badstate, there's a thread about this somewhere else on ecf.. I know in the other thread it ended up actually being the batteries that were tripping with lower ohm atty. I found the same thing myself once with low batteries but have never been able to reproduce it since even with a 2.3 ohm atty.. I guess a good test on this might be to check the battery voltage when it's cutting off and see if they are producing or if there's nothing coming out of the reg.. The regulators do have short circuit protection but that didn't come into play inthe other thread..

As far as the other issue with the voltage drop, you're going to see a little bit but it's hard to determine what might be causing it without seeing how you have it wired.. There's also a thread on ecf about how the actual voltage hitting the atty tends be lower once there's a load in the circuit.. Sorry to be vague but there are a lot of variables..

hoog

 

[BadState]

Thanks, paso.

Mine is reading 4.97 at the atty connector right now, and I've been vaping on it for a little while. I just tried the joye atty again, and sure enough it shuts right off. SLB atty back on, reset the batteries and I'm back in business.

Maybe the amount of metal in yours makes a difference? Maybe I used too skinny wire? I'm really an electronics noob here, so I have no idea what may or may not have an impact.

 

[BadState]

Hoog, the batteries are good. They're reading 7.99, and that's after using them for a little while. I'm getting 4.96 right now at the atty connector.

Here are the readings for a pair of regular 1.5 volt duracell AA's:
straight batts - 3.2v
At the atty connector - 2.47v

So I'm getting the voltage drop even at lower voltage. I have no idea how to get readings under a load.

I guess I should be happy it's working at all. It was quite a challenge cramming everything into that tiny space. And everything is pretty much epoxied in place now anyway, so I guess I'll just live with it. Aren't the Bauway attys around 3 ohms? Maybe I'll have to order a couple.

 

[hoogie76]

I guess I should be happy it's working at all. It was quite a challenge cramming everything into that tiny space. And everything is pretty much epoxied in place now anyway, so I guess I'll just live with it. Aren't the Bauway attys around 3 ohms? Maybe I'll have to order a couple.

First, congrats on the accomplishment of getting it working!

So I guess from what I'm reading that when trying to run it at 3 volts you're using 1.5V batteries? If you're getting any vapor at all that's pretty cool..

The whole 3 volt thing was a great find by boondoggle and what it really does is allows you to use the regulator as a mosfet with a single li-ion battery since the cutoff voltage for the enable pin is approximately 2.2 volts.. But with regular AA batteries, they can't supply enough amps to power an atty so you would have pretty big voltage drop.. The regulators do have a amps limit where they are not efficient and that is probably what you are seeing.. It's in the charts in the spec sheet but I don't understand it much either

The real advantage of it being able to run at 3 volts is that you could use it in a box mod that used a single li-ion battery but not have to worry about having a switch that would handle all the current..

Oh and with the battery thing, the built in short circuit protection may be the cuae of the cutoff with a lower voltage atty but the regulator also has short circuit protection built in so again with several variables that could be causing it..

The slb atties are about 3.2 ohms..

hoog

 

[Dudeman]

After reading this I'll have to try a different atty on my 5v mod. It immediately cuts off using two 14500's. If I rig two CR2's in there with penny spacers it worked. Unfortunately, its a cell phone so the battery cover wont fit over the CR2's.
Time to charge up my 14500's and give it a try.

 

[BadState]

First, congrats on the accomplishment of getting it working!

So I guess from what I'm reading that when trying to run it at 3 volts you're using 1.5V batteries? If you're getting any vapor at all that's pretty cool..

The whole 3 volt thing was a great find by boondoggle and what it really does is allows you to use the regulator as a mosfet with a single li-ion battery since the cutoff voltage for the enable pin is approximately 2.2 volts.. But with regular AA batteries, they can't supply enough amps to power an atty so you would have pretty big voltage drop.. The regulators do have a amps limit where they are not efficient and that is probably what you are seeing.. It's in the charts in the spec sheet but I don't understand it much either

The real advantage of it being able to run at 3 volts is that you could use it in a box mod that used a single li-ion battery but not have to worry about having a switch that would handle all the current..

Oh and with the battery thing, the built in short circuit protection may be the cuae of the cutoff with a lower voltage atty but the regulator also has short circuit protection built in so again with several variables that could be causing it..

The slb atties are about 3.2 ohms..

hoog

Thanks hoog. No, I wasn't trying to vape it with regular AA's. That was just an experiment to see if the voltage would drop off at that low a voltage. And they were laying on the table anyway <shrug>.

And the switch thing is one of the reasons I chose the 5 pin regulator. On my first 3.7v box mod, the tact switch gave out after a couple of weeks. I was forced to get this big red button from radio shack, that didn't even fit into the battery box, to replace the tact switch. Looked dopey.

I'm working on a flashlight mod, using a 18650, and I'm planning on using one of these regulators in it, so I'm a little bummed about the voltage drop I'm seeing on this one. And I did try this one with a single 3.7 volt cell. I only saw 3.2v at the atty connector. So, well see.

Also, I also like the idea of being able to run at dual voltage, by either putting in both batteries for 5V, or one battery and a "blank" for 3.7V.

 

[5cardstud]

`Check the voltage in each battery. There was a post earlier about batteries cutting off due to an imbalance in the voltage difference in the two. together they had enough but one was lower than the other causing it to trip the protection circuit.

 

[BadState]

`Check the voltage in each battery. There was a post earlier about batteries cutting off due to an imbalance in the voltage difference in the two. together they had enough but one was lower than the other causing it to trip the protection circuit.

Thanks, I'll check that out. Both were fully charged, but one is a little older than the other. I might need a new "matched" set.

 

[BadState]

Update. I just pulled the batteries off the charger. Both read 4.2 volts. I put them in the box, first with the SLB atty. Worked fine as expected. Then I swapped on a Joye atty and ... it's working fine. Same atty i was trying yesterday.

So, I'm still not clear on why it wasn't working before. Maybe the batteries were too low? Maybe they had different charges? I dunno.

But the joye atty sure seems to hit me a lot harder at 5 volts than the SLB. My head is spinning. yowza! Maybe I'm better off with the SLB one.