5V Box Mod ?'s

[zztommis]

Hi All. It's been a while since I've posted, been happily vaping and reading threads. I've had a few issues with my mods here and there, but nothing too major, until this one.

Here's the scenario: 4 AAA box, 2 10440 600 mah (yeah, right!!) batteries in series, TI voltage regulator (UCC383TD-5), RS 3A switch. It vapes goooood for a while, then all of a sudden, it doesn't. For no rhyme or reason I can come up with, one of the batteries is just done. It reads 0V on my meter, while the other still reads 4.2V. If I put it in the charger for even just a second, it's like it resets it and everything is fine again (4.2V again). Vapes for a while, then repeats. I have 4 batteries, and all 4 have done this in differing combinations with each other. All wires are soldered well and heat shrinked, regulator isolated from other components, switch is fine......I just can't figure this thing out!!

Any suggestions?

TIA

 

[nalo_b]

I may be wrong but seems like your battery is goin into protection mode.Does your batteries get hot?

 

[5cardstud]

For some reason it seems like your pulling all the juice out of one battery and that sets off the protection circuit. There is a thread somewhere in the mod section about the protection going off because of one battery being at a different charge state than the other one. once you put it back in the charger it resets the circuit

 

[zztommis]

@Nalo -- not even warm!!

@5card -- That seems to be exactly what's happening, but the batteries are charged to the same voltage according to the meter (mine only reads to tenths). Plus, they were all purchased at the same time, so age shouldn't be a factor (maybe the seller mixed some old with some new?).

I should add, this mod was built a few months ago, and has never really seen much use, so this could have been a problem from the beginning.

 

[mamu]

Just throwing this out there as a thought. Did you attach a heat sink to the TI regulator? The regulator runs fairly hot and might heat up the first battery in the series causing the protection circuit to kick in and shutting the system down.

 

[zztommis]

I don't have a heatsink, so I'll try to come up with something there. I think I might just tear this thing apart and start over. Maybe I have a bad solder joint that just looks OK. I'll post back if I find anything.

Thanks guys!

 

[zztommis]

Just to update, I tore this apart and started over, and now it runs fine!! I don't really know what the problem was, but it's fixed.