Chrome end caps

[Ruppy]

Did they all get these batts from you , and from the same batch? Sounds to me like it might be batteries. I cant wrap my head around how that controller (even if messed up) could dicharge batteries out of balance.

Even a poor ground wouldnt effect discharge rates of batteries in series that I know of.

 

[markfm]

Good question. The two nominal "bad" batts were on charger all night, measured IIRC 4.09 when I pulled them off this morning (number is in my log at home). This is lower than either of them were at on the first top-off.
I'm not set to measure voltage under load, but I have the bp set to the same power (based on perceived warmth, vapor production) as I normally run the infinity at.
BP finish feels grippier than original infinity, a bit more satin, a plus. The knurling on the bottom cap is also definitely nicer for battery changes.

 

[sashwa]

I received both sets of batteries and the charger from NotCig with my BP. I just took off a set of batteries that had been charging 9pm last night. They only charged to 4.09 for both batteries in the set. The set I'm using now came off the charger at 4.09 and 4.15. I've been using them since 9pm last night except while I slept.

Other than the battery problem and my button problem, I'm enjoying the vape on the BP.

Edit: After about 6 hours with this set of batteries came out of the BP at 0 and 3.74. They went into the BP at 4.09 and 4.15. Still having trouble with the button firing when I press it - sometimes fires and other times nothing.

 

[Icoth]

I just had a set come out of the unit and one battery was at 0 volts. I've used 3 sets so far. Went back and checked the charged voltage of the other two sets that have already been recharged. I didn't check the voltage after using them. One of the batteries was reading at under 2 volts. Not sure what happened there. I checked two sets that have not been used and are identical to the 2 sets that had the problems. They have a normal charged voltage of 4.1x.

Of the 3 sets I've used, two I ran until the unit stopped operating, red light went out. One I took out before that happened. Not sure which ones. Batteries that have the problems are trustfires, about 7 months old. The one that is Ok is a brand new AW protected. Vape time on all sets has been about 2 to 2 1/2 times what I'd expect from my old buzz. They're basicly lasting me a little more than an entire day (24 hour period).

 

[Icoth]

Well this keeps getting stranger. I put the battery that read less than 2 volts on the charger. In a little more than 5 min the light turned green. Voltage is now normal for just recharging. To get the voltage reading I almost had to scrape the probes against the battery. Off the top of my head I've come up with 3 possible explainations:

1. I'm an idiot and just messed up checking the voltage when I got the low reading. Normally I'd go for this as most likely, but I did try to get a higher reading several times and the charger would not have given a red light for a battery fully charged at most 2 days ago.
2. The protection circuit was being difficult.
3. This seems a long shot but could something nonconductive be getting on the battery terminals? I was having a hard time getting a normal reading until I got aggressive with the probes.

Think I'll clean all my bats and the contact points in the BP.

 

[markfm]

Only vaped a bit under 3 ml so far today, BP vaping "cool" (lower voltage than the Infinity, for a given point on the thumbwheel). Battery contacts are clean, nothing obvious on the contact in the tube.

 

[Rosco]

Maybe it's just "Ruppy's Law"...

 

[GMoney]

Well this keeps getting stranger. I put the battery that read less than 2 volts on the charger. In a little more than 5 min the light turned green. Voltage is now normal for just recharging. To get the voltage reading I almost had to scrape the probes against the battery. Off the top of my head I've come up with 3 possible explainations:

1. I'm an idiot and just messed up checking the voltage when I got the low reading. Normally I'd go for this as most likely, but I did try to get a higher reading several times and the charger would not have given a red light for a battery fully charged at most 2 days ago.
2. The protection circuit was being difficult.
3. This seems a long shot but could something nonconductive be getting on the battery terminals? I was having a hard time getting a normal reading until I got aggressive with the probes.

Think I'll clean all my bats and the contact points in the BP.

You're on the right track.

The only ways to get a <2V reading on these batteries is:
1. Faulty protection circuit;
2. Incorrect reading on Voltmeter - this may be due to Voltmeter settings or problems, contamination on terminals or user error.

As you stated, best to clean the terminals and try to get better readings.

..........................................

It is not abnormal to have 2 batteries in series at 2 slightly different voltages, we know that happens.It seems to me that for the protection circuit on one of the batteries to kick in maybe the low voltage shutoff of the IC controller is set a bit high.

I am not sure exactly where the cutoffs are but - For instance if the IC Controller low voltage cutoff is below 7V and the battery protection circuit kicks in at 3.4V; and Battery 1 is at 3.6V and Battery 2 is at 3.5V, and Battery 2 drops to 3.4V, Batery 2's protection circuit will kick in, the PV will shut off and you will get readings of Battery 1 = 3.6V and Battery 2 = 0V.

Just a thought.

 

[BuzzKill]

It appears that some of the protection circuits are acting up ? not 100% sure but , I have a set that one batt goes to 0 volts but charges back up fine !.

I have been in contact with the MFG about this , I got the specs on them again

Protection circuit voltage = 2.75v low - 4.25 v high protection , current = 3C or 2 amps

It appears that ALL 16340 type batts are around 650 Mah in real life , see this chart http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?195712-Some-R123-li-ion-comparison-tests

 

[markfm]

So the BP batteries' output is about the same as the Infinity 650 mAh 14430's? That would mean I should still expect > 6 ml use, even before the new circuit is accounted for.

 

[BuzzKill]

So the BP batteries' output is about the same as the Infinity 650 mAh 14430's? That would mean I should still expect > 6 ml use, even before the new circuit is accounted for.

It is almost impossible to say Markfm , vapers habits are SO different that we really need to come up with a STANDARD for testing battery life at this point. One that all MFG;s could use to set a base line .

 

[markfm]

Understandable. That's why I'm personally using ml, since I know how I set my own gear, what I use. Fortunately I have my original Infinity as a baseline, enough months' use to know my expectations, using the three pairs of batteries with it.

 

[BuzzKill]

Understandable. That's why I'm personally using ml, since I know how I set my own gear, what I use. Fortunately I have my original Infinity as a baseline, enough months' use to know my expectations, using the three pairs of batteries with it.

let us know what you get as a baseline please .

 

[markfm]

T1/T2 battery pair dead (these were the original top batteries from each pair, the ones with the lower voltages after first use). Able to get an occasional vape, but at least 50% of the time when I push the button red goes out, no blue, no firing. Just over 3 ml consumed, under half what the Infinity would do, I'll meter them when I get home. Basically 50% of Infinity. I'll switch to B1/B2 when I get home, meter them fresh. (That's what the no fire is, batts getting ready to die. I'm certain I'm pushing the power button now. I'm also not chain vaping by any means, about a 5 second draw, maybe two, every so many minutes.)

Science, I say, science!

(I'm an early adopter, and an engineer by trade, so kicking the tires tests is normal for me. My Infinity, after one round of TLC, has been a stunning device, and I'm certain the Buzz Pro will be a notch up )

As a comparison, all 3 pairs of Infinity batteries run full day; each pair has had about 50 days' use/recharge cycles. I'm a 5.5 - 6 ml/day vaper, very consistent in my use patterns, stick to a single liquid the vast majority of the time, and 3 - 3.4 ohm cartos; I adjust the voltage down slightly when it's a 3 ohm -- I seek consistent power/warmth/vapor automatically. On several long days I've run through 7 ml on the Infinity, still without them quitting. I believe I've had 3 days in 5 months where I managed to need to switch to a second pair of batteries, they were all in the > 7 ml category IIRC (couple days when I switched to lower mg and did a lot of vaping).

I'll probably be a good candidate for VVPV, given my tendency to stay on one liquid all day, consumption level -- oh, no, being pulled into the Buzz zone...

 

[Bovinia]

Mark, thank you for your testing! This is going to provide some valuable info I'm sure.

I can honestly say I had no problems when I was beta testing the Pro, but it seems to me that this flat battery issue is on random brands of batts. It's quite possible that you are flushing out a vague problem with something in your Pro.

 

[markfm]

No biggie, easy to measure the voltages, and I use a standard 6 ml bottle to carry my liquid. I just carry the infinity, switch to it and another liquid when the BP quits, so I'll restart the other BP batteries with a fresh 6 ml. I predict the top battery will be low again, but we shall see

 

[BuzzKill]

T1/T2 battery pair dead (these were the original top batteries from each pair, the ones with the lower voltages after first use). Able to get an occasional vape, but at least 50% of the time when I push the button red goes out, no blue, no firing. Just over 3 ml consumed, under half what the Infinity would do, I'll meter them when I get home. Basically 50% of Infinity. I'll switch to B1/B2 when I get home, meter them fresh. (That's what the no fire is, batts getting ready to die. I'm certain I'm pushing the power button now. I'm also not chain vaping by any means, about a 5 second draw, maybe two, every so many minutes.)

Science, I say, science!

(I'm an early adopter, and an engineer by trade, so kicking the tires tests is normal for me. My Infinity, after one round of TLC, has been a stunning device, and I'm certain the Buzz Pro will be a notch up )

As a comparison, all 3 pairs of Infinity batteries run full day; each pair has had about 50 days' use/recharge cycles. I'm a 5.5 - 6 ml/day vaper, very consistent in my use patterns, stick to a single liquid the vast majority of the time, and 3 - 3.4 ohm cartos; I adjust the voltage down slightly when it's a 3 ohm -- I seek consistent power/warmth/vapor automatically. On several long days I've run through 7 ml on the Infinity, still without them quitting. I believe I've had 3 days in 5 months where I managed to need to switch to a second pair of batteries, they were all in the > 7 ml category IIRC (couple days when I switched to lower mg and did a lot of vaping).

I'll probably be a good candidate for VVPV, given my tendency to stay on one liquid all day, consumption level -- oh, no, being pulled into the Buzz zone...

Good stuff ! it really appears that you have a couple of bad batts ! , I just bought a cycle timer to run a bunch of tests on battery life that can be scientifically calculated to create a SPEC. that is cheap and easy to implement for any MFG including US !

Keep up some tests and we will get you out some replacements and see if that fixes the issue. we need to consider the charger also , have you used the Tr-001 charger yet ??? the Infinity battery charger .

 

[markfm]

No, I've stayed with the 138, to be consistent. I do ensure that the LEDs go clean red when I put them in, and am metering them when I remove them. They're in the charger a decent length of time, LED is solid green before they come out (they're actually in the charger for a minimum of 5 hours, I don't bother checking before then). The T1/T2 pair I used today, that came off the charger at under 4.1V, were in the charger overnight.

 

[grandmato5]

Havent ordered my Buzz Pro Yet (will be soon ) but I've been watching the thread and decided to add my . On my Infinity its not unusal for the top battery to come out at 0 VTs while the bottom one comes out around 3.2-3.6 VT IF I'm chain vaping. I didn't realize it until I was having problems with another mod and its different batts and decided to do some metering of the Infinity batts when the Infinity shut off just to see what they metered at. Don't get me wrong, doesn't happen every time, but in the time frame that I was checking them often, I'd say it was happening about every 4th time I switched batts and with different sets of 14430 batts. I noticed it happened most often when I had been chain vaping and rarely when I was vaping less frequently while using the set of batts. Run time with chain vaping even if the top batt comes out at 0 VT is still in the 4 hour range so its not happening within an unreasonable timeframe for those 14430 batts.

Just for your information

 

[Ruppy]

I finally got mine and will monitor voltages and batt times as well. Started off with a fresh set of batts at 4.21 and 4.2 Ive had them since I got the wifes buzz in like February.