Cutting Out

[Wolf308]

I bought my ZMax back in February and besides getting really ugly really fast, there was no issues. Until yesterday. It has started randomly cutting out, like it isn't making full contact. I am constantly turning it around, adjusting how I am holding, and no position works well for long. I have changed batteries, I have changed cartomizers. Now what? Any ideas? I really can't afford to replace this thing. Thanks!

 

[UncleChuck]

I suspect it's the circuit board moving around causing issues with the button.

This happened on my SS Zmax, also purchased quite some time ago (when the SS first came out) the pressure of the battery pushing upward on the circuit board can dislodge it, or just slightly tweak it to the point where the button gets funky. To see if this is the issue, try unscrewing the battery cap until it's just barely applying pressure to the battery, but not tightened down. This should relieve some pressure on the circuit board, and the button should work better.

Mine would be particular about which direction the pressure was placed on the button. It would work much better if I pressed the button in AND downward at the same time. Then if I pushed upward, it would cut out.

Also, try putting your finger over the button, and then push the battery against the positive contact. You should be able to feel the button and the circuit board tweaking and moving around inside the tube.

I just removed the head part, squeezed some hot glue in there, and pushed the top back on. There were a few pieces of hot glue that the factory used to secure the circuit board, and obviously these were no longer adhered and allowed the circuit board to flop around.

 

[Wolf308]

Sounds about right. It seems to work best LED screen up, slightly tilted up at the bottom. And it does feel... weird. What is the "head part?" LOL! Sorry. I have a little crafting hot glue gun, if it'll work, I'll fix it that way. I am a little ticked off, the unit is about 3 months old. Thanks for the help!

 

[UncleChuck]

I think my button issues started earlier than 3 months so consider yourself lucky

The head part is the 510 connection "unit" on the top of the Zmax. There is a seam visible between the main body of the zmax, and the top part. It's either just press fitted in, or glued, either way I just put the head part in a vise and slowly rocked the body off of the head part and it came apart fairly easily.

Be careful if you do this though, as the top cap is hardwired to the device so if you pull the body off too quickly you could pull too far and snap the wire, or damage the circuit board in some way. I'm sure it varied a tiny bit device to device, but on mine the top cap could be moved about 3/4" away from the body with the length of wire they used.

To replace the top cap I just put the whole device into the vise and carefully squeezed it until the top cap was seated back into the body. The hot glue part was the most difficult for me, I have a huge old-school hot glue gun with a very large, blunt nose on it, so it just kind of pours hot glue all over the place, so it was tricky getting just a small amount of glue in the proper places to firm up the circuit board without totally covering the insides with hot glue.

A small craft gun like you have should work much much better. And obviously remove the battery while doing this, not only for safety, but so that the pressure on the board will be relieved so it's not glued back into place in a tweaked position.

 

[fairmana]

I had the same problem with my Segelei Zmax V3 telescope. I bought my Dad one right after I got mine and he developed the same issue. Some have reported that the circuit card will spin inside the tube and the internal button doesn't line up correctly anymore.

The above was not my problem however. Both me and my Dad had issues with the button itself. I've since replaced both buttons in our Segelei Zmax V3 telescopes and they now work flawlessly. I suspect a bad batch of buttons or low quality buttons used in some of these.

Anyway, you can see my write-up on how I fixed mine which includes the part # for the replacement switch ordered from Digikey.