Dead 26650 cell question

[sofarsogood]

I got a pair of Basen 26650 4500 mah 3.7v cells may be 6 months ago for a Pico Mega. I like the mod but rarely use it because I always prefer to be carrying a standard Pico. The last time I used the mod was a week ago. It was for part of a day. The charge was at least 90% and I may have recharged it before putting it away. There was an atomizer attached. Today it wouldn't fire. I put in the charging plug and AF firmware said 0% charge. I let it recharge at .5 amp in the mod and that took some hours an appeared normal. During the charging the highest temp the mod reported was 105F. Near the end it was down to 100F It was stored with an atomizer attached and the fire button was live. The rda wick still had plenty of liquid so it wasn't accidently fiiring or certainly not enough to exhaust a 4500 mah battery or the wick would have been bone dry. There are no signs of bulging, injury or abuse on the battery. All that energy went somewhere and it wasn't by vaping and it wasn't by venting or meltdown. What possibilities have I not considered?

 

[Rossum]

If the regulator board didn't go to sleep, it could have sucked it down. IIRC, a DNA board pulls about 25 mA while it's awake (with the screen on). I realize a Pico is not a DNA, but let's assume they're comparable in this respect. One week is 168 hours. Times 25 mA, = 4200 mAh.

 

[sofarsogood]

If the regulator board didn't go to sleep, it could have sucked it down. IIRC, a DNA board pulls about 25 mA while it's awake (with the screen on). I realize a Pico is not a DNA, but let's assume they're comparable in this respect. One week is 168 hours. Times 25 mA, = 4200 mAh.

Good one, hadn't considered that. If that happened it would be a first. I'm sure I've left the fire button active in the past for weeks at a time with no noticable battery drain. I don't use the Mega very often. I'm sure this will have me doing five clicks more consistantly.

 

[Rossum]

Good one, hadn't considered that. If that happened it would be a first. I'm sure I've left the fire button active in the past for weeks at a time with no noticable battery drain. I don't use the Mega very often. I'm sure this will have me doing five clicks more consistantly.

I don't know the Pico at all, but I would expect it to go into a low-power sleep mode with the display off where it draws much less than 25 mA automatically if it's left alone and untouched. However, if it failed to do that for some reason, then that would explain your flat battery.

 

[Spey]

You might want to perform a time based test. Start fully charged battery. Let stand in same condition for a day or two and the check battery voltage for comparison to beginning voltage.

On a weird side note ..., I have been at relatives house where leaving a battery powered device on a desk drained a fully charged battery overnight. The person was into healing crystals (they were on same desk). This issue recurred multiple times before I made assumptive association the crystals were leaching from my batteries. No formal testing before I departed, but have talked to others with similar experiences since. Just a thought ... ;-)

 

[Rossum]

I have been at relatives house where leaving a battery powered device on a desk drained a fully charged battery overnight. The person was into healing crystals (they were on same desk). This issue recurred multiple times before I made assumptive association the crystals were leaching from my batteries. No formal testing before I departed, but have talked to others with similar experiences since. Just a thought ... ;-)

Uhm, OK...

 

[SteveS45]

IMO a MOD set to sit unused should be powered off. No reason it needs to be powered on in my opinion to many oopsy's can happen to devices left powered on. Sort of like leaving the car running when you run into a store.

 

[Spey]

Uhm, OK...

Ya, I kinda opened myself up for ridiclue here. Probably should not have made those secondary statements on an open forum :-/ Not gonna go a delete in hindsight though. What I experienced is what it is. Why it happened ...? The person who owns the crystals was not suprised, & is the one who told me of similar experience. This was over 10-years ago, so nothing like a device with a 3000mAh battery. Was a cel-phone with low cap battery of the day.

Why I made comments ..., outside chance possible connection.

I've spoken with watch repair folks who have reported similar from client perspectives. Hematite (crystal) used in jewelry (braclets, etc.) has been rumored to deplete watch batteries over coarse of a few days.

I am not into this stuff (crystal healing, etc.) other than enough to realise crystals do have some very interesting properties, and believe much more application is in our future (radioactive storage, etc.). I built a crystal radio as a child and thought it was pretty interesting.

Popular Mechanics Article man-made crystal batteries from nuclear waste:
Scientists Turn Nuclear Waste Into Long-Lived Diamond Batteries
Living in a state with huge depositories of nuclear waste from the 40's, I really look forward to solutions like these (article link above).

Hope my comments are received as constructive, even though most would believe them to be off topic ;-)

 

[Coastal Cowboy]

I noticed that your Pico screen shows what looks like the 1.00 firmware is still in use. I may be mistaken, but I believe the sleep mode was one of the fixes done between the ver. 1.00 and 1.03 that's out now.

I think you can change that setting in Arctic Fox too, but I never could get that thing to work like reasonable software and the developer is kinda sorta like a rude SOB when it comes to answering questions about his program.

I'd watchfully charge the battery, set it aside for a few days and test the voltage. If it's still holding a charge, it's probably ok.

 

[BackDoc]

Ya, I kinda opened myself up for ridiclue here. Probably should not have made those secondary statements on an open forum :-/ Not gonna go a delete in hindsight though. What I experienced is what it is. Why it happened ...? The person who owns the crystals was not suprised, & is the one who told me of similar experience. This was over 10-years ago, so nothing like a device with a 3000mAh battery. Was a cel-phone with low cap battery of the day.

Why I made comments ..., outside chance possible connection.

I've spoken with watch repair folks who have reported similar from client perspectives. Hematite (crystal) used in jewelry (braclets, etc.) has been rumored to deplete watch batteries over coarse of a few days.

I am not into this stuff (crystal healing, etc.) other than enough to realise crystals do have some very interesting properties, and believe much more application is in our future (radioactive storage, etc.). I built a crystal radio as a child and thought it was pretty interesting.

Popular Mechanics Article man-made crystal batteries from nuclear waste:
Scientists Turn Nuclear Waste Into Long-Lived Diamond Batteries
Living in a state with huge depositories of nuclear waste from the 40's, I really look forward to solutions like these (article link above).

Hope my comments are received as constructive, even though most would believe them to be off topic ;-)

No offense taken Spey , a valid observation on your part and im sure there is a connection between battery chemistry and minerals /crystals etc, I didn't get the impression that you were pushing crystals (and all that surrounds them) , reminds me of a friend of mine that must wear a self winding watch because a quartz/battery powered watch will drain in a day, and he's the polar opposite of a crystal toting dude .

 

[sofarsogood]

I noticed that your Pico screen shows what looks like the 1.00 firmware is still in use. I may be mistaken, but I believe the sleep mode was one of the fixes done between the ver. 1.00 and 1.03 that's out now.

I think you can change that setting in Arctic Fox too, but I never could get that thing to work like reasonable software and the developer is kinda sorta like a rude SOB when it comes to answering questions about his program.

I'd watchfully charge the battery, set it aside for a few days and test the voltage. If it's still holding a charge, it's probably ok.

The arctic fox firmware is up to date but I'll consider that. I have 4 mods using AF with no similar situation. My set up with an well used LG brown will vaporize my daily 7 ml of liquid with power to spare. I want to understand as much as possible about these batteries. (pbusardo on youtube did a battery factory tour video, recommended)