DotBox 75w says full batteries are half empty

[Daaaaavid]

Hello there! There's a rather strange problem with my DotBox75 (bought late last year).

Just a few days ago it started to constantly show fully charged batteries as half empty, as soon as I put them in. Half charged ones show up as empty. I've tried different batteries, and tested the batteries with three other mods. All of my other mods show their respective charging state correctly. Only the DotBox doesn't – well, not anymore that is.. Makes me think there might be a problem with the board and/or the connections. Opened it up, cleaned it inside (yeah, seems like some juice has made its way through the 510), still the same problem. Couldn't find tools to take out and clean up the 510 completely, though.

Did anyone around here ever experience the same thing, maybe on another mod?

I have a hard time understanding what exactly might make a mod measure the remaining battery capacity incorrectly in the first place.

Any hint would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Baditude]

Since you found evidence that some juice got inside the mod, try cleaning the 510 connector with rubbing alcohol and a Q-tip applicator. Do the same with the battery contacts inside the mod; also use the eraser part of a pencil on the battery contacts. You can get voltage drop from dried juice on electrical contact points.

Not much you can do if juice got inside the mod and on the circuit board. I'd be hesitant to continue using it.

 

[sonicbomb]

Sounds like a broken board

 

[Daaaaavid]

I'd be hesitant to continue using it.

Yes, I'm sure hesitant about that too and will stay away from using it for now, indeed. Contacted dotmod about it and sent a video of the behavior along with it. Curious to see what they say. Doesn't seem to be a know bug or common behavior judging from their initial response. Depending on the final answer (sending it back overseas for repair would be out of the questions, anyway) I'll give your proposed clean job a more thorough try. Thanks for sharing! Gonna post an update later next week.

 

[Hawise]

Yes, I'm sure hesitant about that too and will stay away from using it for now, indeed. Contacted dotmod about it and sent a video of the behavior along with it. Curious to see what they say. Doesn't seem to be a know bug or common behavior judging from their initial response. Depending on the final answer (sending it back overseas for repair would be out of the questions, anyway) I'll give your proposed clean job a more thorough try. Thanks for sharing! Gonna post an update later next week.

Please do update. I'd be interested to know what they say and whether you're able to sort things out. One of my mods (a Wismec Sinuous P80, so it wouldn't be in the same class for quality) recently developed the same problem. A thorough cleaning and a firmware update failed to help, so I've given it up for dead.

 

[Daaaaavid]

Update: dotmod got back to me suggesting and offering a repair (most probably via board replacement). however, judging from my pictures they expressed concern that the fault might have been caused by dropping the devices which might have caused parts on the board to become loose. Weren't definitive about that, though. They just wanted to give me a heads up that if that's what they find out to be the cause then the $50 for a board replacement would be on me – fair enough, I'd say. But since sending it back and forth overseas is sort of cost-prohibitive either way I'll try and go the thoroughly-disassemble+clean-the-510 route for now.

Sidenote: I had the device sit for a couple days without using it and it's working just fine now. Makes me think the problem is in some way related to some juice inside that has dried up in the meantime. Thus, a thorough disassembly + cleanup might do the trick, after all.

Gonna update later next week

 

[stols001]

It would be fine to disassemble and clean, once the juice is dried up, perhaps it can be removed with a thorough cleaning. Some mods just hold up better to leaks than others. I've leaked copiously at times through a mod, but it's usually my steampunk nano, that thing is not advertised as water proof but it sure should be advertised as "eliquid resistant." I use it to test all my new builds for leaking etc.

Just be judicious as far as cleaning and reassembly in case the board starts working intermittently and etc. As (as long is it includes shipping) it sounds like your vendor/manufacturer is being pretty reasonable about it.

Have you dropped it, meaning they may be correct in their assessment? IDK, sometimes it's more than one thing that stops a mod from working, although I'd guess that the fact that it is running again is encouraging and it would be great if you didn't have to send it in for repair.

Good luck,

Anna

 

[Daaaaavid]

Update: unfortunately, a thorough clean job didn't do the trick after all. Meanwhile, my dotbox went back to it's former faulty state, showing the wrong remaining battery capacity, constantly.

Dotmod's customer service now offered two alternative options to the cost-prohibitive send-in-to-repair option.

One of those options was 20% off of a new one. But the option I requested and ran with is them sending me a new board (they even threw in a discount for that, too, in order to ease the international shipping cost pains for me – kudos for that!). I'll connect/solder that new board myself - clearly voiding my warranty in the process, of course. Yet, this makes for the best solution for me. And I'm really glad and thankful to see dm grant me that option!

In conclusion, as of now, my best guess as to what caused this is this: Over time, some juice must've made its way into the mod and onto the board. The resulting corrosion (or a short in one of the board components) might have caused this failure. We'll never know for sure, but upon closer inspection of the old board, juice-on-the-board is likely to be the culprit here.

Last but not least, I wanna give a shout out to Dotmod's customer service! They've been really helpful and awesome whenever I contacted them in the past, and this time was no different. Really appreciate that.

 

[sonicbomb]

Eliquid is not electrically conductive so cannot cause a short. As far as I know It cannot cause corrosion either unless it has been mixed with water.

 

[Daaaaavid]

Eliquid is not electrically conductive so cannot cause a short. As far as I know It cannot cause corrosion either unless it has been mixed with water.

Hmm.. Sure about that? While cleaning the board I found some turned-green/turquoise liquid residue in between the board and the heatsink. And quite a bit of it. I figured that would be a sign of corrosion of some sort. Isn't it?

 

[Daaaaavid]

- accidental double post -

 

[sonicbomb]

Think about it logically - in an atomizer the eliquid would short the positive and negative posts no?
As for the verdigris on the board, there is water is the air we breath.

 

[DaveP]

Since the BoxMod 75 is a single battery mod, the problem has to be in connections or the board. Pulse width modulation is usually used to provide variable voltage/wattage, so the board is a prime suspect. You can't get voltage higher than 4.2v without a working voltage doubler circuit on the board. The fact that it's reading half voltage on a good battery is a clear sign of board failure if the battery connections are good. You should be able to trace the voltage input from the battery connector to the board and explore the possibilities.

I'd ask for an across the counter replacement from the vendor. They can get credit from their supplier.

 

[DaveP]

Hmm.. Sure about that? While cleaning the board I found some turned-green/turquoise liquid residue in between the board and the heatsink. And quite a bit of it. I figured that would be a sign of corrosion of some sort. Isn't it?

If the green residue on the heat sink isn't dielectric grease (and it probably isn't), it's corrosion. If you are tech savvy get the board and replace it. That shouldn't require more than a few solder connections. It could be a plug/jack replacement.

Get some 91% alcohol and some makeup removal pads at the drugstore and clean off the crud from the inside before you replace the board.