E-Power, reason for blinking switch determined.....now I need to figure out how to fix it.

[Vaptoro]

FWIW

I have a new carto that is acting up on my E-Power. Using this carto, when I pressed the switch it started to immediately blink rapidly and no vapor was produced. I recreated the blinking switch led by shorting out the center pin of the switch to the negative threaded part of the switch on the carto side. So, now I know that when I push the switch for a vape and the switch immediately starts blinking there is a short. i do not have any experience with other e-cigs, but this may happen on models other than the E-Power as well.

I am still trying to determine what is shorting between the switch and the carto. But I suspect that the center pin of the switch has a diameter large enough that if either the switch center pin or the carto center pin is off center, then the center pin of the switch can contact both the center pin and the threaded part (negative side) of the carto causing a short.

I think that if the center pin of the switch was "domed" then it would "seat" to the center pin of the carto and not cause a short. When I get home this weekend I am going to try and place a drop of solder on the center pin of the switch to see if that corrects this problem.

 

[BCman]

Heres my take on it.


3 blinks for connection made(seen when first connecting switch) and 3 blinks for dead short(seen when shorting centre pin to outer thread).
Multiple blinking for dead battery.
Solid light for 5+ seconds equals poor/weak connection


First, use a multimeter to find the resistance(ohms) of the carto, it could be that the carto is defective or too low of resistance(eg. 1.1 or lower).
Second, the switch on your Epower, does it light up white or blue and is it a hard plastic switch, cause theres 4 different versions of the switches.
1st, original soft silicone button blue led(works fine).
2nd, hard plastic button blue led(this version works fine).
3rd, hard plastic button white led(this version wont fire any atty/carto with a resistance below 2 ohms).
4th, hard plastic button blue led, with 5 click on and off feature(latest version and so far no reported issues).

Now if your the lucky owner of the white switch that alone could be the problem if the carto ur trying to use is below 2 ohm then it will blink at ya. There is no fix for this other then using attys/cartos with a resistance of 2 ohm or higher or getting the new switch(4th).

Now if its not the switch, next thing i do is clean the threads of the battery tube and threads of the switch that connect to tube as a buildup can occur on them inhibiting conduction.
Next clean the 510 connecter threads on the switch.
Then make sure the carto ur screwing in, on the end that screws in, the centre piece is actually protruding abit higher then the outer threaded body, sticking a paperclip in and wiggling gently while pulling up a tad can help raise it. It only needs to be up a hair higher.
Now pop in a freshly charged battery and screw in carto and give it a try, if it still fails and blinks try stretching the spring, u could be getting poor connection due to the spring not having enough tension.
Remove battery from tube housing, remove spring with needle nose pliers or forceps from bottom of tube, use a long screwdriver(or whatever) and tap the bottom of the battery housing until the end pops out.
Now take the spring and stretch it, once stretched, attempt to put it back in endcap that popped off, its a pain in the .... and is tricky but it will go back in the little end cap.
Once u get it seated in the recess of the endcap, lightly tap the endcap back into the tube into the end it came out of, if u tap it hard u will pop the spring out of the end cap and will have to start over.
Once i get the end cap started in the tube i insert a battery to keep alittle pressure on the spring so it doesnt pop off. Tap it in until it is tight and flush with battery tube, be careful when tapping it in, u tap it evenly or it will get cockeyed and stuck and u could damage the inner sleeve.

Once youve done this you will now notice when u drop a battery in the tube it sits a fair bit higher and is abit trickier to screw the switch in due to more tension.
Once thats done fire the carto again and see if that solves it for ya.

If still a no go then replace the switch, something has failed in it(such as the rubber insulator is torn or the mofet is blown).

Hopefully this helps.

I would never add solder to the top of the centre pin as the heat could transfer to the bottom of the pin and melt the solder underneath disconnecting the bottom hot wire along with melting the rubber insulator that surrounds the centre pin.

Does it work fine with other cartos and attys?

 

[Vaptoro]

BCman,

Concerning your led failure matrix, which switch does it apply to? I have 2 different switches, one blue, one white, both hard plastic. And, I see different led indications with both. By the way, did you see those failure with the led or read about them? I've been trying to find info on that and couldn't find a thing!

Dead short: White switch, rapid blinking (multiple?)
Blue switch, Solid until battery removed

Connect Battery: White switch, 3 blinks
Blue switch, 2 blinks

Not sure about the dead battery or weak/poor connection led indicator.

So the problem is happening with the white switch. All of my cartos and an atty work on the blue switch I have. I ohm'd out my cartos and they are all over the chart. I have an atty at 1.9, the rest are Mad Vape DCC cartos that read anywhere between 1.5-2.5 ohm, they're all supposed to be 1.6 ohm. They do have juice in them though, so leakage may have affected my readings. But for the record, the white switch has worked flawlessly on the atty @1.9 ohm, a DCC @2.5 and hit or miss on the clear MV DCC @ 2 ohm. I think it's weird that the atty works on this switch at 1.9 ohms.

I don't think it's an issue with the battery, the connection seems tight and I've been experimenting with 2 different batts. To me it seems like a relationship between the cart and the switch. I'd love to cut the switch open and play with it's guts, but I'm too cheap to waste the $10. Do you know what else is in the switch other than the mosfet? I'm sure someone has dissected one of these switches....

btw- Love BC! I worked in Nth Van at the Seymour Capilano water plant. Spent 6 mos. out there......

 

[BCman]

Defiantly sounds like a switch issue.
Sounds like you have the v2 blue and v3 white switch, the v2 blue had little to no reported problems, then smoktech tried to improve it by adding the 5 click on off feature and in doing so messed up the chip/mosfet so it can only run roughly 2.0 ohm or above. Then complaints came in and now they've made a 4th version that has the 5 click on off and can run lower resistance again but now is blue led hard plastic button and so far so good but not alot of them have made it into the publics hands yet....

The 1.9 ohm probably runs due to it being so close to the shutoff, just dont use the white switch for anything under 2 ohm and ur fine, use the blue for the LR cartos and attys and if need be, pick up the new 4th gen switch for future backup.


Have a read:
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...48025-current-e-power-14650-switch-issue.html
and
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...rking-anything-below-2-0ohms.html#post4816435
and someone else with symptoms similar to yours
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...ont-work-w-epower-help-kinda-funny-story.html

 

[Vaptoro]

Interesting reading! Well, it looks like I'm going to have to make another trip out to MV to return the switch I bought as a spare (Wt. LED). I'm not real happy about having to do that as I have had to make several trips for warranty issues. One of the trips was to return a non-functioning battery, another was for a blue switch that quit working. Now I'm wondering if the switch failed and caused the protection circuit in the battery to trip. They should make a sticky with known issues for specific models...

I appreciate the info BCman!