HELP! SX350 Why does it flash and change wattage during firing?

[Nuclear Cowboy]

OK, I just got my box built but I don't think it's right. It has the 60W program in it. When I hit the fire button the wattage display flashes back and forth from the set wattage to 10W's. Is this correct or is something wrong? It starts doing this at anything above 39W's. It fires strong at 39W's not so much at 60W.

What's going on here? I'm guessing it's user error (as usual ) but I don't know what I'm doing wrong. The build is a .4 ohms.

Here is a video showing the change.


Any help would be appreciated.

 

[R Coy]

Battery fully charged? Can it support the amp draw?

 

[Nuclear Cowboy]

Battery fully charged? Can it support the amp draw?

After reading your post I changed the battery to a MNKE 26650 charged to 4.02V and it still does the same thing. So, I'm guessing it's not a battery problem.

 

[Jazzman]

Look at the battery meter while firing, it can't handle the load for the wattage you're trying to fire at. When the wattage display switches between the set wattage and 10Watts that is the chips response to not being able to fire at the given load. The battery meter also goes down to empty and shows a slash. That for sure means the battery is sagging to the point it can't maintain set wattage. The first guess is that the batteries you tried can't maintain the amps required to fire the requested load, and the chip is telling you that. batteries might be to old or not at a high enough charge level. Check by reducing to 35 or 40 watts and if that fires OK then your batteries might not be able to handle a 60 watt load at .4ohm. You could also check to see if there is any shorting of wires or solder bridging across board pads. Also, if you flashed to the 60watt firmware and did not do the required wire change from 20ga to 16ga it might show this issue since 20ga might not be able to handle the load. A small possibility is that the flash to 60watt firmware didn't go right, so you could try re-flashing (be sure to use the latest 60watt firmware dated 8/13/14, and not the older 60watt firmware), but I doubt that is the case since the board is doing exactly what it is supposed to do when unable to maintain power for the set wattage during firing.

Let us know what you find.

 

[Jazzman]

Just watched the video again, you're doing this test at 3.6v battery charge. It's only at 50% charge. Please charge the battery to full and try the test again.

 

[Nuclear Cowboy]

The original battery in the video was a KeepPower 26650, now I have a fully charged MNKE 26650 on it now charged to 4.2V and nothing has changed. It will fire at 39W but flashes at anything more. I just re-flashed the software back to the 50W flash to see if that helped but it didn't.

I'm about to go to work and don't have anymore time to play with it. When I get home I'll wire a fresh Sony 18650 VTC5 in and see if there is any difference.

Thanks to all for the suggestions!

 

[DrBeaker]

This sounds to me like it could be a poor ground from the 510 connector to the negative of the battery. Check your wiring for cold solder joints. And maybe down grate to the 50w with the flip screen see if it still happens.

 

[Jazzman]

Earlier today I read on another site that this behavior will happen if using the newest 60watt firmware , but not changing the input and output wires from 20ga to 16ga. It seems that smaller wire ga can't handle the power draw. Make sure your wires are the correct ga Cowboy.

 

[duroSIG556R]

The 60 watt upgrade is plagued with software issues. It's probably that.

 

[somun]

It might also be due to the battery holders.

 

[Nuclear Cowboy]

Earlier today I read on another site that this behavior will happen if using the newest 60watt firmware , but not changing the input and output wires from 20ga to 16ga. It seems that smaller wire ga can't handle the power draw. Make sure your wires are the correct ga Cowboy.

Well, here is were I'm at with this now:
I have resoldered all wires. No change
I have changed the the ground wire from 20ga to 16ga from the battery carrier to the 510. No change.
I have reflashed back to the 50W program. No change. Goes to 39W and starts blinking.
I have bypassed the battery carrier and soldered the battery directly to the wires. No change.

My last option (that I know of at this point) is to change all the wires on the board to 16ga but the board is covered in black epoxy or something like it.
How do you get that stuff off to get to the wires?


Thanks for all the help and suggestions I've gotten so far.

 

[TruckerMSA]

Well, here is were I'm at with this now:
I have resoldered all wires. No change
I have changed the the ground wire from 20ga to 16ga from the battery carrier to the 510. No change.
I have reflashed back to the 50W program. No change. Goes to 39W and starts blinking.
I have bypassed the battery carrier and soldered the battery directly to the wires. No change.

My last option (that I know of at this point) is to change all the wires on the board to 16ga but the board is covered in black epoxy or something like it.
How do you get that stuff off to get to the wires?


Thanks for all the help and suggestions I've gotten so far.

You have to use your soldering iron to heat up the black epoxy and carefully you can remove it.


Sent from the Truck O Shop

 

[2coils]

I have had problems with the 26650's handling the amp draw. For some reason they sag too much. I am curious, if this were to happen if you soldered in a fresh 30amp 18650. I know your Aries is conformed for a 26650 battery, but for performance sake you may want to try. I have not had any luck with 26650 batteries and the sx350 chip. I know in theory, this makes absolutely no sense, as a battery rated for the amp draw should handle the load no matter what size battery. I can only offer my personal experiences which are to stay away from 26650's.

 

[DrBeaker]

Well, here is were I'm at with this now:
I have resoldered all wires. No change
I have changed the the ground wire from 20ga to 16ga from the battery carrier to the 510. No change.
I have reflashed back to the 50W program. No change. Goes to 39W and starts blinking.
I have bypassed the battery carrier and soldered the battery directly to the wires. No change.

My last option (that I know of at this point) is to change all the wires on the board to 16ga but the board is covered in black epoxy or something like it.
How do you get that stuff off to get to the wires?


Thanks for all the help and suggestions I've gotten so far.

Did you change the Positive and the 510 center pin to 16ga wire yet?
What battery are you using? I hope it is a genuine Sony vtc5....

 

[Nuclear Cowboy]

I thought it could be a battery problem too. So far I've tried a (all authentic, all fully charged)) a MNKE 26650, a KeepPower IMR 26650, A Sony VTC5 18650 and an Efest 50A (red) 18650. The 18650's will fit in the carrier with out problems. No change.

After that I thought maybe the carrier wasn't up to the task so I soldered the negative spring to the base of the keystone 5250 connector. No change at all!

After that I sacrificed one of the MNKE 26650's "just to see" and soldered it in directly bypassing the carrier all together. AGAIN, NO CHANGE Arg!

I haven't changed the positive wire to the 510 with 16ga yet. That's my next move. I'm going to change all the wires to 16ga while I have it out of box again. I believe this is my last chance. I can't think of anything else to try after that. I just hope and prey I don't burn up the chip doing this!

 

[DrBeaker]

How many ohms is your coil? You get to 39w whats the voltage at then.
this sounds like what I observed when I used a crapy battery out of a laptop I used to test the board on my bench.

 

[Nuclear Cowboy]

The dripper is 0.4ohms and I ran a Kayfun at 1.6ohms. I would get an error message on the kayfun at a certain wattage (can't remember the number) which I guess is correct. But the .4ohm dripper should have been about perfect for the high watt runs.

I'm using good batteries and have run them in enough configurations that I feel I can safely rule batteries out.