kGo VV Issues

[MorpheusPA]

I ordered a kGo VV from Hoosier E-Cig and it arrived today. Either something's awry or I'm not reading the instructions correctly.

Plugging it into USB doesn't seem to charge it. The battery's charge indicator isn't flashing and the battery has been at 40% for three hours now. Is there anything I need to do?

The battery gets extremely HOT when vaping it at 6 volts. Normal or a problem--because it sure isn't making me very comfortable.

And also, are the buttons on these always this crappy or did I get a bad one? It has all the disadvantages of a membrane keyboard with the general feel of a broken cell phone. It's not exactly quality.

I sent a note to Hoosier, I'm sure they'll answer in a day or so, but for now I'm putting it aside.

 

[dragginfly]

Got mine about 7 weeks ago. 50 days ago to be exact.

Had the same problem on charging right out of the box. At first
thought it was a bad batt, but left it on the charger and it finally
did start charging. It would only charge in short periods, sometimes
as little as a second or two, until the charge started to build up.
Once it got to two bars it would keep charging to completion.

I used it daily, with a single charge lasting about a day.

I found that if I waited until it was completely dead, it would
be very, very slow to start charging. So I started recharging
before it was fully dead. Usually with one or two bars left on
the charge indicator.

After a few weeks, it showed signs of having trouble charging
regardless of when I put it on the charger.

Now after about 50 charges, it is sitting on the charger at this
moment and not charging. Have been trying since last nite. I
think this battery is shot.

50 days. 50 charges.

On a positive note, the VV settings worked great and the output
voltage was spot on with the voltage reader I'm using.

I did find that using dual coils, even at 2.5 ohms, would drain
the battery too quickly. So after the first two weeks, I've only
been using single coils in the 2.4 to 3.0 range. The past five
weeks have been limited to single coil clearos and cartos only.

Most of my vaping was in the 3.6 ~ 4.2 volt range, but I did
run it at about 5 volts with a 3 ohm cartomizer. The clearos
never needed that much voltage.

IMO the top range from 5 to 6 volts is not needed on this device
if it is to be used with cartos and clearos typically used with
the eGo batts. But for fine tuning in the normal range, the VV
settings are very beneficial and accurate.

Just too bad the battery and/or built-in charger isn't up to
the same quality as the voltage regulation.

I liked the KGo VV for fine-tuning voltage in the normal range with
my clearos enough that I will likely try another one, especially if
they become available in 1,000+ mah.

 

[Black Strat]

I noticed the usb connection into the wall wart was fairly loose. I tried my various wal warts until I found a tighter connection and voila! it started charging properly.

 

[dragginfly]

Wall wart?

Is that the other end with the regular USB connector?

I did see the KGo VV listed on another vendor site as
an SLB eGo VV with a mini micro USB connector rather than
the UC-E6 USB connector. I'm wondering if that model
has other updates like a new built-in charger as well
as the more standard charging port.

SBL eGo-V at GotVapes

 

[Black Strat]

Yes, the wall wart is the device that plugs into the wall. The USB plugs into the wall wart.

 

[dragginfly]

Yes, the wall wart is the device that plugs into the wall. The USB plugs into the wall wart.

Thanks for the clarification.

The wall wart, then, is the thing commonly referred to as the "charger"
though it is really just an AC ~ DC convertor.

The actual charger has circuitry to feed the 5volts DC from the convertor
to the battery and shut off at the appropriate time.

With the kGo VV, the actual charger is housed in the battery casing,
and my guess is that's where the problem with my kGo lies. The
charger is not charging the otherwise good battery.

 

[dragginfly]

IOW...

I think the problem with my short-lived kGo VV is the built-in charger.

I might try and open the casing to separate the components. Maybe
hard-booting the charger will reset it so it charges again. Can't hurt.
Otherwise the thing is headed for the trash anyway.

 

[Al From Jerz]

Last time I tried to charge my kgo vv it didnt blink and show the battery animation, somehow after plugging and unplugging dozens of times it started charging. Now its time for my next charge and I am having the same diffculty, this may be the end of my kgo vv! Any fixes for this?

 

[Rocketpunk]

My KGO VV is misbehaving while charging, too. I have to fiddle with it, jiggle the connections, let it sit at somewhat of an angle for it to charge.

The Kgo VV was my first affordable variable voltage device.

It's, ahem, well, not crap, necessarily, but it was cool while it lasted.

It currently serves as my back-up's back-up. Hardly used, but cool. Comes in handy in a pinch.

It's charger and it's charging capacity does turn to crap pretty quickly. It can be used as a passthrough but I have a sneaking suspicion this is what causes the battery to either crap out or lose charge quickly.

 

[jimbill]

I advise anyone with a kgo vv to buy a new usb cord,mine would not charge untill i replaced the stock usb cable.Amazon.com: Power Supply UC-E6 UCE6 USB - Cable Cord Lead Wire for Nikon Coolpix (6 Feet Black) - D5000, L1, L2, L3, L4, L5, L6, L10, L11, L12, L14, L15, L16, L18, L19 Digital Camera Cable: Camera & Photo

 

[Rocketpunk]

Everything this gentleman said. He said everything I would've said.

It must be a fault with the charger cable itself?

My KGO has shown diminishing returns with each charge. At one point, the charger cable wouldn't even charge the battery. This may be weird to describe, but if I lifted the entire device (while it was plugged into the charger cable) by the base of the charger cable itself, it would make some kind of connection and charge the battery. If I left it sitting with the bulk of the weight pressing the charger into the battery port, it would charge. If I leveled it, or took pressure off the charger/battery port, it would stop charging.

Frustrating and weird, and most definitely finicky, but I can get it to charge.

But Dragginfly nailed it on the head.

Got mine about 7 weeks ago. 50 days ago to be exact.

Had the same problem on charging right out of the box. At first
thought it was a bad batt, but left it on the charger and it finally
did start charging. It would only charge in short periods, sometimes
as little as a second or two, until the charge started to build up.
Once it got to two bars it would keep charging to completion.

I used it daily, with a single charge lasting about a day.

I found that if I waited until it was completely dead, it would
be very, very slow to start charging. So I started recharging
before it was fully dead. Usually with one or two bars left on
the charge indicator.

After a few weeks, it showed signs of having trouble charging
regardless of when I put it on the charger.

Now after about 50 charges, it is sitting on the charger at this
moment and not charging. Have been trying since last nite. I
think this battery is shot.

50 days. 50 charges.

On a positive note, the VV settings worked great and the output
voltage was spot on with the voltage reader I'm using.

I did find that using dual coils, even at 2.5 ohms, would drain
the battery too quickly. So after the first two weeks, I've only
been using single coils in the 2.4 to 3.0 range. The past five
weeks have been limited to single coil clearos and cartos only.

Most of my vaping was in the 3.6 ~ 4.2 volt range, but I did
run it at about 5 volts with a 3 ohm cartomizer. The clearos
never needed that much voltage.

IMO the top range from 5 to 6 volts is not needed on this device
if it is to be used with cartos and clearos typically used with
the eGo batts. But for fine tuning in the normal range, the VV
settings are very beneficial and accurate.

Just too bad the battery and/or built-in charger isn't up to
the same quality as the voltage regulation.

I liked the KGo VV for fine-tuning voltage in the normal range with
my clearos enough that I will likely try another one, especially if
they become available in 1,000+ mah.

 

[proteckt3d]

I advise anyone with a kgo vv to buy a new usb cord,mine would not charge untill i replaced the stock usb cable.Amazon.com: Power Supply UC-E6 UCE6 USB - Cable Cord Lead Wire for Nikon Coolpix (6 Feet Black) - D5000, L1, L2, L3, L4, L5, L6, L10, L11, L12, L14, L15, L16, L18, L19 Digital Camera Cable: Camera & Photo

does it charge from the usb port of a pc/laptop?

 

[Dansauls]

I bought a Kgo VV several months ago. It only last about 6 weeks, I was not impressed from the get go.
the buttons had a very cheap feel to them, the battery didn't hold a charge very well.
I just chalked it up as another vaping lesson learned.

 

[vaprpunk1987]

Man I'm so mad my kgo was GREAT. At first... I've had it for around a month and is seems to have taken a carp on me. I hate writing this because my first kgo had issues and was promptly replaced. But now my war entry is up and..... It doesn't work anymore... It will charge to 2 bars but that's it. And the charge doesn't last near as long as it used to... I'm beyond mad. This is an inferior product that has plenty of feedback about what is wrong. But this thread is two years old and we are still posting about problems...

 

[Solid]

Man I'm so mad my kgo was GREAT. At first... I've had it for around a month and is seems to have taken a carp on me. I hate writing this because my first kgo had issues and was promptly replaced. But now my war entry is up and..... It doesn't work anymore... It will charge to 2 bars but that's it. And the charge doesn't last near as long as it used to... I'm beyond mad. This is an inferior product that has plenty of feedback about what is wrong. But this thread is two years old and we are still posting about problems...

Been reading about every little problem I can find about this product as I just recieved mine in the mail about 3 weeks ago. It has been vaping extremley well since. Various voltages run great and exact, new hard plastic button works like the eGo's and the only complaint I have is the UC-E6 charging connector that never existed until now haha.

Battery charges fine, LED indicator works when plugged in (get the bar growing and repeating animation), no warm or hot battery, infact the device shuts off after about 10 seconds of holding down the ignite button for a fail safe.

I will keep you posted but maybe you guys just got a horrible manufacturing peroid...maybe the employee who saudered all the wires either fixed his mix up on the connectors making battery charges WORK instead of fail the device over time or maybe he was replaced by someone who knows what they are doing as far as molding and saudering goes for wires and devices.

Only flaw with this product is the UC-E6 charging cable and that bottom plate (were the charging port is) comes a tiny itsy bit lose and shims down about 1cm and needs to be budged back up in the device but other than that its my ADD and has been for about 3 weeks now almost going on a month.

Picking up the 1200mAh big boy KGO-VV from hoosier's later on this week...has the modern mini USB for a charge port and more reinforced body (by the port so no more budging that bottom plate back up into the device).