Manual button fix - And, do not force a cartomizer on your battery

[CapeCAD]

This may have been brought up before, but a quick search on this forum did notice produce any noticable results.

I was screwing a cart on that had tight threads the other day and my usual fix is to screw it on and off many times with a little pressure so that the threads will eventualy loosen up.

While doing this I noticed that the button on my XL battery was no longer working, wouldn't even press in, and decided to see if I could fix it. I used a pair of needle nose pliers and gently grabbed the shoulder where the threaded connector meets the battery and with a slight counter-clockwise turn the button was working perfectly again.

I had some defective batteries that were not working correctly when I received them. These buttons were intermittent and if you pressed the button sideways they would sometimes work, but the results were not consistent.

Vapor4Life customer service was kind enough to send me a replacement, and luckily did not ask for the defective battery back so I decided to see if this fix would also work on that and with a slight clockwise turn this button began working as well.

I would recommend against forcing a cartomizer onto a battery. I now use a tube that I threaded with the same size threads (8mm X .75) to loosen up my carts before putting them onto the battery.

 

[chose2live]

Good to know Cad...Thankyou

 

[Adrenalynn]

The threaded insert is not mechanically coupled to the button. You'd have to rotate the threaded insert at least 720 degrees to take the slack out of the wires, and then, rather than rotate the board, one would break the wires.

The threaded inserts are pressure-fit with a two-ton press and are grooved. If the connector rotates with "gentle pressure" - it's defective. Taking them apart non-destructively generally involves padded vice-grips, a padded vice, and a whole lot of swearing (or a custom-welded jig in my ten-ton press, which is what I do now).

My microscope camera is getting its shutter replaced, so here's a cell-phone photo of a current generation manual/regular. All of this generation looks roughly the same. Last generation had some electronics differences (FET on-board rather than dangling off enclosed in heat-shrink like this one), and battery chemistry differences - but no change in the mechanical coupling:

In summary - I find your results to be atypical over the couple hundred I've torn apart. I suspect there might have been some other [unnoticed] factor at play here.

 

[keyzygirl]

Thank god shes smart and has great tools.I couldnt do that without ripping it to shreads.

 

[Adrenalynn]

It's always a component buried somewhere deep in the heart of a half billion dollar spacecraft prototype that fails. Some of the stuff I've had to tear apart in my career was... Daunting.

On a few other forums, my signature tag-line reads "I Void Warranties" Even more fun is defeating anti-tamper mechanisms, disassembling, reassembling, and sending something back under warranty - all without the manufacturer being any the wiser. Or being able to remove the potting epoxy from a "top secret" device, reverse engineer, dump, netmap, then reseal it in an undetectable sort-a-way. Fun with reverse engineering.

Sorry - pretty OT there!

The secret to disassembling these batteries non-destructively with simple hand-tools is patience, patience, and more patience. Having photos like the ones I've posted over the last eight months is helpful because you can get a mental image of how it goes together, and that makes it easier to tear apart. Like knowing the plastic button cap on a manual really has a flat side on the bottom and the button itself is recessed. So you don't have to worry about the button getting hung-up as you're disassembling - you don't have to push it down. But the board is frequently hot-glued to the tube so you can put sharp pressure down on the button with a screwdriver and cause the board to pop free (that hot glue doesn't hold terribly well...)

Anyway, if you want to do it - no sharp moves, patience, and side-to-side rocking motion with a sacrificial cartomizer to stretch the metal tube and release the pressure-fit without damaging the threads. A vice and vice-grips are great - a pair of ChannelLocks and a set of Vice Grips can get it done in a pinch.

 

[bpaulette]

...the couple hundred I've torn apart

...

 

[bigjr]

hum ok i just lost the warm fuzzy feeling i had about getting my first manual battery

 

[CapeCAD]

hum ok i just lost the warm fuzzy feeling i had about getting my first manual battery

No, you should listen to her, not me. My experience is engineering new products, not reverse engineering them. She has also disassembled more batteries than I have.

Just know that if you screw a tight cart on, and your button will not depress any more, that it can be easily fixed.

Of course my problem was repeatable, for me, or I wouldn't have posted at all. I'm just glad I did not read her post before I fixed my problem or I wouldn't have even tried. I just figured that screwing the cart on caused the problem, so applying a comparable reverse force might fix the problem.... and it did for me.

Adrenalynn: As always, I've enjoyed your reply. Thanks!

 

[susieque]

bigjr- don't lose that warm fuzzy feeling - you are going to love the manual.

 

[GiMante]

Do you have any pics of the insides of a carto?

I've wondered exactly what's going on in there............

The threaded insert is not mechanically coupled to the button. You'd have to rotate the threaded insert at least 720 degrees to take the slack out of the wires, and then, rather than rotate the board, one would break the wires.

The threaded inserts are pressure-fit with a two-ton press and are grooved. If the connector rotates with "gentle pressure" - it's defective. Taking them apart non-destructively generally involves padded vice-grips, a padded vice, and a whole lot of swearing (or a custom-welded jig in my ten-ton press, which is what I do now).

In summary - I find your results to be atypical over the couple hundred I've torn apart. I suspect there might have been some other [unnoticed] factor at play here.