Possible battery or charger problem

[bapperton]

Hey guys, I just made my first mod the other day, solderless, at first. It worked for a while, but then I noticed that the battery would give me about 10 drags and then die. It may have been a loose connection on my pre-soldered 510 connector that lost a wire. I had to go out and get a soldering gun today.

After soldering all the connections, I vaped it and it was good. Then I started to have power trouble again which seems to be attributable to the battery. I vape about 10 times, and then it dies. Then, I can charge it for a few minutes and it reads as full on the charger. I plop it in and can get about 10 more vapes before it dies.

Is there any other reason why this might be something other than the battery or the charger? Could I have shorted something out with my soldering? I'm a first time solderer, but I think I did a pretty decent job. One thing I did notice that is suspect is that on the three prongs of the on/off switch, my solder bridges the gap between the middle one and the positive battery terminal, but it's just the ground, right? So I figured it would just affect the switch if anything.

The vape is fully functional, just power drops out after 10 vapes.

Help! Thanks for all of your input :]

I've been trying to upload pics, but it keeps saying that the remote file is too large...I uploaded to photobucket and resized it really small, still same problem. What's the limit?

 

[Java_Az]

You can just use the IMG code from photobucket and put that directly into the post. The pictures will show up and it is easier then attaching them threw the forum. Pictures would for sure help out to see what you got going on. Pretty hard to troubleshoot without knowing or seeing how you have your circuit wired.

 

[bapperton]

Yeah, sorry about that!

The bad soldering in the second pic did render the switch not functional.

 

[Java_Az]

Do you have multimeter. There is a few tests you can run on the circuit to see if there is any problems. Also what are you powering this with a 14500?

 

[WillyB]

Too nuts I suggest you rewire the whole thing,

I'm assumming the boxes kill switch is on the the positive.

My LED connection may be unclear. You come off the switch-> resistor-> pos leg of LED. The other leg (neg) goes either to the connector shell or to the batt spring connection.

 

[bapperton]

Do you have multimeter. There is a few tests you can run on the circuit to see if there is any problems. Also what are you powering this with a 14500?

Yeah, it's a 14500. Is it possible that that bad connection is causing the battery shut off after a little bit of use each time I put it in? I don't have a multimeter, but it wouldn't be a bad thing to have...

To WillyB:
Thanks for that. I do have some things wrong then. I come off the switch->resistor->negative end of LED (the longer prong). I've never done any soldering or electronics work before so I really appreciate the info. I have them hooked up in parallel I believe; it looks like the diagram you drew is serial?

And, yes, the kill switch is on the positive.

Do I have to have a desoldering iron to break the joints? Is there an easier way to disconnect it all?

 

[WillyB]

I come off the switch->resistor->negative end of LED (the longer prong). I've never done any soldering or electronics work before so I really appreciate the info. I have them hooked up in parallel I believe; it looks like the diagram you drew is serial?

The resistor can go on either leg, but you must observe the polarity of the LED.

No the LED it's parallel. The way I have it the positive I pulled off that switch leg means the LED will fire only when you vape.