Howdy all. I've been terribly quiet, but smorking the electronics happily for ... well, I guess it's just about two years now?
Recently I picked up some of the last clearance stock of Ugo kits (eGo USB clones*) from a forum vendor. A battery in one kit arrived DoA with a visible wire mushed up around one of the charge-status LED 'viewing ports' - no action from the button, no passthrough, no charge LED. The vendor kindly sent along a working replacement (thanks again!), but this means I still have what's probably a perfectly good rechargeable lithium cell inside a case with probably just a bad solder joint/miswire/open connection.
Any tips on getting one of these open to investigate and repair without destroying it?
Since the "likely misplaced" wire is visible I assume the problem is at the USB-charging end. There's a regular eGo teardown that shows the button section fits into the battery tube with the usual friction/crimp fitting and doesn't discuss exactly how the photographer removed it cleanly... anyone know if the USB end of these is likely to use the same attachment (friction crimped, rather than threaded), and if so, the best technique to pop it loose - and reassemble - without damage?
I assume these are close enough in basic style-of-manufacture to the real eGos that an examination of the USB end of one of those would provide enough hints.
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*So far I'm pretty pleased with it, though the battery life does seem a hair short compared to my year-old, well-used-and-abused eGo USB. However, I've barely been through a full charge cycle, and this is with an atomizer that's running 'cold' on the aged eGo but working properly on the Ugo, so there could be an efficiency issue with the particular party [haven't bothered to check resistance, more concerned about tearing down the -last- atomizer I was using that was a real extra-special-good-performer until it developed a short - causing every eGo/Riva/Ugo battery I've got to throw error blinks rather than just light up with no heat, so that's an easy way to know. At least that teardown is well documented here - usually I wouldn't bother, but I only got a couple weeks out of it and it was being particularly Better Than Usual].
Recently I picked up some of the last clearance stock of Ugo kits (eGo USB clones*) from a forum vendor. A battery in one kit arrived DoA with a visible wire mushed up around one of the charge-status LED 'viewing ports' - no action from the button, no passthrough, no charge LED. The vendor kindly sent along a working replacement (thanks again!), but this means I still have what's probably a perfectly good rechargeable lithium cell inside a case with probably just a bad solder joint/miswire/open connection.
Any tips on getting one of these open to investigate and repair without destroying it?
Since the "likely misplaced" wire is visible I assume the problem is at the USB-charging end. There's a regular eGo teardown that shows the button section fits into the battery tube with the usual friction/crimp fitting and doesn't discuss exactly how the photographer removed it cleanly... anyone know if the USB end of these is likely to use the same attachment (friction crimped, rather than threaded), and if so, the best technique to pop it loose - and reassemble - without damage?
I assume these are close enough in basic style-of-manufacture to the real eGos that an examination of the USB end of one of those would provide enough hints.
---
*So far I'm pretty pleased with it, though the battery life does seem a hair short compared to my year-old, well-used-and-abused eGo USB. However, I've barely been through a full charge cycle, and this is with an atomizer that's running 'cold' on the aged eGo but working properly on the Ugo, so there could be an efficiency issue with the particular party [haven't bothered to check resistance, more concerned about tearing down the -last- atomizer I was using that was a real extra-special-good-performer until it developed a short - causing every eGo/Riva/Ugo battery I've got to throw error blinks rather than just light up with no heat, so that's an easy way to know. At least that teardown is well documented here - usually I wouldn't bother, but I only got a couple weeks out of it and it was being particularly Better Than Usual].
