What's wrong with my detonator style mod?

[Led Hendriani]

Even when the voltage reads over 3.9 it is not producing enough or operating anything like the 510 manual battery as it did just a couple of days ago (18500 batt).

The only way to get it to operate correctly is to hit the momentary switch for about 3-5 seconds then start dragging on it, and it only hits good after it is warmed up a bit now.

Was I supposed to put in a resistor? I thought that it was only if I used an LED...

I was going to charge the battery yet again, but noticed that it was reading 3.9 volts. I can still use it but it requires a lot more work, and, I don't want to charge for 3 hours or so just to get 1 hour at 4.18V

I am wondering if it is not set up correctly. when checking for voltage(with the negative on the negative)if I touch positive, then let that positive also touch the negative momentarily, it will then read 1.99 or 2.00 volts until I turn off the momentary switch.

I used a eyeglass screw for the center hole of the connector since just putting a couple of drops of solder over the hole disallowed connectivity (the atty was then contacting both positive and negative via the center post.

What do I need to do?

Also, I am looking forward to making another, this time with 2 CR123's and a regulator to keep it at 5V.
Do I need to add something so that the 2 protected batts will not explode from being inline?

TIA!

 

[Led Hendriani]

Double post!!!

 

[sjohnson]

I'm wondering here, but if you're "dropping" solder you might have a cold join. Solder, done with flux and properly heated, will flow so that you can see the wire wrapped in solder and the solder flows from the wire to the object it's soldered to. Solder is a mechanical bond, it's not all that good of an electrical bond so if you don't have a good contact between the wire and the target electrode you can end up with a high-resistance joint that defeats the purpose of soldering!