Is anyone getting a false "low battery" flashing led?

[Vaporologist]

it also says if your read further =

Caution:
- Do not over-discharge/overcharge
- Recharge empty batteries ( resting voltage ~3.6V ) as soon as possible. Leaving LiIon batteries in discharged state will incur irreversible damage ( capacity / cycle loss )
- Do not short circuit ( will release tremendous current )
- Do not dispose of in fire.

Never should they be taken down to 2.5v, I dont know why it states that, but it says lowest discharge so I'm not positive if that means before failure or what.

And with that being said in the specs to "Recharge empty batteries ( Resting voltage - 3.6V ) I pull mine at 3.8 or try to because I really dont want to bring them down to that 3.6v level and fully discharge them

Yea, it looks a little confusing. I guess I don't understand the definition of "resting voltage". But I do know for a fact that IMR batts can be discharge down to a mid to upper 2V range without getting damaged. I conducted a test about a year ago, shortly after I got into MODs, because I was curious how AW 16340 IMR compare to RCR batts. I took one AW IMR 16340 down to 2.63V unloaded, it recharged fine, and actually I'm still using it today in my P16. So, I am curious what they mean by "Recharge empty batteries ( resting voltage ~3.6V ) as soon as possible. Leaving LiIon batteries in discharged state will incur irreversible damage ( capacity / cycle loss )"

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/ikenvape/84144-batteries-safety-6.html

 

[ukeman]

wow... i didn't read that " as soon as possible" ... i usually do recharge right away, although lately because i have 2 Vari's, i wait til the second unit's batt is ready for recharging before i put them on the Pila.
could be why i'm getting less vape time from one or two of them.

it also says if your read further =

Caution:
- Do not over-discharge/overcharge
- Recharge empty batteries ( resting voltage ~3.6V ) as soon as possible. Leaving LiIon batteries in discharged state will incur irreversible damage ( capacity / cycle loss )
- Do not short circuit ( will release tremendous current )
- Do not dispose of in fire.

Never should they be taken down to 2.5v, I dont know why it states that, but it says lowest discharge so I'm not positive if that means before failure or what.

And with that being said in the specs to "Recharge empty Batteries ( Resting voltage - 3.6V ) I pull mine at 3.8 or try to because I really dont want to bring them down to that 3.6v level and fully discharge them

 

[Vaporologist]

Where is jimho where we need him?

 

[ukeman]

I like this. Would be happy with that. I dont know WHAT the hell I did, but now I'm getting e8 e4 codes. Going to let it sit a for a while and go back to it. I shot some compressed up there.

ouch.... sorry to hear.
going back over the posts, it's hard to read where the trouble is exactly... but i will say that when i had e8 errors the in my first Vari's first month, i can't remember if it shut off, but i do remember being able to use it anyway; 99%.
Monster Kenny contacted me and he fixed it. I remember not wanting to send it in since it was working anyway, but i arranged to get another, and then he fixed it.
This episode is in the Provari thread.

 

[ukeman]

Where is jimho where we need him?

yeah! he's off line for the week... i wonder if he read that part about recharging immediately.

 

[LegioX]

Hmm new update. Maybe it was the liquids on parts, but apparently now its working fine. In fact, I'm currently running an old battery at 3.4volts!!!! That my initial goal. Going to keep running it until 3.3 to confirm. Then try again with my other battery. I may yet have something here.

yep, i dont know what i did but this battery finally ran until 3.3v with LED flashing at about 3.4. Could have been the last ditch cleaning effort. Going to try on second battery to confirm, so if that works I'll confirm it here tomorrow or whenever the battery dies.

Thanks everyone for help.

*edit* my battery life actually read all the way down to 3.2! I took a nap and went back to 3.6. Now its around 3.4 after a little more usage

 

[mwa102464]

Yea, it looks a little confusing. I guess I don't understand the definition of "resting voltage". But I do know for a fact that IMR batts can be discharge down to a mid to upper 2V range without getting damaged. I conducted a test about a year ago, shortly after I got into MODs, because I was curious how AW 16340 IMR compare to RCR batts. I took one AW IMR 16340 down to 2.63V unloaded, it recharged fine, and actually I'm still using it today in my P16. So, I am curious what they mean by "Recharge empty batteries ( resting voltage ~3.6V ) as soon as possible. Leaving LiIon batteries in discharged state will incur irreversible damage ( capacity / cycle loss )"

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/ikenvape/84144-batteries-safety-6.html

means you should recharge your batt @ 3.6 right away or when it reaches the 3.6v,,, I wouldn't ever discharge my 18650 IMR down to 2.5 or in the 2's at all, you will be risking damage to your Batts if you do this as well as a failure and even bigger damage with possibilities of it discharging all together and leaking out gas.

 

[ukeman]

if nothing else, this thread is helping me check on my batts a little closer...
i got 6 to 7 months of constant vaping on 2 Vari's ... half way through warranty;

couple of batts (18650) starting to show less vape time...about 25-30%... i rotate between 5 IMR AW 18650 (Pila charger), and go through at least one per Vari per day... but havn't cracked open my back up batts yet.

this is a great pv...

 

[mwa102464]

if nothing else, this thread is helping me check on my batts a little closer...
i got 6 to 7 months of constant vaping on 2 Vari's ... half way through warranty;

couple of batts (18650) starting to show less vape time...about 25-30%... i rotate between 5 IMR AW 18650 (Pila charger), and go through at least one per Vari per day... but havn't cracked open my back up batts yet.

this is a great pv...

Surprised you didn't get the extended warranty Uke, I thought it was a bargain and went for it

 

[Stonemull]

Re: noalox ..

I would concur with that unless the materials where prone to corrosion in which case I guess it should help. It appears to made for aluminium.
I will not be bothering with it on stainless steel.
Surface contact across the threads will be pretty good anyway and a single application of noalox adding zinc will improve surface contact marginally, if its not cleaned off, it wont fall off.

 

[LegioX]

*update* after switching batteries that managed to get to 3.3 and died, my new one shutoff at 3.8v. I am now wondering, is it possible it is a bad battery?

 

[forrest]

Bought mine about 1 1/2 months ago.I'm having the same problem with it cutting off at 3.9 volts and then having to reset it. Got the new spring about 3 weeks ago and still doing it. Tried some other batteries (trustfire 2400ma.) and same thing. Also the turn led light off does not disable the low batt. light. I wish it would just keep going till the voltage is about 3.5 or so. Will be contacting provari today, Why not make it so you can disable the low voltage shutoff ? Or lower the shutoff setting? tried everything so gotta get this issue resolved I hope! Provari was extremely prompt in getting me a spring, there service is great!

 

[LegioX]

Sent mine in to Provape, had it back in days, and haven't had early shut off OR early LED flashing. They said the updated the chipset with new files or something. Freaking awesome guys, thanks a lot. I love you Provape! My Provari is flawless

 

[VirusZ]

I posted a permanent fix of this issue:
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/provape/208643-permanet-fix-false-low-battery.html

 

[Tasteles]

Took me a while to find this thread, I knew it was here soewhere. Anyway, I had been having problems with early cut off and finally figured it out. Mine seemed to be constanty getting worse and worse. I was even using the provari power batteries and went from getting over a day on a charge to just a couple hours. I have tried everything that's sugested. For some reason, I took the spacer out and screwed the cap on tight, low and behold it startted working without cutting out, and I noticed that it was showing a hgher voltage in the Cb menu. So the wheels in my head startted turning. What I did next was to take the spring out of the cap and stretch it, then re-insert it into the cap. Now my provai seems to be working like it shoud once again. The spring had collapsed and wasn't making a good enough connection. So for anyone having these kind of problems, give it a shot, it seems to have worked for me.

 

[ukeman]

did you have the new spring or was that the older one? apparently the new spring is THE fix.....

Took me a while to find this thread, I knew it was here soewhere. Anyway, I had been having problems with early cut off and finally figured it out. Mine seemed to be constanty getting worse and worse. I was even using the provari power batteries and went from getting over a day on a charge to just a couple hours. I have tried everything that's sugested. For some reason, I took the spacer out and screwed the cap on tight, low and behold it startted working without cutting out, and I noticed that it was showing a hgher voltage in the Cb menu. So the wheels in my head startted turning. What I did next was to take the spring out of the cap and stretch it, then re-insert it into the cap. Now my provai seems to be working like it shoud once again. The spring had collapsed and wasn't making a good enough connection. So for anyone having these kind of problems, give it a shot, it seems to have worked for me.

 

[Tasteles]

I have the new spring. I'm still not quite getting to 3.5 volts before cutoff though, I had to unscrew it once to get down that low on the battery. Lot better than it cutting off at 3.8volts though.

 

[mendnwngs]

Certain batteries (even specific individuals within the same brand / batch) can have slightly different internal resistance.

What this could mean, is that when you load the battery, its voltage could drop more during under load than othere batteries from the same batch.

Balancing, and matching cells is a big part of building and maintaining Li-Poly packs used in RC planes.

As far as discharge levels, Well, lets just say there are certain Lipoly cells that can be discharged to 1.25V / cell before permanent damage is done. (Some Kokam, for instance wont start to dissolve the copper collector in the cell till about 1.0V or so, but this is the exception, not the rule) The rule of thumb I use is 3.2V minimum voltage for most Lithium chemistry batteries. 3.0V can (and usually will) do some damage, and some chargers won't even attempt to charge a cell if its under the 3V threshold.

I have yet to ever damage a cell by draining it to 3.3V.

And I've played with a lot of lithium for going on 10 years now.

Soon, I hope to finish a lithium battery FAQ / guide for the non-geek

Perhaps when JIMHO comes back, he'll weigh in with his experiences as well.

 

[ScottinSoCal]

Something else people should keep in mind when they're using the longer batteries and spacer is that half the electrical circuit goes through the body of the ProVari. When the spacer is used, you're cutting way down on the contact area between the cap and the main body. That means thread maintenance becomes a lot more important, because the little threads are the only way for power to get from the battery up to the electronic circuit where it can be used.

 

[Tasteles]

Something else people should keep in mind when they're using the longer batteries and spacer is that half the electrical circuit goes through the body of the ProVari. When the spacer is used, you're cutting way down on the contact area between the cap and the main body. That means thread maintenance becomes a lot more important, because the little threads are the only way for power to get from the battery up to the electronic circuit where it can be used.

I agree, I had been using the longer batteries with spacer and after my last post, I took the spacer out and screwed it down as far as it will go. I now get flashing LED at 3.6 volts and cut off at 3.4 volts. I can live with that.