Figuring out charge circuit by watching mA draw from Lion batt charger

[Beamin]

I have an e-cigarette plugged into a CC power supply that shows current draw. When you recharge it, it pulls  0.666mA (CC set to 2.5 amps) until the very end where it stops dropping and the draw goes down 0.001mA per second. That's when the battery is going into constant voltage mode? What's also interesting is when you puff on it the current spikes to .685 for a second then back to .666 then immediately after you release the switch it goes to .685 for a minute. Is this the circuitry inside realizing that if you try to use it while plugged in it will pull too many mA and it switches the heating element to the battery?


Since we are talking about Lion. I once had a blue tooth speaker with a dead battery. I replaced the battery with a slightly bigger one and tried to make it work. The new battery wouldn't charge it would power on but not charge. The new batt was a new in box replacement battery for a digital camera that I got for 2.00$ clearance that hadn't been charged/ ever used for a few years. Does the charge circuitry know it's a different battery? The difference was maybe 600mA to 800mA for the new battery. I believe the new battery showed 4.3 volts or what ever it was supposed to show so not past the point of no return.


I miss the day of NiCd where you just put power to them and they wouldn't blow up.

[paulca]

It depends on the ecig, but the charger for it (or internal if USB charging) will typically charge at something less than 1 Amp.  This is the constant current phase.  So on a single cell if the voltage required for the cell to take 0.666Amps is less than the max cell voltage of 4.2V then it will current limit by holding the voltage back.

When the cell hits 4.2V to sustain the 0.666Amps then the current will start to fall back and 4.2V will be held.  Eventually the current will drop off towards zero when it will end the charge.

As to "pass through vaping", ie. using it while charging, some will just pull from the cell while it's charging, so if you consume more than the charge current of 0.666amps it will go back into charge mode briefly to replace the current you used.

[Beamin]

One puff takes an average of 80 seconds charge time off USB power supply. Interesting to figure out how many puffs you get per charge.

[ebastler]

Don't suck on it, take it apaaht!
Instructive, and better for your health too... 

[Beamin]

Don't suck on it, take it apaaht!
Instructive, and better for your health too... 

Unfortunately to do that you have to destroy it as its all sealed/glued together.


Inside would it use a pic (some binary number like 32) micro controller ? Doesn't every modern "smart" device use the same or similar micro controller? Be it a microwave timer, washing machine control panel, ecig, etc? I bought a clock that used analog gauges and in the instructions they said it has a USB port where you can make it into anything you want kind of like an Arduino. Is this how everything will work in the future making trouble shooting as easy as taping into the data lines on the chip?

[ebastler]

Don't suck on it, take it apaaht!
Instructive, and better for your health too... 

Unfortunately to do that you have to destroy it as its all sealed/glued together.

Yes, that's why taking it apart is good for your health. 

[Beamin]

Don't suck on it, take it apaaht!
Instructive, and better for your health too... 

Unfortunately to do that you have to destroy it as its all sealed/glued together.

Yes, that's why taking it apart is good for your health. 

Ill take a small amount of glycerin over 400 known carcinogens including radioactive lead and polonium. I only smoked for about two years total but I smoked a lot if I could I would chain smoke but I knew better. Nicotine is way harder to quit then heroin. Heroin you feel better after a few days but nicotine is a mental addiction that's not easy. If cigarettes were illegal you would see people steal and kill for them. .

[Audioguru]

The heater in an ecig has a positive temperature characteristic like most heaters. Then it draws more current when it is cooled by taking a puff.
To charge the lithium battery they use a Lithium battery charger IC, not a micro controller.

MANY people have quit smoking and there are a few good methods to do it easier. I laugh when I see somebody disappear in a huge cloud of Vape.

[KL27x]

Is this how everything will work in the future making trouble shooting as easy as taping into the data lines on the chip?

Car ECM is a good example. I don't imagine a future where it goes down to the level of clocks or coffeemakers, though. That would require the death of capitalism. (High degree of standardization and non-disposability of things, before it would start to be practical).

Is this the circuitry inside realizing that if you try to use it while plugged in it will pull too many mA and it switches the heating element to the battery?

The reason the draw goes up to 685 is you took a puff. This means the battery needs to charge, again, at constant current of about 666 plus the extra 19mA the micro draws while it is awake. After that minute, the micro shuts down unneeded peripherals and/or switches to a much lower clock frequency just polling the button (or triggering on edge interrupt of the button pin).

[Beamin]

Is this how everything will work in the future making trouble shooting as easy as taping into the data lines on the chip?

Car ECM is a good example. I don't imagine a future where it goes down to the level of clocks or coffeemakers, though. That would require the death of capitalism. (High degree of standardization and non-disposability of things, before it would start to be practical).

Is this the circuitry inside realizing that if you try to use it while plugged in it will pull too many mA and it switches the heating element to the battery?

The reason the draw goes up to 685 is you took a puff. This means the battery needs to charge, again, at constant current of about 666 plus the extra 19mA the micro draws while it is awake. After that minute, the micro shuts down unneeded peripherals and/or switches to a much lower clock frequency just polling the button (or triggering on edge interrupt of the button pin).

I have a clock that is made out of analog needle multimeter gauges. Coolest thing ever and had to buy it. It has a micro in it and USB port where you can program it to do anything you want according to the instructions. Setting it also cool by turning a rotary encoder as the needles bounce back and fourth. Mine does hours min and seconds and I painted the needles different colors.


I plugged in an identical ecig and that draws 585. If its in constant current mode it doesn't change much when you puff it. It goes .666 for an hour then to .785 for a few minutes then goes down to almost zero. Does the chip inside read the individual battery rather then it being set to .666 at the factory?


Is this why I tried to put a slightly bigger lion batt in a Bluetooth speaker and it won't charge? Went from 600 mah to 800 and will power on but not charge.