Help Diagnosing A Faulty Mod

[JohnNada]

A bit of a weird one this...

My black Pulse AIO.5 randomly stopped working today. I took it out of my pocket and it wouldn't fire so replaced the battery and whilst it did turn on none of the buttons responded.

Thinking it might be an issue with the boards (there are two that join together with pins, one with the buttons and one with the chip) I swapped both PCBs out of my green Pulse AIO.5 into the black one and the problem remained. I then put the guts of the faulty black Pulse into the green one and it worked perfectly.

I also tried 3 different tanks and 4 different batteries to rule that out.

Here's a video, and a photo mid transplant...



So if its not the boards then it has to be something else right? The battery connections and 510 seem fine.

Do any of our more electrical minded people have any ideas? Is @KytanDale still around?

The black one was a warranty replacement for the green one which cracked, and is my favourite so I'm keen to get it working again.

Cheers!

 

[Deleted member 54254]

I think for the price of them I'd just replace it and not delve too far into it. These things aren't meant to be repairable when it comes don to faults with the up/down switches imo. Maybe there's a dry solder on the board for the switch button.

 

[JohnNada]

I think for the price of them I'd just replace it and not delve too far into it. These things aren't meant to be repairable when it comes don to faults with the up/down switches imo. Maybe there's a dry solder on the board for the switch button.

Oh I agree. Plus the black one was a replacement for the green one which was a pre-release sample from Tony B, so there's no money wasted on my part. I just really like it so don't want to bin it if I don't have to. Not sure if I'd have much luck putting in another claim to VV.

Testing the black ones board in the green one indicates the board is working, as otherwise I'd expect the issue to carry over? It deffo something to do with the black unit. It still reads resistance and battery level correctly so I'm stumped. I'll maybe take my red OG model apart and test that in it too.

The only thing I didn't swap over was the negative connection as it seemed tricky to remove.

 

[Phrasing]

Oh I agree. Plus the black one was a replacement for the green one which was a pre-release sample from Tony B, so there's no money wasted on my part. I just really like it so don't want to bin it if I don't have to. Not sure if I'd have much luck putting in another claim to VV.

Testing the black ones board in the green one indicates the board is working, as otherwise I'd expect the issue to carry over? It deffo something to do with the black unit. It still reads resistance and battery level correctly so I'm stumped. I'll maybe take my red OG model apart and test that in it too.

The only thing I didn't swap over was the negative connection as it seemed tricky to remove.

If your negative connection was faulty you wouldn't get a correct resistance read.

If the guts of black worked in green, then your board must be fine.

Maybe you have a short happening somewhere in your mounting? PCBs are supposed to be isolated where the metal screws fix them in place but if something is touching where it shouldn't that could be messing with it.

Aside from that is there any other part of black that you didn't transfer to green?

 

[andipandi]

Try a quick charge/ connection to the usb, sometimes that can reset a mod, weird but its worked for me before.

 

[John R Phillips]

That’s an interesting idea/theory (??).

I’ve been having a few (intermittent) issues with my Nautilus Prime X. Wouldn’t recognise the pod/tank after it had been refilled or swapped with another and needed taking out and refitted (sometimes twice) before it would play ball.

I only ever used the onboard charger briefly when I got it to make sure it worked okay. It’s now occurred to me that I did use it (USB charging) in earnest about 7/8 days ago and since then I’ve had no further issues. Maybe it has sorted the problem, fingers crossed.

 

[JohnNada]

If your negative connection was faulty you wouldn't get a correct resistance read.

If the guts of black worked in green, then your board must be fine.

Maybe you have a short happening somewhere in your mounting? PCBs are supposed to be isolated where the metal screws fix them in place but if something is touching where it shouldn't that could be messing with it.

Aside from that is there any other part of black that you didn't transfer to green?

No that's all that remained. I'll double check nothing is making contact where it shouldn't.

Try a quick charge/ connection to the usb, sometimes that can reset a mod, weird but its worked for me before.

Just tried that now and as soon as I put the cable in it fired for a split second. The buttons still don't work though, but if I remove the cable, let the screen time out then put the cable back in it fires again.

 

[stuartd]

That’s an interesting idea/theory (??).

I’ve been having a few (intermittent) issues with my Nautilus Prime X. Wouldn’t recognise the pod/tank after it had been refilled or swapped with another and needed taking out and refitted (sometimes twice) before it would play ball.

I only ever used the onboard charger briefly when I got it to make sure it worked okay. It’s now occurred to me that I did use it (USB charging) in earnest about 7/8 days ago and since then I’ve had no further issues. Maybe it has sorted the problem, fingers crossed.

I had that with a prime x it was the pins that touch the pod. they were staying down and not coming back up just prodded them and it worked like new till I sold it on

 

[John R Phillips]

I had that with a prime x it was the pins that touch the pod. they were staying down and not coming back up just prodded them and it worked like new till I sold it on

Thank you for that, interesting - I’ll look out for that should it start happening again. Possibly me using the USB charging was no more than a (fortunate) coincidence.
I raised the issues with the supplier, UK Aspire Vendor, and they suggested it was chip-related and sending it back for an exchange. Given the total mess that the postal system is in, I may delay returning it until the New Year. If I send it back now, I’m unlikely to see the replacement until 2023 in any case

 

[RAPTOREX]

With the board removed. Have you checked to continuity of all the connections in the mods body? Check each one with care. If all is well, check the resistance of same.
Beyond that, I’m stumped. I sorry to say.