USB lead getting warm whilst charging Cloupor mini

[doveman]

I normally charge my Cloupor mini from a 2A charging point on my USB3 hub with a 0.5m USB lead and I've never had any problems.

Yesterday, the battery was quite low but I wanted to keep using it in pass-through whilst it charged, so I used a 2A wall-socket charger, plugged in a long (approx. 5m) USB extension cable and the same 0.5 USB lead from that to the Cloupor. It was charging and seemed fine and I was able to use it but I left it for a while, maybe an hour and when I came back to it, the 0.5m USB lead was very warm, so I disconnected it immediately. Neither end of the long USB extension lead was warm. By then, it was on about half charge, so I was able to use it without it plugged in but it was rather worrying and I won't be trying that again!

Can anyone explain what happened there?

[Deleted]

IMHO it's not a good idea using them as a pass through. I know they can do it but for safety's sake I dont. The heat could have come from doing so, great little box mod, just needs nursing

[doveman]

May 13, 2015 12:29:56 GMT @tedster said:

IMHO it's not a good idea using them as a pass through. I know they can do it but for safety's sake I dont. The heat could have come from doing so, great little box mod, just needs nursing

OK, I'll stick with my mini Protank and Clover spinner when I'm charging the Cloupor. I wouldn't have even tried to use it as a pass through if my friend who gave it to me hadn't told my I could

It wasn't really the fact that I was using it as a pass through that caused the lead to heat up though, as I hadn't touched it for about an hour. The only thing I can think is that the long extension lead caused a problem but I can't think how, especially as that didn't get warm, only the short lead. I don't normally use the wall charger to charge my Cloupor Mini but I use it regularly to charge my phone and tablet, so I don't think there's a problem with that.

[spanky]

To me it sounds like a problem with the cable. The one that comes with the Cloupor is über cheap and so flimsy that I wouldn't place any faith in it. I use the cable that came with my Kindle for charging my Cloupor. It works extremely well, both for charging and as a pass-through – I'm using it right now from the USB port on my MacBook.

The Cloupor is a fine piece of hardware, but its keen price is evident in the quality of the secondary, supplimental items bundled with the unit – I'm looking at you cheap flimsy charging cable!

[phatfil]

till usb3 arrived the max load expected to be carried on a usb lead was 500ma so use a usb3 lead

[Ripshod]

Buying a USB3 lead for charging is pointless, the cloupor won't benefit from the extra available current. Also a micro usb socket won't be able to utilise the benefits of USB3 being a 'dumb' device. As well as that it's unsafe charging from a USB3 socket should a fault develope in the cloupor. In fact USB2/3 shouldn't be used to charge any mod - my PC is able to deliver 2Amps, when the USB2 spec says 500mA max.

[VapingBad]

Spend a pound or two on a USB power metre, there a couple pictured in the charging guide, than you will know how many amps are being used and can see if there is a fault causing it to use more than it should, IIRC Minis use a bit less than 1 A.

[Q]

Better still buy a spare battery and a charger, its the safest way, if a battery can come out TAKE IT OUT

[buggritt]

Or not. I use my cloupor in pass through mode frequently while at work. I use the included charge cable also. No problems. I have a plug with usb adapter from a tablet.
It's got to be the power from the charge point causing the heat.

[Ripshod]

You will only ever be using what the cloupor is pulling from the adapter. So either the cloupor is pulling more than it should, the lead is too poor to carry the standard current, or the adapter is over-volting. If you don't have an inline tester as VapingBad linked to the only way to find out is by substitution. In the meantime I'd recommend you stop charging via usb.

When things are working it's great. But small problems have a bad habit of getting really big really fast in electronics.

[doveman]

I wasn't really charging via USB when the problem started. OK, I was using a USB cable but that can't be avoided as it's the only charging connection the Cloupor has but I was using a 2A wall-socket charger.

It seems to have damaged the 0.5m cable somehow. I used it fine last night on my USB3 hub (with it's own PSU and using the charge only 2A port, there's a 1A one as well) but this morning when I turned on my PC, I heard a high-pitched whining and it turned out to be coming from the USB3 hub. The 0.5m USB cable wasn't even connected to anything but the noise stopped when I unplugged it and I noticed that area of the hub was quite warm. So I can only assume it managed to get a short in it somehow yesterday, when I was using it with the long extension cable from the wall-charger.

So to sum up, I normally charge the Cloupor with just the 0.5m cable from a 2A charge port on a USB3 hub but yesterday tried charging it from a 2A wall-socket charger with the same 0.5m cable, plus a 5m extension and that's when the problems started.

Anyway, I'll dispose of that 0.5m lead as it seems to have a (maybe intermittent) short internally and use a slightly longer one I've got. I've just charged the Cloupor with that from the hub and haven't had any problems. I didn't get either with the Cloupor, as my friend just gave that to me when he was over, so I'm not sure what the cable was originally from, maybe my phone or tablet.

[doveman]

May 13, 2015 16:57:11 GMT VapingBad said:

Spend a pound or two on a USB power metre, there a couple pictured in the charging guide, than you will know how many amps are being used and can see if there is a fault causing it to use more than it should, IIRC Minis use a bit less than 1 A.

That looks cool, definitely going to get one of those

[VapingBad]

May 14, 2015 17:18:23 GMT doveman said:

May 13, 2015 16:57:11 GMT VapingBad said:

Spend a pound or two on a USB power metre, there a couple pictured in the charging guide, than you will know how many amps are being used and can see if there is a fault causing it to use more than it should, IIRC Minis use a bit less than 1 A.

That looks cool, definitely going to get one of those

The white one is better £2.50 to £4, the blue one is a Charge Doctor and just over £1 from China, have a good search on eBay for a good price from the UK.

[doveman]

May 14, 2015 17:20:33 GMT VapingBad said:

May 14, 2015 17:18:23 GMT doveman said:

That looks cool, definitely going to get one of those

The white one is better £2.50 to £4, the blue one is a Charge Doctor and just over £1 from China, have a good search on eBay for a good price from the UK.

Definitely worth paying a little bit more for the white one I think. Thanks for the info.