Riva centre pin repair

[domesticextremist]

So I got affllicted with that bane of the rookie vapers life -
the sinking and crushed centre pin on a Riva battery.
Despite being careful not to overtighten, it was easily achieved
just by cycling through different attys, cartos and thingymisers
with their varying thread lengths and pin clearances.

You can read the whole saga here, but to cut a long story short I'd levered it up and watched it
sink one time too many, and the battery packed up altogether.
A test LED showed there was no output at the contacts.

Being a treehugger and tightwad, I didn't bin it, but instead
put it to one side whilst I figured how to fix it. It was only a couple
of months old, and should have plenty of life in it.
A few days ago I screwed an old carto onto it and wiggled off the
battery connector and found out why it wasn't working:



the wire had come away from the centre pin, subsequent manipulation by
me had also detached it from the controller circuit board.
Given that it is a super thin, super brittle single core steel piece of cr*p,
I decided that it should be replaced with something better.

[Deleted]

dom I have used the battery connectors from old duff batteries on a couple of mods and a work around of the centre pin issue is to use a bud nipple filler thing you get with the buds and a small flat head tack poked through and soldered to a switch works wonders for me and the tack seems to have a little resistance to move slightly thus retracting back if a carto is over tightened.

[domesticextremist]

I also needed to fix the original problem, which was that the
insulating grommet on the centre pin was knackered.

Maccafan (h/t) mentioned that the grommets from cartomisers were the
same size, so I dug around my store of old cartos (di I mention I was a
tightwad?) and found the following:



From left to right:

Boge

Kanger

Riva centre pin and grommet

Micromiser x7.

The micromiser one loked quite sturdy and had a groove in it which
might help prevent leakage of juice and give a tighter grip.
The pin is almost exactly the right size too ( and better quality than the carto
it came from ), so I decided to use that.

[domesticextremist]

The grommet flange is a bit thinner, but the pin head is a bit thicker,
so together they are the right thickness as the original.
Also, the blob of solder I will need to fill the hole will add a bit of
thickness.

[Deleted]

done job there buddy i have limited tools but am always amazed at the work around people can come up with me included the tightwad I am says surely i can find a nut to replace outer part of battery connector fill it with resin and tap a nail through to complete

[domesticextremist]

So, off to Maplins for a new soldering iron tip ( a fine pointy one
for that delicate circuit board).
Cost a few bob, but at least they had one in stock for my very
old soldering iron. Also got some decent wire - 7/0.2 which I
think means 7 0.2mm cores - and should be more robust and
flexible than the rubbish one that broke.

Firstly, I soldered up the centre hole in the new pin and filed it
down nicely, then soldered the wire to the back of the pin.

Insert the grommet into the connector,



push the wire through



then push it through the grommet and seat perfectly by screwing in
an old carto



In fact the wire breaking off was a blessing in disguise, as it made
this part of the job much easier and less fiddly.

[domesticextremist]

Next bit is harder. Trim, strip and tin the loose end of the wire, making
sure you have (just) enough length to be able to fix it to the circuit board.

There was a lump of solder left from the old wire that I didn't want to faff
around trying to remove as I was worried about frying the components on
the board, so I made sure I generously tinned the wire and hoped for the best.

Fortunately, it worked:

[domesticextremist]

The fiddliest part of all is getting it back together with the button in place.
You need to hold it with the hole lowermost, drop the button into place
and slide the circuit and microswitch in very gently without disturbing it,
whilst keeping the slots aligned so it all fits together nicely.

Too fiddly to get a picture, and took several goes.
Once together, push the connector into the battery finger tight and
test fire it.

Test vape it too, if all seems well, tap together gently with a mallet until
there are no gaps left

[domesticextremist]

The whole thing took about an hour, end to end, including taking photos
and faffing with the button.

Here it is with a Stardust attached, showing a gap of around 1 mm.



Previously that would have screwed right down and not made contact.

[domesticextremist]

And finally, my tip of the week.

With the passing of the years, my eyesight isn't what it used
to be, so to help with all of that fine soldering I used a counting glass.

It looks like this:



and here's the Dom's eye view



Very useful if you can find one

[Deleted]

Sir Dom Knightwad

[maccafan]

Good walkthrough Dom and great photos!

Mar 10, 2012 22:41:50 GMT domesticextremist said:

The fiddliest part of all is getting it back together with the button in place.
You need to hold it with the hole lowermost, drop the button into place

I use low adhesive tape and tape the button from the outside before sliding the PCB and holder. Found it a bit less fiddly that way and not needing 3 hands.

With soft buttons you can just deform and insert them in from the outside.

[domesticextremist]

Mar 10, 2012 22:26:17 GMT @colliwobbles said:

dom I have used the battery connectors from old duff batteries on a couple of mods and a work around of the centre pin issue is to use a bud nipple filler thing you get with the buds and a small flat head tack poked through and soldered to a switch works wonders for me and the tack seems to have a little resistance to move slightly thus retracting back if a carto is over tightened.

Top tip colliwobbles , but I find those filler nipples really useful for
attaching to blunt nosed bottles for filling up various things

[domesticextremist]

Mar 10, 2012 22:51:49 GMT maccafan said:

Good walkthrough Dom and great photos!

Mar 10, 2012 22:41:50 GMT domesticextremist said:

The fiddliest part of all is getting it back together with the button in place.
You need to hold it with the hole lowermost, drop the button into place

I use low adhesive tape and tape the button from the outside before sliding the PCB and holder. Found it a bit less fiddly that way and not needing 3 hands.

With soft buttons you can just deform and insert them in from the outside.

Actually I had planned to tape it in place like that, but forgot before
I'd gone and soldered it all together

[domesticextremist]

Well, before putting everything away, I decided to do my
second, original Riva battery.
It had started to go in terms of sinking pin, and as soon as I
took it apart, the atty connector wire snapped away.
fixed it up, and can report that both are vaping and charging
properly (which is a relief ).

I have a third one, which is newer and was bought separately.
This one seems to have a better quality grommet in it, and hasn't yet
suffered, maybe they have revised the design a bit.

So hopefully I won't need to do this again.