Just received a notice from FedEx. Shipment just arrived in Boise, Idaho. Expected delivery date: December 21.
Aaargh! I don’t understand why it went from the West Coast to Idaho, when it will probably have to go back to the West Coast to send to Hawaii.
Oh, well. That still leaves a few days margin for any additional delays before Christmas.
EDIT: The hoverboard never went to Boise. The FedEx notice for Boise was for a different package. (Husky air inflator that I purchased from Home Depot a year and a half ago blew a hole in the hose. 2 year warranty. Husky didn’t have a replacement hose available, so they sent me a complete new unit. I didn’t expect them to FedEx it, but they did. It arrived today, that’s when I noticed that the FedEx package was shipped via Boise.)
We, admittedly fringe hobbyists, have been in wonder how all the dangerous stuff gets out of China without serious repercussions. This may be the moment, when the masses have become aware of those dangers. China now has to take product safety and quality seriously or face a significant economic downturn. I say this because I am seeing these stories on local news channels. Parent after parent is saying they are returned their child's board without concern whether the board was dangerous or not.
Fake emitters have made me finally cut off two vendors I use trust. Something, I didn't ever see myself doing.
Fxxx seemed to have pulled the pana/Samsung wrappers off their site, but not before I stopped buying batteries from them. For all I know they could be pulling laptop recycles and rewrapping them to pass on as real for low priced sales.
As for the boards, someone should sue these unscrupulous sellers out of existence, all for the better of consumers.
Has anyone seen any indication from news that the boards which have caught fire actually had faulty cells or packs? It seem like the same cells/pack design would be used in other products and they would suffer the same flaming fate, but this doesnt seem to be the case.
Most people attribute the problem to the battery cells but maybe problem lies in the electrical or charging design or rough treatment of the devices.
It’s giving 18650’s a bad name but I haven’t seen anything to indicate that the flaming boards couldnt contain pouch type lipos. I know most hoverboards use 18650’s but haven’t seen anything specific to the affected boards.
My son’s hoverboard arrived yesterday. Unfortunately, I couldn’t take apart the battery pack to see what brand cells they contained.
My impression of the quality and workmanship is that it seems to have been assembled right. A few sloppy gobs of silicone here and there, but soldering seems to be well done. The one thing that I noticed was the lack of weatherseals anywhere on the unit. Seems like water can enter from any of the joints or ports.
36V !!! That’s a lot of cells in series. I’d be more worried about the kind of charge balancing and cell monitoring they have in there than the quality of the cells.
Interestingly, while the carbon fiber exterior shell, lights, and ports appear to be identical to the one I purchased, the inside looks completely different!
After Christmas, do you plan to open up the wrapper on one of the battery packs? Personally I’d have to know that they were real quality cells. It was advertised as Samsung cells, correct?
i would try to be 101% sure that a gift i made is save
especially when that things are known as dangerous…
an german news magazine tested one which blocked the wheels after a few minutes of use
every reporter who tried that felt. until one broke his elbow.
but the testlacked details in electrical points…
Look at all the lithium batteries for power tools. I haven't heard of many exploding drills and such. I was reading the box today for a Dewalt drill and for the batteries it says they come from Japan, China, Thailand,Malaysia and one other I think. So you are rolling the dice with them too.