Well, the bad news is … the hoverboard is being banned in just about every corner of the globe.
The good news is … mine is the only kid on the block who has one! :evil:
Reminds me, that.
The Force Awakens tomorrow I will see.
I just watched this video on hoverboards, an interesting take from someone who’s a research chemist.
New story just came out, another hoverboard burst into flames in a mall yesterday. Link The hoverboard was actually sitting in it’s box when it went up. It was returned for being unable to charge, an employee attempted to charge it then put it back in it’s box. The Texas mall was evacuated (as it should be).
Not the first time they have caught on fire in a mall. If this keeps up I could see them being banned in some enclosed malls. It’s becoming a liability for mall owners to allow them to be sold inside, considering all the reports of them burning plus being banned by airlines and postal services. Customers will be exposed to HF and other toxic fumes if one burns.
I see several of my neighborhood kiddos with these boards. I know there parents, they are oblivious to 18650s and batteries. So curious to see how this works out.
I doubt they have a charging rig like 1dash1 does. Very cool.
I would assume you have a quality fire extinguisher on the ready? I basically charge my lipos (or suspect Lions) with a smaller set up just like this in the middle of my garage or in my driveway, weather permitting. I use .50 cal ammo cans. I drilled small holes and passed the wires through. Then I sealed them with high temp silicon. That holds the wires and keeps them from potential rubbing and shorting. I keep safety glasses, welding gloves and a commercial extinguisher handy too. I also have the flame resistant battery bags.
This all sounds extreme, but one of my good RC buddies has a sever burn mark on his hand from one of his lipos. The fool was charging it in his bedroom!! He had it in the bags, but a old battery had some problems and over heated. He had to grab them and run outside, and it burned him. “We are so careful I never dreamed it could happen to us”. His quote. lol I said careful? You were charging inside your house in your bedroom, dummy.
Anyways,
Now you guys got me on Amazon looking for that timer. Great idea.
As long as your ammo box is containing the fire / it hasn’t been able to spread outside the box, I’d recommend just keeping an eye on it from afar instead of opening it and trying to extinguish it. If you know that you wouldn’t be happy trying to wait for it to burn itself out then I’d suggest adding a respirator to your kit with a filter that covers HF. 3M Multi Gas / Vapor, P100 Filter covers hydrogen fluoride plus particulates in smoke.
Also you don’t want to seal your box. It seems they can pop If it can’t vent quickly enough. There are youtube videos showing even good metal boxes bursting open. You could do a wire attached to the lid. Just enough length to let pressure open it a bit to vent.
And the contents of the kiosk where it was sold and the owners have disappeared…
I’m sure they have!
The mall owner did tell them to immediately remove all hoverboards from the mall.
Whether you realize it or not, insurance companies run and control US business. In most places of public retailing, by law you must have liability insurance and that comes with a lot of restrictions. Hoverboards will probably be on that list of prohibited items with all US insurance companies as soon as their legal department can design and implement the wording. It will likely extend to your homeowner’s policy too, and maybe even your auto policy. Just a 5% increase in build cost could have made them much safer but it seems that nobody tried.
A really great concept will be killed by greed before it even had a chance to mature.
Phil
Santa brought you the wrong hoverboard… try one of these…
If only they can make it actually go somewhere…
There were already four holes that I had drilled to mount the truck box to the rail of my Toyota Tacoma bed.
This photo shows the back side of the box. (Front latches are located on the opposite side.)
I widened one of them by about another 1/8”. I’m able to thread the power cord through the newly widened hole. The box now latches closed.
Note: The box is not airtight. There is plenty of gap between the lid and the box, plus the 4 mounting holes. So, in case of an explosive event, the box might deform but I don’t think that it would burst.
BTW, I have been recharging the hoverboard with my garage door closed. However, in view of the comments about HF gas venting, I think I’ll change this practice and, instead, do the recharging with the garage door open.
And I’ve made a mental note NOT to open the box in the event of a fire, but to simply allow the contained fire to burn itself out.
Thanks, Halo…, for bringing this to my attention!
That box might just melt if the hover board goes wild. A li-ion battery fire might be hot enough to ruin that box.
I have no illusions as to whether my truck box would survive.
It would indeed be sad. I hope your kids have many incident free days on the HVB and that your truck box survives.
If they can safely charge Teslas, then a hoverboard or two should be manageable.
I noticed that he is riding a 10-inch model. So far, the only ones that have been catching fire and/or exploding have been the smaller models. We’ll see if that trend continues.
These guys might want to change the name for the color of their hoverboard: http://buckyboards.com/products/buckyboard-10-in-fire-red?variant=6267125381
:evil:
> truck box
I hope you plan to put a rubber grommet or plastic strain relief cord bushing in that hole drilled through the aluminum.
Just because …
Nice timer on the outlet, where did you find that?
I’m curious whether the recharge time is consistent so you can predict how to set the timer (does the board always get run down to some known level each time?)
I am still way put off by these boards because of the lack of balance charging — seems to me the risk accumulates over time and we’ll see more troubles later on.
I filed the edges of the hole smooth and there’s minimal tension on the cord, so I don’t plan on doing anything more with the hole.
I don’t recall where I got the timer, probably Amazon. I’ll check for brand/model when I get home this afternoon.
And no, the recharge time is not consistent because my son’s use is not consistent. So, I have to periodically check the charging status. For example, yesterday, the charge light turned green after only 15 minutes. I have the timer set for 1 hour and 15 minutes. It’s function isn’t to turn off the charger as soon as the battery is re-charged. Instead, it’s purpose is as a fail-safe shut off device, in case I happen to forget about the recharging and preempt the possibility of the battery being constantly charged overnight.
BTW: I received a FedEx large envelope yesterday. Inside was the customs declaration packet for the hoverboard shipped from China. I don’t quite understand how customs was cleared for the original delivery a week or so ago, but I thought that it was conscientious of the dealer to follow up by sending me the papers. It was an unexpected service!
I didn’t buy from the cheapest source. The price I paid was about $30 more expensive. But the hoverboard was delivered on time, via the stated delivery service (FedEx), was well-packaged, and delivered in good working order. While the jury is still out on whether the batteries are or are not original Samsung brand batteries, everything else in the process has been very reassuring. 