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esky honeybee cp2 - 7/8/2007 8:14:34 AM   
superchuckles



Posts: 6
Joined: 7/8/2007
From: rio linda, CA, USA
Status: offline 		ok, i don't know if anyone else has had problems with this, & the book that came with mine had no real warning (only a "note" ) of this..... i got my helicopter & like many i'm sure, i put batteries in the transmitter, plugged in the battery on the heli & played around with it for a few minutes. knocking out the initial blade adjustments & whatnot, got everything where it seemed pretty well balanced, & would get sufficient lift for takeoff & everything - when the battery started to die.... no problem, plugged in the charger & started charging away.... after about 5 minutes (yeah, i was impatient) i played with it for a couple more minutes & everything seemed ok, so i plugged it back in to charge. did a few other things for about another 5 minutes, came back to check on it before leaving & everything was fine. took off & about 45 minutes/1 hour later, came home to discover the thing had caught my house on fire. this was back on june 30, but you know, with no electricity & no internet connection, kinda hard to post such problems.... now with working computer & temp power & repairs on my internet connection, i'm here to say --- don't trust this thing for a second. it isn't as reliable or trustworthy as a $20 helicopter when it comes to the charger/battery in as much as the safety issue goes. i have been an electronic repair tech for over 20 years now, & i've never EVER had any kind of battery recharger do this. i should specify it is my belief there is nothing really wrong with the charger itself, except that it gets the battery too hot (to the point of catching fire). even if it is/was the battery having a defect, there should be simple safeguards built into the charger to prevent such an a thing from happening, which clearly haven't been done with this unit. & just so everyone knows, yes, it has been determined by several investigators that the helicopter itself was indeed the cause of the fire. upon seeing the scene (such as it was) the cause was quite obvious. i only post this to warn people, not to discourage them from getting one of these - as i do plan to get another one, once repairs are completed upon the house. i wont get into the fact that it endangered the lives of other people who were at home, & killed my 12 year old chinchilla - needless to say that if it hadn't been for a rubber hose melting & bursting, blowing water on the fire, the entire house would have been destroyed - as it was, it only destroyed everything in the room & killed my pet (yeah, that's all).

< Message edited by superchuckles -- 7/8/2007 8:15:28 AM >
       Post #: 1

RE: esky honeybee cp2 - 7/9/2007 2:09:56 AM   
mrasmm


 

Posts: 4422
Joined: 1/9/2007
From: Sometown, Northern Utah, USA
Status: offline 		oh man =( that's really bad news =( I'm sorry for your loss...

about the battery, the main thing, and they don't say it in the manual very well is that you want to charge it all the way before you start playing with the heli. Also just bceause of the type of battery chemistry, they are prone to this kind of faliure when they either are not treated properly or have mfg defects. Also if you charge them before they cool down to about 80F, you really increase your odds of blowing up the pack, and if you put the pack on when it is over about 95F it is more likely that you'll reach the thermal run away and catch the pack on fire.

Overall I agree, they should probably warn people more, and their charger is not the safest, but at the same time, what can you expect out of a $10 charger in an RTF package.... they normally always work. I use one, but they definately don't have the safety features that the more expensive chargers have. A good charger could easily double the cost of the RTF kit.

The main thing with these batteries, when you get done flying them in the heli, you want them to real nomial when the pack is just sitting there in a no load situation. That will leave about 20% left in the pack and severely reduce the odds that they will go up in smoke like this.

Man that really sucks that it happened to you =( Sorry for your loss =(

_____________________________

I don't always check every thread I respond to, so feel free to PM me

(in reply to superchuckles)
       Post #: 2

RE: esky honeybee cp2 - 7/9/2007 8:27:43 AM   
ezveedub



Posts: 428
Joined: 6/8/2007
From: Davie, FL, USA
Status: offline 		Man, thats sucks!! Sorry to hear about the fire. I assume you had a LiPo battery. There are warnings running around about charging LiPos and not to leave them unattended due to the risk of fire. Your the first actual case I heard of. I was charging mine last night and actually drove back home from a RC race just to unplug it. I did place it on a metal object to charge though. If you ever decide to use these again, they make a fireproof Kevlar charging bag just for Lipos. The other option is a clay flower pot or any fire proof clay or conrete container. I own a E-Flite Blade CP and the manual has better bold statements about these batteries and the fire risk. I just went through my manual for my Honey Bee King 2 and it has some warnings, but it looks like all the other warnings. There is no fire warning in the charging section. The E-Flite manual looks like it was published for the US with all the warnings in bold. Esky is more done for info and instructions of the actual product. Looks like all the other foreign product manuals I get for RC equipment.


_____________________________

Hornet X-3D, Trex 450SE, Mini-Z
MP777, MBX5R , MBX5T, Inferno & Spada 09, MBX6, MP9

(in reply to mrasmm)
       Post #: 3

RE: esky honeybee cp2 - 7/9/2007 11:43:00 AM   
mrasmm


 

Posts: 4422
Joined: 1/9/2007
From: Sometown, Northern Utah, USA
Status: offline 		here is the link for that lipo sack
http://www.liposack.com/

_____________________________

I don't always check every thread I respond to, so feel free to PM me

(in reply to ezveedub)
       Post #: 4

RE: esky honeybee cp2 - 7/9/2007 4:38:05 PM   
superchuckles



Posts: 6
Joined: 7/8/2007
From: rio linda, CA, USA
Status: offline 		the thing is, it seems to me that it shouldn't be that difficult to place a thermal switch in the battery pack, or just design the charger to charge at a lower milliamp rate so that it doesn't get so hot. nearly all battery packs for cordless drills (on newer models anyhow) come with a thermal sensor of some type to keep the battery from charging when it's too hot.... likewise, most brands of laptop batteries also come with a thermal sensor of one type or another for the same reasons. i realize this would be a cost addition to the product (of maybe when all is said and done, cost to them perhaps fifty cents & that would be giving them probably about forty cents more than it would really cost), but when all is said & done, they would be bulletproof like any/every other charger on the planet. i realize there are ways to make sure (i mean, come on........ it's 2007, you shouldn't have to charge the thing in a fireproof box, that is absurd) it wont catch the house on fire, but my point is that it should never even come into question. anyhow, that's my gripe for today - i know my complaints here wont do much good -- just hoping that nobody else goes through this -- i did read quite a bit about this thing before getting it & never once did i see anything about anyones ever catching fire..... i never even saw a post about the lipo battery getting excessively hot. i would have thought it would have gotten hot right away, but apparently that's not the case. maybe someone will read this that works at the company & help push for better charger or adding the right components to make it safer. unsafe products don't exactly make the greatest advertising slogans. i will get another (eventually)....

(in reply to mrasmm)
       Post #: 5

RE: esky honeybee cp2 - 7/10/2007 6:01:43 PM   
Tram



Posts: 565
Joined: 9/5/2004
From: Florence, AL, USA
Status: offline 		Wow.. man.. Bummer.. Hate to hear about your house and your chinchilla.. My sister used to want one of those realllly bad when we were kids...

As much as I hate to see this, the error of others can teach us many lesson.. "Learn from history or repeat it" and all that..

When I saw this thread, I was interested to read it, as I was curious to what had happened.. I made some instant "I bet this is what happened.." and unfortunately, I was right... and the key phrase in all of your story is this...

quote:

took off & about 45 minutes/1 hour later, came home to discover


One should NEVER charge lipos unattended, unless they are prepared for the results or have them setup in a manner as to prevent a disaster from happening..

_____________________________

Jeff Williams
www.CommonSenseRC.com

(in reply to superchuckles)
       Post #: 6

RE: esky honeybee cp2 - 7/10/2007 8:00:04 PM   
superchuckles



Posts: 6
Joined: 7/8/2007
From: rio linda, CA, USA
Status: offline 		yeah, only problem with that is if a battery can't be left alone to recharge, then it is inherently unsafe & should be pulled from the market. the thing is, i don't believe they're inherently unsafe, i think the manufacturer is making them unsafe by not building in safeguards like thermal protection - which can (and has been) added to any/all rechargeable batteries. once those kinds of safeguards are in place, there's no reason a battery can't be plugged in & then just left there to charge. imagine your car without a voltage regulator or cordless drills without a thermal sensor....... imagine your laptop without a thermal sensor (heh - ibm, dell, you've seen the stories) - the same thing would result. having to sit & babysit a battery when for $0.49 the thing can be made bulletproof from the factory. it will happen when enough incidents such as mine have happened.

(in reply to Tram)
       Post #: 7

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