RE: Any one else using lipo batteries
Thanks guys, I gave up alcohol 3 years ago. No, not drinking it, burning it. So all my planes have been electric since then. I also shoot (please whisper when you say that in your head cause I’m from NY), and well they tell me these things can be quite exciting if punctured so I had to see. I’ve shot 6s, 5s, 4s, and 3s; ive shot them as fully charged as possible(for a bad battery) and dead. Here is what I noticed:
- When the plastic around the ribbon is punctured it holds its shape. The heat from the battery going off does not expand the size of the opening or melt the plastic exposing more ribbon thus preventing a runaway.
- The amount of charge left in the battery definitely contributes to the zeal of the flair up. A well charged battery will go off like a Roman Candle with lots of zeal but just through the puncture hole. A dead battery will sit there and smolder for hours but no Roman Candle affect at all.
- When one cell is punctured it will not open up the next, further limiting runaway.
- A 22lr will only penetrate 1.5 cells, to give an idea of the power required to puncture. Same bullet will go klean through the 1.75 in thick side of a 2x4 and through the 3.5 in side most of the time. Because of this I put foam on all the sides of my lipo carrying box because it is most likely the constant rubbing of vibration(like a lipo left in the box in the car for years that will cause the cover to fail.
- Lastly some of the low charged batteries would smolder for hours. Needing to make them safe I figured salt water is the thing that kills the ribbon so I poured gatoraid in the opening until the cell was full. It boiled away three times before the battery was “inert”. The next time out I brought salt water and that worked very well. That does not mean that salt water will work with a battery that is going off like a Roman Candle. My shooting budy is a flame tamer, and ARF trained (Aircraft fire and rescue) and green carded. The process we have adopted is remove all combustibles from the area as possible and wait for the zeal to diminish then use salt water to make the battery safe for removal (with a shoval of coarse).
The thing that I like about lipo’s in tanks is that I can charge a 2.1amp pack at 4.2 amps and the battery is back in service ready to use in 40 minutes. So two batteries will keep a tank running all day long non stop.
Joe