Well..... Almost had a disaster on my hands today. At FJ I picked up a small electric 3D airplane from TAM called a Banshee. I bought the entire flight package with the plane which included a 3 cell LiPo pack. This pack did not have the charge safe circuitry that most of todays Li packs have. Wanting to get a flight in the front yard this afternoon, I put the pack on charge, setting it on the floor of the garage. Went back in the house to watch the race. about 20 min later the smoke alarm in the garage goes off....! I go running out to find the battery in flames. I was very lucky as the only damage was to the charge lead, carpet and the paint finish on my charge box. This could have been a major disaster had I not recently installed a smoke alarm in the garage......
First and last time I will EVER use a Li type pack without charge safe circuitry! Also not a good idea charging in the house.... Just a reminder to be very careful with these batteries, I never thought it would happen to me .....
be safe.... charge smart!
Todd

Todd,

What charger were you using? What was the pack capacity and charge rate? As far as "safe charge" circuitry, I could be mistaken but none of the Kokam, Thunder Power, Apogee, etc. packs I have purchased in the last 6 months have had one.

Glad to hear you didn't have an even bigger problem on your hands... that's ugly!

Hurricanes, tornados,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, now battery's. my goodness T, glad you got this one in time [sm=sunsmiley.gif]


Dave

Pack was a thunder power 3 cell 1320mah, charger as a cameleon set at 3cell 1A charge. This was only the second time charging the pack, it was in perfect condition.... Just charged a Duralite 2100mah pack with the same charger to test it, working fine. All of the Duralite and great planes electrifly packs I use have the charge safe circuit and I have never had a problem with any of them.

BTW..... I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER.... I dont ever charge in the house, stupid move!

Todd

Todd, was it that battery pack, or another case of Tam selling to a inexperienced pilot?

This document is required to be delivered to the buyer with every TP pack sold by a reseller:

http://www.thunderpower-batteries.co...tyWarnings.pdf

Todd

I feel ur pain dude.

I also have numerous ThunderPower packs and one is the same as yours.

While I have never had one explode I have seen enough incidents to convince me to only charge them outside and away from everything.

On the flip side they have more power then any other battery type. My latest is a 3 cell pack 2100mah pack in my Kamdax Mig 15 and it rips faster then the Glow version.

Todd I'm curious was the charger you used the latest one from the German firm?

Ian

Todd,

Can you identify anything further to have this happen, I have been using 3 cell Thunderpower packs for last two years and have never seen anything out of ordinary. I routinely charge my 3s 1320 for a eheli @ 1.5amps on a MCDuo V8.06 and never feel any heat at all with pack. Very disturbing and puzzling, I've been thinking of outfitting all my RC models with Lipo's as I have been very pleased with their predictable charge discharge cycles.

What software version is the cameleon running?

Was it on LIoPO or LIioN just asking as you say you had just charged a Duralite......

Id be looking very carefully at what charge settings i had.
Stories of lithiums exploding during charging must in the majority of cases, be due to incorrect setup. If not, theyd be exploding all the time, Noone has ever heard of mobile phones exploding during charging, and yet we charge them all the time. I think human error is probably more likely than a faulty pack.
Im not slurring anyone with this statement, so please dont take offence.

To put it in perspective, in hospitals when cross matching blood samples for transfusion, a point was reached a few years ago to discontinue matching samples beyond a certain degree of accuracy, as most transfusion reactions were caused by human errors,eg nursing staff giving the wrong sample to the wrong patient etc rather than the blood itself being incompatible.

I digress, but the same logic applies in this situation.
I made the mistake about a month ago, when charging a lithium on a schulze charger, like the above of connectint the cells to the 2nd battery terminal, not the 1st battery terminal that id just programmed for lithium. That happened because id left my 4mm gold leads connected to the charger, but failed to notice it was in the wrong terminal. Fortunately id last used the 2nd terminal for lithiums, so it was set correctly, but its usually set for 4cell nicds. - a lucky escape.

The above quote is from ConsumerAffairs.com

I have about 8 Lipoly packs, including a couple TP, and I dont think any of them have any sort of charge safe in them, I too would double check your settings, you said you charged a Duralight, isnt that a LiIon and not a LiPoly? Just checking.

This is why I buy a specific charger for what I do. No chance of burning them up then.

83 explosions and fires for how many cellphone batteries out there? even at just a million cells for the sake of argument, im sure ill do something stupid with my charger maybe more often than that.
Thats pretty good odds that lithium cells are okay.

Unlike Ni-Cd batteries, Li-Poly batteries generate no heat when charging unless they catch fire. IMO you're just getting lucky. There is a reason manufacturers say to charge these at NO MORE than 1C.

I think you guys are misunderstanding what I am saying..... Charge settings where indeed 100% correct, I am very careful when setting batteries on charge knowing full well the dangers involved..... This was just pure stupidity charging them in the house as I NEVER do...

After reviewing the charge settings to assure they where correct, I change the charger over to LiIon setting and charged a duralite pack just to see if the charger was working properly. No issues during this charge....perhaps just a defective pack.... whatever the cause, my point was to charge in a safe area, dont take any risks, the one time you do is when you will get bit....
todd

This is from the Polyquest safety sheet. Please note that even with safety circuitry they don't recommend the Schultze charger. This is not a slam on anyone, just another heads up for safety sake. For those who are interested, FMA makes an add on safety circuit.


1. Protection Circuit Module (PCM)
All packs shall be used with a PCM which protects the cells/packs properly.
The PCM's have the function of preventing overcharging to maintain safety and
prevent significant deterioration of cell/pack performance.
Short circuit will destroy the cells/packs which can cause overheating, burst and/or fire.
The PCM will stop charging the battery if any one cell reaches above 4.30 volts.
Never disconnect the battery from the PCM during charging. Power down charger first.
PCM Guards are not compatible with pulse chargers such as Schultze.

Here is a link to the Polyquest safety information:
http://www.techrc.com/polyquestliposafety.html

Todd - given the fun I had with batteries last weekend too, maybe you & I need to get together to form the BHMS (Batteries Hate Me Society). Maybe we can have special "founder member" T-shirts made up to order

Sorry to here that Todd. I have tow ThunderPower battries 8000mah for my ION-heli. I am so afraid of these horrific stories. I just received my schulz 636, and hope it will be working?
regards

Since you bought the pack used, there's no telling what it went through before it got to you.

Probably not defective. More likely it was abused and these batteries are really easy to abuse.

This is why I only charge these batteries in my fireplace.

Dan

I have 4 TP2100 3S batteries for my T-Rex heli and 4 Triton chargers. I have at least 40 charges on each of these batteries with the Tritons and never had a problem.

Got that right Gordon, Matter of Fact... JR just stared a shirt company, have to see what the setup fee would be...

Hmmm....
Ya know, I find it somewhat disturbing that a good percentage of the replies in this thread are commenting on how I shouldnt have done this or I shouldn't have used that or the pack may have been abused; so let me say this.... First, as I mentioned early on in this thread, I bought this plane and power package from TAM, it was all brand spankin new quality equipment. I put one charge on this pack that worked perfectly (at the same settings used the second time) with the Schultz charger, A charger designed for and having the ability to charge LiPo packs. I have charged numerous Lipo packs with this charger and NEVER had a a pack light off or show signs of swelling. The only difference between the pack that exploded in my garage and the other packs I have been using is this one did not have a charge safe circuit! Whatever the reason for this pack going pyro on me, one fact still remains, the only one that really matters......There is a very serious fire danger when using these batteries! Be safe and charge smart when you are using LiPo batteries or any battery for that matter. Take precautions to assure your family and possessions are out of harms way should something go wrong!!
Todd

Hi Todd

Im glad that nothing serious happened. There is a product called battery bunker im not sure who makes them but I have seen it here on RCU in the market place. Its a ceramic Jar for charging that will contain any battery issues. (Still have to be careful what you do just an additional saftey measure)

Also ThunderPower is comming out with a blalance module that will make sure all cells in the pack are balanced. I have had some of my 3 cells puff on me after some use and that got me mad because one was after 2 charges! ( Not a TP pack ). I found out that even in our 1 P 3S or 2S battery packs individual cells can get unbalanced and one can overcharge while charging. I beleive this can happen with a over charge protector that only protects the whole series of batterys together and not the individual cells. Bill or any of the electric experts please correct me if I am wrong.

The best setup is a battery with individual taps so you can use a balancer down line from your charger to balance the series batterys as they charge. This will prevent puffed cells that are the result of one cell overcharging in the series pack. Most of the new stuff I see comming out have taps and or saftey devices to use with the battery packs, you might want to check the specs out on the saftey devices and make sure that they check and balance the cells individualy rather that the whole pack at once. I have read that you will only need to balance the packs once every 5 charges, but again I am no expert I have just been reading alot lately.

I have been on the electric forums to keep up regarding this balance issue, they have some great info on these lipolys.

Todd,

Please don't take this the wrong way...

...perhaps the safety circuits on your other LiPos were masking a problem with your charger's LiPoly operation by limiting the peak voltage (4.2) before any damage could be done. The fact that the pack charged successfully once would indicate otherwise but, there is always the possibility that luck/chemistry were on your side on that first charge cycle. I believe the reason some folks are asking about the software rev is because of some posts on the web indicating some sort of anomaly related to LiPolys with some Schulze's with software earlier than revision 8-"something".

I know it's useless anecdotal evidence but I own a couple dozen LiPo packs from 250 mah 2S1P E-Tecs to 2100 3S1P TP's, none have a "safety circuit", all have been charged many, many times (matter of fact, several are now getting kind of decrepit after 200+ charge cycles) and I never had an incident.

Anyhow, I am sure the warning about charging in a safe place and not leaving batteries unattended, with the photo to show the consequences, will help someone out there realize they need to treat these batteries with extra care and respect.

Edited because Hukt-on-Fonex wurkt fur me!