I was wondering if any has seen one of these lipo's explode thats my worry as the only explotion ive seen was from a satilite battery mafg. employee that had a piece of lithim 1/2 the size of a base ball he droped it in abour 3/4 of a galon of water and told us to run like hell well he was right it showered a 300ft radius with white hot material that if you steped on it it would burn up through your shoe and it sent a mushroom cloud up over 100 feet granted the reaction he got was mostly due to the lithium decomposing the water into hydrogen and oxygen. That experiance sure has me woundering what im about to put into my new $2500 pride and joy.

Hi if you choose to use Lipo batterys there are some things you can do to add a safty margin.

1 use a dedicated lipo charger. formeco has 3 and 6 output lipo chargers and set it up so you can remove the baterys from the plane for charging.

2 if your going to charge in the house or garage make a charging valt. this is a steel box lined with 5/8 sheet rock.

3 watch the batterys during charging. first they get hot, then swell up long before detination.

This was too much trouble for me so I chose NmHD

bluemagic,

Lithium technology has come a long way. If you short a NiMh or NiCd together they will get hot enough to melt the plastic and melt wires. I have never herd of the modern lithium batterys we use exploding. I have heard stories of them catching on fire, but this was always due to improper charging techniques. Read all the safety info on your particular charger and battery. I hade a 3600Mha Lithium pack in a 1/4 scale katana. The wing snapped and it plumeted in from 500 feet. The pack was ripped apart in the crash and the cells were even dented and one was ruptured. There was no fire or explosion for more info visit:


http://www.rcbatteryclinic.com/


click on the link to lithium technology and safety

Dan wich radio shack did you find that power supply? I got a Triton charger and it says for power input it needs at least 13 amos of current while maintaining 12 volts dc.

I found a better deal

This is a 12 amp:

http://www.efunctional.com/ps14kx.html

http://www.millionbuy.com/caudio-kit-sup.html

http://www.valcoelectronics.com/psupplies/ps14.htm

here is three places

If you want a first hand version of a lithium battery exploding, ask Tom Fawcett to describe his "almost burned the house down" experience in detail. It should scare you into learning as much as you can about lithium batteries.

They WILL most definitely explode if you handle them improperly. Use only a charger that was designed to charge lithium batteries. DO NOT try to adapt other types of chrages. Take the time, and expend the effort needed to fully understand the limitations of lithiums, and the correct methods of charging and caring for them.

There is nothing wrong about using lithium batteries. But you do need to pay attention to what you are doing.

the triton say s that you need 13 amps to get max out of it but you only need a little bit i run my triton off a 6 amp supply in my house and it charges the 4400 mah li-on at a charge rate os 2 amps and there no probs

you will need the 13 amps when you start charging the max number of cells its rated for

Hey Tom... I just got the edge today and WOW... This plane is top notch.. I don't care who you are no one could build a better plane.. everything lines up like clock work.. Covering is perfect! Everyone at my field flies .90 and smaller planes.. They are all jeolous.. I can't wait to slap the DA on this bird!!

I'm glad that you are pleased, that's why we're here!

TF

Assembly is going very smooth.. I have done about all I can do without the engine present.. I will mount the engine before I mount any radio gear, install the tail wheel and hinge the rudder.. Any word on the DA's Tom?

DA's were shipped to me last MOnday according to DA, have not received them yet but I expect them within 1 or 2 days.

TF