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More Than 500,000 Hoverboards Recalled Because of Fire Hazards (go.com)
501,000 self-balancing scooters -- more popularly known as hoverboards -- are being recalled due to fire hazard concerns, said The U.S. Consumer Product Safety. The lithium-ion battery packs in the hoverboards can overheat -- which could result in sparking, smoking, fire, and explosion -- the agency added. ABC reports:The recall involves hoverboards from eight manufacturers/importers that are made with lithium-ion battery packs as well as 4,300 from Overstock.com and 1,300 from a store in Pennsylvania. Amazon.com is not listed in the recall, but in February, the online giant worked with the CPSC to offer refunds to any customer who wanted to return hoverboards purchased on the site. Hoverboards by Swagway make up more than half of those recalled -- 267,000. "We are urging consumers to act quickly," CPSC Chairman Elliot Kaye told ABC News. "We've concluded pretty definitively that these are not safe products the way they were designed."
what?
Customers aren't your QA, nitwits!
They listed a ton of brands. I think it would be easier to do a list of hoverboards that are NOT proven fire hazards, rather than the other way around.
Also is there some reason those lithium batteries only went into hoverboards? Or did some go into other devices - and are those other devices safe?
After all, it's not the wheels or actual standing area that's the problem.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
Only LUDDITE hoverboards catch fire! Modern appy appboards are 100% appy so they always app perfectly!
Apps!
Is this directed at the GPU article from earlier today?
Otherwise while i've never owned a "hoverboard" most lithium batteries aren't 12v.
lithium chargers are typically some oddball voltage 4 4.1 4.2 15v or something hard to find like that.
Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
Is the usual li-ion battery circuitry preventing overcharging missing/broken? Does the battery get crushed from the weight of the human? What's going wrong here?
"It can be dangerous!" doesn't tell me anything I don't already know about compact stores of energy.
The companies selling dangerous ones will get sued out of existence. The ones selling better ones will thrive. That's the market in action. Hillary doesn't have to get involved every time a kid scratches his knee.
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roman_mir
The only thing more pathetic than them is the original 'transportation revolution' Segway. There is no hovering to these ridiculous contraptions.
... because they can't hover.
...I see an advertisement for a Hoverboard right at the top of the page as I write this post.
When is the FDA going to regulate them?
Letterman's Dangerous Toys
The Charging Voltage for a Li_ion cell is 4.2 +/- 1% The voltage of a Pack will be multiples of that. But that is not enough for a proper charger. The results of an improper charge is "vent with flame".
They are a glorified 2 wheel motor-boards. They don't hover in any shape or form they are firmly planted to the ground by 2 wheels. This is a true hoverborad it actually hovers over air
http://www.wired.com/2015/10/how-the-most-promising-hoverboards-actually-work/
Jack of all trades,master of none
or wannabe "hoverboards".
Most Lithium batteries are 3.6V, but you still need a way to charge that particular battery type. I remember when NiCad's were all the rage. Then "memory effect" problems came up, and just about every device the NiCad's were used in started to suffer problems (I remember a speak-and-read that just randomly spouted words and then "crashed.") When NiMH came around (basically NiCad Version 2) the same problem happens to devices that were designed for Alkaline batteries.
Now if we could only recall all of the douchebags who think it's cool to ride them. Extra points for vaping at the same time.
3.7 is nominal. At max charge it comes out over 4, briefly, depending on load. When your charge falls below 3.7 you are sucking fumes.
How about they recall every single off-brand garbage battery ever made in China? I've had replacement laptop batteries fail after a week. I've heard quite a few light on fire or melt too. The same goes for the garbage quality set of 2 batteries I got from 2 different vendors for my digital camera. Basically every non-OEM battery ever is a sketchy, dangerous, fire hazard piece of crap and the vendors are lying about their reliability.
And burn away. Isn't this the american way of using gadgets and doing business?
Personally I suggest people who bought a product from a company called Swagway just stand on them and burn with their toy.
The level of complete ineptitude on the part of the hardware designer is astounding. Plenty of scooters and other vehicles have been powered by Li-ion batteries and all of them seem to have no trouble with power protection circuits that keep the Li-ion battery in safe operating temperature. Most of these self balancing scooters (I refuse to call them hoverboards) have about the same amount of Li-ion cells as an average laptop. Don't see anything about laptops blowing off peoples hands. Even if this designer didn't know how to make a power regulation and charging circuit they could have easily found an off the shelf premade one to use. I'm surprised no one has tried to sue these companies for neglect given how poorly designed and poorly tested this Russian Roulette board is.
They just need to re-brand these as 'Hoverboard Extreme' and they can sell as many as they like. For the hipsters shooting vines of their hoverboard tricks, the added features of these so-called defects can only put more eyeballs on the link.
You're making a false assumption. If the hardware designer is tasked with coming up with the lowest-priced, cheapest-to-manufacture design which doesn't blow up before leaving the factory, he's doing a fine job.
3.7v is nominal, 4.2 is a typical max for charging. 3.3 is typical for cutoff, 3.0 is typical for LOW cutoff. some cutoffs are even set lower than 3, which I find quite shocking (forgive the pun).
if you find a battery that is more than 3.7v and uses lithium, its a true battery, meaning its comprised of CELLS and each cell is the 3.7v unit
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"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
Remember the time when those laptop batteries got recalled, over heating and exploding?
From burning crotches to burning feet, I dare say, consumer technology is improving!