More Than 500,000 Hoverboards Recalled Because of Fire Hazards (go.com) 95
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."
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do the bloody math
I see what you did there... But I suspect that people dying on skateboards are usually not killed by skateboards.
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So this is a case of "Skateboards don't kill people, ... "
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Screw up on your regular hoverboard and you can kill yourself. Screw up with LiPo batteries and you can kill me.
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I think something more appropriate would have been "Great Scott!"
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Customers aren't your QA, nitwits!
If you didn't pay for the product... you ARE the product.
If you're on the leading edge... you ARE the QA.
Tesla wants to strap a giant lithium battery bank against the side of your house and connect it to the power grid. There's a good spot, right next to the kids' bedroom.
KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON (testing)
Should list those NOT recalled (Score:2)
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.
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I can say this: in the process of sourcing products from China, you run into a *lot* of places there (producers, middlemen) selling hoverboard-like things for dirt cheap. QA is surely almost nonexistent. Western companies can buy them and resell them for a big profit. And the results are ever-so predictable.
You never import from China without doing rigorous product inspection and testing - because they'll only manufacture to the minimum standard needed in order to get you to pay them. They can, and will
Re: Should list those NOT recalled (Score:1)
The messed up part is China actually has high standards for electrical and electronics. But the regulations don't apply to products made for export. They can build a rod that plugs into the wall and tells you to put it in your bathtub and it's okay as long as it's for export.
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I have seen those things, which are supposed to be used to heat up bath water. It isn't even a heating element, it is
just two plates connected to each terminal of the AC.
You might as well just throw a toaster in the bath instead.
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https://www.alibaba.com/produc... [alibaba.com]
Somehow I don't think that is really CE CEC or FDA approved as the picture implies.
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They can build a rod that plugs into the wall and tells you to put it in your bathtub and it's okay as long as it's for export.
So they're not going for the cultural victory?
Re:Should list those NOT recalled (Score:4, Insightful)
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Yeah, over 3 cents melted down.
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That's how a purely free market would behave, and libertarians just don't get the problem with it.
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And if an unscrupulous vendor spends literally all day coming up with excuses about "poorly written specs" and gets away with it because I have better things to do than spend literally *my* whole day writing up an absolutely airtight 50-page-legal-contract way of saying "do the damned job I'm paying you to do," well apparently it's my fault for not being an omniscient expert on everything.
This is why most people stop being libertarians when they get out of college and realize that they don't actually know e
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Apparently it is your fault that you choose not to sue the person committing fraud against you.
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Re:Should list those NOT recalled (Score:5, Interesting)
Or did some go into other devices
This isn't likely a battery problem but a device problem. Safe operation of LiPo batteries depends on sophisticated charging circuitry, and if a manufacturer cuts corners on that, the user won't know it until the fire starts.
One way of cheating on safety: Design the charger to deliver high current for a fast charge. Good example here: LiPo's have largely supplanted IC engines in model airplanes, and there's an incentive to charge at high rates so you can get in more flying in a day. Modelers take the battery out of the airplane and fast-charge it in a fireproof bag. They could leave it in there and get away with it most of the time, but they usually have the good sense not to.
An adolescent kid doesn't want to wait several hours to charge his hoverboard, and a fireproof bag would be an alarm bell to Dad, so the manufacturer has a motivation to work on the edge.
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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.
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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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Really, LiIon, especially the newer formulations are quite easy to charge properly. Just set max voltage at 4.2V, current limit it to around 1C and cutoff at about 1/10 C and you're golden. It really says a lot that they managed to screw it up.
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Really, LiIon, especially the newer formulations are quite easy to charge properly. Just set max voltage at 4.2V, current limit it to around 1C and cutoff at about 1/10 C and you're golden. It really says a lot that they managed to screw it up.
What it says is that a lot of these devices aren't being balance charged. They've just got a hot and a ground and they are charging the whole pack. Most of them would probably be just fine more or less forever if you fixed that problem.
Re:Ok but why? (Score:4, Informative)
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.
Cheap, uncertified charging circuit designs and components rushed into production by about a zillion chinese companies trying to cash in on the craze. Combine that with the size of the battery packs (much larger than what you would find in most consumer electronics) and you get a nice, big fire hazard.
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Charging the various lithium chemistry batteries safely is not that difficult and no more complicated than most other battery chemistries although the failures are more serious. I think what is happening is that they are exceeding the safe power density of the batteries to reduce charge time and increase power.
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I'm fairly certain you're wrong. As I recall most common rechargable batteries can simply be connected to a "dumb" charger that delivers "unlimited" current at [slightly less than maximum-charge voltage for the chemistry] and be fine - internal resistance will naturally ensure that actual current draw is limited to safe levels. With LiIon though, if I recall correctly, you have to be sure to current-limit the charger based on the battery capacity as it's quite capable of charging faster than it can safely
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Lead-acid batteries are the only other common secondary battery that can use constant voltage charging and except for flooded cells and sometimes not even with them, they must be current limited to prevent damage.
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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. -- roman_mir
Or a couple of houses burn down but whatever...
Re:Why the recall? (Score:4, Insightful)
The companies selling dangerous ones will get sued out of existence.
No, the shell corporations that own them will blow away with the smoke and business will resume under another shell.
In my opinion they should be recalling them... (Score:5, Insightful)
... because they can't hover.
Re:In my opinion they should be recalling them... (Score:5, Funny)
They do briefly when they explode
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The definitions I found don't say anything about "user control". There are OTHER problems with my word usage, but itza fricken joke, dammit. Stop hovering around the dictionary. Get out and walk the dog or something.
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... because they can't hover.
Dakine1493 wrote on reddit:
Pencil lead is made of carbon.
Koala bears are marsupials.
Jellyfish aren't fish.
A peanut is actually a legume.
Strawberries aren't berries.
Guinea pigs are rodents.
Chinese checkers didn't even come from Asia, let alone China.
Tin foil is made of aluminum.
You dial your phone although you haven't used a rotary phone in years.
Hoverboards don't actually hover.
Other day VTA train called Control asking can a passenger bring a hoverboard on board, I first wondered what this is (
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For the record, I never approved of peanuts either.
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After the 15+ years of clinical trials... after which they will be fully covered and paid for by Medicaid, because some court will rule that welfare rats have a "constitutional right to personal transportation devices to look for a job"
However, private insurance won't cover them, and the cash pay price will be around $13,000.
Side effects include but are not limited to: Drymouth, dizzy spells, periodic tunnel vision, wandering elbow, reddening of the hair, sudden urge to leave the room, nostalgia, waxy build
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Dude should have used a happy fun ball disclaimer. It work with only a change of the product name. and some are accurate.
Kid 1: It hovers!
Kid 2: It's a board!
All Three Kids: It's a Hoverbard!
Announcer: Yes, it's Hoverboard! The toy sensation that's sweeping the nation! Only $199.99 at participating stores! Get one today!
Warning: Pregnant women, the elderly, and children under 10 should avoid prolonged exposure to Hoverboard.
Caution: Hoverboard may suddenly accelerate to dangerous speeds.
Hoverboard contains
They are not hoverboards (Score:3)
http://www.wired.com/2015/10/how-the-most-promising-hoverboards-actually-work/
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OB Batman [imgur.com].
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We all have these disappointments in life. Like all the "robot" shows which are just fancy RC cars.
Do Not Taunt Happy Fun Ball (Score:3)
It's a start (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
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Re:It's a start (Score:5, Insightful)
What is it about hoverboards that pisses everybody off? Sure, a douchebag on one is a pain in the ass. So is a douchebag on rollerblades or a skateboard or a scooter, but I haven't seen them arouse the same kind of animosity...I don't get it.
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What is it about hoverboards that pisses everybody off? Sure, a douchebag on one is a pain in the ass. So is a douchebag on rollerblades or a skateboard or a scooter, but I haven't seen them arouse the same kind of animosity...I don't get it.
SKATEBOARDING IS NOT A CRIME
Perhaps you don't remember the war on skateboarding, but I'm from Santa Cruz so I do even though I was never a skater.
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Well, I teach engineering in Colorado, some of my students skateboard to class, and nobody seems to care. But nobody cares if they toke either, so maybe it's a regional thing.
also add this (Score:1)
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Basically every non-OEM battery ever is a sketchy, dangerous, fire hazard piece of crap and the vendors are lying about their reliability.
Have you ever opened an OEM pack? There's not a whole lot in there, just some 18650s and a dinky little charge monitor board that you can get off eBay if you want to build your own packs. And they go bad or burst into flames all the time. If anything, the vendors are lying about their reliability.
Swag! (Score:2)
Personally I suggest people who bought a product from a company called Swagway just stand on them and burn with their toy.
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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.
Change the marketing (Score:1)
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Major improvement (Score:2)
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!