# Russel Crowe and Hoverboards



## RIPPERTON (Jan 26, 2010)

Not allowed to board a Virgin Flight with kids Hoverboard so he publicly flames the airline.
Would like to see him get on any other flight with one.
But why are cell phones allowed on planes ?

http://www.9news.com.au/National/20...gin-Australia-airline-after-hoverboard-stoush


----------



## Hollie Maea (Dec 9, 2009)

In 2011, my wife got a job at a local company here in Portland called Inventist. Their main product at the time was an electric unicycle called a Solowheel. It was moderately successful, but plagued by Chinese counterfeits. Invariably, the fakes were very low quality. The battery packs, in particular, were terrible, using cheap cells, poor workmanship and no monitoring systems.

Her first task there was administering a kickstarter for a new product that they had recently developed a prototype for that they called "Hovertrax". This was the first so called "hoverboard".

Her job there didn't work out--Shane, her boss, decided he wasn't ready to have a dedicated marketing person. But in the intervening years, the Chinese once again got a hold of the design and started churning out cheap crappy fakes. I saw my first fake in person a year ago at CES. Obviously, over the past year "hoverboards" have become the biggest item of the year. But most of the ones sold have been the cheap crappy ones from Shenzhen. As per usual, they haven't bothered with quality components or QC, so fires are inevitable. So yeah, if you have a product that you want to have its reputation destroyed, just have the Chinese make cheap knockoffs of it.


----------



## RIPPERTON (Jan 26, 2010)

Just checking these things out on YouTube and the battery packs, even the Samsungs DONT HAVE BMS SYSTEMS !!!!!!!!!!!!!
or even a monitoring system. If I had one of these things I would make a LiPo pouch pack with balance charger connections.
Check out this vid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HKYjkHYAWM


----------



## Karter2 (Nov 17, 2011)

RIPPERTON said:


> But why are cell phones allowed on planes ?
> ]


When did you last hear of a cell phone spontaneously bursting into flames ?



> even the Samsungs DONT HAVE BMS SYSTEMS !!!!!!!!!!!!!
> or even a monitoring system. ...


How do you know there is not some form of "BMS" (balancer, hvc, LVC, current limit, etc) internal to that battery pack as with laptop packs ?.
Certainly there are no external connections but It looks to have more than just cells inside the shrink wrap.
Most reports seem to point to cheap crappy chargers as being the issue, .....which a decent BMS should protect against though ?


----------



## RIPPERTON (Jan 26, 2010)

Karter2 said:


> When did you last hear of a cell phone spontaneously bursting into flames ?


Never but they are LiPo.
I guess the advantage of only having 1 cell in series is that it never gets out of balance.


----------



## dragonsgate (May 19, 2012)

RIPPERTON said:


> Not allowed to board a Virgin Flight with kids Hoverboard so he publicly flames the airline.
> Would like to see him get on any other flight with one.
> But why are cell phones allowed on planes ?
> 
> http://www.9news.com.au/National/20...gin-Australia-airline-after-hoverboard-stoush


Just another hollyweirdo spouting off. This is a good argument in favor of the airline. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=84&v=9bAZfe7b9uw


----------



## RIPPERTON (Jan 26, 2010)

dragonsgate said:


> https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=84&v=9bAZfe7b9uw


1m 32s "and I got the Samsung battery"
and OMG the LAFD brings the hoverboard over to the truck so they dont have to use a hose


----------



## RIPPERTON (Jan 26, 2010)

Karter2 said:


> How do you know there is not some form of "BMS" (balancer, hvc, LVC, current limit, etc) internal to that battery pack as with laptop packs ?.
> Certainly there are no external connections but It looks to have more than just cells inside the shrink wrap.


Your right Karter just like battery drill packs there is a circuit board in there. They look like 9s 2p


----------



## dragonsgate (May 19, 2012)

RIPPERTON said:


> 1m 32s "and I got the Samsung battery"
> and OMG the LAFD brings the hoverboard over to the truck so they dont have to use a hose


You noticed that too eh? As I watched the fireman pick up and carry the burning board to the truck I first thought what a moron and I hoped all the batteries had already popped, then as the board rolled away the evil side of me thought what great footage it would be if the board rolled over to the cop bike and ignited it. Glad neither things happened but it would have been exciting all the same. At any rate there should be some retraining there. After watching that video my wife will never agree to getting some lithium's.


----------



## Karter2 (Nov 17, 2011)

The battery location, physical protection, and wiring layout in those things is terrible. So much chance of chafing, wire pinching, etc that it's no surprise they flame up.


----------



## Karter2 (Nov 17, 2011)

another house fire in Melbourne blamed on a hoverboard bursting into flames 10 mins after being plugged in to charge.
Much media comment from instant experts with comments like.. " they should be using a balance charger"


----------

