What causes the Lipo battery failures?

[Byr0n]

Off topic a little but what actually heats these cameras up when there being used? Is it the battery? If so will it become as hot with super cap?

 

[REyewitness]

Whats the risk of fire caused by small battery? actually making it outside of the camera case? These cameras all have met quality and safety standards as they have the stamps ( rohs fcc ) etc. Are we making it more of a risk than it really is? I have only seen swollen camera battery.

 

[jokiin]

Whats the risk of fire caused by small battery? actually making it outside of the camera case? These cameras all have met quality and safety standards as they have the stamps ( rohs fcc ) etc. Are we making it more of a risk than it really is? I have only seen swollen camera battery.

assuming the tests are valid anyway, you can still past these tests and have a casing that is not fire safe, a charge circuit with no intelligence to shutoff once the battery is full, no protection circuitry for the battery itself, low grade cells, random failure etc, when prices are cheaper they're cheaper for a reason

 

[kamkar]

i had a 5400 mah lipo "blow up in my face" yesterday, or rather i saw and smelled it was heading in that direction, so i yanked it off the charger and threw it out the window before it got "critical"

And today while driving yet another lipo failed in my friends new RC 4x4, but Lucky for him it was not death by fire, but still that battery will never work again.

 

[jokiin]

i had a 5400 mah lipo "blow up in my face" yesterday, or rather i saw and smelled it was heading in that direction, so i yanked it off the charger and threw it out the window before it got "critical"

And today while driving yet another lipo failed in my friends new RC 4x4, but Lucky for him it was not death by fire, but still that battery will never work again.

if you're lucky they just swell up, if they are being powered at the time and there's no cutoff circuit it can get ugly, failure rate is 1 in 3000, not huge but still too many for my liking

 

[kamkar]

Yeah it was a 1 cell battery of the "lego" kind from maxamps, expensive lipos can allso die. http://www.maxamps.com/Lipo-MV5450-Pack.htm

My friend got 12 of those cells for a offshore power boat, sadly they killed the ESC in that boat with too mutch voltage ( dont put 6 cell batteries on ESC rated for 5 cell operation )

I was assembeling them for charging as 1 big 1 cell battery, so i havent gotten around to plugging them into the charger, the cell only swelled up to 3 X size and did not catch fire. ( the window i threw it out off at my friends house is only 30 cm off the ground )
We cant trow batteries out in that condition, but i am sure we can find some radical way to defuse them

 

[maccardiolog]

Hello everybody ! Do you think smaller batteries - GT680W for example - could have any advantage over bigger ones - 500 mAh - regarding hot climate , explosion etc ? Thank you in advance .

 

[Sungmoon Jang]

I just tell why car dvr should not use li-polymer battery.
1. It can be swellen. Can give mal-shape on the shell.
2. One year later, the 70% capacity of battery reduced. This is nomal even in the mobile phone. So someday, it can not save last file.
3. Connection to continuous power supply system for parking record is dangerous.

Before big brand korea manufacture use it for nice shape of product. 2 years later, it was claimed for changing battery. So they stop the produce this model.

So if people know this factor, nobody will not purchase li-polymer battery inside product. It is first factor what should be considered.

 

[jokiin]

A smaller battery might carry less risky material inside but cell quality is more of a factor, low cost electronics are quite often low cost because of the choice of materials used, all batteries will fail at some point, if you're lucky they just stop working rather than anything catastrophic

 

[maccardiolog]

Thank you Jokiin , as usually very prompt and professional answer.

 

[Hillbilly]

My Blackvue DR400 battery died It kept restarting and not giving the "Turning off" message Took battery out was a little bit misshapen still had 3.7 V but no power.

Fitted a new 150mAh and its all good now. Suspect continued heat exposure killed it

 

[Byr0n]

Thank you Jokiin , as usually very prompt and professional answer.

@jokiin is a machine, he doesn't need sleep, hence the swift informative replies

 

[jokiin]

@jokiin is a machine, he doesn't need sleep, hence the swift informative replies

I've been known to sleep on occasion

 

[Xybone]

I've been known to sleep on occasion

To recharge your battery?

 

[jokiin]

To recharge your battery?

No, I use super capacitors of course

 

[WaVE2tHe-DsHCm]

So what's the cause of lipo battery failures with some dash cams. Its very rare from what I have seen but still can happen. Most that I have come across are all puffed up, as seen in picture. This one happens to be a DOD LS430W (not a cheap camera)!

Are replacement batteries easy to obtain... where and are they any better quality wise?

I ended up taking a LS430 battery to put into the LS430W, the one in the LS430 was larger and works great so far in the LS430W. last picture shows the 2 side by side.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/u8t623e3p4fk8c2/20140223_150013.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/l2ywy9epqfpk9ns/20140223_110059.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2di3bvl41j1h5oa/20140223_110130.jpg

Sorry for links.. couldn't get the images to load??

Red eye where can I buy these batteries? My battery just puffed up as well and won't save the date and time. Any advice?

 

[WaVE2tHe-DsHCm]

My Blackvue DR400 battery died It kept restarting and not giving the "Turning off" message Took battery out was a little bit misshapen still had 3.7 V but no power.

Fitted a new 150mAh and its all good now. Suspect continued heat exposure killed it

Hillbilly
where can I buy these batteries? I am in need.

 

[Street Guardian USA]

Here are some recent DashCam battery failures from this summer.

https://dashcamtalk.com/kdlinks-x1/#Battery_Swells_Explodes

 

[SawMaster]

The root cause of LiPo failire is similar to Super-Caps- both use the most minimal internal separation of layers to achieve small size and rapid power flow. This makes raw material quality far more important to end up with a good product. It also means that compared to other technologies with thicker internal layer separation LiPo's and Super-Caps will have a shorter working life. Those other technologies are larger to equal what we use now and size matters with this kind of product. It's not a perfect technology but the best we have for the purpose right now. With material and manufacturing quality being so important there are no bargains; a good battery or Super-Cap will cost more but it is well worth it's price for performance and safer than the cheap ones too.

Phil