LiPo battery discussion

[Ocarr]

I posted the following in the "ask the veterans" forum but didn't get much feedback, so I thought I'd try over here.


I've heard some rail Hana for the use of LiPos in their Mini versions, but I was curious to know if anyone has actually experienced, first hand, any issues with their Hana Minis or any other APVS that use similar cells? (I believe the VaporShark, Opus D and the Darwin also use LiPos)

I've read the warnings and seen the footage of RC sized LiPos over-charging and/or exploding but has this also happened in the mod-sized cells? I don't assume that people's mods get banged around as much as a RC car or copter, so is it really a fair comparison?

Finally, for those of you who have LiPo-powered APVs, do you charge those mods differently than regular batteries or take any special precautions that you wouldn't do when charging, let's say, your AW IMRs? (also, is charging through the dna chips a non-issue?)

Thank you in advance for any information any of you can provide.

 

[Ryedan]

I don't have any Lipo powered PVs but my model airplanes are Lipo powered. They are generally pretty tough batteries. They have a soft casing, not steel like other Li-ion batteries and if you puncture one you will have a very hot fire on your hands. They will not burn easily if shorted and take a lot of overcharging too, but again, if you can get them to burn they burn hot.

I don't think anyone uses cylindrical Lipos in PVs, they are all flat packs built into the mod and charged with the mod. Cylindrical Lipos are rare anyway. The MVP is also Lipo powered. There is no difference in charging Lipos compared to non-Lipos. The same charger circuitry would be used, but since Lipos are rectangular they don't fit into our typical Li-ion chargers. I have a hobby charger for mine, but it has cables coming out of it, not slots for cells.

 

[Ocarr]

Thank you for the education Ryedan, I totally forgot about the MVP.
Apparently, I've been using LiPos myself and didn't realize it.

 

[Baditude]

Thank you for the education Ryedan, I totally forgot about the MVP.
Apparently, I've been using LiPos myself and didn't realize it.

Lipo battery in MVP

 

[BabyExp]

*FIRE* *TWICE* While waiting for my DNA30 chips to get back from Evolv, my mechanical mod broke. I made a box mod with parallel lipos. Lipos to button switch to 510 connector to batteries and it caught fire twice this morning. I barely got to vape my new Igo-W6 dual 20-guage Kanthal, probably at .12 ohms before all the wires got melty. That was the worst dry hit in the history of dry hits. I blame it on the sleep deprivation. But what happened??? The volts were reading just under 4.0

 

[Ryedan]

The wire(s) started burning? Let's see, 33 amps, 133 watts. Yup, that might just do it if the wires are not big enough or you have a bad solder joint

Dry hits at 30 watts are a pain and who knows what nastiness is in that vapor, but burning plastic is bad. There's a lot of PVC used on wire. Burn that and it puts out hydrogen chloride
gas and dioxins.

I used to work as a production engineer in a plastic molding plant and we stopped molding PVC because we didn't want to risk the consequences of degrading it in our machines.

Well, at least it was only one inhale for you. Lesson learned.

 

[Little White Cloud]

Dangerous LiPos are. Go plody they do. Drop them do not!

 

[bcastela]

I don't have any Lipo powered PVs but my model airplanes are Lipo powered. They are generally pretty tough batteries. They have a soft casing, not steel like other Li-ion batteries and if you puncture one you will have a very hot fire on your hands. They will not burn easily if shorted and take a lot of overcharging too, but again, if you can get them to burn they burn hot.

I don't think anyone uses cylindrical Lipos in PVs, they are all flat packs built into the mod and charged with the mod. Cylindrical Lipos are rare anyway. The MVP is also Lipo powered. There is no difference in charging Lipos compared to non-Lipos. The same charger circuitry would be used, but since Lipos are rectangular they don't fit into our typical Li-ion chargers. I have a hobby charger for mine, but it has cables coming out of it, not slots for cells.

Totally agree. I use them in my radio control cars, in plastic cases, and they are incredibly resilient. We dump them in 5 minutes races with 100A currents and they just keep delivering. I have batteries with over 500 cycles still going strong.
When things go wrong, they die with a scary fire, but it's usually bad handling.

Lipos are the most energy dense batteries so they are very popular. Apple for example uses them exclusively everywhere (iPhone, iPad, MacBook) and most gadgets that have fixed batteries use them to.