Battery Charging - fire proof bags?

[KLAX]

Anyone have recommendations / sourcing for quality fireproof battery charging bags?
Not interested in purchasing counterfeit / low quality.

Need it to fit a couple of DJI TB55 sized batteries.

Thanks very much!

 

[Advexure]

Anyone have recommendations / sourcing for quality fireproof battery charging bags?
Not interested in purchasing counterfeit / low quality.

Need it to fit a couple of DJI TB55 sized batteries.

Thanks very much!

Here are DJI branded OEM lipo bags. These are the large size. – https://advexure.com/store/dji-battery-safe-lipo-bag-large/

 

[WVDronePilot]

Anyone have recommendations / sourcing for quality fireproof battery charging bags?
Not interested in purchasing counterfeit / low quality.

Need it to fit a couple of DJI TB55 sized batteries.

Thanks very much!

Read/Watch a review of all Lipo bags before purchase.

There are several Youtube videos of how well a bag protects (or lack of protection) when a battery rapidly combusts. These bags are for short-term use only...they generally will not protect nearby flammable material from igniting. I have experienced battery combustion and it is extremely rapid and violent.

IMO, the best protection is to only charge while you are present. And use a fire-proof safe to store batteries, even when in transport.

Be safe my friend.

Fly on,
<><
Cleve

 

[daddioJP]

I bought 2 of these; they have good reviews on Amazon and I've been very happy with the quality:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M030181/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[KLAX]

Read/Watch a review of all Lipo bags before purchase.

There are several Youtube videos of how well a bag protects (or lack of protection) when a battery rapidly combusts. These bags are for short-term use only...they generally will not protect nearby flammable material from igniting. I have experienced battery combustion and it is extremely rapid and violent.

IMO, the best protection is to only charge while you are present. And use a fire-proof safe to store batteries, even when in transport.

Be safe my friend.

Fly on,
<><
Cleve

Thanks Bowie for your reply. Can you provide details re: your LiPO incident(s)? Make, size, cells, etc.? Smart batteries or raw lipos?

 

[WVDronePilot]

Thanks Bowie for your reply. Can you provide details re: your LiPO incident(s)? Make, size, cells, etc.? Smart batteries or raw lipos?

At the time I didn't fully understand LiPo batteries...

I had a swelled ebee battery. I believe it was 5900mAh.?. It was not a smart battery with the protective plastic. I knew batteries gave off gas when they charged and I thought I could "relieve" the pressure so I poked a tiny hole in the top Layer of plastic wrap. A few sparks, then more smoke shooting out of the hole, then flames. I grabbed it and barely made it out of the office (about 5 seconds) before it became a ball of fire. Needless to say, that woke me up to the dangers of LiPos.

I know it sounds stupid, but the tiny cut I made in the outer shell could have happened by dropping it onto something sharp like the edge of a chair or desk.

I remember from years ago all the LiPo batteries from RC cars and other devices that I would charge on the carpet and throw in a box or drawer. Chances are you will never have a problem, but you never know.

<><

 

[jack.s]

I use ammo boxes. Made inserts that allowed the batteries to stand without touching the sides or each other.
They have seals on them and very solid latch. Works good.

 

[R.Perry]

I store my batteries in a battery case. As for charging I don't put them in anything. Rule one, don't charge a battery until it is cool, Rule two, if a battery has swelled, don't charge it, and get ride of it.
Rule 3, do a battery status evaluation at least once a month watching for cells that are going bad. These are just my own personal rules, oh, and never charge them in your home.

I don't want to sit around and watch my batteries charge, I charge mine in my shop and away from anything flammable.

 

[BigAl07]

I store my batteries in a battery case. As for charging I don't put them in anything. Rule one, don't charge a battery until it is cool, Rule two, if a battery has swelled, don't charge it, and get ride of it.
Rule 3, do a battery status evaluation at least once a month watching for cells that are going bad. These are just my own personal rules, oh, and never charge them in your home.

I don't want to sit around and watch my batteries charge, I charge mine in my shop and away from anything flammable.

Are you reading from our OPS manual? LOL! ! ! !

I charge in my cement encapsulated basement so if something "goes up" nothing will catch and burn the place down. I fully intend to install a large volume exhaust fan "just in case" but haven't done that yet. It SUCKS cutting through 14" of solid concrete LOL.

 

[R.Perry]

Big A, look at it this way, if you don't put an exhaust fan in once all the oxygen is gone the fire will go out, just kidding, don't want someone to take me seriously.

I'm all for safety, In my shop I have a small paint booth. I charge the batteries in the paint booth, and no I don't paint at the same time. I charge eight batteries at the same time, and I do keep the chargers separated.

By doing a monthly battery report I can tell if cells or a cell is going bad, and if so it is time to chuck the battery. I don't know, but I do wonder if battery explosions while charging have been caused by someone attempting to charge a battery that is bad. The charger is gong to continue to charge until it registers a full charge. Now if one cell is bad or very weak, the battery will never reach a full state of charge and the charger will continue to charge overheating the other cells. When they get hot enough, boom. This is just my opinion but I'm no expert on batteries.

 

[Rich Davis]

I'm only new to this game. But, I have 5 P4 batteries and have logged each charge. Taken note of any variable performance issues.
All batteries are number labelled. Quite easy really.

 

[BigAl07]

I'm only new to this game. But, I have 5 P4 batteries and have logged each charge. Taken note of any variable performance issues.
All batteries are number labelled. Quite easy really.

Yes it's not difficult but it gets time consuming when you have multiple aircraft and each one has from 4 to 18 batteries each. We allocate one evening a month to just "Battery Maintenance & Logging". By keeping notes like @R.Perry and @Rich Davis suggest we can see a trend/pattern "hopefully" before we have a failure. Keep in mind that all but the most complex systems (M200 series, Inspire 2 etc) have ZERO power redundancies so if you have a battery failure you have a total aircraft failure.

 

[Robbie Sharma]

A lot of great process steps here .

My batteries sit inside a lipo bag, in an Ammo box on a layer of sand and in a cool, dry isolated concrete area.

 

[R Martin]

Are you reading from our OPS manual? LOL! ! ! !

I charge in my cement encapsulated basement so if something "goes up" nothing will catch and burn the place down. I fully intend to install a large volume exhaust fan "just in case" but haven't done that yet. It SUCKS cutting through 14" of solid concrete LOL.

A Class 'D' extinguisher is not a bad investment either.

 

[fvunen]

The latest PH4 batteries have a charge controller inside that monitors each of the cells individually and switches the battery off when too much of an imbalance occcurs between the cells. Useful when charging but not really useful when flying ?!?
Anyway, for those interested in the details, the charge controller is a chip from Texas Instruments called BQ3055, the link below is a PDF describing its operation in detail.
http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/bq3055.pdf

 

[R.Perry]

That looks like a very nice charger and giving all the pin connections and their purpose is interesting to say the least. I see they have two thermal resistors instead of just one, wonder what the purpose of having two to monitor battery temperature is?

 

[fvunen]

That looks like a very nice charger and giving all the pin connections and their purpose is interesting to say the least. I see they have two thermal resistors instead of just one, wonder what the purpose of having two to monitor battery temperature is?

The PH4 batteries use just one external sensor, glued to the top of the cells. There are more features of the charge controller that appear not the be used in these batteries, it will be up to the system integrator to determine which feature to use or not. Together with the build-in micro controller (MSP430) there is a substantial amount of control and options that can be exercised. These batteries are quite complicated to say the least.

http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/msp430g2453.pdf

 

[LUIS MARTINEZ]

Are you reading from our OPS manual? LOL! ! ! !

I charge in my cement encapsulated basement so if something "goes up" nothing will catch and burn the place down. I fully intend to install a large volume exhaust fan "just in case" but haven't done that yet. It SUCKS cutting through 14" of solid concrete LOL.

I charge mine in a decommissioned missile silo in the middle of the Arizone desert with the local FD pumper standing by...

 

[LUIS MARTINEZ]

I store my batteries in a battery case. As for charging I don't put them in anything. Rule one, don't charge a battery until it is cool, Rule two, if a battery has swelled, don't charge it, and get ride of it.
Rule 3, do a battery status evaluation at least once a month watching for cells that are going bad. These are just my own personal rules, oh, and never charge them in your home.

I don't want to sit around and watch my batteries charge, I charge mine in my shop and away from anything flammable.

"Rule one, don't charge a battery until it is cool, Rule two, if a battery has swelled, don't charge it, and get ride of it.
Rule 3, do a battery status evaluation at least once a month watching for cells that are going bad."
Excellent common sense rules. I only charge batts when I'm in the room and never leave them unattended.

 

[R.Perry]

"Rule one, don't charge a battery until it is cool, Rule two, if a battery has swelled, don't charge it, and get ride of it.
Rule 3, do a battery status evaluation at least once a month watching for cells that are going bad."
Excellent common sense rules. I only charge batts when I'm in the room and never leave them unattended.

Mr. Martinez, you are much more contentious than I am. I have eight sets of batteries for the I2, to me watching them charge is like watching paint dry. besides if one blow up, I don't want to be anywhere around it. There is nothing in my paint both that would burn if a battery blew, it would set off my fire alarm though. I wouldn't every charge the I2 or P4 batteries in the house, but that is just me and I do realize some folks don't have a choice.