TH-F6 Swollen Battery
 

I have a TH-F6 which I have had for about 2 1/2 years. It has been very
well treated, and care has been taken to treat the battery properly. I
noticed that the battery would no longer hold a charge. I tried to
remove the battery, and it was extremely difficult. It turns out that
the battery was slightly swollen, and pressing against the HT case.
LI-ion batteries trouble me a bit. I have seen some explosions and
fires in RC aircraft using them. I wonder if anyone else has had a
similar problem with the PB-42L stock battery with the TH-F6?

Al / K1LTJ

TH-F6 Swollen Battery
 

"K1LTJ" wrote in message
oups.com...
I have a TH-F6 which I have had for about 2 1/2 years. It has been very
well treated, and care has been taken to treat the battery properly. I
noticed that the battery would no longer hold a charge. I tried to
remove the battery, and it was extremely difficult. It turns out that
the battery was slightly swollen, and pressing against the HT case.
LI-ion batteries trouble me a bit. I have seen some explosions and
fires in RC aircraft using them. I wonder if anyone else has had a
similar problem with the PB-42L stock battery with the TH-F6?

Al / K1LTJ


I would replace the battery and check your charging system (not over
charging)

w9gb

TH-F6 Swollen Battery
 

In article ,
"w9gb" wrote:

"K1LTJ" wrote in message
oups.com...
I have a TH-F6 which I have had for about 2 1/2 years. It has been very
well treated, and care has been taken to treat the battery properly. I
noticed that the battery would no longer hold a charge. I tried to
remove the battery, and it was extremely difficult. It turns out that
the battery was slightly swollen, and pressing against the HT case.
LI-ion batteries trouble me a bit. I have seen some explosions and
fires in RC aircraft using them. I wonder if anyone else has had a
similar problem with the PB-42L stock battery with the TH-F6?

Al / K1LTJ


I would replace the battery and check your charging system (not over
charging)

w9gb

be sure to dispose the battery they can explode w/o warning

swelling is a danger sign

TH-F6 Swollen Battery
 

On Sat, 25 Nov 2006 22:10:53 GMT, ml wrote:

In article ,
"w9gb" wrote:

"K1LTJ" wrote in message
oups.com...
I have a TH-F6 which I have had for about 2 1/2 years. It has been very
well treated, and care has been taken to treat the battery properly. I
noticed that the battery would no longer hold a charge. I tried to
remove the battery, and it was extremely difficult. It turns out that
the battery was slightly swollen, and pressing against the HT case.
LI-ion batteries trouble me a bit. I have seen some explosions and
fires in RC aircraft using them. I wonder if anyone else has had a
similar problem with the PB-42L stock battery with the TH-F6?

Al / K1LTJ


I would replace the battery and check your charging system (not over
charging)

w9gb

be sure to dispose the battery they can explode w/o warning

If it won't take a charge it's probably past that danger point, but
OTOH was probably close to it about the time the swelling ocurred.
:-))



swelling is a danger sign
Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

TH-F6 Swollen Battery
 

Roger wrote:
On Sat, 25 Nov 2006 22:10:53 GMT, ml wrote:

In article ,
"w9gb" wrote:

"K1LTJ" wrote in message
oups.com...
I have a TH-F6 which I have had for about 2 1/2 years. It has been very
well treated, and care has been taken to treat the battery properly. I
noticed that the battery would no longer hold a charge. I tried to
remove the battery, and it was extremely difficult. It turns out that
the battery was slightly swollen, and pressing against the HT case.
LI-ion batteries trouble me a bit. I have seen some explosions and
fires in RC aircraft using them. I wonder if anyone else has had a
similar problem with the PB-42L stock battery with the TH-F6?

Al / K1LTJ


I would replace the battery and check your charging system (not over
charging)

w9gb

be sure to dispose the battery they can explode w/o warning

If it won't take a charge it's probably past that danger point, but
OTOH was probably close to it about the time the swelling ocurred.
:-))



swelling is a danger sign
Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

Thank for the comments Roger. Yes, the first thing I did was dispose of
the battery. I have only used the stock wall wart charger with the
TH-F6. I checked the output voltage of the wall wart, and it was fine.
If I hadn't tried to remove the battery, I might not have been aware
there was a problem. I put this post here, in part, to make others
aware that there might be a problem here. It might be a good idea to
remove the battery, and check it from time to time. Li batteries make
me a bit nervous, and I was concerned when I found this problem, and
thought it would be a good idea to make this post.

Thanks
Al / K1LTJ

TH-F6 Swollen Battery
 

On 28 Nov 2006 11:48:26 -0800, "K1LTJ" wrote:


Roger wrote:
On Sat, 25 Nov 2006 22:10:53 GMT, ml wrote:

In article ,
"w9gb" wrote:

"K1LTJ" wrote in message
oups.com...
I have a TH-F6 which I have had for about 2 1/2 years. It has been very
well treated, and care has been taken to treat the battery properly. I
noticed that the battery would no longer hold a charge. I tried to
remove the battery, and it was extremely difficult. It turns out that
the battery was slightly swollen, and pressing against the HT case.
LI-ion batteries trouble me a bit. I have seen some explosions and
fires in RC aircraft using them. I wonder if anyone else has had a
similar problem with the PB-42L stock battery with the TH-F6?

Al / K1LTJ


I would replace the battery and check your charging system (not over
charging)

w9gb

be sure to dispose the battery they can explode w/o warning

If it won't take a charge it's probably past that danger point, but
OTOH was probably close to it about the time the swelling ocurred.
:-))



swelling is a danger sign
Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

Thank for the comments Roger. Yes, the first thing I did was dispose of
the battery. I have only used the stock wall wart charger with the
TH-F6. I checked the output voltage of the wall wart, and it was fine.
If I hadn't tried to remove the battery, I might not have been aware
there was a problem. I put this post here, in part, to make others
aware that there might be a problem here. It might be a good idea to
remove the battery, and check it from time to time. Li batteries make
me a bit nervous, and I was concerned when I found this problem, and
thought it would be a good idea to make this post.

Over the past few years we've seen some great strides made in both
battery capacity and current density. We've seen an extremely
expensive recall due to a few failed Lithium batteries. Some of those
failures were spectacular. The batteries don't usually explode with
much force but the results, as I said, can be spectacular and
dangerous if you are close.

This brings to mind a question.
Just how far will we be *allowed* to go with battery capacity and
current density?

There are two ways of extending the charge quantity in a battery.
Increasing current density, the physical size of the battery, or a
combination of both. Both have some distinct drawbacks. The one of
size is obvious. The drawback(s) for increased current density OTOH
are not so readily apparent.

Batteries of high current density are characterized by a very low
internal resistance. That means the results of shorting out a 2 AH
dry cell and shorting out a 2 AH Lithium battery are quite different.
Both have the same charge, or Joules of energy BUT the rate at which
that energy can be taken out of the battery is much greater with the
Lithium battery than the dry cell. IOW the current flow is not limited
by a high internal resistance, but is extremely high due to a very low
internal resistance.

A watt is one joule per second. It's also 1.5 Volts pushing 0.66 amp
through 1 ohm for 1 second. A watt is also (I^2)*R so anything we do
to increase the current flow will dramatically increase the power
released per unit of time.

As Lithium batteries are already spectacular in this respect we really
don't have a long way to go before there could be a lot of force
released when a battery is shorted either internally or externally.





Thanks
Al / K1LTJ
Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com