academygaz

I found this on Red RC:

The Norwegian Federation has taken the rather drastic measure of calling a halt to all races and training for electric powered classes following 3 charging related ‘explosions’ at a 1/10th scale National last weekend. According to the source on oOple.com, a lot of the failures have occured in the past with the IB4200 cell, however the most recent failures that prompted this ban on racing were LRP VTecs and Team Orion 4200 cells. All racing will stay suspended until January 2008, although I’m not sure what will be different from then until now, perhaps a list of approved cells?

and on the oOple forum:

Norwegian federation NMF closed today down all organized practice and all races with all electric classes due to battery problems.

Last weekend 3 (!) batteries blew up when charging in a 1/10 track national.
Due to this problem and similar problems around europe they choose to close down all events imidiatly.

rumors say that from april 1.st 2008, EFRA will change their battery list and none of todays batteries will be allowed in 2008.

Get ready for another NiMH vs LiPo thread....

mac853

I know it, must to be the civilized countries like scandinavian ones always be careful and sensible on everything around, the reason has only 1, for safety of his countryman.
Maybe Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Singapore and Japan will follow the rules due they are also serious countries, never allow put people on risk.
Let's hope Panasonic and Sanyo are trying to develop batteries again to avoid troublesomes.

yyhayyim

iTrader: (26)

As a Lipo user, this brings me tears of joy However, I am sadened that racing has been suspended...its only going to get worse if something is not done quickly...hopefully no one is hurt

Tommy Bergfeldt

I don't think it'll happen anywhere else. At most the IB4200 could get banned, it seems like banning all the electric cars are way overreacting..
I've even seen more nitro-cars blow up when the driver forgets to re-setup the charger from 6A to 0.5 after racing electric.
So why not ban Nitro too?

TimPotter

iTrader: (15)

Johan,

Suspension of any Electric racing hurts ALL electric racing, whether it is a percieved problem or a physical one. This has NOTHING to do with Lipo.

mac853

I never heard nitro will blow up during running!

billjacobs

iTrader: (65)

And this just in:
IB is releasing their new 4800 nimh cells with 1.3 voltage. IB believes this will finally put an end to all of the lipo talk. The new cells are guaranteed to last at least 5 cycles or 2 weeks, whichever comes first; but if you solder the cells into a pack, the warranty is void.

US R/C racers are thrilled that finally they have the voltage to beat the fast guys at their track, oh wait, the fast guys will have the same cells, damn.

Pricing for the new cells has been set at $75 per 6 cells, and all of the battery matchers, scared they will lose business to LIPO, have already put in their orders. They have also put in orders for spare batteries to replace all of the dead and bad cells.

It's amazing that european countries and r/c organizations actually care about their racers. I'll bet traction compound and other chemicals are also controlled. Imagine that. Where is norwegia anyway? (just kidding)

flashgordon

iTrader: (27)

Hi all,just to let u know some thoughts on a cell explosion as i have experienced this i had cycled a pack down with discharger and charged it back up i reckon there was a contact problem with the discharger at some stage previous on discharge cycle and cell may of not cut off correctly so the racer needs to identify this as i can be easily overlooked and therfore charging pack again with force one cell to be overcharged so if racers are charging some where around the 5.5 amp mark the cell will explode and cause harm to humans or start a serious fire as we know motor racing is dangerous in all forms.

Cheers Flashgordon

HappyHippo

iTrader: (12)

First to make things right it was 2 batterys who did blow up, one under the pratice on saturday night and one under the race on sunday, the one who blow up under the race was charges at 6A og 6mV deltapeak. Tempcut was 43°C. the 3rd pack was overheated

Most of the drivers in Norway think that this is an overraction by the federation here and an abuse of power

If those batterys we have are so dangerous, why are there no warnings that they will blow up

At the race there was charged 780 batterpacks, and 2 bid blow up. that is 0,256% chance for an explosion

PDM

HappyHippo, are you running 5 or 6 cells in Norway?

HappyHippo

iTrader: (12)

5 cells

PDM

I believe that if people want to stay with NiMh the rules should change to 6 cells urgently.

Of course some one can try to use a powerful motor with 6 cells but just to find out that the car will not handle the power and so that one will have come back to a less powerful motor that will put less stress on cells.

NiMh are on their limits, I believe is time to change for something better.

I never understood why all the problems to change to lipos. Was it that dificult the change from NiCad to NiMh. No.

Of course know is diferent because changing from NiMh to lipo it implies to change from one maker to a diferent one and maybe that is the main problem. Somebody is desperatly trying to stay in business

flashgordon

iTrader: (27)

HI all ,just wondering why the shift to 5 cells is there any benefit also i take it receiver packs would need to be fitted as well for the bECs? just more work to do anyway happy racing.

Cheers Flashgordon

HappyHippo

iTrader: (12)

Well 6 cell and brushless 3,5 or 4 turn on carpet the cars are balistic and hard to control we have tried that, and the problem then is that speedos and motors get to hot and break

HappyHippo

iTrader: (12)

Speedo and motors run cooler, and belive it or not lap times are faster, since the car is easyer to handle

We don't use reciverpacks in touring cars