PV1
Well-known member
First off, I know they don't hover, but you feel like you are hovering when you are riding one.
By now, I'm sure many of you are familiar with the Hoverboard fires that are going on. As with the Tesla fires, these are made out to be much more common than they are. Out of an unknown millions of boards sold, there have been up to 52 reported fires. This failure rate is still considerably lower than the percentage of cars that catch on fire, not due to a collision.
Debating the safety and/or concept of hoverboards isn't the main point of this topic, but instead I will be tearing down and inspecting a Hoverboard battery. While there are many different brands out there, this is a battery from the Smart Wheelz Smart Drifting Scooter.
A bit of background. My friend started selling this brand along with his eBikes and solar installations. His demo board started having a sporadic issue where the board would just shut off without warning. Our speculation is that the cells weren't perfectly balanced and under load, the BMS was cutting off the output. The only way we could get the board to come back to life after shutting down was to plug it into the charger for a few seconds. This, according to our hypothesis, was resetting the BMS and allowing the battery to function. It would only cut out during a sudden momentum change (rapid stop in my case, quick turn in my friend's case). Being that the board was exposed to cold weather, we think that came into play as well.
He took the battery out of his demo board and gave it to me to investigate. This thread will detail my findings. I will be opening the pack, measuring the voltage of each pair of cells and their capacity.
By now, I'm sure many of you are familiar with the Hoverboard fires that are going on. As with the Tesla fires, these are made out to be much more common than they are. Out of an unknown millions of boards sold, there have been up to 52 reported fires. This failure rate is still considerably lower than the percentage of cars that catch on fire, not due to a collision.
Debating the safety and/or concept of hoverboards isn't the main point of this topic, but instead I will be tearing down and inspecting a Hoverboard battery. While there are many different brands out there, this is a battery from the Smart Wheelz Smart Drifting Scooter.
A bit of background. My friend started selling this brand along with his eBikes and solar installations. His demo board started having a sporadic issue where the board would just shut off without warning. Our speculation is that the cells weren't perfectly balanced and under load, the BMS was cutting off the output. The only way we could get the board to come back to life after shutting down was to plug it into the charger for a few seconds. This, according to our hypothesis, was resetting the BMS and allowing the battery to function. It would only cut out during a sudden momentum change (rapid stop in my case, quick turn in my friend's case). Being that the board was exposed to cold weather, we think that came into play as well.
He took the battery out of his demo board and gave it to me to investigate. This thread will detail my findings. I will be opening the pack, measuring the voltage of each pair of cells and their capacity.