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S197 3V Fabman's build; How did we get here? Build Thread

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Fabman

Dances with Racecars
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Lithium ion Battery blew up. Had to put it out with a fire extinguisher. Afterwards I talked to @blacksheep-1 and he told me how to clean it up and that if I didn't everything would corrode within hours....including the paint....and you know I couldn't have thaaat.....so 6 hours later I'm beat and going home. Lets see what I missed in the morning.
 

Fabman

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Glad you have a simple to clean interior!! Like the bean stool......
Not simple. You might be able to snake around between all these tubes but I can not. I had to call for help. @Frank.JD.Perez to the rescue!
 
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back to some fire extinguisher basics.
ABC extinguishers (dry chem) are great for putting out just about any type of fire, however, they are extremely corrosive to just about anything, electrical connections, paint, aluminum..etc etc. When I ran the pit lane fire control for the INDY, PWC, INDY LIGHTS and whatever else ran in St. Pete for 25 years, we only used the ABC extinguishers as backup. (actually, we used a fire truck as backup if it got real bad). For most applications we used a water extinguisher, it works, it's non corrosive, and in the case of batteries, it helps dilutes the chemicals and stop any reactions going on. Even though these are technically electrical fires, they are 12 volt, so treat them like anything else. Also, by adding a product called Cold Fire, you can pretty effectively put out flammable liquids as well. (alcohol fires, not so effective). The beauty of these, is they can be refilled by the user, the earlier ones actually had a valve stem on them, the newer ones, you have to create an adaptor to back fill through the discharge nozzle, not a big deal. You simply, unscrew the cap after discharging it, place 2.5 gallons of water/cold fire mix in it, screw the cap on, then pressurize it until the gauge reads in the green.
Keep at least 2 of these around the shop, and leave the ABC dry chem on the shelf.


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Fabman

Dances with Racecars
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And Li-ion battery instantly comes off the potential mod list! Was on the fence about it but that kind of seals the deal.
I'm pretty sure it was self inflicted....I was letting the water pump run to purge out the bubbles and got side tracked with customers and ran the battery dead, so I jumped it and got the car started and let the alternator charge the battery at idle....apparently rapid discharge got the battery very hot and then charging it immediately afterwards was more that it could handle. I kept saying to myself...."Why do I smell plastic? There no plastic burning anywhere is there....?....is somebody gluing something? How come I smell...." BOOM!

Don't put undue stress on the battery....noted.
 

Fabman

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I have read the Li-ion batteries do have a high risk of explosion if ran completely dead. Also recently had an electrical engineer heavily emphasize this to me on a design project where we use Li-ion batteries.
I need to put a light on my battery switch, I keep leaving it on and killing the battery.
I've run this one completely dead a few times already...it was due.
 

Fabman

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Boom.

 

Fabman

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Mad Hatter

Gotta go Faster
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Santiago, Chile
Shiznit!! Thats not good.... Lithium battery is off my xmas list. I remember Blacksheep-1s rule #7893.... about using water based fire extinguishers. Hope you don't have too much damage!!
 

Fabman

Dances with Racecars
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Pleasanton: 1/2 way between Sonoma and Laguna Seca
Shiznit!! Thats not good.... Lithium battery is off my xmas list. I remember Blacksheep-1s rule #7893.... about using water based fire extinguishers. Hope you don't have too much damage!!
They are great batteries, we just learned what you can’t do with them.
 

Fabman

Dances with Racecars
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Pleasanton: 1/2 way between Sonoma and Laguna Seca

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