Conception

[StefinSB]

Here, I'll google for you: Counterfeit Lithium Ion 18650 Batteries | Consumer Alert

I take my head off to your google skills. Apple e.g. doesn't manufacture batteries. So is a battery in an iphone a knockoff? Is the battery I take out of an iphone and use to run another device a knockoff? It is very easy to throw terms around, much harder to properly define them in a useful way.

 

[KevinNM]

Most cells assembled into actual battery packs by light monkey or big blue or whatever are unprotected cells. The protection circuit is offboard and separate. Most of those protection boards are pretty cheap Chinese printed PCBs, thankfully they fail "off" mostly - but not always. If you have an internal short, like from a saltwater flood in a light or strobe, that is upstream (battery side) of the actual PCB and they will short out and get hot & smoke quickly.

Light Monkey actually gets their packs tested and approved for aircraft flights. Apparently LM has DOD contracts that require that. But I'm sure Joe's Discount Dive Lights might not.

 

[rjack321]

Light Monkey actually gets their packs tested and approved for aircraft flights. Apparently LM has DOD contracts that require that. But I'm sure Joe's Discount Dive Lights might not.

I'm not sure the LM PCB protection boards are anymore or less robust than anyone else's. I can say that a flooded LM monkey battery pack absolutely will heat up and smoke. Mine didn't burst into flames, but its a N=1, and it was freshwater not salt.

 

[rjack321]

oops

 

[Harry Hood]

What I have never understood-and maybe someone here as an explanation:

This wasn't the 1st live aboard dive boat with a similar charging station and a similar amount of batteries being charged at once. So, why this one?? Why this particular fire on tis boat at that time when its not hard to assume that pretty much the exact same conditions of a bunch of batteries being charged overnight in one area has happened probably thousands of other times on other boats and even on most, or all, of the other Conception trips.
What was different about this one to cause the fire?
The 2nd issue is obviously: where was the night watch person. Was there specific training to that person to be aware of battery related fire risks? If there was: then that person-the night watch person-needs to be charged criminally. If there wasn't then the owners of the company and boat captain have more liability.
If there was no all night boat watch person-awake, alert and paying attention: thats primarily on the boat captain (and owner of the vessel to a lesser extent). Its also on the other crew who should have insisted there is always an overnight watch person.
We'll never know everything--and I doubt the crew is really revealing ALL they know. Especially now that indictments against the captain are out there. I just get stuck on the: why these batteries and these chargers and these outlets that sparked and caught fire. Could there have been a power surge from some other mechanical defect on the boat that juiced up and heated the batteries? Was it just random dumb luck of a bad battery?-if so, I'd be suing the battery maker... over a year later, and still many questions remain for me.

 

[Searcaigh]

where was the night watch person

There wasn't one according to the report on the BBC

"Prosecutors allege the 67 year old failed to have a night watchman or conduct fire drills as required by law."

 

[lexvil]

What I have never understood-and maybe someone here as an explanation:

This wasn't the 1st live aboard dive boat with a similar charging station and a similar amount of batteries being charged at once. So, why this one?? Why this particular fire on tis boat at that time when its not hard to assume that pretty much the exact same conditions of a bunch of batteries being charged overnight in one area has happened probably thousands of other times on other boats and even on most, or all, of the other Conception trips.
What was different about this one to cause the fire?
The 2nd issue is obviously: where was the night watch person. Was there specific training to that person to be aware of battery related fire risks? If there was: then that person-the night watch person-needs to be charged criminally. If there wasn't then the owners of the company and boat captain have more liability.
If there was no all night boat watch person-awake, alert and paying attention: thats primarily on the boat captain (and owner of the vessel to a lesser extent). Its also on the other crew who should have insisted there is always an overnight watch person.
We'll never know everything--and I doubt the crew is really revealing ALL they know. Especially now that indictments against the captain are out there. I just get stuck on the: why these batteries and these chargers and these outlets that sparked and caught fire. Could there have been a power surge from some other mechanical defect on the boat that juiced up and heated the batteries? Was it just random dumb luck of a bad battery?-if so, I'd be suing the battery maker... over a year later, and still many questions remain for me.

This is the nature of things, they don’t happen and than they do. Unfettered battery charging on flammable surfaces had been the norm, as may have been the night watch sleeping, never a problem and than it was. There needs to be some clarity to the crews as to the consequences of ignoring the regulations and consistency in reporting and inspections based on postings here from those with first hand experience.

 

[dmaziuk]

I take my head off to your google skills. Apple e.g. doesn't manufacture batteries. So is a battery in an iphone a knockoff? Is the battery I take out of an iphone and use to run another device a knockoff? It is very easy to throw terms around, much harder to properly define them in a useful way.

There oughtta be a law: if you do any of those things, @Wookie will appear and throw all your kit and yourself overboard.

Somebody buying an aftermarket user-replaceable replacement battery for their device shouldn't find the term too difficult to comprehend, OTOH.

 

[Wookie]

I n

There oughtta be a law: if you do any of those things, @Wookie will appear and throw all your kit and yourself overboard.

Somebody buying an aftermarket user-replaceable replacement battery for their device shouldn't find the term too difficult to comprehend, OTOH.

I never threw anyBODY overboard. Just their kit.

 

[dmaziuk]

I n

I never threw anyBODY overboard. Just their kit.

But what if there was a Law?