Keep an eye on your dashcam.

Mako

Club Member
Feb 6, 2011
15,254
14,362
Milton Keynes
I've had an Amberella 0801 for the last 3.5 years or so, and it's been absolutely brilliant (after a firmware update or two) recording full HD at 1080p, 24 hours a day. I used it as a part of my home security.

But it's not allowed to be on at work. Today I went to switch it on and discovered that it was ridiculously hot and the chassis was swollen as the LIon battery tried to escape its confines.

This could've lead to a fire that would've killed my car.

If you have a dashcam - especially if it's a cheap one - keep an eye on it. And in fact this goes for any device you install,.
 
Good advice mate, I have a LiPo battery for one of my RC cars and that has to be charged in a special bag in case of explosion:eek:

I wonder what would have caused that if it wasn't on? Did it still have power to it from the car?
 
Batteries simply fail over time, and the chemicals start doing funny things. It's the gas that those chemicals emit that causes the problem.
Lipo RC batteries being charged in a lipo bag is a double edged sword. No lipo bag (that I know of) is built to a standard. The bags don't stop the fire, they just slow it down (which can obviously make a big difference), but they also prevent you from seeing what's going on inside, potentially allowing you to put your hands into a fire....

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Batteries simply fail over time, and the chemicals start doing funny things. It's the gas that those chemicals emit that causes the problem.
Lipo RC batteries being charged in a lipo bag is a double edged sword. No lipo bag (that I know of) is built to a standard. The bags don't stop the fire, they just slow it down (which can obviously make a big difference), but they also prevent you from seeing what's going on inside, potentially allowing you to put your hands into a fire....

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And not only that, but you might come back to your car as a smoking wreck, next to a couple other smoking wrecks that weren't to blame.
 
Do they though? It's flammable, yes, but as it's not compressed (other than in the piston bore) it won't explode. I've seen engines fail and go pop, but because once an engine goes pop, the source of ignition is removed they don't go bang. It would be an interesting sight to see though.

Been racing nitro now for a while and I have never seen that.
I have seen more electric buggies with fire in them than I care to think of.

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I was joking about the nitro, mate. I've never seen one go wrong.

Charging batteries on the other hand... yeah.
 
I think I might've shown you this before, but this is what can happen to an Apple MacBook when the battery goes wrong:
IMAG0362.jpg
IMAG0361.jpg

Needless to say, we're now very careful with these at work... :)