Interesting battery problem ...

[Tomas]

From an article in heise.de:

Translation follows.

[ QUOTE ]
Normally, one would only see this kind of stuff happening in rather bad secret agent movies, but now it happened to a woman in Amsterdam: Her cell phone exploded.

This news about the exploded mobile phone is likely to disturb many cell phone owners: "Could this happen with my phone too?"

In the Netherlands city, the woman's phone had first fallen to the ground. When she turned it on again and held it to her ear, the device exploded and caught fire. The woman suffered minor injuries.

Experts, however, see no reason to be concerned: Cell phones explode extremely rarely, according to Bernd Schwencke, head of the cellular phone testing department of the German Quality Testing agency, Stiftung Warentest, in Berlin.

[/ QUOTE ]

I suspect (but obviously don't "know") that the shock from dropping the 'phone caused a problem by misaligning some parts, either in the battery or the phone. A shorted LION battery can act like a grenade ...

I really like the callousness of "Experts, however, see no reason to be concerned: Cell phones explode extremely rarely," though.

 

[shankus]

I agree. Especially since the main use of the device it right alongside one's head.

I worry about the radiation more than the battery, though. I still don't have a cell phone, but the clock is set on my VCR...

 

[Doug Owen]

[ QUOTE ]
shankus said:
I agree. Especially since the main use of the device it right alongside one's head.

I worry about the radiation more than the battery, though. I still don't have a cell phone, but the clock is set on my VCR...

[/ QUOTE ]

I think most would agree with you if you said than any consumer device that blows up on you without your asking it to is a valid consumer complaint. Most would object in strong terms if it happened to them. As to 'alongside the head' didn't Masad 'get' one of their terrorist 'targets' just that way? Very small charge in a cell phone? Neat idea really, keep conversations a lot more civil.......

Radiation is a funny issue, in a lot of ways. This is microwave energy, right? A little bit of radiation is OK, right?

Which brings us to another 'fun thing' about radiation. Very low radiation (everything is radioactive at some point. A guy I work with life's work has been done here, he *measures* the radiation in rocks, soils, coffee beans, dried bananas, aluminum foil, and used air filters. Amongst a bunch of other stuff. Not a trivial task, there's a lot of background to get rid of. 8 feet of very special concrete does part, it's made of crushed serpentine (the state rock, in fact), a very old and very low activity rock, the winner from the *50* different brands of Portland cement tested, iron that was surveyed before use (cobalt in some) and so on. Second 'quietest' chamber in the country. The samples and detectors are in lead brick doghouses, not just any lead, of course. These guys pay real big bucks for lead from shipwrecks or archeology sites that hasn't been on the surface for a very long time (a cosmic ray induced radiation issue). Seriously. They got seriously pissed a few years back when a box of the stuff from the Med was shipped air freight. It picked up measurable contamination. The air filter thing is neat too. He can 'read' world wide disasters like 3 Mile Island and big volcanic activity by local changes in fine dust radio-chemical makeup. He could also, he points out, provide very prompt details about a 'Homeland Defense' attack by 'reading' the air filters of Police cars.

Point is, Al says you can get three times the lifetime radiation (or two thirds less) living on the other side of the street. He comes complete with local examples. What is safe? Folks in Denver get on average three times the Bay Area levels, yet live slightly longer on average. Maybe the clean air helps combat the cosmic rays? Still, avoiding as much as reasonably possible seems in order, at least to me.

And I for sure know what you mean about the VCR's insistent flashing and flashing and flashing......makes it hard to hear the little voices....

Doug Owen

 

[Tomas]

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif I had some friends who for years I tried to get them to set their VCR clock, and would even set it when I visited (yes, the flashing 12:00 bothers me).

Finally, one time I was over there, I put a strip of black vinyl electrical tape over the flashing numbers.

Hasn't bothered me since, hasn't been set since, hasn't been missed since. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon23.gif

====

Years ago, with the first of the reasonable-sized hand-held cell 'phones, one model of phone had a small problem with blowing up in one's face. I don't recall the brand (actually I think I do but I'm not certain), but the problem was a lithium battery to retain volatile memory and such while the main battery was being replaced. This back-up battery was mounted near the receiver and not user accessible.

Thing is, there was an "engineering fault" in the design discovered after about a half dozen self destructed in Great Britian: The solder tab on one end could contact a ground bus and short out if the battery wasn't totally secured - and some weren't. That entire design was recalled and replaced by another.

"I'm sorry . . . The number you have reached is in flames at this time. If you think you have reached this recording in error, please check the number and dial again. Thank you."