Lightspeed Battery Box Warning

In my old boyscout days we used steel wool and a 6 volt lantern battery
with some of the most flamable papers and grasses etc to attempt to start a
fire. It took forever and many never got them to ignite. I agree that what
happened to you was not a fire hazard. You'd have a better chance to win the
lottery than to have that ignite on it's own, or maybe getting struck by
lightning, twice.

Wayne

The worst case is if the battery box happens to get hot enough to
melt low-temperature plastic trim, which can be expensive and costly
to replace.

The fabrics used in the interior of the aircraft had durned well better
withstand a much higher temperature without igniting, or someone
installed the wrong stuff. Likewise, it should not get hot enough to
ignite paper.

Ummm, I see my name mentioned, which tends to wake me up... Then I see a
quote of my analogy of 'lurching from crises to crises'... This brings me
to the fully cognizant condition (rare) so I look at my post on that
topic... Hmmm, verb and subject are not clear - my fault...
For those who may have garnered the idea that I was back handedly, character
assassinating Sydney, et al., as being somehow at fault for their LS
headsets failing, that is wrong... LS needs to improve their product -
especially where the battery box melts down - jeez!

Anyway, I was simply noting that we see posts from the one group who
seemingly never have a problem with their LS headsets, and posts from the
other group who's LS headsets seem to be jinxed - with little or no middle
ground, i.e. no bell curve.. As I said; strange...

Denny
"Sydney Hoeltzli" wrote in message
...
Jay Honeck wrote:

Actually, Jay, if you reread Denny's post carefully, I don't think
this is what he's seeing or refering to as "some owners lurch from
crisis to crisis" but it's not worth addressing further.

I discussed this in detail with the Lightspeed engineer. DH, who has
extensive training in fire hazard prevention, concurs. Of course, there
can always be some combination of factors which lead to a different
result.

This is good to know -- thanks!

However, I would make sure you don't place it somewhere which might
melt and cost you time and $$. For example, we've been securing our
20K and 25XL battery boxes with velcro (sewn to the plane interior,
glued to the battery box). This is gonna stop, because velcro melts
at rather low temperature and melted velcro would trash my interior
panels.

I've spent over $1000 with LightSpeed, and I sure don't expect their
headsets to melt down in my airplane.

Of course, I didn't expect to return all three pair for multiple repairs,
either.

I am buying our fourth ANR headset at OSH 2003 later this month. It most
certainly will NOT be Lightspeed brand.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

A fabric pocket should actually be a good place, provided the fabric
meets standard aircraft flammability tests.

Cheers,
Sydney



This is, indeed, a "crisis" of quality control, in my opinion. And, as
I
have repeatedly stated in the past, is truly a shame, as we absolutely,
positively LOVE our Lightspeed headsets.

Sydney,

ah, a voice of reason. Thanks!

"What comes to light now..." Jeeze!
--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

On Tue, 08 Jul 2003 15:04:24 GMT, "Jay Honeck"
wrote:

I believe Denny is perceiving this:

The only reason many Lightspeed owners have NOT had repeated problems with
broken wires at the plug is because they specifically lay the battery box on
the floor, or tuck it in a side pocket. This removes the weight of the
battery box from the inadequately designed wire and plug assembly, and keeps
the wires from breaking.

That can't be true in my case, at least. My battery box is plugged
into the middle of the panel (left of the turn coordinator) and the
battery box hangs down from there. The box's weight causes the cord
to bend 90 degrees right after it comes out of the plug. That has got
to be about as high stress as you can get on the cord. Why I have had
no problems is a mystery to me. The only thing I can thing of is that
I leave the headset in the plane most of the time rather than plugging
it in and removing it again. That probably reduces the strain on the
cord.

--Ron

Sydney Hoeltzli wrote in news:3F0AC7D5.9020908
@swbell.net:

Nor would I personally describe 2 problems
in 5 yrs ownership of 3 different headsets as "lurching from crisis
to crisis".

Sydney,

First off, thanks for the post. I would be interested in knowing what
actually shorted out (sounds like a spring contact or some such, most
likely, in the battery box).

You are right that, compared to having, oh say, a wing spar break, it's
hardly a "crisis." OTOH, I've got two Peltor's and a Dave Clark ANR -
average life 10 years - and never had a problem (other that physically
wearing out the earpads) with any of them. So you can see that, relative
to the "crowd," you are well to one side of the curve.

[Not that we wouldn't expect you to stand out in a crowd regardless. G]

-----------------------------------------------
James M. Knox
TriSoft ph 512-385-0316
1109-A Shady Lane fax 512-366-4331
Austin, Tx 78721
-----------------------------------------------

James M. Knox wrote:

First off, thanks for the post. I would be interested in knowing what
actually shorted out (sounds like a spring contact or some such, most
likely, in the battery box).

I think that's an excellent educated guess. The point of maximum
deformation was just to the side of a spring contact. There appeared
to be some material covering the bottom of the box which might have
been installed off-center, leaving an area where a short could occur,
but I'm not sure about this.

You are right that, compared to having, oh say, a wing spar break, it's
hardly a "crisis." OTOH, I've got two Peltor's and a Dave Clark ANR -
average life 10 years - and never had a problem (other that physically
wearing out the earpads) with any of them. So you can see that, relative
to the "crowd," you are well to one side of the curve.

Well, Denny was specifically referring to different groups of
*Lightspeed* owners, so I don't think your perception applies to
his post. He posits two different populations of *Lightspeed*
owners, those whose headsets are trouble free and those who "lurch
from crisis to crisis".

However, you get no argument from me: I love my Lightspeeds because they
are comfortable comfortable comfortable whereas after about an hour
I want to throw DC's out the window. But on the "longevity" and
"durability" front, I must admit they do not measure up. Their customer
service and support is *excellent* -- but it has to be. I would much
prefer far less need for said good support.

By the way, after calling Lightspeed Customer service yesterday about
4:30 central time, I had a new headset in hand (!!!!) by 9:30 central
time.

[Not that we wouldn't expect you to stand out in a crowd regardless. G]

Why thank you!

Cheers,
Sydney

Tsk, tsk, Sydney... Bad hair day?

Denny

"Sydney Hoeltzli" wrote in message
...
What seems strange to me is your perception, actually, but that
wouldn't be the first time.

Assuming the problems reported are legit, this seems to indicate a quality
assurance issue with the manufacturer. I was just looking over the
Lightspeed web site and didn't see any indication that their headsets were
TSO'd. Now I will be the first to admit I'm a newby so I my impressions may
be in error and as such take anything I say with a grain of salt but my
understanding of what TSO means is that 1: the product was type accepted,
passed testing to insure that it did what it was supposed to and was
compatible with and did not interact negatively with the other aircraft
systems, and 2: that the manufacturer has quality assurance programs in
effect that would insure all products coming off the line met the same
performance standards as the samples submitted for approval. I may be
wrong, but it seems to me to be foolish to buy non-TSO'ed equipment for
permanent aircraft installation or for use by the PIC or FO if there is one.
If my understanding of the QA issues regarding TSO is correct, this would
certainly increase the price of the product because testing of each and
every unit coming off the line is certainly going to be more expensive than
testing randomly selected samples. Because of the unforgiving nature of
aviation, uncertainty of product quality where safety of flight is concerned
is something I personally can't afford at any price and battery packs that
spontaneously burst into flame certainly seem to me to be a safety issue,
even if they're carried enclosed in fire resistant pouches.


"Dennis O'Connor" wrote in message
...
LS owners seem to fall into two groups... Those who have never had any
problem over a number of years of continuous use, and those who seem to
lurch from crises to crises... Strange...

Denny

"Justin Case" wrote in message
...
Lightspeed seems to know everything about all of their problems and
they all seem infrequent. Just too many infrequent problems for me.

Steve House wrote:

I was just looking over the
Lightspeed web site and didn't see any indication that their headsets were
TSO'd.

Well, I just checked out the Bose, Sennheiser, and David Clark web sites,
and it seems that none of their ANR headsets are TSO'd either.

George Patterson
The optimist feels that we live in the best of all possible worlds. The
pessimist is afraid that he's correct.
James Branch Cavel