Lightspeed Battery Box Warning

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.

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.

NOW it has come to light that laying the battery box on the floor (or
tucking it in a pocket) can result in a conflagration of your aircraft.

Actually I think that's overstating the possible outcomes considerably.

What happens is this. The battery box shorts. The batteries get hot.
The battery box gets hot. The battery box begins to melt. The
batteries lose contact w/ the deformed battery box, the short circuit
is broken, and the heating stops.

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.

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.

So I wouldn't worry that your Lightspeed battery box is likely to
cause conflagration of your aircraft.

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.

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.