@blasto that’s just the beginning. Below are what i have found in this pack:
Shitty no-flux no-flow low wattage solder welds
solder where there should be tack welds
solder where there were tack welds but they were maybe not good enough so they got solder also
solder in places it shouldn’t be, like maybe it dripped or was flung there
tape holding broken welds together
nickel that is too thin and too narrow for anything skateboard related. good for vaping packs or RC cars maybe. Looks like 6 mm width at much less than 15 mil. you need 10mm 15 mil strips minimum and when the cells aren’t stacked in a triangular or trapezoidal pattern and are only directly in parrallel such as in a flat pack like this, you really should have two layers, but that’s probably considered optional.
apparently genuine LG HG2 cells, surprisingly. Was expecting who-knows clones from ebay
no spacers or adhesives (i use hot glue) between cells to reduce axial or radial stress on the nickel strips during riding stressses, just packaging tape which doesn’t do that job very well at all
the black electrical tape used to hold the balance leads down and also apparent;y hold the broken welds together was wound in a hurry, you can see signs of seriously unpracticed rushing all throughout this pack.
the BMS is decent from what i can tell
on a lighter note, it does have red balance leads which i believe are the only things that allowed this pack to even register a voltage. The high performance red on the balance leads most likely created a power vacuum forcing electron holes to open up in the power stream which allowed more electrons to flow from hole to hole, creating a false potential which drained immediately upon load. I’m pretty sure the red balance leads and red cells were also responsible for the inexplicable amount of power that we found in the raptor cells last year but that’s only a theory. This does back some of that up though.
its worth mentioning that this pack was sent to me to fix. And i will be fixing it. ITs sad though because the owner already paid for a pack, and now he’s got to pay another guy to clean up the first guy’s mess.
My plan is to tear this thing down completely, reinforce it, tear out the old nickel and polish the old welds down on the cell caps, re-tack it with decent nickel, and heat shrink it properly.
My hope is that the cells aren’t damaged and this 10S3P can actually put some juice out again.
At this point I feel bad for the kid. In highschool I was filled to the brim with stupid decisions. I tried many stupid things; made stupid movies, wrote and drew bad comic books, made shitty models and wood crafts, and was overly confident in my adolescent “genius” when I shouldn’t have been. I’m glad the work I did then was and will never publicly scrutinized like his is now.
At least you didn’t try to build a business off of it.
Wait…you didn’t right ?
I think it’s safe to say, most of us here did stupid things in high school. It’s whether or not we own up to it and grow from the experiences to become better for it, is what it comes down to.
I think getting the message out regarding this vendor was important. Alex needs to fix what he did and make right with everyone who bought from him. He needs to own up to everything he’s done. There is enough information to do that now.
This begins to make me uncomfortable when the point of a post isn’t about protecting members or about making things right and becomes about embarassing someone or using an unfortunate situation as fodder. This is heightened by the fact that Alex is not yet an adult. I keep thinking of Catcher in the Rye and the scene where Holden’s professor reads aloud his shitty essay to him. I also have kids and I can see my son getting in way over his head one day. If that ever happens you can be damn sure I’ll be there to make sure he makes it right with anyone harmed and owns up to consequences. What I hope for though is that he doesn’t get publicly shamed by a community of people he looks up to and the community he’s in shows a little empathy.
My opinion though, and I’m just throwing this out there, is that so far he’s shown a lack of empathy and any semblance of a conscience regarding what’s his done to others so far. And it’s ticking people off, to the point where things got heated and emotional.
@treenutter did his best to cool everyone down and to handle this situation quietly, so hopefully it’s a lesson learned for this guy.
We’re still working on it BTW… We’re just doing so in a private discussion so as not to exacerbate the damages or threaten the process of getting good result.
I agree with you, @guyguy, that when we’re dealing with minors there is some additional tact that the grown-ups have to display. While not excusing excuse the unfair treatment that many members have received (nor the life-threatening battery packs that were sold) we’re still dealing with a kid who needs the responsible adults in his life to step in.
I tried working directly with said kid at the beginning of this process. We had phone calls, and lots of email. I asked him to let me help make everything right. I tried to help him bring in assistance, recognizing that he is clearly over his head. He rejected the offer.
So now we’re approaching the problem through other channels to help get everyone reimbursed. When it’s over, we’ll update publicly about what we did and the result.
While I agree wholeheartedly with your sentiment. I don’t think it applies to Alex. He has shown no empathy. No remorse. No will to make things right. It could be said that he made attempts, but his payments didn’t clear. His products were not good or incomplete, or just never sent. His site is still up falsely giving the impression his “company” can deliver something.
Ever heard of Bernie Madoff? What do you think people think of that guy?
He’s not part of this community. He certainly doesn’t respect or look up to anyone here. If you bought anything from him. You got scammed.
The boy needs a spanking. This is what a spanking looks like in 2017 now that corporal punishment is off the table and communities are electronically connected instead of physically.
If i had done this shit at his age my neighbors would have yelled at me until my memomma got there, who would have yelled at me and then whipped me and then held me till my parents got there who would have both yelled at me then whipped me again. Then they would have made me eat something because i haven’t eaten all day because i’ve been out doing this stupid shit.
It used to take a village to raise a kid.
it STILL takes a village but everyone is connected to those outside their area and not connected to their immediate communities anymore so what we end up with is this: A global fucking spanking on a severely public scale in a detached society of low empathy participants who act like they have no idea the person on the other side of the screen is real.
The village has changed, but the raising still needs to happen.
@treenutter I appreciate the steps taken so far by you and the other admins on this forum. All of you are what makes this community what it is. Thanks.
As this forum grows there may need to be a verification is needed before posting as a merchant – at minimum the vendor needs to be 18.
@psychotiller I don’t think empathy is something that’s deserved or earned (it rarely is either). Empathy is something that’s given.
Everything you’ve said is right - his site should be taken down, people should know not to buy from him et cetera. I would even go as far as saying law enforcement should be involved. It’s when this conversation veered into embarassing him that I think it starts to get shaky - then it’s not about justice or making things right - it turns into us making ourselves feel superior and having a laugh at a child’s expense. The fact that he’s an unrepentant scammer does not excuse all other behavior toward him, especially since he’s a kid. I’ll be honest though, if he were an adult all my high-horse talk of empathy would probably go out the window.
I think the lesson he’ll receive will be real-life consequences from the responsible parties (parents/guardians/school/creditors). Thanks to @longhairedboy and @psychotiller for making sure that useful information is being shared to alert everyone about this “seller.”
@guyguy I’ve shown him a LOT of empathy. I’ve put a lot of time into trying to address the situation, as have others. Despite the many angry posts we’ve seen about this, many people have tried to help/nudge the kid into action, and he squirmed away every time.
Using mod superpowers, I’ve deleted a lot of inappropriate threats to the kid… people are outraged, and rightfully so, but the threats of violence and personal injury are where we draw a line on the forum (unless they are jokes, and these weren’t!)
We’ve changed the way we monitor group buys now, and of course we’ll work toward even better assurance of legit sellers.
Hopefully this all gets resolved soon and @Alextech makes it right with everyone. I’d hate for his address to accidentally get posted on this forum, cause who knows what some of the affected parties might do with that information.
We already know where he lives, where he goes to school, and who his guidance counselor is. The information is out there, its not hard to find.
He’s stolen the most from me so I’d have the biggest bone to pick with him. Nobody is considering anything but an amenable resolution and we are giving @Alextech every opportunity to save himself.
I hope @Alextech resolves this before we organize a lawsuit and before he turns 18.
Thread recap:
Alex took your money.
Nothing happened.
This kid can and probably will walk away from this without punishment. Contracts made with minors are voidable. Unless someone confronts this clown in person, don’t expect much to happen.
Assuming he has parents or they care… and I question this based on his actions and his dedication to the grind of what he is doing… yes that might work.
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