[aprssig] Flaming AvMap G6

[KF4LVZ]

I can't find any clear documentation but does this have an internal
lithium battery (all I can find is information stating it has an
internal battery but not the chemistry)?  I could easily see the battery
charger and/or battery itself having a problem, especially a lithium
battery, resulting in a thermal runaway situation.


On 2016-05-09 08:20, spam8mybrain via aprssig wrote:
> I contacted AvMap, and they were very fast in responding to me. Apparently this 
> is the first time this has ever happened to any of their products, and my unit 
> is 4 years old. They are very eager to see the unit and find out what the cause 
> was.
> 
> So I have to say I am quite happy with their service response for an 
> out-of-warranty device.
> 
> Andrew Pavlin, KA2DDO
> 
> 
> -------- Original message --------
> From: Scott Miller <scott at opentrac.org>
> Date: 05/08/2016 9:54 PM (GMT-05:00)
> To: Andrew Pavlin <spam8mybrain at yahoo.com>, TAPR APRS Mailing List 
> <aprssig at tapr.org>
> Subject: Re: [aprssig] Flaming AvMap G6
> 
> I would talk to AvMap first.  Any time a device catches fire, the manufacturer 
> SHOULD be interested in hearing about it.  They might want a chance to do a 
> postmortem on it without it having been subsequently messed with.
> 
> Scott
> N1VG
> 
> On 5/8/2016 4:50 PM, Andrew Pavlin via aprssig wrote:
>> I always wondered why the AvMap G6 was considered a hot property, and I found 
>> out today when mine caught fire.
>>
>> It was doing a lousy job of syncing up to satellites to get a fix, and then 
>> the fix was really bad (always off the road). Suddenly, I heard a frying sound 
>> and clouds of vision-obscuring acidic smoke poured out of the back of the 
>> thing. A bit of a shock to happen on the Interstate highway, but I kept my 
>> cool, pulled the cigarette lighter power cord for the GPS, rolled down the 
>> window to clear the smoke out of the car., then slid the power switch on the 
>> device to OFF, took it off the magnetic mount bracket, and unplugged the cable 
>> to my Kenwood D710.
>>
>> I haven't had a chance yet to open the GPS up, so I'm wondering if anything is 
>> salvageable. If it was just the battery going bad, can I get another battery, 
>> or is the rest of the circuitry toast?
>>
>> Anyone else ever have a "feature" like this?
>>
>> Andrew Pavlin, KA2DDO
>> author of YAAC