[ExI] arduino progress

[Stuart LaForge]

Quoting Spike:

> My Arduino experimentation was put temporarily on hold by a Sierra hiking
> trip, but I had an idea.

> Go out to the beach, scoop up a bucket of seawater.  Failing that, make a
> bucket of simulated seawater with salt, just plain table salt and water.
> Get an old used Tesla battery pack, charge it to the max, submerge it in the
> seawater for an hour.  Remove it, instrument the battery pack with
> thermocouples, have the Arduino take temperature measurements every 30
> minutes, or if it has one of those nifty 256k onboard memory units, take a
> reading every 5 minutes.

> Goal, see if there is any corrosion from the seawater that compromises the
> seal on those batteries.  If so, the batteries will get warmer than their
> surroundings.

> The test rig has to stay outside, far from anything flammable, such as
> inside your barbeque grill.


This sounds like a really bad idea to me especially during fire  
season. I am not sure what kind plastic Tesla's lithium ions batteries  
are packaged in but if there are any tiny cracks in the seal, the  
lithium will, on contact with water, heat up and evolve hydrogen gas.  
If enough hydrogen gas builds up before it ignites, then you might get  
a full on explosion sending burning plastic and lithium everywhere.  
The burning lithium will not be able to put out with water

Even if it doesn't explode, your bucket would likely melt, spilling  
the water and the lithium will then proceed to turn your barbeque to  
slag. Lithium burns at 3600 deg F while steel melts 2500 deg F. I  
suggest you start with individual Li-ion cells and gradually work your  
way up as you get a feel for how exothermic the reaction is going to  
be. I am not discouraging your pyromania, I am simply cautioning you  
to start small and work your way up. Baby steps. ;)

Stuart LaForge