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Comment by WJW | Hacker News Reader

> since you don't always have a brand name and QC

Some guy DIY-ing batteries in his shop is pretty much the epitome of "no brand name and QC" though. Seriously, look at some of the pictures in the article. Those botched together mains wires alone look like a fire risk.

Quite apart from the circumstances of their creation, the homemade battery packs themselves can also be quite unsafe as some/most shops use any secondhand cells they can get their hands without regards for discharge ratings etc. That sort of imbalance can easily lead to fires during use, which is obviously not great when the driver is in busy traffic at the time.

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He works under his own brand though, I would argue that batteries made by the guy down the street have a higher brand awareness than "COCO" batteries which might also sell under name "BOBO", "AOAO", "AKKO", "LMYW", etc.

I am only pointing out that I would be concerned regardless of the source, chinese or local but suspect the local guy has a greater incentive to maintain his brand than the imported brand from china.

> Seriously, look at some of the pictures in the article. Those botched together mains wires alone look like a fire risk.

I'm guessing you haven't been to Indonesia. This style of wiring is common in businesses and homes in Indonesia, Thailand and lot of poorer asian countries. The regulations are weak or unenforced. Often unlicensed people build houses, run power, water etc.

It's (probably unintentionally) dishonest to judge this by a first world standard.

Physics is the standard - it ignites or not - and it doesn't care where you are.

> Those botched together mains wires alone look like a fire risk.

There is nothing inherently unsafe with bolting power strip onto the wall.

> Quite apart from the circumstances of their creation, the homemade battery packs themselves can also be quite unsafe as some/most shops use any secondhand cells they can get their hands without regards for discharge ratings etc. That sort of imbalance can easily lead to fires during use, which is obviously not great when the driver is in busy traffic at the time.

Not reading the article before yapping your mouth eh ?

> Ady Siswanto, owner of e-bike workshop Dyvolt in Jakarta, told Rest of World he takes care to match the internal resistance and capacity of the cells.

Most of the "serial DIYes" know that just fine, as it is blindingly obvious in performance of batteries and if you're making it a business you'd not have many returning customers... except ones returning for a return.

And let's not pretend name-brand packs don't have "accidents"

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