Near death by Mobile?

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The night I think I nearly died

A couple of nights ago I felt chilly and put on a sweater. A little later I felt something painfully hot against my chest.

I realised that it was my mobile, which was in my shirt pocket under the sweater. I hastily took the phone out and turned it off. It was almost too hot to touch.

A few minutes later it was back to normal and it has worked fine ever since. Here's what I think must have happened.

My body heat and the heat from the phone were retained by the insulation of the sweater, and the phone's LiPo battery must have started thermal run-away. Remember those exploding laptops a couple of years ago?

I reacted in time, but overheating LiPo batteries are bad news. My phone was conveniently located next to my heart. A very close run thing!

Lesson Learned

Keep your phone ventilated and do nothing to overheat it.

Jam tomorrow

If you were expecting a post about PCB FAB companies, I'm afraid that has taken longer than I thought. I'd put some of the boards somewhere safe™ and it took ages to find them.

The post is almost finished, and I will do my best to publish it tomorrow.

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