King Song as a carry-on for airlines?

[avpx1]

Hi All,

I'm looking at getting my first EUC and have been reading the forum's threads about airline battery restrictions.

I'm confused at this point and figured I should just ask.

I'm interested in getting the KS 14c but am concerned I will not be able bring it on an airplane. So do you know? Can I take it on domestic flights? If not is there any KS that I can?

Otherwise I guess I'll need to start looking at other Wheels.

Thanks

[dmethvin]

The limit for battery size according to the IATA is 160 watt-hours and the KS-14c is over that. The airline can impose even stricter limits but I don't think anyone has reported that being done. Only a few models have batteries that would be small enough for air travel. The cheapo no-name models on AliExpress have 132Wh batteries which should be okay but that results in limited range of say 4 miles or 7km between charges. Or you could get a wheel that has removable batteries, check the wheel as luggage with one battery and put a spare in your carry-on. 

Some people have reported being able to travel with the Solowheel Xtreme which claims to be 196Wh, and there's a chance you could get some other models on the plane even though they have a battery bigger than the limit. The problem would be what happens if they don't let it on, or if you try to go back home and they refuse to let it on the plane.

[h00ktern]

Not the "c" model - the battery is too many w/hrs. The "b" model is swapable, but 174 w/hr, and not airline legal.

Gotway MCM4 is airline legal <160 w/hr battery (130 w/hr seems to stick in my mind - check.)

Safe trips

[Gimlet]

The early Solowheel Xtreme models like Sam Clegg has are great as although it has since been proven that their batteries are bigger the label on the footplate clearly states in large writing that it is 160wh so airline staff can be seen to be obeying the rules and few will know enough to argue the case. The more recent models are labeled with a higher Wh level I believe. 

[avpx1]

Thanks guys, for the very informative answers... much appreciated. I'll look into the Gotway MCM4 (the early solowheel seems like it will be hard near impossible for me to get) or maybe I'll have to scratch the idea of air travel with a wheel.

So glad I happened upon this forum... your very helpful.

 

[Jason McNeil]

King Song will also be releasing a 'special travel edition' of the 14B which will truthfully have 155Wh  using the powerful Samsung 25R battery cells, meaning it will be a substantially better machine than the current 14B. 

Nominal capacity is pretty worthless, especially in the small 16 cell configurations, because all of + >2900mAh cells that are installed in eWheels today have high resistance. When the battery level drops below 50% the cells can't adequately maintain the required voltage & becomes sloppy, unstable & potentially dangerous.  

[castShadow]

1 hour ago, Jason McNeil said:

...
Nominal capacity is pretty worthless, especially in the small 16 cell configurations, because all of + >2900mAh cells that are installed in eWheels today have high resistance. When the battery level drops below 50% the cells can't adequately maintain the required voltage & becomes sloppy, unstable & potentially dangerous.  

Are there any accepted differences between battery makes?  For example Sony V3 versus Panasonics?  Or Samsung verus LG?  I just threw those four in there because they are sometimes advertised in EUs.  There is a newer Sony v4 (and v5 I'm sure) but they advertise using V3.  I don't know about Samsung but I've read LG and the Sony are the betters ones - that could be an assumption on my part but they seem to maintain their voltage better which would be better for EUs.  This is why I chose the (lesser capacity 520) Sony battery vs (larger capacity 680) Panasonic on my last order - hopefully I'll actually get the benefits.

[esaj]

2 hours ago, castShadow said:

Are there any accepted differences between battery makes?  For example Sony V3 versus Panasonics?  Or Samsung verus LG?  I just threw those four in there because they are sometimes advertised in EUs.  There is a newer Sony v4 (and v5 I'm sure) but they advertise using V3.  I don't know about Samsung but I've read LG and the Sony are the betters ones - that could be an assumption on my part but they seem to maintain their voltage better which would be better for EUs.  This is why I chose the (lesser capacity 520) Sony battery vs (larger capacity 680) Panasonic on my last order - hopefully I'll actually get the benefits.

You can check the discharge curves of multiple different cell types from here:

http://www.dampfakkus.de/akku_auswahl.php

Or, you can just look up the "ids" for the cells you're interested in, and build the link yourself, like:

http://www.dampfakkus.de/akkuvergleich.php?akku1=<ID OF CELL 1>&akku2=<ID OF CELL 2>&akku3=...&a=<Amperage, 2, 3 or 5>

For example, here's LG MJ1 vs. LG MH1 vs. Sony V3 vs. Samsung SDI INR 25R vs. Panasonic NCR BD at 5A continuous drain:

http://www.dampfakkus.de/akkuvergleich.php?akku1=537&akku2=608&akku3=490&akku4=106&akku5=545&akku6=&a=5

It's not the easiest page to use, but the curves tell you how fast the voltage drops under different currents. Of course in real life, the wheels draw a varying amount of current from the packs (the typical amperage-curve is very spiky if you record it while riding), but in general, the better cells won't suffer that much voltage drop under heavier current drain. As all those cells in my example aren't the same capacity, the lower capacity ones will of course drop their voltage faster, but it's the depth of the voltage drop that matters especially during hard acceleration or climbing. Also, when the curve is steady and doesn't start dropping faster towards the end, it should mean that the pack won't cutout as easily even when the charge is low.