On Tue, 31 May 2011 07:31 -0700, "William Chops Westfield" wrote:
> There's some sort of "safety conspiracy" that results in =20
> it being difficult to find cells/packs without internal electronics =20

That contradicts your prior statement that RC plane hobby shops sell
unprotected cells. When you want them, you know exactly where to buy
them. It is a niche market after all.

There are places to buy anything you want. Just because people who want
unprotected cells in small quantities are a tiny minority doesn't mean
that Costco should carry them - just the opposite. People want to make
money, and shelf space needs to pay for itself.

It's more like a "marketplace conspiracy" than anything else. Certainly
safety has something to do with it. Uniformed customers are just that.
You aren't going to sell drain cleaner in a toy store, even though you
can develop sensitized PC boards with it. My local hobby shop has a
homemade poster on the wall explaining what can happen with batteries -
and tacked to it is a scorched battery pack.

It's as hard (and getting harder) to buy a dialup modem these days as
li-poly batteries. It's not because modems pose a safety hazard by
conducting lightning to your computer.

Best regards,

Bob

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