Mis-Aligned.

After some delays and a wait for parts, I finished building my Align T-Rex 500. The next step would be to calibrate it, so I had to charge the battery.

The battery is big and heavy and cost $115 plus shipping. The Align battery charger was even more expensive, and the battery connected to it via an adapter. Here are the adapter instructions:

(You might be able to read that by clicking on it, but I'm not sure. I'm using the native Blogspot editor, since my old editor stopped working when Apple upgraded their OS. Apple doesn't really care a lot about backward compatibility.)


Although reading instructions without really having to is kind of girly, I did it. And they didn't make a lot of sense to me. 2.5mm pitch plugs? Thunder Power? - that doesn't appear anywhere. It was all a lot of mumbo jumbo, so I decided to do what I usually do - try it.


There were two plugs on the battery, and they only fit in the three sockets at the end of the adapter. Those are supposed to be Thunder Power sockets but... it was what it was. I started by trying only the 6-pin plug, first in one socket, then the other. Then I tried only the 4-pin plug. None of those attempts worked, so I inserted both plugs in the two sockets on the left of the adapter. That didn't work, either, so I unplugged the 6-pin plug and plugged it into the socket on the right side of the adapter. The wiring from the battery immediately burst into flame, burning a groove though my index finger. I minimized the damage by putting my finger under cold water right away and then again whenever it started to hurt a lot.

 (A few days later.)

Well, that was a bummer. I wrote to Align and asked them to replace the battery and adapter under warranty. They didn't respond, so I wrote again, suggesting they might have liability issues, and the Director of Marketing responded:

First of all I would like to point on in the Instruction manual page 4, illustration 4 at the bottom of the page it shows which type of connectors are to be plugged into the balanced charge adapter. There are Thunder Power or TP connectors, which enable the charging of 2-3 cell packs, and using this same connector with the 6s battery and then placing the second tab into the adjacent battery station for a 6s type pack. The next charge/balance port connection shows 4-5 cell. This is not to be used with 6s batteries. The other ports on the adapter are for JST 2 cell lipo and a 5 cell lipo.

If you have any further questions or would like to order a new connector please call us and we can asist you with the purchase of a new balance connector.

I was like, hello? TP connectors? 6s type pack? JST 2 cell lipo? WTF was he talking about? I didn't know, but it was obvious they didn't want to replace my battery or adapter.

I thought about it. I'd inserted two plugs into two nearly-adjacent sockets on a circuit board, and the wiring burst into flames. My injury was minor, if you don't count the psychological damage. Will I ever again feel comfortable around batteries? And if a woman could sue McDonalds because she spilled hot coffee on herself, winning $640,000, might not a legal remedy be available?

Twice I wrote back, the final time saying that if they didn't agree by Monday to replace the battery, I would sue them. Now, you might think that a company in this instance would rather give me parts that probably cost them $80, rather than having their attorneys go to court to get the suit dismissed, probably minimum $1000. But there is testosterone involved.

I've already ordered a new battery, but I'm really into the idea of suing. Maybe Align will pay for my retirement. I don't know if I'll be able to find a product liability or personal injury attorney willing to take the case on a contingency basis, but I think it will be fun to try.

Any bets on whether I'll hear from Align tomorrow?