06/02/2024
I often get asked about my LED outfit and airports. So most of the time, it's ok, but this time around in Bangkok, it was not fun. Of course they sw the lipos that power it on the xray (I saw the picture and they are hard to miss). They are totally within the allowed limit (they are 98Wh each for a 100Wh limit), but depending on which agent I end up with, they don't like the fact that it's a bunch of electronics with wires, which well it is, it's mostly a custom laptop with a custom screen I built (without being an actual laptop for a long list of technical reasons)
This time around, I ended up with no fewer than 10 TSA equivalent agents looking at it, taking pictures, asking me the same questions and agreeing that there is nothing really wrong with it, but they don't love it either. After checking that it was all fine they still decided to call sniffing dogs that never arrived and after delaying me long enough, just told me to unplug the batteries and store them separately, which is actually less safe since unplugged batteries can short, but I was not going to argue logic or engineering with them.
Let's also note that those agents knew nothing but "how many mAh is it" when in fact the limit is in Wh, and mAh numbers are utterly useless unless you know the voltage (and those were 15V not 3.8V), but again, not going to argue with them since the 6200mAh was a lower number that made them happy :)
I have never been denied boarding, and ultimately the agents have always agreed that there is nothing disallowed in what I'm carrying, or actually dangerous (even if they often ignore that the batteries themselves are indeed the somewhat dangerous part as each lithium battery is a fire risk, but no less than any other phone, laptop or device that uses those batteries) and that's why they must be carried on instead of checked in, but I do my best to learn from each of those encounters (so far, only really 3 have been "not great" out of 30+ flights) and from the last 2 it's now pretty obvious that I'm going to be better off if I remove the batteries so that they can see and inspect them separately while not even seeing/looking at the LED panels. It is a bit less safe, as batteries are better off not having their connectors stay unplugged, but with agents that are about perceived risk and not actual engineering and real risk, I'll go with what makes them happy.