Batterys

[Stanley]

Hello Guys n Gals

I,m looking for some help/advise on making up battery packs. I've just tried and made a mess[:I][].

the pack came with the bars to join them and it all looked easy in the Japanese instructions.

Has anyone made up packs and knows what to do could you let me in on the secret[]

Many Thanks

[Bibbo]

As far as I know the secret is a decent soldering iron. Not sure about the specs of soldering irons but you need a pretty powerful one that will heat the battery up quickly. [V]So you don't boil the insides.[V]

[Shodog]

40watt soldering iron. some rosin core solder and rosin flux will do the trick.

Jim

[wriggleandgiggle]

I find that most sodlering irons are well upto the job, but you need a big tip in the iron to get decent joints.

What I do is clean the ends of the cell where your going to solder with fine emery paper (or a dremel if I'm being lazy) this ensures theres no cack in the way of a good joint [8)]

Then I tin the terminals of all the cells I'm going to use. (Doing it in stages helps prevent boiling the cells)

Then I assemble the pack in a jig (Ok, not a jig but 2 bits of wood nailed into another bit off wood that holds the cells firmly) ensuring the polarity of the cells is OK

Then I tin the battery bars and start applying them one by one, I dont keep the iron on a cell for more than 2-3 seconds, if I make a mistake I move onto the next joint and come back to the messed up one when its cooled off.

I've made up a special tip for making the traditional stick packs, its crude, but very effective.

It looks like a small hammer head and allows you to melt the solder on the -ve terminal whilst doing the same on the 'next' cells +ve terminal. Once they are both melted I remove the iron from between the cells and in one quick smooth motion join the 2 cells together. This method requires less solder than the battery bar method of pack builing as when the packs come together the solder is only very thin. Too much solder will make molten solder spew out all over the place, it normally finds a resting point on the +ve tip of the 'next' cell just enough to cause a short onto the -ve terminal. You gotta be real quick doing this or its a mini distater!

[WillyChang]

I just bought a 80W soldering iron... but its not the

wattage but the thermal capacity I was looking for.

The bigger the iron the more metal it holds ready-heated.

When you touch the cells, you don't want the iron to cool down

too much when the heat flows over. Building packs is now a breeze.

I too use a Dremel + sanding tool to scuff the battery ends.

Scuff only exactly where you want the solder to flow to, don't

need to do the whole terminal. I only sand a spot slightly

larger than the footprint of the battery bar, that's enough.

A battery jig (either DIY or commercial) might be handy too.

[Twmaster]

You can use a 30W iron but you need a tip with lots of mass so the heat is not easily drawn from it. I also use a 50W Weller temperature controlled station with a medium tip with spledid results. I additionally have a 40W Radio Shack iron with a 'hammerhead' tip for end-to-end soldering. The tip is available in the USA at www.hobby-lobby-com.

As others have pointed out making sure the surfaces on the cells is clean is important. It is also good to 'rough up' the cell a bit with emory cloth, fine sandpaper or a green scrub pad like used for dishes (my favorite).

HTH,

[Stanley]

Thanks for the advise I will use your tips next time I build a battery pack.[]

[Zericon]

Originally posted by wriggleandgiggle

I find that most sodlering irons are well upto the job, but you need a big tip in the iron to get decent joints. ECT...

Know this is off topic, but i must say when wriggle gives instructions it makes me want to try to to whatever he's trying to explain, even if i never had any intrest before. Just like a Tamiya instruction manual without the Pictures(and sometimes with)[]

Great work

[wriggleandgiggle]

quote:Know this is off topic, but i must say when wriggle gives instructions it makes me want to try to to whatever he's trying to explain, even if i never had any intrest before. Just like a Tamiya instruction manual without the Pictures(and sometimes with)

id="quote">id="quote">

LOL - Cheers mate

[Mooplea]

use some extra flux, it makes the job so much easier and quicker than trying to tin the joins with the flux in the solder.. i dont even bother cleaning / roughing the batterys before tinning..