Roy_e

Hey,

I am making a receiver hump pack, from 5 AA rechargeable 2500 NiHm batteries, is soldering them going to decrease the life of them or charge capabilities at all??? the heat from the soldering iron, is it at all bad for them, in any way???

thanks..

gerwen

It is definitely possible to damage the cells while soldering them.

Hotter the iron the better, 40W+ is best, but a 30W will work. The trick is to do it as quickly as possible so to transfer as little heat to the cell as possible.

Scuff up the contacts of the battery, and tin both the contact and the battery bar (or wire)

It should only take a second or two at most to get a good solder joint. If it takes longer to melt the solder, your iron isn't hot enough and you'll risk trashing your cells.

I don't know how much you know about soldering so i'll say this. When soldering, you don't melt the solder with the iron directly, you heat the joint you are soldering and hold the solder to that until it melts and flows into the joint.

Roy_e

i know abs nothing about soldering..

have attempted one pack, melted the solder onto the iron and sort of smeered on the joints, it worked though.. they stuck... not shore if screwed up the batteries though... gonna see tonight.. gonna ride them flat after work and then charge them and take it from there..

so i must sorts sand paper or something th econection points, hold the iron on it till hot the place solder on the spot that i heated till it melts and then place the connector on it?? it hardens so incredibly fast though..???

sorry, im a soldering dunce..!!!
Dude, any advice would suffice like 10 fold..

thanks

gerwen

Smearing it on like that, you've probably got a bad solder joint, which is brittle. It will hold for a while, but will be weak.

Soldering batts works like this.

Scuff up the ends of the battery and battery bars (using bars or wire?) with sandpaper.
Get your iron nice and hot.

First you're going to tin the contacts.

Hold the solder so it's touching the battery contact. Touch the iron to the contact (not the solder) to heat it up. It should heat up fast and melt the solder. Remove the iron. There should be a bit of solder now stuck to the end of the battery. Repeat this for all battery contacts and contacts on battery bars (or wires)

It should only take a second or two to melt the solder. If it takes longer, your iron probably isn't hot enough and you should beg, borrow or steal a 40W or better one. Trying to solder batteries with an iron that isn't hot enough will only frustrate you, and damage your batteries.

Now all your contacts are tinned (that's what melting that bit of solder on them is called.)

To finish the joint, hold the battery bar (or wire) securely to the battery contact in the position you want them to end up when you're done. (sometimes it takes three hands to do this)
Touch the iron to the area until the solder already on it melts. Take away the iron and let it cool. Solder joint done. Let it cool down a while and move on to the next joint. Usually when putting joints together like that, i hold more solder to the joint at the same time, but it's not really necessary.

Roy_e

nice, makes a bit of sense now... will practice on crappy old batteries first, have got a few spare rechargeable ones for if i screwed up the other ones....

will def do that next time though, have copied and pasted it into a word document to print and take home as a guide , thanks again... i will conquer this battery pack mission...!!!

thanks boy..

gerwen

Soldering is part skill, part art.

The more practice you get, the better you will be.

Glad i could help.

SManMTB

Most have already been said here and it's real easy to solder.

1. Scuff and clean surface.
2. Apply some solder flux.
3. Pre tin wires, battery poles and solder tips (makes it way easier to get a good joint)
4. Heat battery pole, add wire and solder.
5. Done

Roy_e

NiCads or NiMH or doesnt it really matter?? i have NiMH's but heard they not as good as NiCads?

Also i have a cheapish trickle charger that just keeps going till i put it off, doesnt alert one when batteries are charged, shoukld i invest in a good LCD display peak charger ?? will the trickle screw my batteries up at all???

another one, this prob a stupid one but anyway,.. when you get that switch so you can charge your batteries in the car, the switch must be off right???

thanks dudes...

gerwen

Nowadays they are pretty much equal. Nimh have a larger capacity, Nicads tolerate abuse and fast charging a little better, and have a longer lifetime. For most car applications, NiMH's are better because of their longer run-times.

Depends on the trickle charger really. If it's putting out in the neighbourhood of 100-300mA, it won't wreck your batts unless you leave them plugged in constantly. A decent charger will allow you to manage your batteries better.

That's right.
thanks dudes...
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Roy_e

Thanks dudes...