Solder Alternatives

[bwhite]

For those of us that have to assemble proprietary battery packs (for ourselves) for confounding radios like the 235 & 245....
I know that I can solder the batteries together via tabs between their posts.
I feel as though the heat used may somehow diminish their life;
Does anyone have any experience with say.....gluing the tabs on the posts using
regular old glue of some sort or whatever "liquid solder" is ?

 

[flyingwolf]

I know there are some nice little low heat solder strips they sell at RS.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/i...der+strips&kw=solder+strips&parentPage=search

 

[Tweekerbob]

Most of those battery backs are assembled with spot welding. Very quick, thus relatively low heat transferred to the cells.

For those of us that have to assemble proprietary battery packs (for ourselves) for confounding radios like the 235 & 245....
I know that I can solder the batteries together via tabs between their posts.
I feel as though the heat used may somehow diminish their life;
Does anyone have any experience with say.....gluing the tabs on the posts using
regular old glue of some sort or whatever "liquid solder" is ?

 

[bwhite]

Most of those battery backs are assembled with spot welding. Very quick, thus relatively low heat transferred to the cells.

Yeah, I know, and with the low capacity batts. When I go to make-up new ones with the current much higher capacities my question ararises.

FlyingWolf, Are these just little strips of metal or is there something more to them?

 

[ReceiverBeaver]

I've never had much problem with regular soldering techniques on the batteries. It will go easier if you use a silver bearing electrical solder. The 2% silver solders are available anywhere. Even Radio Shack carries it on small rolls. I use this silver bearing solder 100% of the time on all my electrical stuff.

good luck

 

[bwhite]

The soldering tips are appreciated, but, has anyone experience with techniques not using heat?

 

[flyingwolf]

From the link to the strips.

100 Solder Tape Strips, 60%-Ammoiun Salt/40%-Tin

They are just low heat solder strips, my only worry would be when the batteries get hot (and we know they do) would they be hot enough to again melt the low temp solder and render the whole deal a loss.

 

[ReceiverBeaver]

Hey Bwhilte,

There's no such thing as "soldering" without heat. I see no way to glue tabs down to battery tops and insure an electrically sound connection.

 

[DPD1]

The soldering tips are appreciated, but, has anyone experience with techniques not using heat?

There's no such thing... When you solder... tin the battery end, then pre heat, tin, and put the solder on the tab first. Then put the tab with the solder on the end down onto the battery end and touch the back of the tab with the iron for just a second. That should be enough and doing it that way limits the time you are touching the battery with heat. Don't touch it longer than a couple seconds.

Dave
http://www.dpdproductions.com
- Custom Scanner, Aviation, MURS, GMRS, Marine & Ham Antennas -

 

[Skypilot007]

If you have to solder batteries together use some scotch-brite or very fine grit emery-cloth to clean the ends to be soldered then wipe with alcohol. The solder will flow quickly and greatly reduces the amount of heat the battery has to endure. Been making battery packs like that for years without trouble.

 

[JnglMassiv]

If you have to solder batteries together use some scotch-brite or very fine grit emery-cloth to clean the ends to be soldered then wipe with alcohol. The solder will flow quickly and greatly reduces the amount of heat the battery has to endure. Been making battery packs like that for years without trouble.

I'd add that I use a more aggressive means for roughing up the contacts. I use a file to really cut the ends up. Solder sticks to it quick and with even less heat.

You can always practice on old rechargables or dead alkalines to see what works best.

 

[bwhite]

Sounds good guys, thanks for all the info and tips.
In the future, I'll really be thinking twice about anything with a custom batt pack.
Back in their day my 235 & 245 were the only choice.

 

[ohiodesperado]

I raced remote control cars both gas and electric for awhile. I have built both sub-C packs and small receiver packs using cell phone Li Ion cells and the ni-cad types as well.

I learned that the easiest way to screw a battery up is to use too small an iron. I have an Ungar 45 watt iron I use for my packs with a large chisel tip. the quicker that you can get the end of the battery hot enough to properly solder, the less heat you transfer to the rest of the battery. Small irons will not heat up the end as fast and therefore you need to apply heat longer and transfer more heat to the rest of the battery.

If you are using tabbed batteries, I really wouldn't worry about it unless you are trying to solder them up with a 20 watt iron. As far as larger sub-C and even AA batteries that are not tabbed, get a HOT 9no smaller than 40 watt) iron and you will have good luck with it.

I remember several attempts that were made to replace soldered connections on batteries, and none worked well. Mind you race packs were discharged at a rate of no less than 50 amps during a race and even in the cell equalizer there was a 10 amp load put on the cells so the biggest problem that RC guys faced was heat from no having a good connection.

If you are concerned, contact a battery manufacture and see what they have to say for the specific cells that you are using.

 

[ohiodesperado]

You can always practice on dead alkalines to see what works best.

Never NEVER NEVER heat a alkaine battery. I have done this and the liquid can and does begin to boil and can rupture the cell and give you a nasty chemical burn. Been there and done that.

 

[enine]

Order the batteries from places like digikey or mouser who will spot weld them together in any way you specify.

 

[zz0468]

Since the original query asked about 'glue', I'll add that Chemtronics sells a conductive epoxy. I doubt it is suitable for high current applications such as a battery, but it's out there if someone wants to try it out.

 

[SouthSoundScanner]

Would a Cold Heat Soldering gun work ?

 

[okccsi]

Would a Cold Heat Soldering gun work ?

I just bought one of those recently, and my opinion is that they suck the big one. Not much luck with them at all.

OKC CSI

 

[ohiodesperado]

Cold Heat soldering iron still heats up. And yes they are hard to use. Try tinning the iron before soldering and see if you have any better luck with it. But as far as soldering batteries with it, it's not hot enough and it's temp recovery time sucks as well.

Temperature recovery time is where the iron temp is at one temperature (typically hot enough to solder with) but when you apply it to the joint being soldered the heat sinks to the joint and the tip temperature drops below the melting point of the solder and then rises back up to where it needs to be, this is the recovery time. On a hot iron (40 or better watts) unless you are trying to solder 2 gauge wire or something, the tip temp never falls below the melting point of the solder.
Point I am trying to make is this. You can either fiddle around with some iron you bought from ratshack (they don't have the good Ungar any more) or you can buy good irons from Mouser, or even eBay and have the right stuff. I have 12 or so irons. They range from a 15 watt Ungar that I use for surface mount repairs, all the way out to a 400 watt iron that is made to sweat copper water line (I use it for things like 2 gauge and heaver battery feeders, radiator repair and soldering ground straps to chassis bodies) Think of it like a screw driver. The little screws will not come out any better with a large number 3 driver than a number 3 screw will come out with a 00 micro screw driver.
BUY T HE RIGHT TOOL FOR THE JOB, the added cost will save time, headaches and screwed up projects because you didn't try hack at it trying to get a result.