HEART OF TEXAS SOARING SOCIETY

			HEART OF TEXAS SOARING SOCIETY
Home	About Us	Flying Locations	Club Members	Pictures	Top Gun	Contest Schedule & Reports	Articles	Links
			*Spot Welding a Battery Pack*
Need to get a battery pack for your latest creation? You can buy a good quality 4.8V 2000 MaH pack from Horizon for $28 or a 4000 MaH pack for $35. Batteries America will sell you a 2700Mah pack for $26
or you could Build It Yourself!
That means you have to buy individual cells and solder them together. You could use NiMh AA cells with Solder Tabs. Only Batteries has 2300 MaH with tabs for $3.99 per cell. You can save even more and stock up at Battery Junction and get a 12 pack of Tenergy 2600 for $19.20 (that's $1.60 per cell). They have a 4 pack of Tenergy 1000 Mah for $3.56 (that's only $0.89 per cell). You would also need a packet of nickel solder tabs. Banggood $5.00
The majority of opinion on the internet is that you should never solder directly on a battery. It will hurt the cell by overheating. The best solution is to spot weld a new nickel-plated steel tab.
I had purchased a spot welder three years ago from Banggood and have been using it ever since. It cost me $79 then. Now they retail a bit more; $139-155 It works great. The only problem is portability and ability to weld a pack of unusual shape.

The answer again, came from Banggood. The micro spot welder cost me $8.95 (on sale) Currently they retail for @ $18.00 You will also need some nickel solder tabs
These electronics you get from China do not come with or have very poorly written instructions. So search UTube for "how to use a micro spot welder" This video is on the Banggood site Here are the instructions for use for the one I bought that were done by another user. They're better than the original.

Your power source can be an auto battery, or a 12V power supply using plugs or cigarette plug. A 3S 2200 MaH Lipo will work also. DO NOT use more than 3 lipo cells

What is the overall cost 1 Mini Spot welder $18.00 4 Tenergy 2600 Mah at $1.60 per cell = $6.40 50 Nickel strips $3.30 2 meters of Heat Shrink Tube $2.00 For about the same price as a good quality pack from Horizon or Batteries America you can get a complete set that will let you safely build your own.