Making your own Batteries?

[rckid91]

What all do I need in order to make my own battery packs for my slash? Do I need just a normal soldering iron or do i have to use a different one and what about the solder itself? Someone teach me?

 

[destrucktomaxx]

I recommend Deans Pro Bars 3.0. You'll need 6-7 of them. Then get some Deans Wet Noodle wire, Novak/Hudy silver solder (any silver solder works), a high powered solder iron/gun, battery jig (Trinity Big Bore 7 cell), a hobby knife and Google.

 

[rckid91]

Where do you guys get your cells? Is it really worth it to make your own packs or is it better to just buy made ones?

 

[destrucktomaxx]

www.cheapbatterypacks.com or just rebuild old or new batteries is what I do. It's worth it for the performance gains and the learning experience IMO.

 

[rckid91]

Well i was looking like on ebay and found some 4600mah cells but is there good and bad nimh cells?

 

[destrucktomaxx]

Theres good and bad yes. Elite cells are top, along with IB's. But its more about build quality that much else. I've got 150 charges on my off brand Tenergy batteries, and at 25 charges, the packs started to swell. I took them apart and rebuild them and after that, NO PROBLEMS EVER. Good luck bud.

 

[rckid91]

Yeah thank you've been a great resource.. i actually just rebuilt my tenergy 8 cell last nite lol

 

[MotoGod]

Hmm...I may need to go find a good guide to rebuilding old batteries. I have like 9 dead NiCd/NiMH 7.2V packs laying around....

 

[slowngreen]

its actually pretty easy once you figure it out, I've made a few saddle packs for crawlers, just like anything electrical, you just gotta figure it out the first time then its easy...

 

[rckid91]

Yeah any of you guys have experience with eBay cells?

 

[MotoGod]

I know how to put em back together....it's the getting them apart from the welds that I was a tad unsure of. I read online to just use a chisel and pry em up.

 

[destrucktomaxx]

If they are stick packs, just rip the batteries apart. There's only a think piece of tin stripping thats holding them together. Then clean them off with a Dremel cutoff wheel .

 

[MotoGod]

Hell I'm gonna try ripping a few apart tonight. lol I have a bin with at least 8 or 9 stick packs that are all dead.

 

[destrucktomaxx]

Make damn sure they're discharged!

 

[MotoGod]

Why? The guide I read actually told you to charge them first....so you can test to see which cells are good and which are bad. I mean I have a home built battery discharger (bulbs soldered together) so I can discharge em....but I thought dumping the charge fully was a bad thing? Electric confuses me sometimes....lol LOTS of conflicting information.

I know Lipo junk themselves if they get below like 3V or whatever it is. NiMH and NiCd the same?

 

[destrucktomaxx]

Kaboom!

 

[Metalhead Matt]

Don't drop nimh's below .9 volts per cell.