BOSS LEVEL CUSTOM SPOT WELDER

I emailed Aulakiria last night right before bed to ask about placing an order. I expected that it would be a day or two before I heard from him. Well, I was pleasantly surprised when I got an email back in 5 mins along with a PayPal invoice for the stuff I asked for in my email. 3 mins after I payed the invoice, he emailed me back to let me know he got the payment and would process my order.

I was blown away by how quickly he replied and how professional he was in processing the order. I'm really excited to try the welder and build my new pack.
 
You have been Lucky. I was Lucky too. I got my order in a week. That's amazing. He shipped next day and the box came really quick. I usually get my orders from Asia in 30-50 days. In very few cases in 20 days (unless I use dhl or any other super expensive companies).
 
I couldn't resist and chose the faster shipping option, but I'm not holding my breath expecting crazy 7-day delivery like you saw rojitor hehe. I have lots to do on my bike in the mean time and with winter coming (and a nice ebike already) I'm taking my time with this build and getting every little thing perfect. So, it's cool with me if it take 20 days, I'm not in any rush. I was just so impressed with how quickly Aulakiria responded to my email I wanted to share it here.
 
I also chose the faster shipping (both times). I don't think it was 7 days the first time, but not much more, something like 8-10 I think. Zro, looks like you and I pretty much ordered at the same time, with same shipping method, lets see who gets theirs first... mines going to California.

I still gotta find a good way to ship my other one back for repairs... so far it looks like it might cost $40 or more.... hopefully I can find something cheaper. Considering I ordered a new one (since I did not want to wait for this one to ship there, get fixed, and shipped back), it doesn't need to be the fastest shipping, this will just be a backup for the new one.

Just got some new connectors I plan to use for my battery... was originally planning on using some XT90-S... but just got 5 sets of AS150's... so I figure I might as well go with those. If anyone's interested, got them through amazon (tho not sold/shipped by amazon, but shipping was still fast... significantly faster than from china), and the price was about as good as I could find from china anyway, 5 sets for $27.95, each individually packaged and 100% legit AMASS, not some knockoff http://a.co/0uvyQnr
 
LOL OK its a race progrock ;) I'll post here when my package arrives. While you're closer, I'm in Atlanta which is a big shipping hub so this may be close...
 
Yeah "closer" doesn't always mean much with international orders... I have had many orders from Asia go to Chicago, among other places, before coming to me in Cali. Should be interesting.
 
progrock It'll be interesting to see how internationally shipped packages differ for our parts of the country. Watch your package go through Atlanta before it get to you. Hahaha

EDIT: I meant to mention progrock, in reference to shipping something out internationally, I've only done that once, and I used USPS. It was a really bad idea. As soon as the package left the country the tracking was lost. I was shipped an older iPhone and the 'buyer' reported that they never got it. Because of the failed USPS tracking I couldn't prove otherwise. Not that I think Aulakiria would pull anything, but just saying that the USPS often looks like the cheapest option, but they fail for international shipping. I'd recommend UPS, FedEx, or DHL even though they are pricier.
 
21bllzs.jpg
 
And thank god I looked at reviews before getting sucked in by the low price of shipping... was almost going to ship this thing to South Korea via parcelmoneky...... but damn, never saw any place have sooo many 1 star review... I mean, they have so many, that I feel like there's a very good chance every review that is not 1 star is totally fake.... guess I'll keep looking (Of course I live on the edge of "china town" in SF.... shipping to china would likely be cheap/easy here, lol).

I am having very little luck... at this rate it'll cost more to ship this + repair, than to buy new one... I don't get how it's so much cheaper shipping from south korea... I keep getting quoted rates above $60 for a small ~ 1 lb box.
 
ZRO, I think I have you beat... my package is already in USPS's hands in San Francisco.... If I'm lucky they'll deliver it tomorrow... worse case I figure Monday. I'm actually pretty shocked.. had to check twice, didn't think it would make it here so fast.

Got some more good news today as well, my KG roll of nickel has arrived... and my BMS just cleared customs in LA, so should be here Monday hopefully, or sometime early next week. I also got my XT150 connectors in, thinking about using those for the 3 phase connectors (got 3 colors) and my AS150's for the main battery connectors.

Sadly, still having no luck finding a way to send my broken one back for repairs.... but going to keep looking.
 
OK, looks like i may have been wrong... got some really weird tracking results.... first it said it got to SF yesterday... now it says it's just leaving Korea. Very strange, but makes some sense... didn't think it would get here that fast.... guess the race is still on.
 
I just checked and it looks like my package has left Korea, but I don't have any info yet on where it is now. I'm guessing the tracking won't update over the weekend.

I'm glad you got all the rest of your stuff progrock. I have my BMS, nickel strip, and silicone wires. I still want to pick up a pair of black xt60 connectors. I got a 2.1mm female barrel connector for charging since that's what my 'shark' pack I already have uses. This way I can use the same charger for both batteries. I already own a really nice variable power soldering station, so I didn't order the soldering option with Aulakiria's spot welder. I also got some alcohol wipes to clean the terminals and nitrile gloves, so I should have everything ready to go when the welder arrives.
 
My tracking still looks very confusing, hopefully Monday it'll make more sense.

BTW, if you guys are familiar with my current battery build, I'm building a 20s (with the goal of being VERY light for short distances, while being able to produce high amps)... I'm using 4 Bosch 18v 6.3ah battery packs, each pack contains 10 x Sanyo 20700A (30A 3,100mAh... really high quality, high amperage, newer battery).. I've been buying them in packs of 2 battery packs + a high speed Bosch charger for $120 (I now have 4 extra chargers I need to get rid of... but should be able to sell them for $20 pretty easily I hope)....

Just found the same battery packs, without the charger, for $105 shipped: https://www.ebay.com/itm/112448902225

Not only does each pack contain 10 x Sanyo 20700A batteries, they are held in place by what Bosch calls their "CoolPack 2.0"... a plastic holder that's supposed to have superior cooling ability. ALSO, the batteries are connected via 2 copper plates, that are laser welded to the batteries.

So for $105 shipped, you get 20 x Sanyo 20700A, 2 x 10 battery "CoolPack 2.0" holders, and the batteries are already connected with a copper plate (a step up from nickel strips). Just counting the batteries, it comes to $5.25 each.... and these are relatively new Bosch battery packs, so none of them have been sitting on shelves for years, they are most likely only a few months old.

What's even cooler for me, I'm building a 20s battery.... Based on the current configuration of each pack, I don't even need to rearrange the batteries, I can use them exactly as they are setup, simply just need to connect 4 of these battery packs in series. What this means is.... technically anyone could build a 20s battery pack from these batteries without the need for a spot welder... a simple soldering iron will be good enough since they already have a copper plate spot welded, which you could easily solder some copper wire to connect the packs, without damaging the batteries by soldering directly to them. While my goal is to build a small, high power battery... I can easily build 2, and run them in parallel for longer distances (or even 3-4 if I need more amp hours). Definitely a pretty sweet deal IMO... AND these Sanyo 20700A batteries are not easy to find by themselves (and usually are not cheap... I see them for $10 a battery... before shipping)... and like I said, you are getting more than just the 10 batteries in each pack, even tho them alone makes this a great deal.
 
As expected, the 1 kg roll of pure nickel I purchased has passed 2 tests, and is pretty safe to say IS pure nickel. Not the fastest shipping, but was very well packed and a good price: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-shipping-0-2mm-pure-nickel-plate-for-18650-Li-ion-cell-connector-0-2-7mm/1726549462.html

***Just realized the above 1kg of pure nickel 7mm x 0.2mm is on sale on the 11th (aliexpress' BIG sale day) for 25% off.... that's $44.25 SHIPPED, for a 1 KG of some very good, high purity nickel.... I can vouch for the product, as well as the seller as well. I just made nickel acetate from this exact product, it came out a very clean green, so can safely say it's pretty high purity nickel.***

Now that I finally have some pure nickel, time to make some nickel acetate solution for nickel plating some copper later on. I was going to follow this instructable, unless someone recommends another method: http://www.instructables.com/id/High-Quality-and-safe-Nickel-Plating/

Sadly, I don't have a VERY low voltage source for the actual plating step (that instructable recommends as low as 1v... apparently using a lower voltage, plating slower, is recommended to produce a better end result). I think I might finally get around to building a DIY Bench Power supply... can get an LTC3780 for under $10 on aliexpress, plus the other materials needed... trim pots, binding posts, voltmeter/ammeter... tempted to also grab a B900W got higher voltages, could theoretically use it as a variable voltage battery charger as well, between the 2 boards, would be able to get anything from 5v to 120v... combine that with a decent meanwell power supply, and I should have a rock solid bench power supply/variable voltage charger. Plus can use one of my 3D printers to build a nice case for everything... should actually come out pretty nice, and considering how cheap the whole project ill end up being (easily <$50 with both boards, under $30 if I just went with the LTC3780 and made a 5-30v supply, but I think I might as well double up and get the B900W if I'm gonna do all this work anyway). I'm sure the bench power supply will come in handy more than once in the near future.

Sadly still no luck finding a decently priced shipping company to send this welder back for repairs... if I don't find one soon, tempted to try to repair things myself. Was going to order some IRFB4110 FETs... and while I was at it.... was tempted to order a few (maybe 12-15) better quality FETs if I ever decide to upgrade my controller's FETs (or need to replace them if any brake). Been looking into what's considered the best FETs for this application... seems like people like Alpha and Omega's AOT290L and Texas Instrument's CSD19536KCS.... not sure if there are any other's people prefer... debating on which to go with, they both seem pretty good.
 
Many sellers rise their prices a few days before 11.11 in this case even if they did ...it is a good price.
 
Check out this new high power battery holder (and nickel + copper combo that the seller I just got the good nickel from is selling:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/EV-car-18650-lithium-ion-battery-holder-4P-6P-Material-is-ABS-PC-High-quality-18650/32838272069.html

or, in lower quantities (BTW, while these are 2 different 'stores' on aliexpress, I talked with them, and they are in fact the same company):

https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/High-quality-18650-battery-holder-For-big-power-battery-pack-50A-100Ah-200Ah-Lower-price-is/623665_32837557299.html

**Check out the photos at the bottom of the pages, while the nickel and copper plates shown there are not YET for sale, I talked with the store manager, and they said in the next couple of days they will in fact be added (and the nickel you see there IS pure nickel, not nickel plated steel).... I', not sure the thickness of the nickel or copper.... but just checkout how they connect with the battery holders. The battery holders have some (most likely brass) insert nuts in the middle, and both the nickel and copper plates have screw holes aligning with those inserts. As the photo shows, you would spot weld the nickel onto the batteries to get a solid connection... then to be able to run high amps through the system, the copper plate is than screwed down on top of the nickel. Seems like a pretty sweet design.. PLUS just the way the battery holders work, with the included locking bars, seems pretty cool... would let you build individual smaller packs of 4 or 6 batteries, that you can spot weld separately... then combine together to create a high power battery, screwing on the copper for additional paths for current to flow. It's one of the best designs I've seen for a battery holder on the market.

TBH, I totally plan I ripping off their design (though I might also buy a few of them). My plan is to build 3D printable models similar to their design (I've been using the same insert nuts regularly in my designs) and then I want to utilize a combination of nickel and copper, similar to what they are doing (either with large aluminum plates.. ie starting with 1000mm x 1000mm x 1mm copper plates you can find cheap on aliexpress, cutting them to the sizes I need.. and screwing them down ontop of batteries that have nickel plates already welded onto them. I've also considering using copper "bars" instead of plates, I found these 3mm x 15mm x 100mm copper bars (https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1PCS-YT1360-Copper-Row-3-15-100mm-Copper-Stick-Free-Shipping-Sell-at-a-Loss-T2/32799557817.html) at a very reasonable price... using the same kind of design... these copper bars should be able to easily handle any kind of amperage you would need on an ebike. I'll share my 3D printable designs as soon as I make them... and will be open to suggestions... the end result should be a pretty damn serious, dynamic battery structure, that could be used for any size (no matter how large) high power battery pack.
 
Well, still no luck with finding a good way to ship this thing back to get fixed without it costing more than just buying a new one in the end, lol. I think I'm gonna give up on that for now... and just try to fix it myself (assuming I can identify the problem.. if it's a blown MOSFET... or multiple.. shouldn't be that hard to figure out). The only thing holding me back was that I didn't feel like breaking anything more trying to take this thing apart. But from what I can tell, I should just be able to remove the solder from the pins connecting each layer to the next, and then separate the layers... which will give me access to finally test each MOSFET.

On a side note, partially due to me wanting to also be able to weld some copper ideally... I've been looking into other DIY spot welders... it's pretty amazing how many they are (most following the same principles... with certain design differences). I'm actually pretty amazed that these LIPO batteries are capable of producing so much power to work for spot welding (and you can get some pretty damn strong LIPOs if your device/circuit can handle the power). I've also seen quite a few designs utilizing capacitors (either 1 huge one, or a bunch of relatively large ones combined)... this seems to give you the benefit to use a range of different power sources... and with enough capacitors (or just large enough ones) seems like you could easily produce as much power as you would ever need for a spot welder. I'm sorta leaning in that direction.. BUT.. like I said, you can get some pretty serious LIPO batteries with extremely high C ratings... seems like I should be able to get a strong enough LIPO, and would just need to build a circuit that can handle the power (ie. more mosfets, or better ones... bigger bus bars, etc). On the other hand, using capacitors, an AC to DC converter/power supply.... could probably build a pretty serious setup that's self contained and has no need for a battery. Has anyone done much research on this... is there a compelling reason to go in one direction or the other?

Here's a few different spot welder designs I've been looking at...

This one I'm sure many of you have seen... seems like it's actually very comparable to this welder for the most part (and if you look at the prices that the guy is selling the parts... the PCBs and Aluminum plates.. it's very reasonable). I'm not exactly sure how this one's capabilities compare to the BOSS welder, I'm gonna guess they are very close.... if I wanted to make a stronger welder good for copper, I'm guessing I would probably have to beef up the design... but still probably a good starting point: http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Arduino-Battery-Spot-Welder/

Here's one that is EXTREMELY simple... really a great example to understand the core functionality of any of these spot welders... but this one doesn't have any form of microprocessor controlling it... so there's no dual pulse, and no real configuring of settings... just how much you charge the capacitor seems to be close to all the control.... This is also a cool example because it's using just one HUGE 1.2F capacitor.. and some seriously thick copper bars: http://www.instructables.com/id/Tutorial-Spot-Welder-for-Lithium-ion-18650-Battery/

Then there's this one, which is kinda in the middle of the above two. It does use an arduino, BUT it seems like it's a much more basic program on the arduino... it has a display, and 3 pots to control 3 settings, and a foot switch. It's display simply shows the values set by the 3 pots (the 2 pulse widths, and the dwell width) and the current voltage on on the capacitor (plus there's a buzzer to indicate the welder's state while use, so you don't have to keep checking the screen during use)... it uses a bank of Capacitors + MOSFETs (One cool thing with the PCB design for that part, you can basically choose how many of these PCBs you want to chain depending on your needs... pretty cool idea). Plus he even put everything into a nice package, utilizing an old broken UPS case. I actually really like this one... it's simple and straight forward, but seems like it does exactly what you need (with the exact options you'd want) with basically nothing extra. There is definitely no confusion of how to use the settings, or what things do... you basically have the option of how powerful you want to go based on the number of PCBs you chain, and it's got a few diodes thrown in there for protection. It feels like a minimalist approach, that doesn't cut any corners, just does exactly what it needs to. I do wonder if there is a benefit/need to utilize a bank of capacitors, instead of one huge capacitor like the first example... I'll have to look into this more, maybe one reason is that it's a dual pulse not a single pulse per a weld... and also could just be for the benefit of giving the builder the option of scaling up or down... I'm not entirely sure. One thing tho, considering you gotta get the PCBs built for the capacitors/mosfets already... I feel like I'd probably end up also making the rest of the circuit into a PCB... to both reduce space and keep things clean (my assumption is that he didn't because this was a prototype, and being so simple, he built it as he went, and only needed one, so never decided to get PCBs built in the end). http://www.instructables.com/id/Capacitive-Discharge-CD-Welder-for-battery-tabs/

As you can probably tell, I'm liking the third design... and considering trying something similar. BUT the first thing I really need to figure out... is there a reason/need to go with capacitors... or can a high power LIPO battery do everything I need. And, if I were to go with capacitors... does it make sense to have a bank of smaller ones... or just 1-2 giant ones.

If anyone can help elaborate, especially on my major questions, that would be amazing. I do think I might try to build my own... while I think the BOSS welder is great, and I'll likely get a lot of use out of it (and it's portability is a huge bonus)... I'm thinking it would also be really nice to have a non-portable "home" welder, that has the potential to do more (specifically handle spot welding copper without a problem).
 
Proof... flipped the old one to show the left over thermal adhesive from removing the heatsinks (and on a side note, such a pain in the ass having to crop, adjust resolution, and save as low quality jpeg so that this forum will let me upload):

2_boss_welders1.jpg

2_boss_welders2.jpg

Also got my BMS' delivered Monday. Got 3 that'll handle up to 24s... my first one will def be a 20s (as I've already describe)... second one more than likely will be as well (probably double the size pack for longer distance rides)... but the third one, would love to make a 24s. Sadly my current controller is maxed out at 20s... BUT I did upgrade it's capacitors to 100v, so theoretically it could handle more than 20s, but I'm guessing there is something on the board that would not let it work for anything larger than 20s (BUT, I have seen people mod other controllers to allow for me... at least for their controllers, I believe there was a 2 resistor voltage divider or something similar, and by changing a resistor, could trick the controller)... or there's 2 other possibilities.... 1) I buy a new controlle that supports more..... or 2) I find out I broke my controller while previously modding it, and am forced to do #1 immediately anyway.

I also got some really cool (and really small) balancing boards... I figure if I ever want to try a pack without a BMS, maybe these boards could be used to provide a balancing feature, instead of having to use a balancing charger (Plus they were REALLY cheap, especially compared to the BMS(s))
 
I won by a day.. but damn close.

But today, finally biting the bullet and taking my old one apart... couldn;t find any decent rate shipping, gonna have to ask for a refund for the repair free, lol... but it is just about time to be removing some solder, and testing out these mosfets myself.

I actually found a really cool device for testing mosfets, as well as most othe basic electronic devices (and is "automatic"... not to mention cheap: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/2016-DIY-kits-ATMEAG328-M328-Transistor-Tester-LCR-Diode-Capacitance-ESR-meter-PWM-Square-wave-Frequency/32815242766.html

Somehow, the same exact day I added that to my cart (originally was buying the rebuilt one), I found this thread (though I was not looking for it): http://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/$20-lcr-esr-transistor-checker-project/ (The import post in the thread bering: http://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/$20-lcr-esr-transistor-checker-project/msg1284997/#msg1286025 ... THO, its recommended to get a 16mhz crystal instead of 20mhz... that way it supports multiple versions of the firmware upgrade)

Anyway, instead of ordering the pre-built boards, I ordered 2 of the kits, and enough parts from arrow.com to build the 2 with upgrades, with a few spare parts. Apparently it's a pretty damn cool little tester, especially when you get the upgraded hardware and software (with the upgrades, much more accurate as well). And all together, board and upgrades cost less than $25 each (I think mine 2 orders came to $45, but thats to build 2 of them and with a few extra spare parts)

But, I don;t feel like waiting weeks to a month to test the mosfets on my broken welder, so I'm gonna do it manually... but in the future, this little device should come in handy more than once.
 
i just tested nickel on copper. It is not easy to do
for 0.1 nickel on copper you need 3.5-4ms on 4s
for 0.15 nickel on copper you need 6-7ms on 4s
i am low on pure so i used plated and didn't test 0.2. I guess 0.2 can be done with 7-8ms.
As seen on video plated is not a good idea. Use only pure for that
332m6md.jpg


[youtube]_dVEH63z8Tc[/youtube]
 
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