I an curious, are saying that you are welding copper strip to Nickel plated Li Ion cell cases ? I was under the
impression that copper can not be welded to Nickel or steel.
Hi, I'm finally offering my spot welders. After few prototypes had been made and tested, I finally have a final version which I can offer to folks on this forum.
Welders are based on mosfets that switch power from lead starter battery, a concept which has already been tested by some of users. This eliminates limits of your power outlet, and there's no problem if you have only 110 V plug. It doesn't matter because power for welding is being drawn from battery only. However, you need additional power source for logic, that can be small wall adapter or small 12 V battery.
I'm offering a kit that consists of:
Spot welder unit
Footswitch
Two electrodes that consist of - wire, handles, and tips for welding
Not included in kit, but needed for welding :
Lead starter battery, 40 Ah - 130 Ah, or 350 amps to 1100 amps
Standard 12 V wall DC adapter with barrel plug
I'm sure that most of you have this at home, and if not, they are not expensive. I've done most of my welding with one 45 Ah 380 A starter battery, which costs around 45$ in my country.
Welder uses battery power for welding, which is switched via six IRF1324 mosfets.
Pulse is controlled by PIC microprocessor, and it's double pulse, in a way that first pulse is one eight of the duration of the second pulse.
Second pulse is adjustable from 0 - 20 ms.
First pulse is just cleaning or surface preparation, and the second pulse is main pulse that does all the welding.
Welding power depends on battery used and pulse duration, and material type and thickness. There are many variables, but for example, with one 45 Ah battery, I can weld up to 0.15 mm nickel with around 6-8 ms pulse time, and 0.05 mm copper on ~15 ms pulse time. With two 45 Ah batteries, I can weld 0.15 mm nickel on 4-5 ms setting, 0.05 mm copper on 10 ms setting, and 0.1 mm copper on 15 ms. I can also weld 0.3 mm nickel on ~17 ms setting, however I would prefer welding it with bigger battery (at least 110 Ah) and shorter pulse time. For more experiences from other members who used similar setup, you can take a look at this thread:
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=59383
Prices is 140$.
You can pay using paypal, fee is included in price.
I'm located in Croatia, EU, and I can ship more or less world wide.
Shipping cost (air priority registered letter with tracking, for almost every location in the world) for one kit is 25$.
I can also offer parts of the kit separately, or even only PCB's. Contact me for pricing.
If you have any more questions, and I'm sure that there will be more questions, please ask here, so everyone can see the answer. I will add information to this post if I see that something is being asked frequently.
Thank you for reading, and please let me know what do you think (even if you are not planning on buying), I'm always open for suggestions!
Here are some videos that show what do you get in the kit and on how to use the welder:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqrIO_Bvsak
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_JC4YGrvwA
I'm sorry for my pronunciation, I know it's awful, and it turns out that I can't pronounce potentiometer for shit :lol: Please don't laugh
