De-Soldering braid to re-inforce battery tabs.

[Ypedal]

Aight.. so i took the shrink off one of my 36v 8ah Nicad packs and found a few surprises.

Most of the spot welds are ok, but a few are not up to my personal liking, some are actually starting to turn black.

Since i have the pack exposed, i'm going to solder up the tabs and add a bit more material, My NIMH packs have thicker and wider interconects, but the nicad packs are using very thin material and i suspect excess voltage sag due to this resistance.

I was just over at circuit city and picked up some de-soldering braid with the intention of replacing some fets on a few controllers.. .. and thinking this might just be good stuff to use on top of the battery tabs...

Good idea or bad ? Should i just use 14 gauge wire strips ? or use the braid ?

 

[fechter]

Good idea. The braid is already soaked in flux, so it solders easily. The braid is very flexible, so stress on the connections will be minimized. It's also flat, so the battery pack dimensions will stay close to stock.

Plan B is to get some coaxial cable and strip the jacket to get the braid from that.

 

[Ypedal]

Plan B is to get some coaxial cable and strip the jacket to get the braid from that.

Heeeeyyyyyy.... now there's an idea !!! ( paid 5 $ for a 5 ft braid.. i have about 100 ft of cable at home already !! sheesh... )

 

[Lowell]

Use the solder braid for sure, I'm very happy with the results on my packs. You can check all your interconnects by loading the battery down and measuring voltage drop between each cell. I cut the losses down to less than 10% of stock.