Found free source for nicad.. should I bother?

[pwbset]

I was inspired by Doctorbass and his ability to get free batteries so I did a bunch of local cold calling and "social engineering" over the last couple weeks and have developed a good relationship with a local repair shop. They have already given me 4 18v Milwaukee NiCad packs to harvest with the promise of "many more"... ( http://tinyurl.com/5nta5s ).

What I'm wondering is should I even bother with these nicads? I'd need 180 good cells to get the pack size I'm looking for (72v7.2ah in 2x 36v7.2ah series I assume)... 180 little things to go wrong the way I see it. Total pack noob here. :wink:

Free is good obviously, but without a video step by step how-to on assembling and charging nicads I think I'm wasting my time... though when he mentioned free 28v emoli harvesters in the future I definitely perked up and paid attention. He's got one already, but needs to wait for the warranty to expire or something.

 

[Lessss]

Take em and offer em to the members of the board if you don't want em.

 

[Link]

Hey, that's what I was gonna suggest.

 

[TylerDurden]

but without a video step by step how-to on assembling and charging nicads I think I'm wasting my time...

Keep searching... there should be some vid somewhere.

R/C folks have been building nicad packs for ages, a few of them are here and can give you plenty of assistance.

If supplies are bountiful (and quality is good), you could perhaps make an arrangement where a member makes a video of building three packs using some of your cells: one pack for them, one for you and one for you to sell. 8)

 

[pwbset]

Thanks for the replies so far. Went and saw Indiana Jones finally this afternoon and when I got home I was in the tinkering mood :wink: so I broke down the 4 nicad packs I got. 15 cells per pack... subC I'm assuming. Of those 60 cells 42 are measuring 1.2+v and there are quite a few others in the .5-1v range so I'm thinking they just need a little juice to straighten up and fly right again. Others are 0v and there were two that registered -0 voltage, which I have to assume is a reversal or something and probably the cause of the pack failure?? There was one pack that had a bunch of white powder on the outside of some cells and brown stains on some of the paper shells... gotta assume some kind of surge there or something. They measure fine voltage-wise, but I put them in a "special" pile because that just don't seem right to my noob way of thinking.

Anyway... this is fun!

Can anyone recommend a good single cell charger that I can pop the marginal cells into to see if they still have life left in them?

Regardless I think I'm going to go the Milwaukee 28v jondoh etc. route so I may have a bunch of subC nicad cells soon if anyone cares.

 

[z_slo]

I've been doing the same thing...picking through 100's of used nicds.
The dead ones would be mixed in the middle of the packs so I pulled the tabs off the rest and put them in pvc pipes with a spring on the end.
It's taking forever so if your time is worth more than the $2/ea for new cells then don't bother.
Plus when they go bad they short out so if you're using a simple charger you can fry the good ones.
Zane

 

[pwbset]

Yeah, as much fun as I'm having (or was having)... it's really not that fun. :wink: What I'm doing now is just creating a little 36v2.4ah "test" pack that I can use for "this and that" when diddling with the motor or controller. Otherwise... ugh.. completely not worth going through these cells by the dozens. I ain't that broke I guess.