Battery pack Build Recommendations? Copper soldering or pure nickel Strip?

Basically you just weld the nickel to the batteries and solder some wire on top of the nickel for reinforcement

I did that today. But my nickel was very reluctant to accept the solder. The cells got pretty warm (still touchable but I am worried now that it was already too much and that I might have degraded them in a way). Is there a trick to make the nickel strips easier to solder? Also after reading old whitepony build threads again he adds the solder before spot welding - that might have been a good idea :frowning:

Maybe some solder paste? Probably best to solder beforehand.

flux helps a lot

Yeah no it is too late though. Any idea how much heat is too much heat? As I said I could still touch them but they felt warm.

Soldering direct to cell will almost always be hotter than soldering copper wire to nickle strip, unless you’re holding the iron there for minutes at a time. I soldered my cell fuses straight on the cell with no issues to the pack.

@JLabs or @barajabali are the people to ask.

What size or style of copper wire can we use? Or even find?

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Copper braid 10mm. Try searching it on ebay. Silicone wire and normal round copper wire would also be fine. Get around 12 AWG

Does anybody have a link to a tutorial on making an eskate battery pack? Best thing would be a video

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Where would be a great and cheap place to purchase some 18650 batteries at wholesale?

My favourite and the cheapest place (usually)is ru.nkon.nl or just nkon.nl if your in the EU. Shipping can take a while from ru.nkon.nl but the other one is quite fast. If your in the USA I’ve heard lion wholesale is also good (just Google them)

I’ve looked into liionwholesale they are more expensive than others. Too bad I’m in the US customs and other charges might cost me more for the first site. But I did see wholesalebatterysupply.com their prices are cheaper than liionwholesale and they don’t charge for shipping in the US. I just want to have alternatives just in case I’m paying too much for batteries

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY7FwffZ5vc This is for ebikes but it will help

I’ve seen this ebike video it just raised more questions for me like the soldering of the leads? Where to start after I solder the negative? But I would like a better detailed tutorial but specifically for the electric skateboard style packs.

I may make one soon. If there is interest.

Definitely interested. Lol please keep me informed with a link when you make it. I believe it is needed for those of us that have a budget and love to tinker

I used a 10awg equivalent tinned copper braid for my 12s4p HG2 pack. I cut it into strips first, tinned the cells, then marked where the battery lined up on the strip and saturated the braid in that spot though both layers of the braid, laid it on the battery and the a quick firm press with the soldering iron bonding the two together. Pictures are in my build thread. http://www.electric-skateboard.builders/t/custom-evolve-12s4p-hg2-518wh-dual-vesc-build/14487

so far ive always reinforced with copper, but on my last build I just used 3 nickel strips spot welded ontop of each other (for a 10S3P battery). felt like more work overall, but I guess its the best for the cells in the end because of soldering heat.

hardly noticeable because I worked precisely, but its 3 strips :slight_smile:

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That’s a 12awg soldered pack ran beautifully

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