Nice to hear that it actually works! The tips also wear out for me. I tried sanding them a bit to make them more flat and that worked. When I get my nickel strip I’ll try to put to on top of each other and see if it works for me. What PCB’s are you talking about?
What battery do you have?
Good luck!
I have 30qs and 25r, making two packs.
Tips wore out very quick and sanding didn’t really help. But I am using slightly thinner copper nails than you. That could be the issue too.
I couldn’t really get any good welds nickel to nickel. But battery to nickel had no issues apart from copper nails.
Pictures from @Rob69de PCB made by @Kug3lis
I think the original idea was from @Blasto and I should probably ask him some questions if he is kind to answer 
Many people have designed a PCB like this. I need to do more research first though- the positives the negatives. Whether I can use 12/10awg to solder the pcb to the cells ( i got some sexy looking 12awg wire so hoping I can use that).
The PCBs are super cheap so hoping someone needs them since shipping is not cheap lol. I will be ordering 20 for myself, probably some extra and then hopefully someone is also interested in this cool idea.
Ahhh those. I meant what car battery do you have? And do you have a picture of your welds?
Ill get some pictures really soon.
So with the copper nails I would get ugly looking welds but functional - but unreliable Switched to those thick copper strands and I got reliable welds and cleaner welds. For the second layer, it would stick but I could still pull it apart.
265amp car battery, made by the same company as yours. https://www.tayna.co.uk/car-batteries/bulletbatt/054/
Problem could probably be solved by holding onto the button for a little longer. Thats another thing, I saw that video that darkkevind made and he was emphasising the importance on pressing the button quickly. I felt like a pro when I was doing that, no issues there 
Be careful if you hold the button a little longer. It makes the battery hot.
The problem could maybe also be your car batterys amps? My battery has 340 amps. Ill give you an update when i get my nickel strips.
Could be the battery, but darkkevind was using a weaker battery than mine in some of the videos.
I am not bothered if it can do 1 layer reliably since those PCBs were on my mind before today.
Yeah sometimes I would make the battery a little warm, I wouldnt say hot though
Actually I forgot about this, I did make double layers quite easily with new copper tips on thee negative side. Then I realised I don’t need to to do that. And I couldnt get the copper tips close enough because the junction connector was so wide
What i found on my phone - the last picture was my first weld
Hi again everyone. Quick update. I bought way less nickel strip than I need. I ordered 4 meters and after some math, I figured I’d actually need 11 meters. I contacted Alberto and ordered some more so now it’s all good. Just want everybody to know that you are probably going to need more nickel strip than you think. DO THE MATH! I ended up getting 13 meters in total. Can’t belive i’ve spent $45 on fucking nickel strip lol.
Before 06-08-2018:
Received parts.
Made HM-10 bluetooth module.
Put some cable sleeves around my motor cables
Hi everyone!
Today I received my batteries and started working on my battery. My nickel strip got shipped today so i’ll probably have it in 3-4 days! I would appreciate if I could get some feedback on my battery design 
Crazy unboxing
Measured all battery voltages. They were pretty close to each other (3.41V-3.43V).
Realized I had got some other parts. I did the “try to lit the fish paper on fire by holding a lighter under it” test. The fish paper from ali lasted the longest but I don’t think the adhesive is that good.
Put the battery insulators on the positive site of the batteries. The fish paper started falling off? As mentioned above: Is that normal or should I get some new?
Glued all cells together in packs of 3. All the cells fitted in the enclosure! really nice 
Glued all the packs of 3 together in packs of 6. Really nice! Did some more test fitting with all the parts.
Also got a new helmet today. I like it! REMEMBER TO USE A HELMET!
It’s been a while. It’s time for an update. Ditched the DIY spot and bought a Arduino Spot welder for $185. It arrived yesterday and it works great. Much easier to handle and im not afraid that the battery explodes.
(This came in the box as protection. love that he actually filled all the words in 
)
Today I used the spot welder to weld all of my packs. They are not done yet because I got some problems welding nickel to nickel.
I used 24ms when welding nickel to battery (steel) and 55ms when welding nickel to nickel. I think 55ms is a bit too much because I blew a hole in the nickel strip and I had to pull it off.
I also tried setting the pulse time to 47ms and it worked much better (no explosions) but im afraid the welds won’t be strong enough.
Ended up stopping after the nickel strip exploded so I wouldn’t fuck anything up in my “WHY DOES IT NOT WORK?!?!” mood. Glad I did that.
My plan tomorrow is to complete all the parallel packs and then I’ll see how much time I’ve got left. Hopefully the board will be done in 2 weeks (hopefully before lol). Thanks for reading till the end and following my build thread. Enjoy some pictures of the welds.
Quick and irelevent update. Isn’t that what this forum is used to?
Got all my packs welded done today. I used 47ms and the welds seem pretty good. Think I shorted a cell really quick cause it made a spark. I put a lot of pressure on a nickel strip to see how strong the weld was and there came a spark. Measured the volts and no damage was made.
Thanks for reading.
Okaaaaaay… I’ve made very little progress but it’s time for an update!
Glued my pack together, put some tape around it and cut some nickel
My old 340A car battery was not strong enough to make good welds so I had to get a new one. Got this for free but turned out it lost too much power after each weld. The welds was also not strong enough.
Okay. Got a new big 700A car battery! NOW WE’RE WELDING! right? Well, turns out the battery had a lower output than 700A. Great! I have sent it to repair and I am currently waiting to get the battery back or a new one. They said a week, but it’s now been 8 days and no battery. Enjoy the pictures
My original plan for the series connections looked like that
They were pain in the ass to get perfect but I found a solution. Just lay them like this instead. Much easier!
Ohh yea… Also shorted my battery. Think everything is fine. The nickel strip acted like a fuse. Just some burn marks.
To avoid the same thing happening to you always insulate positive and negative. If it had been the main leads it would probably had started a fire. I was lucky. Learn from other peoples mistakes and when you think “it’s not gonna happend to me” it is going to. As good old friend Crazy Russian Hacker says “Safety is number one priority”
Finally got answer from where I bought the car battery. It got denied and they told me nothing is wrong with the battery. Great… Can’t get my money back from the car battery and it dosen’t work properly.
What im going to try and do now is see if the spot welder is broken. I don’t think so but it’s worth it trying. I’ve messaged a couple of guys on the forum about their car battery specs to contradict the shops claim that the battery is fine and to have some kind of proof.
Luckily I still have my old 340A battery and im pretty sure I measured the amps to be 380A. Which is 40A over the rated. Which means that if thats still the case, the 700A battery is broken and the spot welder works fine. Great!
Thanks for reading and remember to never let the challenges stop you.
Time for an update! Only 25 days since last and no progress made on the skateboard!
So what has been going on? Well I placed an order on Amazon for a new car battery and it said “Usually dispatched within 2 to 3 days” and me be like "great! I get a battery from a well known source and I will have it in a few days. Two weeks later without the battery has been dispatched I contact them and gets told “we have some problems with our system so the item is not actually in stock and we don’t know when it will be again”. GREAT AMAZON! THANKS FOR WASTING 2 WEEKS WITHOUT EVEN TELLING ME ABOUT IT!
Then I needed to find another place to buy the battery. Luckily the place I bought my 340A battery (Tayna Batteries) had it in stock and shipping time was only a few days. On October 24. I bought the battery and I received it today. It was well packaged and had no acid in the bag. Voltage was 12.56V.
Finally! Got my pack welded and connected. The motor run! Still haven’t hooked up the bms and shrink wrapped it.
And today I finally turned on the board and tested the motors.
Video: https://instagram.com/p/Bp-chgYhjyu/
Got my vesc set up and WOW! It’s much more powerful!
(Not even close to full power 
)
Got my BMS connected but can’t charge the battery yet. The charger outputs 42.4V and pretty sure that’s too much. I’ve sent an email to Alberto and will hopefully will get an answer tomorrow.
Wait… Just realized one thing. When the charger outputs 42.4V each cell will be at 4.24v fully charged, correct?
- Standard charge: CCCV, 1.50A, 4.20 ± 0.05 V, 150mA cut-off
That means each cell potentially can be at 4.25V safely?
Which means the conclusion would be that the charge output is correct and the battery pack won’t be overcharged?
edit: The BMS has a overcharge voltage detection of 4.28V. That means the charging will be interrupted when the voltage of a cell exceeds 4.28V. The 30Q max charge is 4.25V, doesn’t that mean the cell will be damaged before the bms turns off?
I turned on the charger. And look at that! It’s charging! I will probably turn it off when it reaches 40V.
I think you should be fine*, but ill bump for more opinions
*as long as you use that charger specifically, as its set to 42.4
