I have a cheap DMM, the good one comes when I can afford it.
Sure I can totally do that, I plan to after welding on the nickel. I’ve read that a light bulb is an easy way?
The main purpose of the charge was to ensure the cells were as close as possible when going into p-groups
If the cells were purchased new from a reputable dealer, then that’s not a concern. They’re shipped at storage voltage and in most cases, should be built into a pack in the same state.
Oh well, I’ll just have to discharge them and lose half a cycle. Any reccomendations on discharging back to storage voltage? I’ve read about using a light bulb.
If they’re already glued or welded, not really aside from using them.
As you said you currently can’t afford a better multimeter, I’m assuming an electronic load isn’t something in your budget.
I use an electronic load to discharge packs, after charge testing completed builds.
In the future I plan to acquire an oscilloscope, an variable load and a CC/CV power supply, but currently I’m just trying to gather and master my necessities for assembling packs.
Better tools will come as I gain experience.
I understand that pre-charging the cells makes this more dangerous to work with, but if I’m worried about that then the pack isn’t safe enough. Nothing should short or spark if this is assembled well.
Anyway, after a dozen posts about that, back to useful content.
Anyone have suggestions on what shape I should cut my nickel? I’ll be doing wiring on top as I have the enclosure space to do so.
Dodecahedron
Aka
Uhh, really?
And yes, I have read and continue to read that thread.
If you’re going to troll and not be helpful you really don’t need to comment.
If you did read the thread you wouldnt have needed to make this one 
The point is, questions like these are better asked in the battery builders thread so that any assistance given is localised for future reference.
I’m documenting my build, what’s wrong with that? I thought that was what people did here.
You should do that in the battery builder’s thread. That’s what it’s there for.
And not make a build thread? That’ll make it harder to update the post as I progress through the build and harder to link back to it when I document putting it into the rest of the board build thread.
Anyway, to a more pertinent point, you would be properly served from surveying the thread for photos of other builds.
It’s in those photos that you’ll see a number of nickel shapes to fit different configurations or parallel groups. As well, ways to approach cutting nickel for unconventional groupings.
Or, search the histories of builders like @Skyart @BenjaminF @JoeyZ5 @glyphiks and other prolific contributors.
Hence why I asked for suggestions for my use.
I guess if nobody will give an opinion, I’ll just go with what I’ve seen which is rounded rectangles (like a long squircle)
We arent here to spoonfeed you everything. At this point go look yourself. You have tons of resources and a search button
Nobody’s asking for spoonfeeding of anything. I expressed an openness to opinions, in return I got trolling,
I’m sorry if I’m in the wrong here but I just don’t see what’s got people’s pants in a bunch.
If you aren’t going to help then please don’t hinder.
A problem we have is that any cells we buy can be from different batches and have been stored under different conditions. All of the cells could be perfectly fine but those different manufacture dates and storage conditions can lead to different voltages once we get them.
The voltage differences can also be due to different self-discharge rates. This is normal and won’t affect anything unless the board is regularly stored without charging/balancing for months. Then the pack would need some time to re-balance before use to regain its original run time.
I’ve had cells arrive with a 100mV range between them but they tested essentially identically with tight tolerance capacity and IR readings (the critical things to measure to match cells).
Using cells that are closely matched can help make for a longer-life and higher performance pack though so it’s always recommended to use the tightest grouping cells (capacity and IR but voltage if that’s all you can read) when possible.
AC IR or DC IR or both?
I use DC IR since it indicates voltage sag but AC IR (at 1kHz) gives you an idea of electrolyte performance so I would guess that it could also be used to match cells. I do not know which method might be better for different applications. Testing would have to be done.
More like 0.01, 3 digits is too unrealistic lol