To be honest, I am pretty unsure of the effects of the ‘ms intermittent’ between the preheating pulse and the first welding pulse, or what changing the interval between double or triple pulses actually does. Small changes from 2 to 1 ms are likely very difficult to distinguish, amongst the other variables, and my scientific method has been lacking in precision and consistency.
I had more been exploring what thickness copper this welder can do, but also reluctant to max out the welder trying to get 0.4mm to weld.
Upping the preheating duration to 0.20 ms did seem to make an uneven weld at the edge of being strong enough, be more equal and stronger.
One of the reasons I started this thread was to get input on what effects changing the preheating and interval and ‘intermittent’ is intended to have, and why they developed and included such features/technology in these units.
Doing the Single pulse and No preheating was almost mentally soothing, as to eliminate those extra features from the results.
The instructions say very little as to the effects of these included features, and what instructions there are, are not translated into English very clearly.
But basically gear 550, no flux, single pulse, no preheating achieved the same weld on 0.2mm copper 0.1mm SS as gear 285 with flux, double pulse with 0.2ms preheating.
Pretty sure the goal should be achieving a strong low resistance weld, using the least amount of power, while introducing the least amount of heat to cell interior as is possible.
We don’t know the effects of these super high power spot welders on cell longevity.
We avoid soldering directly to the cell, but huge powerful pulses are certainly introducing the interior electrolyte adjacent to the weld, to heat it would be better off without.
To what degree it is detrimental to the battery is unknown, and if fatter copper welded to keeps the cell cooler throughout its lifespan in use, maybe it offsets, while reducing total pack resistance.
I am just starting to play with minimizing the gear and playing with the intermittent and preheating and interval to see the effects on 0.2mm copper under 0.1mm stainless, using flux.
I will let others determine what their welders can or cannot weld. The Fluxless no preheating, no second pulse experiments were to try and get a Kw number that would relate to a different welder that has no second pulse or preheating abilities.
The flux seems to add a lot of consistency, so even though a lot of people have no desire to use it, I am going to keep testing 0.2mm copper with it, and try and determine what effects changing the preheating and the intermittent and interval actually does.
The Flux certainly reduces the energy required to weld 0.2mm copper under 0.1mm stainless.
I think those with welders just on the edge of being capable welding 0.15 or 0.2mm copper under SS, would be wise to acquire some.
A lower gear and longer preheating also seemed to achieve as good a weld as a higher gear and less preheating, but the effects of changing the ‘intermittent ms’ between preheating and weld pulses, and the interval between weld pulses , I can’t say one way or the other at this point.
Prepping the battery and materials for the weld, taking photos, removing the weld, cleaning off excess flux, taking more photos, transferring those to the computer, determining which are the best for cropping and adjustment, then uploading them here does consume a lot of time.
I am still working on refining my interior work station, which is a multilevel desk half inside my small bedroom’s closet. My HEPA Filter to catch flux and solder smoke is not where I want it to be, and I refuse to do any Dremel work or dust making inside. Most of my tools are still in the still way too hot garage workshop, I am still poorly organized, and I spend too much time walking back and forth.
For those who are completely riveted about my choice as to what cell I chose to put inside my dad’s ancient Ryobi screwdriver that had a single 1200mah 10 amp Sanyo cell from the early 2010’s, perhaps earlier, I did use an Ampace JP30.
There is now 0.2mm thick, ~10mm wide copper from Anode to the 15 amp fuse( instead of 0.3mm nickel plated steel) , and the cathode contact I welded the original tab with crimped wire to some 0.2mm copper, to extend the tab, and then welded that to cathode under 0.1m stainless.
There was a gap from the narrow kerf Japanese flush cut saw that I filled with black hot glue with the casing held closed within a plastic spring clamp, and it looks fairly professional.
It took some 9 hours on the stock supposed 4v 180mA charger to reach 4.19v.
I’ve not used it yet to drive a screw, but burping the trigger unloaded, yields far more response than before, and it seems to spin faster, but I didn’t put the optical tachometer on it for a ‘before’ data point.
