Yep, pretty much this lol
4 Likes
Apart from lowering your iron’s temp, minimizing solder thickness and contact time with nickel, what else can be done to reduce heat damage to cells when you’re soldering your series connections?
Use the bend over the cell method and solder the wires to the nickel taps before spot welding the taps to the cells would be the best option.
4 Likes
What if I’m using the 30mm wide stuff?
Not sure what you mean with it
With wider nickel on your p packs like the 10th photo down from here
I feel like the pack would get cumbersome and hard to work with if you soldered the s connection between each piece of nickel before welding
2 Likes
if you can, solder then weld.
4 Likes
I did work like this on the main Leads and some series connections. It’s not a problem to solder first and then weld. Just make sure you don’t weld on solder 
you don’t want to weld on solder 
If you think there is no other way than first weld it and then solder it, you could do it like @glyphiks I think he use an alu plate under the nickel while soldering to get the heat away faster.
There should be some pictures somewhere here which show how he is doing it.
4 Likes
*Me about to solder together my first pack in 2017.
It hasn’t caught fire… Yet…
6 Likes
I have given up on the aluminium strip underneath. Too many accidental shorts 
I just use folded nickel and forceps now. The forceps are great as they hold the wire in place, stop solder from wicking too far, they act as an excellent heatsink, and they prop the folded nickel up off the cells.
I make the joint quickly, blow on it furiously and then cool the joint immediately with a damp rag.
7 Likes
I regret not getting those for my pack…
2 Likes
I’ve never heard of this nor seen any cell datasheet mentioning that.
Is it because there’s a tab welded inside to the middle of the negative/bottom side of the cell?
1 Like
Are those 18650s? If so, can you tell me the height of this all wrapped up? Pcb+staggered DS 18650s + wires and wrap?
I’m planning similar battery build and want to know what size gasket I would need on my SS enclosure, and how much ground clearance it leaves me.
Yes.
Scroll up to an earlier post of mine, 16 hours before this post. That’s the VTC5A datasheet.
2 Likes
I thought were not supposed to blow on solder to cool it…
1 Like
Why not?
1 Like
Does anyone have proof it becomes more brittle? I understand the logic if you’re assuming it acts the same way as steels and such when looking at their hardness or toughness based on cooling curves, but I’m not sure I’ve seen evidence to quantify that cooling it faster is detrimental to the joint strength.
1 Like
I would like to know as cooling with a damp rag cools it down pretty damn quick
1 Like
I’ll search around. I know pipe fitters cool with rags sometimes and if you don’t allow it to cool enough before you put water through you can hear it pop. But thats also braising not soldering.