Hey All,
So I done goofed. didnât realize that my strip is actually nickel-plated steel.
Unfortunately, I already welded the pack together. [see above]
My plan is to cover the series connections with a copper braid like this:
[Im going to go through the scrap to see if we have any copper wire lying around.]
However, I am reading people talking about these strips rusting out and breaking? I highly dought that is a remote possibility for my application. I live in a very arid desert climate and also have cell holders taking the mechanical stress and strain.
Any input on how else I can prevent a fire?
Then we are in the same boat here. 
The ânickelâ strip I have appears to be nickel plated steel too. Started to rust in salt water.
The copper braid is a good idea, basically the same as I did with solid copper wire.
I donât think corrosion will be a problem, the nickel plating also adds some corrosion resistance and if thereâs water getting to your pack thereâs more to worry about.
I made the same mistake before, I ended up starting again using different cells.
Mainly because of this chart
Before you panic try grinding with dremel sanding barrel or cutoff wheel. Steel throws sparks, pure nickel doesnât.
Sometimes the rust test gives false positives from surface contaminants.
Also when you weld steel plated nickel you get sparks. Welds for me were very strong though for the steel nickel, I couldnât safely remove the nickel without going through many,many hours of removing/cleaning etc
Pure nickel also sparks, but not as much as steel.
Just my experience, for me I didnât get any sparks with pure nickel
Fused charge Port vs fused charger, does it make any difference?
Theres no way Im removing the welded portions. Thats not happening.
I have some 10/12 gauge copper wire from the scrap bin at work.
Ill be inspecting that to see if i can solder it on. Given the amount of thermal mass now available with the welded cells, and that I have a good iron, Im hoping I wont see too much heat up
there were sparks here and there. None if I had solid contact.
I havent done any rust test. I did use the 4 wire meter at work and worked out roughly 100mohm per meter, which is consistent with Steel, not nickel
Im basing that off the description 
No difference for the safetly of yorur board, jsut whatever is along the charging wire.
If you fuse the charger (make sure the output is fused if its an internal fuse) then if the wwire to the fuse shorts, the fuse will trip.
If you fuse the board, then if the wire to the board shorts, the fuse will NOT trip.
simply put. Fused board has the disadvantage of not preventing cable shorts (like if the wire got pinched)
Iâm pretty sure I have nickel plated steel.
It rusts, and throws spark while grinding and welding.
if you have a short in the charge port, without charger plugged, the fuse on the charge port will trigger.
Would say there is a difference @Saturn_Corp
You are right sir. There should be a fuse onboard for your battery regardless.
Just finished my first pack, didnât turn out as bad as I thought it would. Now to charge it up and take it for a spin
Cell 5 drops more then the others and charges more, but no cells are loose or not connected. What would cause this?
Could it be a bad cell? Mabye it shorted?
Seems to charge fast then the others also.
If it charges and discharges faster than the rest it could suggest less capacity in that group. So maybe a bad cell or one with reduced capacity.
Eh shit, It gets me enough range so shouldnt matter too much.
Thatâs been my experience too. Especially if theyâre silicone insulated balance leads.
How wide and thick is your nickel? if its at least 10mm x 0.15mm then it should be just fine in a single layer.
Just a heads up though: If thatâs an all welded pack with welded series connections going down the length of the pack (which would then go down the length of the board), youâre going to end up with broken welds eventually which will lead to pack imbalance and capacity variance between P groups as well as cyclic variance between individual cells.