Guys, take it to PM please. Better yet, stop before it starts getting even more personal.
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Crap. Got confused & thought the 60/40 was the one with the instant phase change & no awkward in between. 63/37 is indeed the way to go.
There is actually a specific model of Kesters 63/37 that is the absolute outright best for hobby rc type solder work (& essentially all we do in esk8) - lost my knowledge repository on it like 4 years back tho. Either way, practically all kester 63/37 is near perfect.
If you can only buy one thing of kester (shitās a bit expensive) always buy the smaller diameter. You can always double/triple/quadruple a length of smaller diameter onto itself and twist together to essentially make larger diameter solder (for soldering into nickel or larger wire and such) but you can never turn larger diameter into smaller. Aka smaller can get everything you want done, but larger canāt work past a certain smallness of your parts.
If doing the folding over & twisting part, always cut it fresh w/scissors per joint so the flux core is exposed. If you just use your iron to chop it/use it, your flux core is essentially cauterized & enclosed. Not incredibly important if youāre using standalone flux as well, but still helpful and good practice
@tech.shit Iām not trying to be a dick, Iād just really like the picture to stay up so others can see/refer to it. Anyways, itās w/e I guess & I wonāt comment about it any more.
This is the stuff - if you ever leave your lid off too long or it otherwise hardens up, all you have to do it mix a bit of isopropyl alcohol in (preferably 90%+) & mash it up with it. Iāve also found that adding isopropyl to get it a bit more slurry like helps a lot with tinning larger wires. I moved my pucks of it into small mason jars - makes mixing with ISO a bit easier & less messy + Iām less likely to leave the lid off.
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Went to go buy that solder, saw that I already did, Iām sooooo happy I accidentally used the best solder
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Iām actually of the opposite opinion. The huge amount of flux you get in the larger 1.5mm (0.062ā) stuff is really helpful for large gauge wire and connector soldering. Using lots of the smaller gauge solder instead never worked well for me for the big jobs.
The 0.015ā diameter stuff is the only thing I can use for soldering tiny components and fine pitch connector pins though.
I always keep three sizes of Kester 63/37 around: 0.015ā, 0.031ā, and 0.062ā. But if youāre having success with doubling/tripling up the smaller stuff then thatās a great way to save $$$.
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People get passionate (and sometimes a bit mean) about battery pack construction techniques because of the safety risks of a poorly made pack.
Donāt be too hard on yourself, we all start somewhere. There are a ton of great examples of batteries in this thread and elsewhere on the forum, and itās the details that really matter. Type of welder, wire gauge/strand count, wire jacket material, nickel width & thickness, weld heat, series connection amp capacity, cell selection, fish paper location etc etc. There is a reason people pay a lot of money for someone else to make a packā¦ itās a steep learning curve that requires a lot of research and some specialized tools to make a great pack.
My first pack (2017) has a loooong list of things wrong with it and if I posted it here seriously I would be hammered with criticism (and rightly so).
But if we accept that we donāt know nearly as much as we think we do, and are OK being wrong we can learn from all the best techniques and come up with a safer pack.
My second pack was created after countless hours of research and modeled after many pictures I saved from this thread. It still had valid criticism and I revised what I could. Is it āpay me to make your packā quality? No, but it will work fine for my own boardā¦ and the next one will be better still.
Iām certainly no anomaly. Skyart makes some of the best packs on the forum and he started by asking basic questions in this thread and trying out a lot of different techniques that he eventually abandoned for better techniques based on feedback.
Mistakes are how we learn, and the only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.
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What a massive jump in quality. This is how its done.
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Taking constructive criticism and building your skills with it is absolutely paramount in building batteries. Practice practice and then practice some more. Research is your best friend hereā¦ like you said we all had to start with our first battery. Itās not so much how we fail but how we strive to correct the failure.
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Please donāt sell this to anyone
I really hope this is your zeroāth battery then
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The internet is forever
I seriously think this dude needs to look thru the chronology of @Halbj613ās post history. Used to act just like you (you may be slightly more cocky), finally realized the way he was acting & ended up flourishing into a really good builder, batteries included, when he started actually listening to people, taking advice, and not making weird one-upper posts.
If that picture is more than your third battery you have some serious problems man. You have the ability to become much better and you seem to indicate you want to. But that picture, saying youāre 3+ batteries deep, indicates that youāre having a difficult time with some part of the process.
Sorry for spam referencing you Shua, but itās all in good faith & in praise of how good youāve become.
Shua was also a minor. If youāre not and youāre acting worse than himā¦ idk what to tell you to help you.
I might be wrong, but I feel like Iāve seen you liking/otherwise positively interacting with my posts before. I donāt know why you would think Iām acting in bad faith/not giving you good advice in these posts.
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Bruh, that either makes u the pot or the kettle. Kill em w kindness homie. This attitude will get u precisely fuck all w this group. Donāt take everyrhing like itās a personal attack. Thats how u learn and grow.
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potential skills*
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no worries
come a long way and now occaisionally still building batteries for people
will post a bunch of pics soon
in the process of a 14s4p p42a right now (really interesting shape)
havent been on the forum so much lately as been super busy with school and sadly selling my stuff to help me afford stuff for school
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yeah split p groups and bms in between those two 2p groups
gonna be a fun balance wire session
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could do
will work it out and discuss with the customer depending on what he needs
for anyone building batteriesā¦ building them in the enclosure is soooooooooo good
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The bulge would be concerning if you wanted to recharge them, but since theyāre heavily discharged with very little energy it doesnāt have much to start a fire with. With that said, the material itself is still flammable if something else started them on fire and Iād still personally go to 0 because I donāt want any avoidable energy in them
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Ok, can do!
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The unfortunate reality is that most customers of eskate batteries arenāt as informed or as critical as they should be. Iāve rarely ever seen someone ask others for a portfolio of work, or construction pictures. And when they do, often enough itās abysmal work that by the grace of God hasnāt burnt up yet.
The general standard of custom battery building is unfortunately low, and Iām not sure how much of a mix there is of misinformation and general lack of care.
I will no longer reply to or quote the individual in this discussion, but I do hope they take an actual, honest look at the higher quality work on this forum and elsewhere, and do their sincere best to emulate the standards if not the actual practices. For the sake of them, their possible customers, and those around.
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