[Count Floyd]

I actually meant Sanyo Nimh cells. They are the best ones out there for charge and discharge. I've soldered copper braid to over 100 cells and never had a single one fail. And my solder skills aren't great!

John

[Gary Maker]

Pranged Prob wrote: I think that if I am going to put a battery pack in a $1500.00 airplane then I will buy a factory assembled pack. I suppose any battery I buy will be made in asia but I think I would rather buy a brand name. I do not know if assemble your own are as dependable as factory made but I guess I would rather not test it.

I assemble all my own packs from Sanyo Cells that I solder myself and have never had a failure and believe me, I have made up many dozens of packs in the last 10 years or so.

I purchased a brand new radio, which of course comes with a battery pack, After only a couple of charges, the battery seemed dead and would NOT charge up. I decided to strip off the shrink wrap to check each cell as I suspected that perhaps one cell was bad. Right off I spotted the problem. One of the spot welded (or whatever you call it ) tabs was completely seperated from the cell. I went over the complete pack and soldered all the tabs so this will not happen again. I have never had a solder joint come apart, ever! I don't trust packs that are NOT soldered! I have had at least three factory assembled packs that have had the tabs come apart and thats a scary prospect for any plane be it $150 trainer or an $1100 giant scale aerobat!

I can make up a NiMh pack for much less than half of what a hobby retailer will charge for them. And I trust them completely in even my most expensive airplane!

[moo]

I have tried soldering the copper braid route, but all the wisdom I read suggests that this is a good way to damage the cell?

1) depends on your soldering skills

Try practising soldering on $2000 surface mount printed circuit boards like I do.

I agree, prolonged exposure to 700 degrees damages most electronics, not just batteries. I use a temperature controlled 60 Watt iron for most utility soldering, a bit expensive for the average hobbiest.

I solder braid directly to the battery casing, good solder is important here too.

[Bryan Mailloux]

Well I have never personally built a pack but have watched friends build there own and use cells with no tabs. They use from "the source" (old radio shack) de- soldering braid to attach cells. My friends were converted after seeing purchased packs break apart.

[prangled prop]

well this does give me a lot to chew on. Is there anybody out there who disagrees with home building batteries????

[Frank Klenk]

What Gary mentioned is exactly what happened to me! It was a store bought pack with those spot welded tabs, well 1 came off (in the air). And that was the end of my 100 inch Ohio CAP
Now, I build my own and I use 2 packs in a plane, always good to have a back up!

[Jabba]

whats the differance in PRICE!!!

IF it is only a few $$$ I would rather have it done for me.

Even though I have had a spot weld on a factory fail on me, causing a crash.

[Count Floyd]

I can put a 6V Nimh AA Sanyo 1850 Mah pack together for around $14. You can save even more money by snipping off the servo leads from fried servos instead of buying the connector. Just keep the leads short if the gauge of the wire is suspect.

Find an equivalent pack from an online store and compare the price. They will probably charge close to $50 for a pack with no-name cells.