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Do I have to solder my cells together? |
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It is possible when soldering to damage ni-cad cells by melting the nylon insulating rings inside the cells. You can buy single ni-cad cells with solder tags already welded to them – then you only have to solder tag to tag, or wire to tag, but in any case the following principles still apply:
- use a powerful hot iron so that you can solder quickly.
- clean the area to be soldered with emery cloth or similar (one of my friends uses a Dremel abrasive disc).
- tin both surfaces soldering quickly.
- cool the job as soon as you can by applying a damp rag or spraying a coolant such as liquid freon (e.g. super glue accelerator).
- place both tinned surfaces together – hold in place if necessary with a wooden stick – do not use metal as it will act as a heat-sink and can cause inadvertent shorting – apply hot iron.
- apply coolant again.
The above principles can also be used to solder metal tags or wires directly to ni-cad cells, but proceed with care.