On 12/20/2012 6:42 AM, N_Cook wrote:
wrote in message
...
Hi,
Do you know a technique to safely attach wires to NMH batteries
("C" cells) without soldering the wires to the battery which may harm the
batteries integrity? Note: I have several new "C" NMH batteries.

I know about battery holders, but there isn't enough space for a
multi-cell battery holder in the project I am working on.

Thank You in advance, John



Whats wrong with soldereing? Seriously roughen the metal with coarse sand
paper then a blob of flux. Then a soldering iron greater than 50W and
locally heat enough to get a spot of solder wetted over the roughened area,
don't dally and heat the whole cell. Then at your leisure and ordinary iron
locally melt a bit of your solder blob and meld with some new solder and the
wire. If its for5 or 10A use then probably not advisable

practise on an old cell first , perhaps



Soldering directly to cells is a bad idea.
It's like driving above the speed limit. You won't have any problem finding
people who'll swear that they do it all the time. They never get caught...
until they do.
Go down to traffic court and you'll see the other side of the coin.

I've soldered a lot of NiCd's back in the day. It mostly worked.
Except for the few that exploded under charge. And the few that
had high self-discharge rates.

And if you're fixing a laptop battery pack, there really isn't room
for that solder joint.

You need to find the sweet spot of time and temperature.
I found that spot with a DIY battery tab welder.
Haven't had any battery problems since.

If you insist on soldering batteries, wear safety glasses.
Clamp them down so they
won't hit you in the face when they explode. Also helps to
have them in a fixed position. You don't have time to fiddle
with the cells and the wire and the solder and the iron
with only two hands. The separator melts before you get
it all lined up.

Did I mention that soldering directly to cells is a bad idea.