Once upon a time on usenet Ian Field wrote:
"~misfit~" wrote in message
news
Once upon a time on usenet Ian Field wrote:
"~misfit~" wrote in message
news Once upon a time on usenet Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Wed, 15 Nov 2017 19:56:22 -0800, Jeff Liebermann
wrote:

My ESR meter is in my office so I can't measure the resistance of
the battery right now. I'll try to remember to check tomorrow.

I don't think there's a problem with pushing current through the
magnet if there is enough spring pressure on the contacts.

The 6mm dia x 1mm thick magnets show about 0.02 ohms measured with
the original Bob Parker ESR meter. It was fairly difficult
getting a good connection which required using two strips of nickel
flat
wire to get a decent connection. I also had to apply some
pressure to get a reliable connection to the meter probes. Even
so, the resistance never climbed over about 0.30 ohms.

If you get some square magnets, you can wrap a piece of battery
tab material around them. Leave some sticking out so you can
solder a wire or put a clip on it. Works for charging all types
of batteries with magnet-attractive connection points. And the
current doesn't go through the magnet or depend on the surface
plating.

I don't have any square magnets and most everything that I could
find in the right size on eBay is round, but I'm sure they exist.

I'm (slowly) building a better spot welder suitable for welding
tabs onto batteries. I plan to buy some flat nickel wire at
about 10 mm width, and make replacement button tops in a small
bench press, which would then be spot welded to the top of recycled
batteries.

Or, I could be crude, and just spot weld one end of a nickel strip
to the battery, and zig-zag the strip to simulate the button top.
With luck, it might act as a spring.

I used to do that until one part-unfolded as I put a cell into my
favourite flashlight, shorted against part of the top of the
flashlight referenced to negative and and cooked the switch into
oblivion. :-/

If I have to - I tin a m3 nut and solder it on. some applications
have a contact spring at both ends, so it isn't an issue.

I'm always a bit shy about soldering onto a cell - worried I'll cook
it. That's why I left the nickel strip on in the first place, so
it'd be there if I needed to solder the cell somewhere.

The bus strip is a little more thermal resistance on the way to the
cell.
A strong active flux helps make the joint quickly so damage is
minimised.

Cheers,
--
Shaun.

"Humans will have advanced a long, long way when religious belief has a cozy
little classification in the DSM*."
David Melville (in r.a.s.f1)
(*Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)