Diy solderless 18650 battery kit.

[craiggor]

Yeh I have a bit of oxidisation on my one of my lawn mower batteries.

No problem getting it off the contact point with a bit of sand paper. This would be a little more difficult to do on the vruzend spring,but nothing a wire brush on a dremel wouldn't cope with. The ultimate reusable battery pack for me would use 18650's /21700's with threads incorporated into the cell as on Headway cells

 

[awol]

I can foresee a possible issue with the formation of Chromium oxide and Nickel oxide which will introduce a resistance in the junction between cells and their busbars.

What problem could that cause?

 

[Nealh]

Resistance will add heat and loss of capacity supplied but nothing to worry about in the short term. A spray of ACF50 will help to keep oxidisation at bay for 18 months or so in a confined space. Resists high temperature and is non conductive.

 

[awol]

What about a tiny dab of copper grease on the ends of the cells before fitting the plastic caps?

 

[Nealh]

What about a tiny dab of copper grease on the ends of the cells before fitting the plastic caps?

Not a good idea as it contains copper hence the title and is conductive also corrosive in contact with any non ferrous. Use non conductive ACF block grease same as the spray apply with a small brush, spray would be wasteful as most would miss.

 

[anotherkiwi]

I was scratching my head about the use of copper bus bars instead of the SS ones. That would add another metal oxide into the mix wouldn't it? Isn't the shell of a 18650 cell made of steel?

 

[Nealh]

Cans are stainless or Ni plated steel, caps both ends are Ni.

 

[Nealh]

My kits are in Coventry , have been so since the 5th apparently held up due to invoice issues .

 

[Nealh]

Bloody customs .
My kits have been released to PF by customs but customs have deemed I need to pay import duty on $57 package, so PF won't deliver until it is paid.
Now waiting for payment invoice, thought these would slip through due to their low value.
18650's from Nkon B.V on the way but no cell holders yet , no duty due on these though as I believe we are still in the E.U.

 

[anotherkiwi]

Correction UK customs... There is no duty on packages under 150€ in France

Sorry couldn't resist

 

[Nealh]

Of course your correct AK.
No duty is due as under £115 but as order is over £39, 20% vat is due plus handling fee. Bloody grave robbers .

 

[awol]

I wonder if VRUZEND would kindly mark package value down to £39 if requested.
I will certainly ask if I order any in the future.

 

[Nealh]

I got 3 kits, If I had got 2 probably would have been ok, Vruzend don't show the postage cost which Customs would also include if it was on the invoice.
Craiggor received only the one kit and think had no issues.

 

[craiggor]

No extras to pay for me. No mention of postal cost on invoice or customs declaration,just total value $19.Two extra plastic caps in my kit. Bus bars need deburring.

 

[craiggor]

I wonder if VRUZEND would kindly mark package value down to £39 if requested.
I will certainly ask if I order any in the future.

Vruzend have just posted on ES that they would do this.

 

[anotherkiwi]

Vruzend asked for the link to this thread so you should be able to ask your questions directly here soon instead of having to join ES for those who aren't already a member.

Just ordered my kit.

 

[Nealh]

I wonder if VRUZEND would kindly mark package value down to £39 if requested.
I will certainly ask if I order any in the future.

Yes they would, they replied on ES and said if he/we had known about the vat threshold he would have adjusted the invoice.

 

[Nealh]

My kits should be delivered tomorrow, I had to pay VAT + PF handling fee of £8 .
My cells arrived today as promised by Nkon & DPD, very good service 4 days door to door.
LG cells all at 3.56v and Panasonic's all at 3.53v.

 

[Nealh]

3 boxes arrived today .
I'm getting some copper strips cut for me so I can cut and punch some bus bars to replace the stainless ones.
The guys on ES say 1 copper bus has less impedance then approx. 45 S/S ones,

 

[anotherkiwi]

conductivity resistivity​

copper 58,5 1,7
St.Steel 1,32 76,0

Silver would be the better choice just don't tell me where you have parked your bike

I am thinking of testing the kit out of the box to see if I can get 4P10S in my frame. Then I am thinking of nickel strips:

Nickel 14,3 7,0

Not up there with copper but certainly a large improvement over SS. I will order the nickel strips when I order my cells from nkon. Also having just one strip over the whole parallel group should improve conductivity?

How about Aluminium 36,9 2,7 ? I am guessing this is pure soft aluminium not one of the harder alloys that are more easy to find.