As the Hub Motor Turns and the LiPo fire burns.
Yea.
I got in the mood to solder again. It did not go too bad. I have had a lot of worse days doing it.
I finally broke in the Weller.
The first cell I soldered was the negative side of a 26650 cell. The positive side already had a wire soldered to it that would not pull apart. I did not get crazy and use vice grips and yank as hard as possible but did give it a strong enough tug to know it was not separating easily.
The biggest lesson I learned in all this is the surface area when soldering is most important. Not flux. Flux really don't matter. I bought really good quality solder acid which I could not solder a joint at all. It was most difficult but works better with no flux.
Here is the picture of the first solder joint with the Weller.
View attachment 7
I did a second joint as well after attempting it with one of my 60 watt irons.
Those are the solder joints I did with the Weller.
The 60 watt iron failed after 30 seconds of molten solder. It took about 10 seconds to stick with the Weller.
The thing about the Weller on the negative side of a 26650 cell is the surface area. It is much larger than the positive side.
The molten solder ball was all over the place and very cumbersome with the large tip I never used before. But even if the tip had a slightly lower surface temperature it is three times larger than the tip on the 60 watt iron.
My lesson is surface temperature of the surface you are soldering to is everything. It is the trick. The larger tip heats up more surface area which makes the solder stick.
Basically the only reason for plugging the irons in is the fact that I am dealing with packs that need to be re soldered. Or de soldered. One thing I noticed is de - soldering is much more difficult than re - soldering. For some reason once solder hardens it does not want to melt again. It becomes resistant to temperature.
I got 60 cells like that that I soldered a single 16 gauge wire to. It was a big mistake. Notice the middle cell. NOT STICKING. Thanks to Backlight I realized I was building 600 or 800 watt packs, NOT 3 kilowatt packs as using 16 gauge wire across 5 cells instead of a 16 gauge wire connected to EACH cell. I can solder 12 or 10 gauge wire to ALL five 16 gauge wires coming from each cell. A lot of extra work compared to the copper strip but still doable.
The fact is the positive side of a 26650 cell is a lot less surface area. You can tell just by looking at the positive solder joints they are stronger. It did the trick for the positive side. I can not pull those joints apart.
I did not want to even try the Weller on the positive side as the big tip gave me not much control at all and the molten solder ball moved around. Notice the large tip I used for the 60 watt iron though.
Out of 80 cells I have 30 I built solderless packs with. A solderless 6S - 5P pack I am tearing apart as I want 6S - 5P LIFEPO4 to fit in the black hyper tough box. I need batteries to be compact. A soldered or spot welded pack will take up about 40% less space than solderless.
I spent 230 bucks on the 26650 cells. All positive solder joints are great. I have been able to peel off most of the negative joints.
The only logical thing now to do is only solder what needs to be soldered. Basically I wanted to try out the Weller and those two solder joints did stick on the negative side but all the other positive joints were from the 60 watt iron and they are good solder joints. Yes the Weller is better but only for the negative side of 26650 cells. It is plan B as spot welding is the better way but if not happening the Weller will get the job done.
I plan on spot welding all the other negative side of 26650 cells. If possible. I still have to set up a spot welder. Hopefully it can work. I will have a lot of cell banks with the positive side soldered and the negative side spot welded hopefully.
I watched a video and said the positive side has those spaces for venting heat. They are designed to dissipate heat. It is not just the smaller surface area that makes solder stick better. It is also in the design of a top battery terminal that soldering to it will NOT heat up the cell as much as soldering to the bottom (negative). Therefore the surface area you are soldering to will naturally be hotter. Yea. I am really smart. :lol: But only from watching you tube videos and posting here. And of course experimenting.
Only thru intensive study can one increase intelligence. If you do not put the time in mastering something your knowledge on the subject will be compromised. Like watching a you tube video. If you skip half of it then may only be 50% effective or could miss the entire point. Opinions are like A _ _ :lol: You know where that's going :lol: What I meant is it is the information an opinion is based on that determines its significance.
OK I am drinking beers. :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
Please comet. If you are only reading part of this and skipping my main points then don't. I am learning as I go and a lot of the frustration I see here with me being stubborn and all is people do not read my entire post and skip around and not watch the videos I post.
I am an e bike scientist. I want to succeed. I have many projects and a lot going on right now. Many builds and upgrades and re builds.
I got these PESKY GAS things rolling around. A go cart and two mini bukes. Loud , obnoxious and stupid. Nobody cares here. In NY they would disappear. I know they are having fun and hope they never get pulled over. That way I get a chance to smoke them with the 3 Kilowatt Brushless motor.
I wonder what would happen with a 2 kilowatt Stryker motor on the front of the Haro with the 3 kilowatt motor on the back. The Diamondback Outlook has dual motors one throttle. So does the Currie. If the rear motor is a lot stronger then a front motor then there is no longer the spin out danger so both systems should complement each other. Work together.
Most of my e bikes are dual motors now. Only the 20" Turbo and 1,800W brushless motor are single and both strong. The 20" 800 watt motor on the 20" Turbo will compete with the Dual Bafangs and e bikeling 36V motors.
The 26" dual suspension will go up against the Currie e zip Trailz.
48V 1,000W 26" hub motor vs 1,000W brush Unite chain drive. Both bikes have Bafangs on the front. The dual suspension with the hub motor has separate throttles and batteries. The Currie same pack and throttle.
Looking at LIFEPO4 53V for 26" hub and 10S pack for front Bafang.
The Currie 15S - LTOs 1,000W radical brush chain rear and Bafand front.
Thanks.
LC. out.