The only reason I made this battery was because I already had the rechargable batteries and I didn't want to go
spend a bunch of money on a new battery pack. You'll still need to buy a field charger of some sort if you don't
already have one. That being said, make this at your own risk, take your time. Don't blame me for anything
Keep in mind once the battery is mounted, you can't remove it in the field to put another pack on. But I've never
run out of juice in one sitting anyways.
Looking back I would have not used plain wire to hook the batteries together, I should have bought some of the
strips that are made for batteries at my LHS. I also would not again use elctrical tape as the sticky backing will
melt as the batteries get hot, but I don't know how much difference that will make.
I just used whatever I had in the house.
Items you'll need:
[link=http://members.shaw.ca/jones741/truck/DSCN2575.JPG]Inventory Picture[/link]
- 5 AA NiMH Batteries. (use whatever you have, I just wouldn't mix mAh ratings with eachother, I used Duracell
2050mAh)
- Shoe Goo (you can buy this at london drugs if your in Canada, If your from the states I don't know)
- Battery Connector (You can reuse the old connector or use new ones and wire in a charging cord), I used Deans
Low loss connectors
- Soldering iron (I have a 35W iron and it worked great. 25W irons might have troubles, test on an old Alkaline
battery first)
- Flux
- Solder (For electronics)
- wire
- Electrical tape (or whatever your gonna use to wrap the battery with.)
- Tie straps
- Balloons
- Foam (To wrap around the battery)
- Field charger - you'll have one of these if your into RC planes or something.
1. Here's a little Electrics lesson for those who have no idea. What we are trying to do is create a 6.0 Volt
battery. In a D.C. (Direct Current) circuit, voltage adds, but current does not when you put power sources
in series with each other.
NiMH AA batteries are 1.2V each, if you put 5 of them in series with each other, the voltage adds up to 6
Volts(5 x 1.2V). The mAh rating will still be whatever the batteries say it is, ie. mine are 2050mAh.
2. Start by figuring out how your gonna hook the batteries in series with each other. You need to tie the
negative of the first battery to the positive of the second battery. Then the negative of the second battery
to the positive of the third battery. Arrange the batteries so that you dont have wire all over the place, just
short little pieces as shown in the
[link=http://members.shaw.ca/jones741/truck/DSCN2578.JPG]Picure[/link].
[link=http://members.shaw.ca/jones741/truck/DSCN2577.JPG]Arrangment Picture[/link]
3. Once the batteries are arranged I took the ShoeGoo and put some on the side of each battery. Stick
the batteries together as shown.
[link=http://members.shaw.ca/jones741/truck/DSCN2576.JPG]Assemble pack Picture[/link]
4. Once the ShooGoo has dried, you can start soldering. Take some sand paper and litely scuff the surface
of each end of all the batteries. I next took the wire and cut them to the desired lengths, and pretinned each.
Then solder the wires as discussed before in step 2. You will be left with the positive of the first battery
and the negative of the Fifth battery unsoldered.
[link=http://members.shaw.ca/jones741/truck/DSCN2578.JPG]Solder Picure[/link] Laugh at my
terrible solder work!
5. Make up your battery cable. Your going to want to think ahead and decide how long your battery cable
needs to be. Mine were long enough so that the battery could be at the front of the truck and the wire would
still reach the switch area . Solder your battery wires on and then solder your battery connectors. Ensure
you have the correct polarity, My wires were both black but I used a multimeter when I was done to confirm
polarity.
6. Wrap the battery pack. I used electrical tape (You might wanna use something else that does not have a
sticky backing) to wrap the entire pack.
[link=http://members.shaw.ca/jones741/truck/DSCN2579.JPG]Wrap pack Picture[/link]
I then put one 9" balloon over top. I then wraped the pack in foam insulation. Then again in another balloon.
You are going to have to make a notch in you battery box so that you can feed the wires inside to keep it nice
and tidy.
[link=http://members.shaw.ca/jones741/truck/DSCN2581.JPG]Mount location[/link]
7. Mount the battery. I mounted my pack at the front, it seemed to be the most secure place as I could a
couple tie straps to secure the pack. Ensure mount the pack low enough so that it does not interfere with the
shocks.
8. Get ready for pure power. Route the wires throught the battery box(By notching the lid of the box) and
bring the battery wire from the switch and also the connector from the battery pack, out just on top of the
switch itself. This way you can disconnect the pack to recharge and you dont need to remove the cover.
Using a field charger, you can recharge the pack in an hour or so.
[link=http://members.shaw.ca/jones741/truck/DSCN2583.JPG]Charge Point Picture[/link]
[link=http://members.shaw.ca/jones741/truck/DSCN2584.JPG]Notch compartment Picture[/link]