Hello People,
All good questions. If you send emails to
[email protected] they will be checked daily.
The venting system is on the positive side of the battery. The ring on the bottom is where the cell vents. If the cell is abused to the point of failure this area will break open and allow the gas to escape. We are currently testing the Solderless power tubes, but we do not have any definitive data yet.
You should definitely not butt solder the cells end to end. Applying the heat from the soldering gun directly to the cell is very bad for it. When the heat is applied the electrolyte inside the cell actually boils creating a gas behind the anode or the cathode. This will degrade the lifespan of your cell dramatically. This should also be noted when working with a Dewalt pack. When you get a Dewalt pack most people cut the straps that hold the battery together in half. This leaves you with a tab that is to short to do anything with. People wind up soldering the wire to this short tab, because they are soldering so closely to the cell that heat can cause the same problem discussed above. In regards to the price, a Dewalt pack retails in stores for $159.99 ($16 / cell), which is where we base our pricing for our cells.
There are deals on Ebay, but that is how Ebay is sometimes. In short you can get a Dewalt pack off of Ebay and save a few bucks, but you have to spend your time to get it apart and after that you typically wind up with cells that have been damaged while building your pack. If you get he loose cells from us they come with nickel tabs that are capable of 100+ amps continuous that are designed for use in series and parallel strings (even end to end) and the cell will not be damaged when you build it. If you do take a Dewalt pack apart the signs of damage will not be apparent immediately but after the pack has been cycled for a while.
The button on the negative end of the cell SHOULD NOTE BE ROTATED. If you rotate this you could very possibly create an internal short in the cell. The tab should not rotate freely. If you do notice that it rotates then you are probably putting a little bit of effort into turning it.
Again Do Not Rotate The Tab!!
The current battery configurations were created in the best effort to meet the needs of all the RC hobbyists. We had hoped that people could create their own custom packs by stringing together the 2S and the 3S packs as they needed. We are also selling loose cells so that hobbyists that need an alternative solution are free to create their own packs. We have been getting requests for a 4S pack to be created. We have not scheduled a 4S pack but it is being discussed as a possible future product. I urge everyone to use the forum and the
[email protected] email to give us your feedback and ideas to help create new products.
It is great to hear that you are having great success with our batteries. I would love to see some pictures of your plane.
I will post some pictures of the recommended end to end soldering of our developer kit cells soon.
Keep the questions coming,
Brian
[link=http://www.a123racing.com]
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