School Me on Rebuilding Lipos...

[wavetrain75]

I'm good with a soldering iron and can build simple circuits with ICs, but can someone please tell me HOW DO I GET WIRES ATTACHED TO THE TABS ON INDIVIDUAL LIPO CELLS?!!! Sorry. I feel like an idiot.

I have a battery with 1 bad cell (red) and a single cell that appears ok (silver) and I need to assemble them into a single 3 cell battery, but I cannot get the solder to stick to the tabs on the cells. I'm a little reluctant to break out the propane torch for such an operation.

Any other words of wisdom that could possibly result in success, or at least minimizing property and personal damage, would also be appreciated.

Thank You...

 

[offaxis]

Tin the cell tabs with your soldering iron and solder the wire to the tab. Be cautious about how much heat is getting into the battery. Work as quickly as possible. If the battery is getting to hot from your iron, take a break and let it cool down. Don't short out anything, the sparks will scare the crap out of you if you.

Its pretty simple really.

 

[moebeast]

I had no luck trying to solder the aluminum tabs either. One thing you can try with the red battery is plug the balance plug into a parallel charger board with another battery for a moment. Alternately, start a charge in NiMH mode. Both of these methods have worked for me to recover cells.

 

[pressalltheknobs]

Basically this is foolish. You risk some nasty burns and possibly a house fire if you do this in the wrong place and things don't go right, just to save $10.

Discharge the thing and dispose of it safely. It's probably done and even if you manage to repair it it will still be a risky battery.

Lipos are reasonably stable and don't fail that often but they are incendiary devices when they do.

If you really have to give it a try...make sure to wear adequate safety gear....full face protector leather gloves and a non flammable hat at a minimum and do this a in a concrete bunker somewhere...not on your work bench next to the cans of paint thinner...or worse, in a bedroom.