Anyone hack a lipo?

[menace]

I recently picked of a 6S 5000 turnigy lipo--I'm thinking of changing it into either 2 x 3s or 3 x 2s--anyone ever done this? I can see there are 6 individual cells inside the shrink wrap but I haven't opened it up yet--and yes i'm well aware what happens to lipos if i accidentally puncture one of the inner cells...

[fred0000]

lots have done it, only do it if you are VERY confident, overheating the cells will damage or end in failure aswell (dont hold your iron on to long) i'm more then willing to do it and I change leads and balancers all the time, but I am well aware of the risks involved in doing so.
you will either need to sacrafice the option to balance or get new balance leads and solder those on aswell

if you cant solder a battery conector first try everytime don't even bother trying. just my 2 cents.

[losikid]

often times there is a like a double sided tape between the cells making it nearly impossible (in my experience) to split the cells apart..if you do try this, make sure todo it outside, because if the sucker does fire or smoke, no matter how fast you put that fire out, you'll have lipo smell in your house for weeks...a LHS had a lipo blow up a year or two back, it reeked in there for some time.

[menace]

Thanks for the tips. Didn't know about the double sided tape thing!

[Duuuuuuuude]

Most of the time you'll find those individual cells are soldered onto a printed circuit board, so its not always a simple task of rewiring.

Personally I've cut out bad cells in a 3s pack and made it a 2s, but I have no desire to do more than that.

[losikid]

Originally Posted by Duuuuuuuude

Most of the time you'll find those individual cells are soldered onto a printed circuit board, so its not always a simple task of rewiring.

Personally I've cut out bad cells in a 3s pack and made it a 2s, but I have no desire to do more than that.

Also its not normal solder, you have to get special solder for aluminum, i think cheapbatterypacks.com sells some solder for it.

Yea, thats what i was trying todo with my bad 3s packs, but i couldn't get past the tape safely.

[Duuuuuuuude]

Originally Posted by losikid

Also its not normal solder, you have to get special solder for aluminum, i think cheapbatterypacks.com sells some solder for it.

Yea, thats what i was trying todo with my bad 3s packs, but i couldn't get past the tape safely.

Good to know about the solder. I've cut cells out, never tried to put them back together.

You can safely cut through the tape with dental floss or fishing line. Slip it through and work it back and forth like a saw. Doesn't damage the cells at all.

[DRCrawlGood]

I opened a lipo once now im homeless.

[menace]

Homeless I can handle--being solely responsible for the zombie apocolypse due to lipo mishandling--well that would make me feel guilty..

Good tip on the fishing line and I'll test the solder first and see what turnigy used (given that its turnigy, I assume the cheapest thing possible lol)

[J.T.]

Seems like lots have the same story as me, repaired a few but never brave enough to build.

[Twisted Nuts]

Just hold the Cells Firmly and PULL! The cells will slightly bend but that has Never caused me any problems. DO NOT Tear the aluminum wrap(it will look like it's gonna tear but it usually doesn't) If it Tears don't just sit there and look at it (dont ask) because a chemical reaction has already started, GET IT SAFELY OUTSIDE QUICKLY!
As far as Solder goes you can use 60/40 but "IF" your lipo gets HOTT it can melt the regular solder, so aluminum solder is best. But you have to use a hot enough iron to melt it.

[Duuuuuuuude]

Originally Posted by Twisted Nuts

Just hold the Cells Firmly and PULL! The cells will slightly bend but that has Never caused me any problems. DO NOT Tear the aluminum wrap(it will look like it's gonna tear but it usually doesn't) If it Tears don't just sit there and look at it (dont ask) because a chemical reaction has already started, GET IT SAFELY OUTSIDE QUICKLY!

So why take the chance?

[menace]

Ok so started this today--after the blue wrap, there is a white plastic wrap that wraps the cells together. Since I was trying for 2s i pried them apart using a silicon coated spatula and my fingers--the double sided tape was slow peeling but came away easy enough. I cut off the balance plug and the main leads and my next step is to dremel the circuit board apart to get three packs--time spent so far 15mins--more cause I was taking it slow than it was time consuming..not bad really to get 3 new 2s 5000mah packs for 8 bucks each.

..and cause I like to hack sh$t up

[fred0000]

dremmel them apart? did you research this at all?

if you want to do this, do it right. de-solder them into individual cells and start from scratch.

you don't need a circuit board to make a lipo pack

honestly sounds like you're in over your head... but at this point there's no turning back, please share your results when your done.

perhaps next time just buy the correct lipo's and save time, heres a very good one at an awesome price

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...case_pack.html

they can be had cheaper aswell, just gotta look around, and you will end up with something that looks good, not some shoddy soldering wrapped in e-tape.

(your cost doen't factor in balance leads/plugs and discharge leads/plugs and most of all, the time your spending doing this)

[rockeater]

I have a bunch zippy lipos and they do well. Id go with the right battery over trying to mess with a pack anyday. They are to cheap now to fuss with.

I had a pack suddenly puff up inside my house and the chemicals melted quite a few pieces on my revo last yr, went right threw the chassis. Stunk for weeks no matter what i tried to do to get rid of that smell either

GL

[menace]

@fred

Dude--seriously its not like I'm building a nuclear reactor LOL I'm dremeling to avoid heating the shit out of them unnecessarily and having a tiny remnant of circuit board at the top will mean diddly squat to the finished product. The main point of this exercise was to see if I could do this, not to save a few bucks. I'm well aware of hobbyking and how much this all costs me--unlike most I don't view every second of the day as an expense so if I'm not actively in the process of making money, I'm not wasting anything. We all know if you converted time spent on this hobby to a dollar figure we'd all be in the hole tens of thousands of dollars..

So I appreciate your concern but maybe the condescension was a bit thick in your post.

[Chris_The_Battery_Man]

Originally Posted by losikid

Also its not normal solder, you have to get special solder for aluminum, i think cheapbatterypacks.com sells some solder for it.

Yea, thats what i was trying todo with my bad 3s packs, but i couldn't get past the tape safely.

Not these days. It's has been several years since that was needed. Everyone sonic welds on copper or nickel tabs to avoid this. So regular solder is all that's needed unless you have lipos that are 5+ years old


Seems that I have stepped in too late. I NEVER recommend people separating cells that have been double back taped together. What happens, is this will cause the lining of the cell to pull away at the insides, causing an air pocket. As it heats up and cools down, gases build up, and will inflate the cells.

As far as soldering goes, they can take more heat than most people think. You shouldn't hurt anything unless you have the iron on em for like 5 mins straight. If your iron is hot enough to instantly melt the pool of solder, then your'e good. Just heat it up, and pull the board off.


Doing what you're doing is something I never recommend a customer do, nor will I do myself. You almost will always cause the cell to inflate. But what do I know? Not like I make batteries for a living



On a side note:

Our economy blows, and the hobby industry is suffering because people are buying junk like that directly from China. Why is this bad? A: you are not keeping your money in the US. B: supporting business like Trunigy, Hobby King, Gens Ace, and all those other low end brands, really hurts US based business like US. Our products are always better, and you have better customer support. When you buy batteries from us, you dont have to worry if a cell goes bad. We take care of you. Hobbe King on the other hand wont

[fred0000]

Originally Posted by menace

@fred

Dude--seriously its not like I'm building a nuclear reactor LOL I'm dremeling to avoid heating the shit out of them unnecessarily and having a tiny remnant of circuit board at the top will mean diddly squat to the finished product. The main point of this exercise was to see if I could do this, not to save a few bucks. I'm well aware of hobbyking and how much this all costs me--unlike most I don't view every second of the day as an expense so if I'm not actively in the process of making money, I'm not wasting anything. We all know if you converted time spent on this hobby to a dollar figure we'd all be in the hole tens of thousands of dollars..

So I appreciate your concern but maybe the condescension was a bit thick in your post.

no problem, take my post how you want, its a public forum you couldn't expect to think everyone would think your doing it right....
I never implied it was like soldering a nuclear bomb, I do it in my apartment just not something recomended for rookies, you seem more then confident to do it. just not confident in your soldering (sorry if i'm wrong, but it looks like your trying to avoid soldering on these)
i'll be paying close attention to when you attach the discharge and balance leads without soldering however

its nice to see pics of what you're doing makes the thread much more interesting.

[Dogbreath]

....this is like watching a NASCAR race...I'm just waiting for the smoke and fire!

[Charlie-III]

Originally Posted by Chris_The_Battery_Man

On a side note:

Our economy blows, and the hobby industry is suffering because people are buying junk like that directly from China. Why is this bad? A: you are not keeping your money in the US. B: supporting business like Trunigy, Hobby King, Gens Ace, and all those other low end brands, really hurts US based business like US. Our products are always better, and you have better customer support. When you buy batteries from us, you dont have to worry if a cell goes bad. We take care of you. Hobbie King on the other hand wont

All (and I mean ALL) my packs come from CBP. From 4 cell NiMH saddle packs to 3S LiPO's.
I used to build my own packs (NiCD & NiMH), it's been just as cheap (the last couple of years) to buy them built from CBP with the connectors I want already installed. If I order Friday morning, I usually have them Monday afternoon.