soldering nimh batteries..........
 

should they be charged or discharged when soldering packs up, yeah i did a search and after reading 10 pages of hits for over 1 hours and still got no answer.........bob

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Not sure. I've always just soldered them at whatever state/voltage they are at when they are shipped to me. Never had a problem.

(don't know if this helped at all. sorry)

-B

did a voltage read on the one new cell i had not used and it was at 1.18 volts from over 3 years ago....so my guess it was at full charge....i had seven 8 cell packs i made for my crawler....i am using them up before i buy lipo's and have them all apart to make five 10 cell packs for my class 2 scaler for the 12 volts they will have with 10 cells which equal a 3s lipo....just wasn't sure if i need to fully charge them up before i go to town soldering.......bob

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What 808 said is the same as me. For bash/practice race packs i never did anything, just soldered them up.

For out and out race packs back in the day i used to Zap & match the cells (those were the days...lol) before i did it.

The batteries don't care if they are charged or discharged when you solder the bars on. Just don't short them out while soldering.

What you don't want to do is overheat them when you solder on the bars.

yeah i know don't do both of those, i have a hakko 936 and can use high heat fast, thx all "thumbsup" .........bob

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X2...

The best bet is to cut one wire at a time, tin, and solder on the new connector with insolation, then do the other to prevent shorting the two. Even a discharged battery will produce one hell of an arc if you short the wires.

Yep, I agree. I've never done anything special over the years when making NiCD or NiMH packs, just solder away."thumbsup""thumbsup"

And yes, I used to pull packs apart a few times a season, test them, then reassemble "like" cells. Then again, we didn't have a lot of capacity so it was important to have them matched.:roll:

Re: soldering nimh batteries..........
 

I know this is an old thread, but trying to build a couple batteries myself. I have six AAA nimh batteries at 1.2 volts a piece and they are each supposed to be 1800 mah. I have the pack done, and am getting a total of 7.53 volts, but only 245 mah when charged. Did I overheat them too much? or did I just start with crappy batteries from china? Not sure if resistance in my solder job could cause this. Would really appreciate any insight.