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soldering tabbed batteries -

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NutmegCT

NutmegCT

Great Pumpkin
Bronze
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Before I toss the soldering gun, batteries, and everything else in reach out the door ...

How the heck do you connect "tabbed" ni-cad batteries?

The tabs on these sub-c cells are flat, about 3/4" long and 1/4" wide; one on positive end, one on negative.

I can't figure out how to solder those two flat surfaces together. The batteries will go side by side forming a half circle, so the tabs would seem to need to overlap. Something like this:

View attachment 27226

I've scuffed the tabs with sandpaper, and can get solder to adhere to one side, but can't melt solder *between* the two tabs to join them.

I know you have to be careful about overheating nicads. Any suggestions on how to solder those tabs (negative to positive, etc.) together?

Thanks.
Tom
 
You might try tinning each tab then put in contact with each other and heat with your soldering iron to join the two.
 
Think we had this discussion before.
Think Doc had a plan
 
Done this for years, tabbed and untabbed. Scuffing the tabs and tinning them individually should work. Then with the two tinned tabs in contact it should take only a second or two to get a good joint.
 
The problem is that they are nickel plated and normally are spot welded. to solder, you need to really scuff them up, I use use a file until the nickel plating is gone and then solder away.
 
a-HA! Didn't realize about the nickel plating. (Seems that if they add a tab to enable soldering, they wouldn't add a non-solderable tab!). Will give it a try tonight.

Thanks.

PS - has anyone ever figured out how to *delete* an attached photo?
 
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