Northwest Dive Club

Has anyone upgraded their 4.5Ah canisters to Li-ion batteries?
I have several older halcyon canisters which took the long skinny NiMH batteries and several of the shorter dive rite canisters which took the fatter NiMHs. Does anyone know a source for drop in Li-ion replacements?

Batteryspace.com

Source your own 18650 cells (the MJ1 is cheap and has great capacity, and high quality right now) and rebuild them with a battery pack welder. One that can weld at least .25 mm pure nickel. You seem more than capable to do this, plus the satisfaction of building your own equipment makes that steak taste even better.

Plus, that can lay ground for much more powerful batteries.....cheaper to ruin a couple 6$ cells than 800$ worth.

If you get the 18650's with tabs, ur golden

Jeff Pack wrote:If you get the 18650's with tabs, ur golden

Still a pain, welding is far superior, and a welder isn't that expensive. If you can buy a backup light, you can buy a welder. I have a 150$ model and it's held up well.

Also, while we are talking about tabs, I've bought the prewelded tabs, and the rusted top in the picture below is one of those. Be careful if you do buy nickel tabs, iron core is bad, PURE nickel is only way to go.

To conclude: soldering directly to cells can cause damage to the vent. Also, soldering in a tight configuration is much harder than welding. You risk damaging the cell and causing premature degradation resulting in cell failure, much sooner. The effects aren't evident from a visual inspection; but, the cell will fail earlier. I know this from experience, and testing. I've purposely destroyed 6 cells so far from: short, over charge/discharge, heat, soldering onto cells, welding on the edge of the positive side, and water.

Here's the NASA manual I follow. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source= ... lTNab4X9RA

Dashrynn wrote:... a welder isn't that expensive. If you can buy a backup light, you can buy a welder. I have a 150$ model and it's held up well...

Do you have details or a link you can share?

mpenders wrote:

Dashrynn wrote:... a welder isn't that expensive. If you can buy a backup light, you can buy a welder. I have a 150$ model and it's held up well...

Do you have details or a link you can share?

I have the 709A model and it has served me well through the years. You accept the risks, if you make a mistake; but, you can virtually eliminate those risks by thoroughly reading manuals for spot welding batteries, online. Wear PPE when welding.

Look at this on eBay http://www.ebay.com/itm/231690831424

YaeKoo 2 in 1 1.9kw Pulse Spot Welder 709A Battery Welding Soldering Machine 60A

Jeff Gerritsen got a welder, but it nuked itself pretty quickly

Jeff Pack wrote:Jeff Gerritsen got a welder, but it nuked itself pretty quickly

I'm curious what model it was, and what happened exactly.

It was a Sunkko 788+
I tried everything but no joy. Now I'm considering building a Capacitive Discharge welder. Simple, works and a less expensive that the Chinese junk one pays $200 for.