Source for batteries (NiCd, tabbed)

[Muse]

I'm looking for tabbed NiCd C cells:

I have a bike light that I've kept alive for years. The occasional problem is dieing batteries. Last December I bought 4 tabbed NiCd C cells (rated at 2800 mah) at amondotech.com for it, solder-wired them together and life was good. One of the cells went zero on me a few days ago. Continuing to charge the set (they are wired in series and I charge them in the light by plugging a low ma trickle charger into a plug I attached to the light body), the dead cell magically came back to life and life is good again. However, I figure that cell is going to die soon.

Amondotech apparently were recently acquired by batteryjunction.com, but they don't show this cell for sale now. They have "Sub C". I guess that's a slightly smaller version of the C cell, right? (I'm having trouble finding info online about Sub C cells).

There a number of online sources for rechargeable batteries. I wonder if people can recommend sources for tabbed NiCd C cells (and/or other sage advice). Thanks.

Edit: Poking around online I'm not finding any NiCd C tabbed cells at all! Only one site lists them and they are OOS:

http://parts.digikey.com/1/par...ze-wtab-p230cha08.html

 

[Muse]

Well, assuming I can't find tabbed C size NiCd's I guess the solution is to just buy Sub C's (which I guess are a little smaller) and secure them into the flashlight (with some duct tape) when the time comes that I need new batteries. I assume that if one of my present C size is going to die I should replace them all with Sub C's rather than try to match 3 C's with one Sub C....

 

[zig3695]

http://www.batteryspace.com/in...=CARTDETAILS&Zip=61103

no tabbed c's but you can solder anything you want to make the tabs... batteryspace has good prices....

 

[pm]

http://www.All-battery.com/ind...on=VIEWPROD&ProdID=420

You can select tabs from the drop box. It raises the price to $3.14 a cell.

For what it's worth, I've used both Batteryspace.com (previous poster) and All-battery.com pretty often. I've probably placed over a dozen orders with each - I built a home-made e-vehicle battery from a huge order that I placed with All-battery. They are both reliable in my experience.

I have a 9% off coupon for all-battery that was sent to me last night via email (I'm on both of their mailing lists). The email says "please share this coupon", but due to Anandtech policies I won't post it. Feel free to IM or email me if you want it.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: zig3695
http://www.batteryspace.com/in...=CARTDETAILS&Zip=61103

no tabbed c's but you can solder anything you want to make the tabs... batteryspace has good prices....

.

I was wondering if I could solder on tabs myself. I was concerned that doing so would damage the cells. Any tips? I have a couple of solder irons, one a weak pencil iron for electronics, the other more intense. I assume a reasonable amount of heat would be necessary because of the conduction of heat into the cell. Seems like it would be tricky

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: pm
http://www.*****/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=420

You can select tabs from the drop box. It raises the price to $3.14 a cell.

For what it's worth, I've used both Batteryspace.com (previous poster) and All-battery.com pretty often. I've probably placed over a dozen orders with each - I built a home-made e-vehicle battery from a huge order that I placed with All-battery. They are both reliable in my experience.

I have a 9% off coupon for all-battery that was sent to me last night via email (I'm on both of their mailing lists). The email says "please share this coupon", but due to Anandtech policies I won't post it. Feel free to IM or email me if you want it.

Thanks for the offer of that coupon. I'll PM you now, in fact. If you can "share" the coupon, I presume that means that you can still use it too?

 

[pm]

I don't know why AT ate the link above - but I fixed it and I sent the coupon. And, yes, they have no problem with people sharing coupons, so I can use it.

As far as soldering cells, you want to be very careful not to heat the cells too much. Ironically this requires a very hot iron in my experience. You want to heat the cell tip quickly, get the solder on and remove the iron very quickly. So you'll likely want a 50W or higher soldering iron. People say you can do it with a 30W, but the hotter the tip, the easier it goes in my experience. Something like a 30W doesn't get hot enough and can't push through enough heat quickly enough so then you end up lingering on the cell tip for a while. Not good.

http://www.dynamoelectrics.com/How%20To.aspx

The suggest about the dremel in the above link is a good one. I don't agree with the author that tabs are bad though. I think tabs make it MUCH easier to solder the cells. I used to solder packs without tabs, but it's way too easy to get cold solder failures (where the solder doesn't "stick" the cell because the cell never got hot enough... it seems like it's a good solder joint, but then fails later on). Now I only work with tabbed cells.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: pm
I don't know why AT ate the link above - but I fixed it and I sent the coupon. And, yes, they have no problem with people sharing coupons, so I can use it.

As far as soldering cells, you want to be very careful not to heat the cells too much. Ironically this requires a very hot iron in my experience. You want to heat the cell tip quickly, get the solder on and remove the iron very quickly. So you'll likely want a 50W or higher soldering iron. People say you can do it with a 30W, but the hotter the tip, the easier it goes in my experience. Something like a 30W doesn't get hot enough and can't push through enough heat quickly enough so then you end up lingering on the cell tip for a while. Not good.

http://www.dynamoelectrics.com/How%20To.aspx

The suggest about the dremel in the above link is a good one. I don't agree with the author that tabs are bad though. I think tabs make it MUCH easier to solder the cells. I used to solder packs without tabs, but it's way too easy to get cold solder failures (where the solder doesn't "stick" the cell because the cell never got hot enough... it seems like it's a good solder joint, but then fails later on). Now I only work with tabbed cells.

Thanks for the soldering tips. I've never (IIRC) even attempted to solder cells that weren't tabbed. I love tabbed cells in my flashlight because more than 1/2 the time when I don't have soldered cells in the light, I get discontinuity problems (i.e. light doesn't work). Thanks for the coupon!!

PS Just took a look at that link above. Looks terrific! I'm confident I could put my own tabs on cells. I have a dremel, two different soldering irons, assortment of solders, plenty of DIY experience. Of course, so much the better if I can get batteries pre-tabbed, though.

 

[zig3695]

preferably you get a 250w or so gun, something that heats up instantly. like said, heat it up quick. use a tiny amount of flux and sometimes you can simply drop the liquid solder onto the joint and that will heat it up enough. careful with that method though, it can fall off easily if it doesnt work right.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: zig3695
preferably you get a 250w or so gun, something that heats up instantly. like said, heat it up quick. use a tiny amount of flux and sometimes you can simply drop the liquid solder onto the joint and that will heat it up enough. careful with that method though, it can fall off easily if it doesnt work right.

I have a small 25 or 30 watt pencil solderer and a cheap 150 watt "Heavy Duty" soldering gun I got at Harbor Freight. I guess I could use that. The battery magically came back to life when I put the trickle charger on the light (all 4 batteries in series) for an additional 12 hours. I expect it will show problems again in the near future but for the time being I will just continue to use it occasionally and monitor the situation. I think I will probably buy one or 4 new batteries (already tabbed) at all-battery dot com (what's with AT these days, autocensoring sites???? :frown when that day comes. 1 will cost $10.25 with postage and 4 something like $20. 4 matched new batteries may be the better bet rather than dropping a different battery into the light.