In every respect I give the product an excellent rating!
For DIY Arduino Battery Spot Welder V2 Prebuilt Kit
Eight years ago I purchased two Kalkhoff e-bikes. Now the 26 volt 10 ah batteries only have about 50% of their original capacity. This limits their range to about 20 miles. I could not find any source for replacement batteries in the USA. Neither could I find a retailer in Europe who could ship replacement batteries to the USA due to their designation as hazardous material...
The only cost effective option was to build new battery packs myself. Which led to the question of how to interconnect 42 18650 cells. Soldering seemed the least expensive option but I was concerned the heat required to achieve a good bond might compromise the integrity of the battery. The inexpensive 110 volt spot welders based on a large step down transformers were all originally designed to operate on 220 volt circuits. Many users reported that the 'reconfigured' 110 volt models were prone to tripping circuit breakers. Store bought capacitive discharge spot welders were very expensive. Homemade versions seemed dauntingly complex. Some enterprising individuals cobbled together a car battery and solenoid configuration - obviously with limited success:-)
However - the car battery option made first order sense - ie: a readily available source of high direct current - ideal for spot welding! Which led me to a search for essentially a solid state switch/relay capable of handling high current. The DIY Arduino battery spot welder not only fulfills the requirement of a solid state relay but also adds a variable pulse width control feature - all in an inexpensive, compact, well made package.
After performing about 20 test welds I'm already confident that I made the right choice! I did add the diode set - cheap insurance against destroying the Mosfets. I used a 45 ah car battery as recommended. My tests were performed on a pair of .15 mm pure nickel solder tabs. After the tests I used a pair of pliers to pull the strips apart and realized the metal was indeed welded together. To the extent that with most welds the two pieces could not be separated without tearing holes in the strips where the spot welds joined them together.
In every respect I give the product and the seller an excellent rating!
John...
