How to Build Your Own RC Car Battery
Building your own RC car battery is a way to control the quality of your car's battery pack. This DIY RC car battery consists of six 1.2 volt Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMh) rechargeable batteries, connected in series to produce a 7.2 volt battery pack capable of running most of the electric RC cars presently on the market. With the ability to choose your own battery cells, you can use only the best matched batteries in your pack, ensuring even dispersion of the battery pack's charge throughout the running of your car. This increases efficiency and keeps your car running at peak performance throughout.
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Things You'll Need
- Six 1.2 volt NiMh (Nickel Metal Hydride) rechargeable Batteries
- Fine grit sandpaper
- Soldering iron
- Unleaded solder
- Dean's Jig
- Battery Bars
- RC Battery connector
- Wire-cutter/stripper
- CA gel
- Battery charger
- Battery discharger
Instructions
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1
Scratch the battery terminals with sandpaper in order to provide a better surface for solder to adhere to. The battery terminals are located on each end of the battery in the center.
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2
Place a dot of solder onto each terminal. To place the solder, hold the soldering iron to the solder against the terminal until a small amount of solder melts onto the terminal surface.
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3
Place the batteries into the Dean's jig with the battery forming the rear of the pack positive terminal up, and the battery in the front with the positive terminal down. As the batteries will be operating in series they should be placed alternating positive and negative terminals facing upwards.
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4
Place a battery bar across the battery terminals and place the spring clip in the jig over the center of the bar in order to secure the battery bar in place. Position the soldering iron slightly to the side of the bar and press the solder onto the iron to melt it onto the terminal, soldering the battery bar into place. Continue to place the battery bars across the rest of the batteries making up the pack.
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5
Flip the jig and repeat the battery bar process, taking care not to connect two batteries that have already been connected. For example, if you connected battery one to battery two, and battery three to battery four on one side of the jig, you'll want to connect battery two to battery three, and battery four to battery five on the other side of the jig, creating a loop between all connected batteries in the pack.
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6
Solder the final two unsoldered terminals, one positive and one negative to the two-wire RC car battery connector made for your specific RC car to complete the connections. To expose the leads of the wires, strip the insulation from the wire ends using the wire strippers. Connectors can be purchased from hobby shops carrying RC products.
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7
Remove the batteries from the jig and place a bead of CA gel between the batteries to hold them together during use. Allow the CA gel to dry completely overnight before continuing.
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8
Charge and deplete the batteries four times before using it in your RC car.
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Tips & Warnings
When discharging the RC battery pack, do not discharge completely, bringing the battery pack to a zero charge state, as this can damage the battery cells.
