Soldering Voltage Taps

Owned by Donna Kim
Last updated: Oct 24, 2023 by Nicole Choe
3 min read

This page will instruct how to solder the voltage tap wires to the nickel strips going onto the modules. The instructions below are for 1 module.

  1. Cut 6 pieces of 22 AWG wire to ~45cm or 1 and 1.2 feet.

  2. Strp the end of the wires only on one side

  3. Cut nickel into ~36mm strips, do this 5 times

  4. Make indentations on the nickel strips to fit the cells using the unifinished blue module with some cells inside.

    1. Note: BE CAREFUL of sliding the nickel strips below the intrusion of the top terminal of a cell as you may cause a shoulder short between the positive terminal and the negative part of the cell (which is located below the plastic grey covering of the cell). Please use gloves or the taped-up bolts pictured below to do the job (should be in the module-making box labelled DONNA MODULE MAKING, OCT 2023). Make the indentation on the negative side of the cells in parallel.

  5. Fray the ends of the wires as shown to solder onto the voltage taps. Make sure the wires are of equal length

Frayed wire. Notice how they are all of equal length

 

  1. 4 voltage taps will have 1 wire, while 1 nickel strip will have 2 wires attached

  2. To Solder :

    1. Add flux to the top of the nickel surface

    2. Create a small pool of solder on the nickel strip

    3. Solder the frayed wire onto the nickel strip

The final result should look as follows, note the nickel strip with 2 wires:

Once completed, set aside in specific box.

 

Some Tips:

  • Make sure to use LEAD soldering wire for the optimal results

  • Use tweezers to help squeeze the frayed wire onto the solders

  • (Please, be really careful not to cause a shoulder short.. it’s scary)