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hi all
im looking into buying some a123 cells, from ebay x12
found some on ebay.co.uk for £55 with shipping from hong kong
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/12-X-A123-2300-Li ... 7C294%3A50
has anyone bought cells from this seller does the price seem good etc?
also anyone that runs a123s what balancers do you use?
thanks alex
Yeah I bought recently from them. No problems at all and yes that is a bloody cheap price for them.
Just be aware, the cells come from Dewalt packs so you have to remove some tags and they weren't all sitting at the same voltage.
I currently don't bother balancing A123s. Haven't had a pack go out by much and if they do I find a real slow 10 hour charge sorts em out fine.
thanks Gary
so what tags did you use to construct your packs then?
cheers
Can I recommend just using some copper braid? It's easy to solder, handles current nicely, and is flexible so you don't have as much of a risk of a connection breaking under shock...
You could go for the copper braid option however I decided to use the battery bars from technobots as I was ordering several other parts at the same time.
I soldered my 8 cell pack together, put wiring on then covered all the cell ends with tape. I laid this onto a piece of foam which was then laid onto a plate of titanium longer than the pack. I heatshrunk some of the yellow 100mm stuff from technobots over the whole lot and attach using some holes in the titanium strip.
If you want a really good guide for soldering these cells then take a look at Johns page (cheers John! saved me a lot of hastle!)
http://www.terrorhurtz.com/a123/
does anyone have the dimensions of a a123 cell?
ignore post, was looking at wrong cells online.
I will be able to tell you in a few hours when i get back to edinburgh
See the spec sheet:
http://a123systems.textdriven.com/produ ... L_2009.pdf
Also the part number tells you - ANR26650M1 - 26 mm diameter, 65 mm long.
With the paper tube on them they are around 26.7 mm diamter.
and make sure you use a BIG soldering iron... it takes a lot of power to solder the base of the cell, because the case is aluminium.
If you are thinking of using bars, thse are the ones specially for A123s:
http://www.aircraft-world.com/shopexd.asp?id=5085
Hi John
Thanks for that
is that the only place to buy those battery tags it says they are out of stock on that site and its in us??
cheers
No, it's not the only place - I just Googled for hyperion a123 battery bars
or a123 solder bars
couldn't find any shops int he UK that did them.
http://www.rctechnics.eu/a123-systems-s ... -2293.html
If your after A123 battery bars give Andy a ring at RobotBirds... He stocks the A123 battery bars and i'm sure will sort you out with some.
He also has ALOT of A123 cells instock in the UK, although at the time he bought them they were at the peak prices so may cost a good amount more.
Gary do you know if they above seller i posted first off sells the cells in the form they came in from the dewalt pack? ie not breaking the cells up into indivduals?
thanks alex
The cells arrive broken up but some still have half the steel tag on top. Easy to remove with a pair of pliers