Soldering Wire to Battery Holder

Community General Discussions
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I am told there are no stupid questions, but this one may change your minds.

I am working on my second robot, he is going to use 5 D-cells and has 4 motors each with 5 amps draw at stall.

A little math implies 20 amps, if I stalled all four motors.  While I am hoping to never see 20 amps draw, (yes I am putting in a fuse), I am not very impressed with the wires coming off the battery holders.  They are 24 gage, and I was thinking about using 16 gauge wire for the wires coming off the battery holders and the leads of the motors.

My problem/question, is I am not quite sure how to solder the new wire on.  On closer inspection the current wire is attached to something like rivets set into the plastic of the holder.  I suppose I can just heat this up and try to solder the 16 gauge wire on but am concerned I may melt the plastic before I succeed.

Has anyone here soldered wire onto a battery holder before and if so is there any trick or technique to this?

                             Thanks,

                                     Hal

 

 

2

Are you using rechargeable

Are you using rechargeable NiMH?

If so, scrap the battery holder entirely. Use Araldite to glue the batteries into a 5-pack* then use brass bars or at least 16 gauge wire to interconnect the batteries ready for use; and re-use. A Deans plug on the cabled batteries will provide a high-current connection to your kit.

Leave plastic holders to little batteries (and hamsters).

 

* Edit: I mean glue them barrel-to-barrel, not end-to-end, of course, remembering to alternate them appropriately.

3

Already all said :-)Yes it

Already all said :slight_smile:

Yes it will melt but if you not want to go with the other suggestions try to use a screw to connect the wire. 

My suggestion would be to make a battery pack. connect them with solid connectors and put everything in shrink tube…

4

Thanks

Thanks for all the answers.  I think I will try the “screw” approach suggested by Lumi, at least long enough to run a quick test on the my base.

This is my first try at a 4-wheeler and I want to see if the base turns “OK” or is going to rip the wheels off, hop-skip-jump or do some other undesirable trick.

If the base moves OK, then I will probably either go with the “make your own holder” or “solder them into a pack” approach.

Thanks for the soldering suggestions but I am not subtle with a soldering iron and not melding the battery holder sounds like it requires more finesse than I am likely to muster.

Appreciate all the support, it is funny some of the questions that come up when you are trying to put Frankenstein together …LOL.

 

                  -Hal