Be very carful when spot wielding your nickel strips to the positive end of the battery there is very little space between the center (positive) and rim (negative) case of the battery. You can create a short between positive and negative very easily.
@@guywhoknows you can also buy sheets of self adhesive fiber washers, made from flame retardant paper. Those work really great, too. Just don't weld with excessive current or they might go through.
I like the idea of a giant supercap as the power source for a spot welder. I have a much smaller spot welder in an extruded aluminum housing that uses a li-poly battery. It works well, but that battery runs out if I leave it sit for too long (measure of weeks). Not sure that's a good thing for its cycle life, and one less thing to worry about with a supercap.
@@ericklein5097 It's definitely going lower than that. What I should probably do is crack it open and see if there's anything for low-voltage cutoff like a DW01. I would hope there is, but you never know. Beware the cost of cheap tools, and all that.
I thought so too but I like the spotwelder that uses a 12v battery more. 30/99 power setting welds a 0.2mm strip so firmly it bends the battery case if you try to remove it.
I think you should empty out the tubes from the cheap markers, strap those tubes to the sides of the spot welder, thus forming insulated holsters for the ends of the leads.
For NIMH batteries I gave up trying to get myself a hold of a spot welder. I just got somew 14awg and my soldering iron and just went to town with soldering directly to the battery terminals. NEVER do with lithium ion batteries. but with NIMH and NICD its fine if your quick about it and dont leave the iron on too long. Using 14awg or so is good for AA's and virtually no voltage drop at all even under high amp loads. made myself a 10-cell pack for 12v.
I built a 555 timer single pulse spotwelder years ago with an MOT, just didn't get very good welds with it. Just resorted to soldering wires to them like I'm not supposed to :P I've never had problems with doing it this way, not even the CR2032 for my laptop... Being quick with a K knife tip on my pinecil set to 450 degrees and a moist towel to cool the battery back down after soldering seems to work. I should really get a spotwelder though, this one looks intriguing.
@@JulianIlett Does it? That means it will need more current to get the temperature. Chuck another couple of caps in parallel - I know you can do that with your eyes closed.
For me it's fine as it is. I'm not building e-bikes - I don't need hundreds of amps of discharge current. Nickel plated steel will be fine for a few tens of amps.
The reason I questioned the 0.1s delay is that the short beep, the long beep and the delay before the welding pulse(s) takes almost a second. So where is the 100ms delay? Maybe it's the gap between the long beep and the weld pulse.
Julian, I have been using an arduino based spot welder for the last 4 years or so and my second set of LiPos (2 x 5200mAh 100C) has just swollen to such an extent that I am going to retire them. HI am looking around for an alternative, hw many welds do you get on a full charge with the super capacitors? I only use the device maybe 4 times a year and to make up half a dozen 4S2P battery packs for cordless drills at a time. This unit will cost about the same as 2 new LiPos so I am interested in it's performance.
I think a good upgrade would be a 18650 battery bank built on. You could spark away with consistent weilds all day, I would think with a few good 18650s. Unless the caps have real low self discarge, you would need charge it up if you didn't use for a month or so. Watched a guy that used something like 8 to maybe 12 super caps about that size and took the lead acid battery out of his car. It worked fine not starting the car as long as a weekend, but any longer, they would need to be recharged.
I wonder if it might make more sense to have a high voltage capacitor and some MOSFETs switching it into a high frequency transformer to convert the high voltage into a high current.
Interesting thought. Turns out, it wouldn't be a good way to go. For two reasons. First, super capacitors are always 2.5-2.8V. Higher voltage "super capacitors" are just multiple matched caps connected in series. So really "higher voltage" just means "more supercaps". Then, would a transformer be useful? Transformers are pairs of coils that transfer current through an inductive field. Induction is defined as degree to which a conductor *opposes* a change in current. They are used to *remove* noise pulses and smooth the flow out. That's precisely the opposite of what you want for this application. Here you want a short pulse, around 3 milliseconds. But that doesn't mean your thought isn't useful! It turns out the inductance is proportional to the area enclosed by the circuit. Meaning the area between the leads creates inductance, making it harder to get a clean pulse. So by mentioning transformers and inductance, you get us thinking about that and we realize it would work better if the leads were connected differently, to minimize the length of probe wire in which the red and black are far apart. Attaching both probes to the top such that they come off to the left, or both come off to the right, near each other, would be better. I'm glad you brought up the topic!
Can you please make a video showing the charging process because I connected USB Type C and no LED appears to indicate the charging process@@JulianIlett
Well there’s one problem. 2.7V caps and only charging to 5V. Typically 2.7 or 2.8 volt caps should be charged to the tippy top so you can discharge at a slightly higher voltage and get a stronger weld. What’s the highest voltage this circuit allows? 5 mosfets is really the bare minimum and they often use knockoff fets. The electrodes shouldn’t be pure copper. Usually a copper aluminum alloy or chromium zirconium copper alloy
The highest recommended capacitor voltage is 5.4 volts. You could charge them to a higher voltage, but that would exceed the design specs (and presumably warranty). Thanks for the info about the probes being a copper alloy. I didn't know that.
That welder seems like a great deal. Just finding a 1500F 5.4v super capacitor array with balancing circuit for that price seems unlikely. I figure you get the spot welder thrown in for free. 😀
I got a 1.6F capacitor 12volts i used on my car base amplifier, it's a single capacitor with built in voltmeter but it might destroy your work, it might be worth looking into car hi-fi accessories for a capacitor
@@retiredwizard Have you seen a 1,500F super capacitor, i cannot find any, the biggest i found is 83F and that's a huge bank of super capacitors, yes i found false advertising claims of huge farads just because they cannot find the µ symbol as in µf microfarads, my true 1.6F capacitor is 14 inches long by 4 inches wide
Well, I'm guessing the 5 MOSFETs were chosen specifically for welding nickel plated steel. That's what this device was designed for. A pure nickel spot welder would be designed differently.
Not being able to weld pure nickel with it makes it unusable. Nickel-plated steel inevitably starts to rust and the internal resistance is too high. Very sad, had thought this might be something as a mobile alternative to mine with transformer. Pure nickel has a much lower internal resistance, I assume that the two mosfets are not up to the high current.
They say that but in my experience, cheap wielders can do pure nickel, but only the thin stuff like 0.1mm, sometimes 0.15mm at full power but it could be hit or miss with anything thicker than 0.1mm.
Whether usable (or unusable) depends on your use case. For moderate currents (tens of amps), nickel-plated steel will often suffice. For high current (hundreds of amps) applications, e-bikes for example, pure nickel is a better choice. If nickel-plated steel rusts, then the batteries themselves will also rust, as their cases and positive caps are also made of nickel-plated steel. Your bikes must live in a damp environment!
Hmmm, for the price around 50 Eur i really doubt these are 2 real supercaps of 3000F. One of them was around 60...70 Eur a few years ago, so i guess they sell fakes. Maybe they have 1500 F - did you check it? Otherwise it would be a good deal i guess 🙂Why won't you use it for pure Ni-strips? I guess they need more power (amps) but real 3000F caps should be easily capable of that. Maybe the mosfets on the board are too weak?
The capacitors are real. The MOSFETs are spec'd for welding nickel-plated steel. Welding pure nickel requires more current - the unit wasn't designed for that.
@@JulianIlett : thanks for clearifing :-) Then they saved on the Mosfets. The supercaps would easily weld pure nickel strips. Maybe the board can be enhanced by replacing the mosfets with better ones. Maybe also the connections/circuitry is too weak.
@@rilosvideos877I was thinking the same. For such a massive super cap welder it’s a shame it can only handle “light duty” spot welds. There’s tons of little spot weld boards that can do at least smaller gauge pure nickel strips as far as I know. Much more compact with a little LiPo battery for the power. Those boards typically have quite a few smaller mosfets while I only see a couple mosfets on this super-cap welder. Corrosion can be a huge issue where I live so I’m trying to stay away from nickel plated steel strips and connectors after finding so many strips turn to dust with any exposure to the elements.
This channel might be the 1st to show actual sodium-ion cells, atleast for me. Looking forward to a review on those.
It's so big that if you discharge those caps, you can always use it as hammer to nail those metal strips to battery 😅
Be very carful when spot wielding your nickel strips to the positive end of the battery there is very little space between the center (positive) and rim (negative) case of the battery. You can create a short between positive and negative very easily.
Yes, I'm thinking I might take the corners off the strip with a pair of scissors to slightly round off the end when I'm welding the positive terminal.
@@JulianIlett you may want to add some kapton under the ends or rings on the top.
@@guywhoknows you can also buy sheets of self adhesive fiber washers, made from flame retardant paper. Those work really great, too. Just don't weld with excessive current or they might go through.
I like the idea of a giant supercap as the power source for a spot welder. I have a much smaller spot welder in an extruded aluminum housing that uses a li-poly battery. It works well, but that battery runs out if I leave it sit for too long (measure of weeks). Not sure that's a good thing for its cycle life, and one less thing to worry about with a supercap.
It should be stored at roughly 3.80V
@@ericklein5097 It's definitely going lower than that. What I should probably do is crack it open and see if there's anything for low-voltage cutoff like a DW01. I would hope there is, but you never know. Beware the cost of cheap tools, and all that.
I thought so too but I like the spotwelder that uses a 12v battery more. 30/99 power setting welds a 0.2mm strip so firmly it bends the battery case if you try to remove it.
I got one of the lithium power bank looking spot welders a few mo this ago, and I agree, it’s fun!
I think you should empty out the tubes from the cheap markers, strap those tubes to the sides of the spot welder, thus forming insulated holsters for the ends of the leads.
For NIMH batteries I gave up trying to get myself a hold of a spot welder. I just got somew 14awg and my soldering iron and just went to town with soldering directly to the battery terminals.
NEVER do with lithium ion batteries. but with NIMH and NICD its fine if your quick about it and dont leave the iron on too long.
Using 14awg or so is good for AA's and virtually no voltage drop at all even under high amp loads.
made myself a 10-cell pack for 12v.
I built a 555 timer single pulse spotwelder years ago with an MOT, just didn't get very good welds with it. Just resorted to soldering wires to them like I'm not supposed to :P
I've never had problems with doing it this way, not even the CR2032 for my laptop... Being quick with a K knife tip on my pinecil set to 450 degrees and a moist towel to cool the battery back down after soldering seems to work. I should really get a spotwelder though, this one looks intriguing.
Top kek. 😁
LOLL
Thanks, timely info... What settings have you found work best for the 18650s?
This is interesting. What extra does it take to weld pure nickel?
More power I guess. Pure nickel has a lower resistance than steel.
@@JulianIlett Does it? That means it will need more current to get the temperature. Chuck another couple of caps in parallel - I know you can do that with your eyes closed.
For me it's fine as it is. I'm not building e-bikes - I don't need hundreds of amps of discharge current. Nickel plated steel will be fine for a few tens of amps.
Would the delay be there to prevent sparking when the contact is still incomplete?
The reason I questioned the 0.1s delay is that the short beep, the long beep and the delay before the welding pulse(s) takes almost a second. So where is the 100ms delay? Maybe it's the gap between the long beep and the weld pulse.
@@JulianIlett that would make sense...
is the battery pack for the Ebike. 🤔
Julian, I have been using an arduino based spot welder for the last 4 years or so and my second set of LiPos (2 x 5200mAh 100C) has just swollen to such an extent that I am going to retire them. HI am looking around for an alternative, hw many welds do you get on a full charge with the super capacitors? I only use the device maybe 4 times a year and to make up half a dozen 4S2P battery packs for cordless drills at a time. This unit will cost about the same as 2 new LiPos so I am interested in it's performance.
I just purchased one of these welders, after having 3 chinese $40 ones blow up after a few welds, i'm hoping this one lasts more then a day.
Julian will be buried with supercapacitors in his casket and solar panels on his headstone to keep them charged.🤣
I think a good upgrade would be a 18650 battery bank built on. You could spark away with consistent weilds all day, I would think with a few good 18650s. Unless the caps have real low self discarge, you would need charge it up if you didn't use for a month or so. Watched a guy that used something like 8 to maybe 12 super caps about that size and took the lead acid battery out of his car. It worked fine not starting the car as long as a weekend, but any longer, they would need to be recharged.
I wonder if it might make more sense to have a high voltage capacitor and some MOSFETs switching it into a high frequency transformer to convert the high voltage into a high current.
Interesting thought. Turns out, it wouldn't be a good way to go. For two reasons.
First, super capacitors are always 2.5-2.8V. Higher voltage "super capacitors" are just multiple matched caps connected in series. So really "higher voltage" just means "more supercaps".
Then, would a transformer be useful? Transformers are pairs of coils that transfer current through an inductive field. Induction is defined as degree to which a conductor *opposes* a change in current. They are used to *remove* noise pulses and smooth the flow out. That's precisely the opposite of what you want for this application. Here you want a short pulse, around 3 milliseconds.
But that doesn't mean your thought isn't useful! It turns out the inductance is proportional to the area enclosed by the circuit. Meaning the area between the leads creates inductance, making it harder to get a clean pulse. So by mentioning transformers and inductance, you get us thinking about that and we realize it would work better if the leads were connected differently, to minimize the length of probe wire in which the red and black are far apart. Attaching both probes to the top such that they come off to the left, or both come off to the right, near each other, would be better.
I'm glad you brought up the topic!
Very Informative.
Is the Type C port for charging capacitors because I connected a Type C charger it doesn't work
Yes, but remember that the capacitors will present a dead short when discharged. Some charger adapters will see that as a fault.
Can you please make a video showing the charging process because I connected USB Type C and no LED appears to indicate the charging process@@JulianIlett
ruclips.net/video/ovU3NDjNVAk/видео.htmlsi=XoCbXCs14GeasVsn&t=431
Well there’s one problem. 2.7V caps and only charging to 5V. Typically 2.7 or 2.8 volt caps should be charged to the tippy top so you can discharge at a slightly higher voltage and get a stronger weld. What’s the highest voltage this circuit allows?
5 mosfets is really the bare minimum and they often use knockoff fets.
The electrodes shouldn’t be pure copper. Usually a copper aluminum alloy or chromium zirconium copper alloy
The highest recommended capacitor voltage is 5.4 volts. You could charge them to a higher voltage, but that would exceed the design specs (and presumably warranty).
Thanks for the info about the probes being a copper alloy. I didn't know that.
That welder seems like a great deal. Just finding a 1500F 5.4v super capacitor array with balancing circuit for that price seems unlikely. I figure you get the spot welder thrown in for free. 😀
I got a 1.6F capacitor 12volts i used on my car base amplifier, it's a single capacitor with built in voltmeter but it might destroy your work, it might be worth looking into car hi-fi accessories for a capacitor
Yeah, that's how I saw it too.
@@nigelman9506If I'm not mistaken, I think you'll find that was a standard 1.6F capacitor, much different than a 1500F (1000x) super capacitor.
@@retiredwizard Have you seen a 1,500F super capacitor, i cannot find any, the biggest i found is 83F and that's a huge bank of super capacitors, yes i found false advertising claims of huge farads just because they cannot find the µ symbol as in µf microfarads, my true 1.6F capacitor is 14 inches long by 4 inches wide
@@retiredwizard Good luck in finding a true 1,000Farad super capacitor
It can’t do pure nickel? Then those caps are insanely weak. Or the controller circuit is garbage
Well, I'm guessing the 5 MOSFETs were chosen specifically for welding nickel plated steel. That's what this device was designed for. A pure nickel spot welder would be designed differently.
Sodium ions batteries?
What kind of black magic is that
Salt and Sanctuary
Not being able to weld pure nickel with it makes it unusable. Nickel-plated steel inevitably starts to rust and the internal resistance is too high. Very sad, had thought this might be something as a mobile alternative to mine with transformer.
Pure nickel has a much lower internal resistance, I assume that the two mosfets are not up to the high current.
They say that but in my experience, cheap wielders can do pure nickel, but only the thin stuff like 0.1mm, sometimes 0.15mm at full power but it could be hit or miss with anything thicker than 0.1mm.
Whether usable (or unusable) depends on your use case. For moderate currents (tens of amps), nickel-plated steel will often suffice. For high current (hundreds of amps) applications, e-bikes for example, pure nickel is a better choice. If nickel-plated steel rusts, then the batteries themselves will also rust, as their cases and positive caps are also made of nickel-plated steel. Your bikes must live in a damp environment!
Very interesting device. However, not very practical unless you find yourself doing these type of spot welds on a regular basis.
Actually, if you look at the price of two 3000F supercapacitors from other sellers, this spot welder is pretty keenly priced.
@JulianIlett I was surprised how inexpensive it is.
Hmmm, for the price around 50 Eur i really doubt these are 2 real supercaps of 3000F. One of them was around 60...70 Eur a few years ago, so i guess they sell fakes. Maybe they have 1500 F - did you check it? Otherwise it would be a good deal i guess 🙂Why won't you use it for pure Ni-strips? I guess they need more power (amps) but real 3000F caps should be easily capable of that. Maybe the mosfets on the board are too weak?
The capacitors are real. The MOSFETs are spec'd for welding nickel-plated steel. Welding pure nickel requires more current - the unit wasn't designed for that.
@@JulianIlett : thanks for clearifing :-) Then they saved on the Mosfets. The supercaps would easily weld pure nickel strips. Maybe the board can be enhanced by replacing the mosfets with better ones. Maybe also the connections/circuitry is too weak.
@@rilosvideos877I was thinking the same. For such a massive super cap welder it’s a shame it can only handle “light duty” spot welds. There’s tons of little spot weld boards that can do at least smaller gauge pure nickel strips as far as I know. Much more compact with a little LiPo battery for the power. Those boards typically have quite a few smaller mosfets while I only see a couple mosfets on this super-cap welder.
Corrosion can be a huge issue where I live so I’m trying to stay away from nickel plated steel strips and connectors after finding so many strips turn to dust with any exposure to the elements.
Water to HyDrOxy Browns gas ❤
Craig Westbrook
Welding with these types of capacitors can cause spontaneous testicle failure
what you have tried to spot weld your testicles??
What do you mean? 😂
@@Electheo Too large a magnetic field build-up
@@ricksanchez3628ah yes, thats the Testa-field causing TF.
@@J.D-g8.1 The Testa field indeed