Balancing lead replacement??

[Wmorgan]

So my boy forgot to secure the balance lead on his 4S lipo when running his Outcast. See pic. I have a new lead. Can i just solder the new lead onto what's left of the original lead wires?? Any advice much appreciated!

NOW WHAT!?!

 

[olds97_lss]

I like the colored/tinned ones better. Like these:
https://www.amazon.com/HRB-Battery-Balance-Charger-Silicon/dp/B06XS5SMT4

Then you peal the end of the pack open carefully, remove the polyimide film over the contacts and clean the contact area. Then desolder the original broken leads from the tabs, or cut them really close. Then solder on the new lead, reapply the polyimide tape, fold the outer tape back over it and wrap it with gorilla tape.

Red to red
Black to black
The middle wires connect to each battery junction.

With a lead like I linked to, you notice the red/black/blue are longer as those tabs are further away than the other two which are shorter wires.

This is a 3S pack that I made out of old 2S packs:

I used 3 2S packs to make 2 3S packs. My packs were 2S2P which meant there were 4 cells in them in parallel. This added a bit of complication for disassembly/soldering as the tabs for the parallel packs were fused/welded and they didn't like taking on solder...

I fixed a buddies 3S g-e-n-s a-c-e packs a few times as he kept breaking the leads off due to not strapping down the balance plug. It would flop around and overtime work harden the wire and break it off. His were soft packs. I just used an exacto to carefully cut the outside layer to peal it back to fix it. Then I laid it back down and wrapped it with a few layers of gorilla tape.

My 2S packs were all in a hard case. That was more of a pain, I had to dremel the seams to split the case as they were plastic welded together. Was very tedious. When I put them back together, of course the plastic box wasn't tall enough, so I just put it on the top/bottom, then wrapped the whole thing with gorilla tape.

Been using them for 8 months. The cells were old and tired when I did it and now they are starting to take forever to balance, so I'll likely be doing this again with some more 2S packs I still have that I no longer use (I only use 3S or 2x3S now) in the near future and retiring those packs.

 

[Glock21user]

Nice work for sure.

 

[Wmorgan]

I like the colored/tinned ones better. Like these:
https://www.amazon.com/HRB-Battery-Balance-Charger-Silicon/dp/B06XS5SMT4

Then you peal the end of the pack open carefully, remove the polyimide film over the contacts and clean the contact area. Then desolder the original broken leads from the tabs, or cut them really close. Then solder on the new lead, reapply the polyimide tape, fold the outer tape back over it and wrap it with gorilla tape.

Red to red
Black to black
The middle wires connect to each battery junction.

With a lead like I linked to, you notice the red/black/blue are longer as those tabs are further away than the other two which are shorter wires.

This is a 3S pack that I made out of old 2S packs:

I used 3 2S packs to make 2 3S packs. My packs were 2S2P which meant there were 4 cells in them in parallel. This added a bit of complication for disassembly/soldering as the tabs for the parallel packs were fused/welded and they didn't like taking on solder...

I fixed a buddies 3S g-e-n-s a-c-e packs a few times as he kept breaking the leads off due to not strapping down the balance plug. It would flop around and overtime work harden the wire and break it off. His were soft packs. I just used an exacto to carefully cut the outside layer to peal it back to fix it. Then I laid it back down and wrapped it with a few layers of gorilla tape.

My 2S packs were all in a hard case. That was more of a pain, I had to dremel the seams to split the case as they were plastic welded together. Was very tedious. When I put them back together, of course the plastic box wasn't tall enough, so I just put it on the top/bottom, then wrapped the whole thing with gorilla tape.

Been using them for 8 months. The cells were old and tired when I did it and now they are starting to take forever to balance, so I'll likely be doing this again with some more 2S packs I still have that I no longer use (I only use 3S or 2x3S now) in the near future and retiring those packs.

Thanks for the instructions...huge help!

 

[olds97_lss]

I know in the photo I show the balance leads laying right across the main tabs, that was just for a photo. I added a few layers of heavy paper masking tape over the battery tabs for the wires to rest against. I know the wires were silicone sheathed, but figured it was a good idea to insulate the tabs more as vibration/heat could wear through the balance leads then they would be a dead short. Odds are, the wires would just fry, considering their size, but I didn't want to have to redo it and risk a fire.

I should buy some of that polyimide tape. All I have is vinyl electrical tape, paper masking tape, packing tape, fiber tape and duct tape. I figured the paper masking tape was the best of what I had for it.