## Getting Started ##
This is what our 850mAh and 110mAh cells look like from the factory:
+
<img src="cimg2912.jpg"/>
<img src="cimg2913.jpg"/>
like the 110mAh cell shown next, there is a layer of Kapton tape over a
layer of a spongier insulating material. Preserving the spongy insulating
material is good, so try not to tear it off as you're peeling it up:
+
<img src="cimg2914.jpg"/>
<img src="cimg2915.jpg"/>
<img src="cimg2916.jpg"/>
really help anything, so we'll take the other option which is to remove it
entirely. To do this, just warm up a soldering iron and use tweezers or small
needle-nose pliers to pull the wires and tabs away from the board while using
-the soldering iron to melt the solder on each of the 4 joints. Once the
-board is removed, the battery should look something like this:
+the soldering iron to melt the solder on each of the 4 joints.
+
+Once the circuit board is removed, the battery should look something like this:
+
<img src="cimg2917.jpg"/>
<img src="cimg2920.jpg"/>
+## Attach the Wires Directly to the Battery ##
+
Now, use the soldering iron to tack the wires onto the battery
terminal tabs. Since the tabs and the wires are all pre-soldered, you don't
really need flux here, though if the tabs look dry adding a little solder
-to them before trying to tack the wires on may be helpful. Note that on the
+to them before trying to tack the wires on may be helpful. Be careful to
+keep the polarity straight. As you can see on the 110mAh cell, many LiPo
+batteries have the polarity marked. But, as you can see on the 850mAh cell,
+not all of them do, so remember which side is plus (red wire) and which side
+is minus (black wire)!
+
+Note that on the
larger cell, we've soldered the wires on heading towards the center so that
we can bend them out together. This will make insulating the terminals
easier:
+
<img src="cimg2918.jpg"/>
<img src="cimg2921.jpg"/>
+## Insulating ##
+
+The final step is literally to "wrap things up". In this case, we've used
+Kapton tape, but other electrically insulating tape like the more common
+household black vinyl electrical tape should work fine. On the larger cell,
+note that we're wrapping pieces over the end of the cell on either side of
+the wires before taking a wrap over the "shelf" end of the battery. On the
+110mAh cell, there isn't really room to do that and the spongy tape already
+provides some protection, so we just take a wrap around the cell to cover
+the exposed terminals and keep everything in place. Note that I like to
+mark the batteries that have had this procedure done to them with a
+permanent marker saying something like "protection removed" to keep the cells
+that still have boards and the ones that don't straight:
<img src="cimg2919.jpg"/>
<img src="cimg2922.jpg"/>
<img src="cimg2923.jpg"/>
<img src="cimg2924.jpg"/>
+
+## Testing ##
+
+If all went well, your battery should work just the way it did before,
+except that you won't ever see the output shut down due to over current. As
+is always true with Lithium Polymer batteries, please be careful when
+installing and using them to avoid physically damaging the cells. We often
+wrap ours with a layer of closed cell foam before strapping them down to a
+sled with wire ties, for example.
+
+## Getting Someone Else to Help ##
+
+If this all seems scary or just beyond your soldering abilities, you can either
+find a friend locally to help you out, or if the battery in question came from
+us or one of our distributors, feel free to contact us by sending
+email to [fixmybattery@altusmetrum.org](<mailto:fixmybattery@altusmetrum.org)
+and we'll do what we can to help!
projects / web / altusmetrum / commitdiff