Diy energy storage cold welding

Can a capacitive discharge spot welder be used to weld nickel strips?

In this project I designed and built a prototype of USB-C powered capacitive discharge spot welder. It can be used to weld nickel strips to battery packs. This allows re-building battery packs for various devices, especially ones that are no longer maintained by the manufacturers.

How does a spot welder work?

It can be used to weld nickel strips to battery packs. This allows re-building battery packs for various devices, especially ones that are no longer maintained by the manufacturers. This spot welder, unlike many available DIY projects, doesn't need a microcontroller to work: the welding pulse is triggered using relay module and a timing capacitor.

What is a portable spot welder?

Portable spot welder that doesn't need microcontrollers, uses recycled industrial thyristor and mostly off-the-shelf components In this project I designed and built a prototype of USB-C powered capacitive discharge spot welder. It can be used to weld nickel strips to battery packs.

Does a spot welder need a microcontroller?

This spot welder, unlike many available DIY projects, doesn't need a microcontroller to work: the welding pulse is triggered using relay module and a timing capacitor. Welding current is switched with an old recycled industrial thyristor module. Pulse energy can be adjusted with a potentiometer, which changes the voltage of capacitor bank.

What power source does a spot welder use?

Other spot welders often use car batteries, microwave oven transformers, high-current li-po battery packs or supercapacitors as power source. All of these things seemed to be very powerful and somehow scary to me, so I decided to use an capacitor bank made of regular electrolytic capacitors.

How does a welding pulse work?

Welding pulse is triggered with a button attached directly to one of the probes. I have built a relatively small USB-C powered capacitive discharge spot welder, which can be used to build battery packs for various devices and avoid throwing old devices out just because it's not possible to buy an original battery anymore.