[PSA] Make sure to properly prepare your connections to aluminium terminal posts in order to ensure low contact resistance.
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Sverige
A Brit in Sweden
Er, "home computers" were still well in the future when I was in high school. I didn't know anyone had used silver to interface with a heatsink, my first computer was a Sinclair kit, I even had a 64k memory expansion. I will never forget the comment my father made when I gave him his first PC, "640 kilobytes of memory? We process 3 banks and the city payroll on 8k".
Simi 60
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So what did you end up using?
Like you I am in Australia where ox-gard and noalox are neither cheap or easy to get.
If, as some say the mission is to keep air and moisture out of the connection I wonder why lanolin couldn't be used
I have several litres of lanox mx4 onboard, have used it for years on electrical connections with no noticed issues .
Off-Grid-Garage
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As per many recommendations, I did order the NO-OX-ID grease from Amazon US. I have used this between terminals and busbars where I had issues before and so far ? all good... never had to touch these connections again.
It is a conductive grease, not a dielectric grease which is in fact an isolator. I put a tiny amount on a cloth and wiped both terminals and busbars where they touch. There is no visible film or so. That seems to be the solution for me. I will use that on all these joints when the second battery goes in.
This Lanox you have can be sprayed onto electronics directly, it says. So this is definitely a dielectric fluid. At the end, you can only test it out...
Simi 60
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Thanks for the quick reply
Yeah Ok sounds like I'm going to have to bite the bullet and go that route as well as I only want to do it once.
How long did it take to get here and is the 1oz tube enough for an 8s 3p setup?
Getting very annoyed at having many multiple tubes of "stuff" that never get used again.
My 2 cents on the topic - oxidation protection is much more important than conductivity. Based on that it doesn't matter much if the lube is going to be silver, carbon, gold, zinc, or whatever. Average silicone lube will offer adequate protection from oxidation. That's what I'm planning to use. As long as it is not getting totally melted at 60-80C.
And I'm in Europe. We don't have ox-guard here. So it may be common to US folks and off-the-shelf, but it is not in the rest of the world.
And I'm in Europe. We don't have ox-guard here. So it may be common to US folks and off-the-shelf, but it is not in the rest of the world.
SolaroSsaurius
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Sorry for resurrecting this thread... but I still have some doubts related to it:
If I use these cells (EVE LF280k with double terminals) with an alu busbar - with the double of the original busbar size (don't know which alu type, tbh) - there should be no worries with dissimilar metals corrosion, right?
All I should worry about is proper cleaning of alu terminal and busbar due to natural oxidation and I'm good to go...
Or I'm totally missing it?
Thanks in advance!
If I use these cells (EVE LF280k with double terminals) with an alu busbar - with the double of the original busbar size (don't know which alu type, tbh) - there should be no worries with dissimilar metals corrosion, right?
All I should worry about is proper cleaning of alu terminal and busbar due to natural oxidation and I'm good to go...
Or I'm totally missing it?
Thanks in advance!
Yup.
My personal recommendation is to use a thin, wide busbar. Make it wider if you want to but make it thin. I used 1/16" (1.6mm) x 2" sheet aluminum for my busbars. Many people have used thicker material but if the surfaces of the terminals are not exactly coplanar a thick narrow bar will stress the terminals far more than thin wide sheet material will.
Aluminum will oxidize quickly and invisibly, right after cleaning I would recommend applying an anti-oxidant compound.
People get carried away and think more is better, but a very thin coating works best. Just apply it and wipe it off with your finger, should be pretty much invisible but you can feel it. I have tested a couple of different compounds and found no difference when applied properly. Use whatever is available and in your price range, its only purpose is to block oxygen from the air making contact until the two connections are mated and properly torqued down (thus excluding oxygen). I have aluminum busbars as well and use the nickel-plated copper ones provided by the vendor because they have worked fine, and were free. If you have welded-on terminals, then aluminum busbars serve no purpose since you aren't making direct contact with the battery terminal.
If you have welded on terminals then by default, what is welded on is aluminum. Aluminum busbars are still what should be used.
Everything else you said I agree with
SolaroSsaurius
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Thanks for the lengthy reply.
Given the cells I'm waiting for, It seems that using an alu busbar is preferable. Do you agree?
Thanks for your opinion!
With those cells, you should use the busbars provided by EVE.
SolaroSsaurius
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Thanks!
Dammm I was not expecting that...
Trying to learn as much as possible... why do you think that? "strange" form factor? other?
Regards
Those terminals are the one's EVE welds in the factory, and to the best of my knowledge are only used by EVE for cells that passed all tests in the factory (that may or may not be true, I've just seen the terminals only used by EVE). So you can be relatively sure you are getting quality cells. It also means the pattern is new and relatively rare, so there are not a lot of options other than the official busbars. I personally like the terminals, others don't, it's subjective. Nothing amazing, just new and different. I'm sure you can use others, but I haven't seen them offered (but I haven't been looking either). Those I know are made of aluminum, the others that vendors weld on I've not checked, I know the stud is stainless steel on mine, not sure what the actual contact area is (but again, different from what you ordered).
SolaroSsaurius
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Thank you very much for your detailed response!
Regards!!
PSA: *never* use silicone around electrical connections - if MIL-SPEC is to be believed. It is a very effective insulator and will mess up connections like switches, etc.
Again, according to MIL-SPEC.
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