[zeropointbug]

Yes, I have read that at 35 amp draw, the stock strips loose 1% voltage, so anything higher is going to have exponentially higher losses, naturally.

I have talked to A123 Systems, they sounded quite stern about soldering their cells, they told me cycle life would be significantly decreased. Definition of 'significant', I don't know, but they should still last far longer than lipo.

An 80 watt iron should do the trick. I have a 300 watt iron I use for this kind of stuff. Also, one spot you should beef up is the thinner strip, it is there to act as a fuse for too high of currents.

BTW, from the 'developer kit' I bought last year when A123's were first released, and the cells I got from the two packs, there seems to be quite the quality difference. The older cells I have seemed to have been 'clones', they were like 'pro extreme team matched' so to speak, these new cells from the dewalt packs all vary in voltage when fully charged for some reason.

But I will wait until I get a few runs into them first, in case it's a 'break-in' issue or something.