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Originally Posted by starscream
I really don't know why anyone would want to solder these cells together.
The Solderless Power Tubes are, IMHO, the best way to go. The M1 cells stay in balance very well so using a balancer on every charge is really over kill and not necessary IMO.
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I chose to solder because of the extreme (IMO) cost of the SPTs. I just made up a shopping cart of everything I would need to do one 4s2p setup (2 x 2s2p), and it would cost $40 without shipping. The current setup on my Revo is 5s2p (3s2p + 2s2p), and to make a pack like that using SPTs would cost $52. Obviously the Silver Power Paste is a one-time buy sort of deal, but for me to make another 5s2p pack it would still cost $36.
The only cost for my soldering method is the copper braid, which cost something like $7 and will make almost two packs (the cost of the solder is almost negligible). And with as many car projects as I have on the budget I'm on (12hrs/week at $6.75, half of that goes to savings, and then $20/week allowance), the method I'm using is so much easier to afford.
A123 cells aren't perfect, and won't perfectly maintain balance. When using the Dewalt packs, sometimes (even with brand new packs) there might be a low cell or two. One cell in one of my Dewalt packs was at something like 1volt while the rest were at ~3.30v. Even if you don't use the Dewalt packs, balancing is a very good thing to
at least be able to do.