I have now understood how you connect the various cells together to make a battery, both parallel and series, but I was wondering how you manage the connection when you lay the cells flat and not standing up, as you see in many setup. Thanks to point me to any existing thread if this subject has already been dealt with.
So would that be a 10S4P or a 5S? I’m lost. Each group of four is in parallel. Then each group faces another one in series (+/-). and then the current goes to another group in series (copper wires). Is that correct? Why do you use copper wire and not nickel strips all along?
You have 10 batteries made out of 4 cells each, connected to eachother in series. You get 10s4p
There is both of them. First welded nickle strip then soldered copper to reduce heat
The copper wires are there to reinforce the nickel strip connections because they are long and wont handle amps super well. Credit goes to @whitepony for the genius design.
Perfect. Last but not least: from a practical point of view I suppose you weld the strips in the middle with the cells standing up, and then bend them to have them in flat position?
Yes you do.
Do you have to put a sort of separator in the middle to ensure the two sides are not in direct contact?
No - If you think about it they are connected through the bent strip. If they touch it really makes no difference. Only thing you wouldn’t want to happen is the non adjacent strips to touch but practically this would be hard/impossible to happen. Hot gluing the batteries will also give some rigidity to your batteries and take stress off the joints.
Thank you all guys for these very clear and detailed explanations.
See you soon for further queries 