Making a high quality receiver pack (or any battery pack, for that matter) is very easy to do.  All you need is some basic soldering skills and the right materials.

In the example below, I decided to replace my stock 4 cell NiCd receiver pack on my Thunder Tiger Nitro Ducti bike with a 5 cell NiMh pack.  Here’s what I did.

1. Sand the Cell’s Contacts: Using 400 grit sandpaper, lightly sand the cells contacts.  The small scratches will help the solder adhere better.

2. Clean the Contacts: Use some denatured alcohol and clean the cells contacts. This will remove any oils that may be present which could keep the solder from forming a good bond.

3. Tin the Contacts and the Wire Ends: Tinning is the process of melting solder onto the two items to be soldered, in this case the wire ends and the cell’s contacts. Take care keep the cells from getting too hot when tinning or else you’ll damage them; work quickly.

4. Construct the Pack: Use Shoo-Goo or a similar type of glue to glue your pack together.  Construct the pack so it’s shape fits the spot where you plan to mount it.

5. Attach the Wires: Solder the wires onto the pack. Make sure you use a wire gauge that’s appropriate for the pack you’re making. If you properly tinned the contacts and wires, you won’t need any additional solder.  Simply place the wire onto the contact and apply heat; they should join instantly.  Remember, you want to join negative to positive (or positive to negative).

Here’s the front and back

6. Wrap the Pack: Stick the pack into some heat shrink tubing, cut to size, and heat with a blow dryer. You should now have a nice new battery pack!

Put the pack into the tubing

Cut to fit

Heat the wrapping and you’re done!

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