# sub-C ‘shotgun’ tubes



## fozzy (Jun 15, 2006)

Does anyone know where to buy stick battery ‘shotgun’ tubes and the flexible tabs for end to end stick applications?

The only things I can find are a Trinity rebuild kit ant those MEC solder less tubes.

No one sells tabs; only battery bars for side by side.

I’m looking for components not pricy kits…

Thx,


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## ta_man (Apr 10, 2005)

I've got some "shotgun tubes" I can sell you.

As far as tabs, I think what you are looking for is this item number: TABSHDSUBC on this web page:

http://radicalrc.secure-mall.com/shop/?shop=1&cat=47

The problem with end caps is that today's cells are bigger than the older ones. I don't have any end caps for the bigger cells.

The other option is for you to do end-to-end soldering, though that may not be feasible with the latest cells because the positive terminal doesn't stick out for enough to contact the negative of the cell on top.


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## A-team:T4 (Sep 25, 2006)

I think cheapbatterypacks.com have what yo are looking for.


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## DARKSCOPE001 (Jun 14, 2006)

by tabs do you mean the solder tabs (the little pieces of silver plated copper that are solderd (or welded) to the end of the battery terminals to solder or weld to other cells in a series? because if you are batterys pluss did a pack for me with this method. and its not solderd they are welded. and the welding process takes only a few moments (less than one second per weld and 4 welds per termenal) i think it took they guy less than 5 min to solder up a whole pack for me. but this is only if you want the flexible little tabs that are used in stick packs. so might wana check batterys pluss or some other kind of local general battery dealer. oh yea i forgot to mention one of the most important things IT WAS FREE! I dont know how many times he will do it for you for free but this one time he did it for me for free so check it out.

HOPE THIS HELPS
Sean Scott


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## fozzy (Jun 15, 2006)

Thanks for the feedback,

My cells are GP-3300 so the button doesn’t stick out very far. But I have successfully ‘hammer’ soldered two test cells end-to-end using the wide diameter part of a ‘regular’ tip. I may go and get a brass bolt with the correct thread pitch and a hex head.

Radical RC does have the flexible tabs.

Cheapbatterypacks does have end caps for GP-3300.

Our local Batterys Pluss will reluctantly connect in some way your own cells for $0.50 per pair of cells. [Reluctantly - They will do it but they would rather sell you their cells and will tell you that. Connect in some way - I don’t know if they ‘hammer’ solder, solder flexible tabs, or weld flexible tabs like Darkscope001’s vendor. I guess I should call them back and ask.]

I’m still looking for GP-3300 size ‘shotgun’ tubes.

Ta_man, how much and how do I contact you? PM? After I buy some, will you tell me how you got them? I can only find ‘kits’ on the internet.

By the way, are ‘shotgun’ tubes rigid, shrink, or something in between?

Thanks again for the help,


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## MIKE VALENTINE (Mar 12, 2002)

Fozzy, why are you using the sht gun tubes? I don't think any company uses them to build packs anymore. IMO the tubes where only used when the cells didn't have shrink wrap on them. I could be mistaken, but Thats what I thought they were for. The tubes will also cause the batteries to hold in and generate more heat, possable causing cell damage.


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## fozzy (Jun 15, 2006)

I guess I don’t have a very good answer. I wanted to try and build packs that are somewhat rebuildable and thought the tubes could be more easily deconstructed when compared to cutting shrink, replace cell, then reshrinking. But that speaks to my ignorance of ‘shotgun’ tubes.

I don’t know whether the tubes shrink, if you shrink ‘connected’ cells before you put them in a tube, put shrink around tubes to keep the end caps on, etc. Does anyone know how tubes are typically used with respect to shrinking, caps, and rebuilding? I want to maximize rebuild and minimize shrinking. And I must use a stick config.

Thx,


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## IndyRC_Racer (Oct 11, 2004)

I've used the Trinity Stick Pack Building Kit (http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXKC55&P=7). I needed to do this for TCS or Tamiya Championship Series races. The class I was running allowed up to 3800 batteries at the time, but the car needed to use stick packs. I bought a couple matched sets of loose 3800's and turned them into stick packs. I did NOT heat shrink each individual cell before assembling into a stick pack because they already had wrap from the manufacturer/matcher.

The Trinity kit comes with everything you need to build a stick pack from loose cells. There are good instructions included with the kit. They show how to solder the tabs to the cells and how to bend the tabs. Included are plastic spacers to use between the cells to prevent shorts. The kit works best with shorter length and lesser diameter cells. However, I didn't have too much problem with my 3800's after soldering all the cells together. Make sure to put the wire leads through the top end cap before soldering them on. Once you bend them into the stick pack configuration, you slide them into the clear plastic, put the end caps on, and slide a large clear heat shrink over the whole assembly. I don't think the large heat shrink is shown in the web picture. Here is a link to extra heat shrink (http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0095p?FVSEARCH=battery+shrink+wrap&FVPROFIL=++).

The only problem I had building packs was making sure that the tabs were compressed between the batteries. I lightly tapped down on the whole assembly to compress everything before I used the large shrink wrap. After all was said and done I was satisfied with the results. As far as the plastic tube goes, I felt that it helped stabilize the whole pack. I also wouldn't want to go without something to prevent the cells from shorting on each other. No matter what, stick packs will retain heat if there is external shrink wrap on them.

My final word on what you are trying to do is that it can be done with a little effort. There may be better, cheaper, or quicker options to create stick packs. Please let us know if you are planning on converting the stick pack back to side by side. If you don't want to go through the effort of building packs, most large reputable battery matchers will build the pack in any configuration you need. Promatch (http://www.promatchracing.com) will build stick packs for a few dollars more per pack. 

I hope this info helps.

FYI, I am not sponsored or work for any R/C company that I have provided links to.


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