Wall Powered BIFRC Spot Welder

[@wolpumba4099]

*Summary* *Purchase and Initial Inspection* - 0:07: Purchased a second spot welder, specifically another bifrc one. - 0:13: Aim is to modify this spot welder so that the mosfets are powered by a wall plug. - 0:43: Bought the cheapest spot welder available on Aliexpress at $13. - 0:59: Noticed differences between this and previous purchases - this one comes pre-soldered. - 1:19: No version number on this spot welder, raising suspicion of a knockoff. - 1:29: Regardless of the product's authenticity, plans to modify it anyway. *Initial Testing* - 1:56: Plans to power up and test the spot welder before making any modifications. - 2:09: Spot welder seems to be working fine with the same software and lights. *Explanation of the Modification Process* - 2:23: Aims to use a battery to run the mosfets for spot welding while the circuitry is powered by a wall adapter. - 2:44: The voltage sags momentarily during spot welding, which can cause issues with the mosfets if it's too low. - 2:56: Aims to power the circuitry with a wall adapter to avoid voltage sag and prevent the mosfets from getting stuck open and burning out. - 3:47: Plans to power the circuitry directly from a wall adapter regardless of what's happening with the battery. - 4:01: Original idea was to cut the trace feeding the circuitry and solder a wire onto it, but this proved difficult due to the black silk screen and multi-layer board. *New Modification Approach* - 4:33: Plans to power the board with the negative and positive of the wall adapter, attaching only the battery's negative to the board. - 4:57: The positive of the battery will go directly into a needle for spot welding, with only the negative switched by the spot welder. - 5:53: Removed the XT60 connector from the board for direct soldering. *Modification Process* - 5:59: Attached a battery negative to the board using a short XT60 connector. - 6:54: Attached the wall plug to power the circuitry, with the striped wire on the positive terminal. - 6:58: Attached the negative wall plug wire with the battery's negative wire on the board. - 7:33: The circuitry now powers through the wall adapter, with the battery positive going directly to the spot welder. *Testing the Modified Spot Welder* - 10:50: After plugging in the wall adapter, the spot welder turned on even without a battery plugged in. - 11:00: The wall adapter turns the mosfets on and off, while the battery does the actual spot welding. - 11:51: The spot welder seems to be working well with the modification. - 13:00: The modification is expected to extend the life of the spot welder by preventing voltage sag in the battery from affecting the circuitry. - 13:28: A little smoke was observed from the board indicating a possible need for more solder for the connection. Disclaimer: I utilized gpt4-8k 0613 to condense the video transcript into a summary. I employed Prompt 1 to generate timestamped bullet list and organize it into sections with titles at a cost of $0.15. The summary was manually formatted using KZbin comment markup. Prompt 1: Summarize as a bullet list. Keep starting timestamps. If necessary split the resulting bullet list into subsections and create subsection titles. Keep timestamps for the bullets. Cost breakdown: input tokens: 3733 @ 0.03 / 1k = $0.11 output tokens: 710 @ 0.06 / 1k = $0.04

[@Schyler_JS]

Just got my first spot welder for an upcoming project and your videos are what helped me choose! Thank you for making awesome demonstration videos and i will be trying this hack with my welder.

[@gb614erg]

This board does not try to detect welding pins on a battery, it just sends pulses to mosfets to open every n (3s by default) seconds.

[@MihaSun]

This board send continuosly pulse even if the pins don't touching ,or is activated by the touching of pin and send the pulse? Because I don't understand how the mosfet is activated and how they are interrupted if you bypass the red wire (+)? This bord work like a timer with continuosly pulse when is powered? I have the purple version and ask you if is possible use this Mod with wall power surge and bypass red wire?

[@gb614erg]

@Razvan Mihai Yes, it does work like a timer and sends short pulses (length depends on chosen mode) as soon as powered. This is dangerous, because if it sends pulse while you are barely touching welding pin, you will get a huge spark and burned battery or whatever you are welding. You can bypass red wire from battery and power board with external power supply. But mine board burned (some mosfets are exploded) last week even with this mod, probably because of my 3S battery was fully charged (6Ah * 50C = 300A ) So, looks like this mod doesn't help, just make sure you have a good pause between welds, and do not weld even if mosfets are barely worm: wait until they cool down before making next weld.

[@MihaSun]

@@gb614erg Thank very much for technical information ,sorry for my english🤗 Anyway is very strange if is blow with 300ams ,i see the spech of this mosfet irl40sc209 and can handle 470 amps

[@alexackermann7127]

There is a simpler way to make this welder fail safe. Don’t use the xt60 connector. Solder negative wire from battery directly to the welder. Connect capacitor, at least 2000 uf 25v, across + and - on the welder. Solder negative welder probe to welder. Connect positive welder probe directly to battery. Run thin wire, 2 to 5 amps, from battery positive via a diode , 2 to 5 amp, to positive terminal on welder. If the battery voltage sags the capacitor will keep the welder at 12 volts. I have done 100 consecutive welds on .2 mm strip and the fets did not even get warm.

[@vavo9269]

please make a vide tutorial, some of us are noobs/beginnets, and its more than 1000words like we say :)

[@MrINKOMPATIBEL]

Sorry dude, that`s not simpler.

[@honphan4366]

How about just a drawing of the circuit ?

[@Mods-Lover]

@@MrINKOMPATIBEL Hehe it is 😅 see you need to every connection like shown in the, but in place of wall adaptor wires on board you only need to solder a thin wire anything that has good soldering strength those thin pcb wires works well too, solder one end of wire on positive terminal of board other end goes to the battery positive through a good diode. And you also need solder a capacitor on the board i go with something over 10000uf 25v as the current 2000uf is bit dull capacitor as it is only able to power the board for a good 1 sec after removing the supply. So yeah that's it now they wouldn't be running hot with this circuit

[@Mods-Lover]

@@honphan4366 read my other comment

[@johnsheehy6172]

I think you can use the xt60 that is attached to the spotwelder by using an xt60 to supply the negative with the mains negative already soldered along with the battery negative, omitting the positive from that plug. Otherwise, a great idea.

[@JonathanWellskcender]

Enjoying the videos and had the same though about running the board and welding circuits from different sources. I've noticed in this and a few of your previous videos that you're stating that the reason boards with weak batteries burn out is because the voltage sags and the microprocessor can't 'open' the Mosfets, which causes them to burn out. Mosfets (N-channel) don't need additional power or voltage to 'open' or turn them off. They turn off automatically by having a voltage below their Vgs(th), which for the 4N04R7 Mosfet is around 3v. Mosfets also have a Saturation region, when their gate voltage is above a defined level where they can operate at their lowest resistance. For the 4N04R7, this is a resistance of 0.76mOhm above 10v. Anything between the saturation voltage and the cut-off voltage results in the Mosfet having a significantly higher resistance. This resistance produces more heat in the Mosfet, which causes it to burn. In essence, the reason the Mosfets are burning out is because when the voltage sags from the weak battery, the voltage on the Mosfet gate also sags to below the saturation voltage, causing it to operate with a much higher resistance, causing the magic smoke to be released. Sorry for the long explanation. Now to make this modification on my own welder.

[@GrahamDyer]

Thanks for the great explanation, Jonathan. My Mosfets have short circuited which I presume was from using a weak battery, it was a 200Ah 12V Pb battery which I assumed would be strong enough. Steve, can one use a small 12V LiPo in place of the wall charger to power the circuitry and use the big battery for the welding? (greetings from SA)

[@MrINKOMPATIBEL]

Yes. But a14,8v would be better than a 11,1v

[@atvking535]

Heads up anyone watching this video, there's a new cheap "intelligent" PCB spot welder (or at least I think it's new because I haven't seen it before or seen any reviews) that blows the beloved BIFRC out of the water. It's available on most direct from China websites (Banggood, AliExpress, Walmart, etc) but hard to find when you search PCB spot welder because it seems to be quite far down the list (for me anyway). The model number on the PCB is JQ-DHJ02B and it's a green PCB with buttons to select the Ah and discharge current of your battery as well as a gear/power button and an on/off button. The best part is it claims to be "intelligent" and will not allow spot welds if your battery is too weak or too powerful, therefore saving the MOSFETs from exploding like they do on pretty much all other PCB spot welders. I haven't killed it yet so the intelligent part must be working as claimed. I managed to weld 2x0.15mm nickel strips and 1x0.10mm nickel strongly together with just ONE weld (three overlapping strips with one weld) using a 6000mAh 80c Zeee Power LiPo battery with the relatively crappy included welding pens. I have been comparing the JQ-DHJ02B to the same BIFRC welder with the same wall power mod that @Stevenc22 outlines in this video and from my experience, the JQ-DHJ02B welds stronger and stays much cooler to the touch than the BIFRC. The only downside is the instructions and some of the PCB labels are Chinese only, but it's not too hard to work out without instructions anyway. TL;DR - Look up JQ-DHJ02B PCB Spot welder on google and buy that one instead of the BIFRC. It's SO MUCH better.

[@n1kkri]

can you offer a link. I did the search and came up with nothing thanks

[@atvking535]

​@@n1kkri Sure thing! I didn't want to include links in my original comment so that it didn't seem like spam. That being said, I have since found another, possibly even better, PCB spot welder since making my original comment but it hasnt come in the mail yet so I can't say for sure. It looks really promising though for the price and even has a small touchscreen interface to set battery capacity and discharge current, battery low voltage alarm, as well as gear and threshold settings. It also shows temperature, battery voltage and spot weld count. It has firmware that can be upgraded through a USB C interface and as far as I can tell is also made by BIFRC (model number DH30). It claims to support 7-16v and have 8 x 300amp MOSFETs. It's obviously a bit more expensive (about double the JQ-DHJ02B), but still wont break the bank by any means. What's odd is it seems like there are multiple different spot welders listed under the DH30 model when you search, most of which have a built in battery, but those ones dont seem to have a touch screen interface or as robust of a PCB setup as the one I'll link that uses an external LiPo. DH30 Link: www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003016019432.html JQ-DHJ02B Link: www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003067417315.html I dont think the DH30 is on banggood yet but the JQ-DHJ02B definitely is so look around a bit to find the best price now that you know what to look for.

[@n1kkri]

@@atvking535 The DH30 looks like a pretty smart spot welder.

[@truthhurts2149]

@@atvking535 Did you get it. How does it work compared to the other you recommended

[@atvking535]

@@truthhurts2149 I did, but unfortunately it was dead on arrival. I'm still in the process of getting a refund and until that goes through I'm not willing to buy another one, especially since the other version works so well. Eventually I'll order it again to try but as of right now I have not been able to test it.

[@simpesfaip]

so much ramble,then i see it smoke made me chuckle.You get a like for that

[@nevcreating]

Did the smoke go away with adding more solder to the connection? I am thinking of buying a third one and using this method.

[@MoxxMix]

Title should be "Wall Powered BIFRC Spot Welder ELECTRONICS".

[@DIYwithBatteries]

Wow those circuits looking nice and perfect

[@rickbro5949]

Your mod also works with the new JQ. Board and the red board with the capacitor mod.I used a led power supply 12v 2 amp wallwart.to power board and headway cells for the weld.

[@stevenc22]

Nice!

[@frankpitochelli6786]

That soldering iron is too big, I'm in the TV Repair bizz for 40 yrs, a 30-40 watt iron if used properly will be more than sufficient....Hopefully you're using lead solder..? Anyway, your videos have helped me in deciding what spot welder to buy. 👍

[@johnwald1714]

I'm surprised you have not figured out that it dosent auto detect. Everytime the light blinks is when it fires. Just has to be timed correctly.

[@lets.powerup]

My board has 2200uf 25v cap pre soldered. I tried with 12v 2A Adaptor, 7Ah battery but fail. So As per my understanding it needs max discharge current or need to add more powerful cap.

[@stevenc22]

You need a battery capable of 200amps+

[@singwolf.]

I had thought of a similar idea, I was wondering if batteries with fewer cells could work equally, we would save in lipo. Good work man

[@singwolf.]

do you have a 2s lipo to try? I have a very nice 7.6 Ah 80C, in case I would do the mod

[@stevenc22]

I do not have a 2s lipo. The circuitry needs 12v but if that is wall powered, there is no reason a 2s lipo won't work just to provide the spot weld.

[@singwolf.]

@@stevenc22 agree, thanks you

[@Mazlem]

For those that do have a capacitor on them, what rating do you think would work instead of using the wall adapter? The one I just got has a 2000uF 25v. Of course I bought it before your latest spot welder video came out lol.

[@stevenc22]

I don't use a capacitor or the wall plug on my main BFRIC. As long as your battery is powerful the capacitor is unnecessary.

[@Mods-Lover]

You can use any number of capacitor the bigger the better, the supplied capacitor can only power the board for like few sec maybe not more than a sec before power led start to sag after power disconnect. So i would go with much bigger maybe in multiple of 10k uf one. And with that you don't need the wall adaptor, do exact same wiring just run positive input from board to the battery positive through a good diode so that there's no way power going back to battery/welding probe.

[@MihaSun]

This board send continuosly pulse even if the pins don't touching ,or is activated by the touching of pin and send the pulse? Because I don't understand how the mosfet is activated and how they are interrupted if you bypass the red wire (+)? This bord work like a timer with continuosly pulse when is powered? I have the purple version with 5 mosfet

[@stevenc22]

The BRFIC fires ever couple seconds. It does not sense the needles touching the nickel.

[@ageofempires4ivgaming467]

Hey Steven! Are these BIFRC PCBs still available to buy? (The ones with just the board and XT60 connector). I’m only seeing ones with a case that have a built-in LiPo battery. Are these inferior? Thanks!

[@stevenc22]

Very difficult to find but you can find them. If not I have another board I like very much. s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_mKh32P4

[@my.username]

Shouldnt this wall adaptor mod be possible on any spotwelder model, by doing it the exact same way as done in this video? Also, which one gives the best / most powerful spot welds out of BIFRC or the JQ-DHJ02B ??

[@stevenc22]

BIFRC is by far the most powerful and yes you could make this mod to anybPCB spot welder

[@marcosherrera6453]

Do you know how to put this board on manual mode?

[@stevenc22]

No. I don't think it has a manual mode.

[@vgamesx1]

Based on your previous videos, I bought one of these and just received it and immediately killed it after a few welds or at least one mosfet anyway, I don't really understand why though, I paired it with a fairly beefy car jump starter, so that should've had plenty of juice without a lot of voltage sag (not that I measured it).

[@kangt544]

Car batteries sag a lot under load

[@vgamesx1]

@@kangt544 No not a car battery, a jump starter and it's lithium so pretty similar to a decent rc lipo, thanks for the tip though.

[@vgamesx1]

So I think I found out what went wrong with mine, it says it can operate at 12v but a 3s pack can of course drop to 11v and will not work with this welder, I think my jump starter is 3s and thus killed a mosfet, thankfully however it seems as it may only be a single fet, I've not gotten around to it yet, but it should work fine missing just one.

[@ImaginaPower]

It´s the voltage drop/sag!! If you do it like the video with a dedicated wall power supply of minimum of 12V you ensure that the circuit voltage never go under that voltage of 12 volts and the mosfets don´t go high resistans and can fully open and close. If you test your mosfets you´ll se that several mosfets are blown not only the one that poped. And please do not use a battery over about 50Ah cause you don´t need it for spot welding.

[@MihaSun]

Hiw is maxim current that this Mosfer suport? is possible use a lead battery with 800 CCA ?or will burn out?

[@stevenc22]

It will probably be fine. The cables limit the current some.

[@MihaSun]

@@stevenc22 thanks

[@Mods-Lover]

How many watt iron are using? How big is it really is? Am using 25 watt and it's doing nothing to those solder on wires and connector 😐

[@stevenc22]

amzn.to/3n8VvUW

[@n1kkri]

It looked like smoke was coming from the board?

[@stevenc22]

Just flux burning of that big blob of solder. Board works great!

[@n1kkri]

@@stevenc22 Its been a year... has it been reliable?

[@stevenc22]

@@n1kkri my BIFRC is my primary spot welder. Made a video with it last week

[@Mods-Lover]

I got same board today, as it's already been 11 months of you purchasing it would you like to tell us long term review of this particular model/version of bifrc spot welder you used for the video?

[@stevenc22]

Works great. Just fixed a battery the other day with it. I don't use the wall powered one because I have a good battery. I just use the regular BIFRC

[@Mods-Lover]

@@stevenc22 that's cool, i got a 95c 1500 mah battery works fine with me. Rn i only got the the strip that came with the board it's i guess the thinnest one so welds with minimum(red) setting. But I plan to add higher cap and diode before the input, just to be on safer side. Like the older guy said here in comment. That's a fairly good deal with nothing extra needed to run it. ✌️

[@KetansaCreatesArt]

Hello nicely explained. I just got this same board attached with probes and capacitor. Attaching 12v battery with 20a BMS. I tried all the percentage settings, but the circuit turns off after 3 seconds when I try to weld. Then I remove and replug the battery it turns on again. But never welds. Does the same. What should be missing?

[@stevenc22]

Why do you have a 20 amp BMS? This will try to pull 200 amps when it welds and will definitely trip a 20amp bms

[@KetansaCreatesArt]

@@stevenc22 , Oh yes, I see the reason why it does. Must make a pack without bms. Thank you

[@KetansaCreatesArt]

@@stevenc22 , Hey bro, got the new BIFRC one. Using 5200mah 40c LiPo. After welding 2 battery packs, the multi-coloured mode light stopped, and the green blinking light is glowing constantly whenever I plug the battery. There was a little smoke on the board. Now it welds no more. What could have happened? Thank you.

[@stevenc22]

@@KetansaCreatesArt did it get too hot? The BIFRC gets very hot and you have to let it cool every few spot welds. My main BIFRC has MOSFET coolers installed on it to help keep it cool.

[@KetansaCreatesArt]

@@stevenc22 , Yes the probe wires got very hot. Mosfets were warm. I waited after probes became hot, but at a point I went on ahead to do just one spot more and it smoked. I saw your MOSFET cooler, I will have to do it. Now this one is gone?

[@rukhshadsabawala9691]

Is it possible to connect two spot weld PCBs in series and make the welds more powerful? Some spot welds are so weak that nickel strip comes off the battery with hardly any force.

[@stevenc22]

Maybe but you run the risk on one pcb back feeding the other pcb and blowing it up. Much better off getting a good pcb with a good battery. The pcb and battery combo that I currently use is amazing and nickle is welded very strongly.

[@mikes6216]

I have a deep cycle marine lead acid battery I bought from costco. I got the biggest one they had, so 750 cranking amps at 12V. Will this fry my newly delivered BFIRC spot welder that I waited 2 months for in the mail?

[@mikes6216]

If that is not enough burst power, I have a 30 amp car battery charger that plugs into the wall. If that is still not enough, I can put it into car boost mode which is temporary 80 amps (1000Watts). In parallel with the battery is this too much? Not enough? Incompatible, since it likely uses a switching power supply. I have a very old buzzing transformer car charger that can do 10-15 amps.

[@stevenc22]

I'm sure the marine battery will work fine. Your wire gauge will probably limit your spot welding amps.

[@mikes6216]

@@stevenc22 My battery was 4 years old, I guess it did not have enough amps, I got one spark out of the welder and that was all. RIP. I am going to buy supercapacitors to replace the battery. I dont want a Lipo pack that will die after 2 years, the supercaps should last long long long time with no maintenance. Any idea what size supercaps I would need to drive the BIFRC? I am using 0.20 mm nickel.

[@technicaltamila.g3319]

Which awg wire you used

[@ibringthelastwords1358]

Hi can we just power it with higher amps power adapter or power supply? like 12v 10a or higher? thanks

[@stevenc22]

No. The spot welder needs 200+ amps to actually spot weld. Way more than a power supply can deliver.

[@ps3customgamer]

I’m missing why you didn’t use a capacitor or even a couple of them?

[@stevenc22]

Converting to wall power no longer needs a capacitor to hold stable voltage. The capacitor is a hack by the manufacturer anyway.

[@ps3customgamer]

@@stevenc22 I’m using a 2 year old bifrc off of aliexpress which comes in a aluminium box with a battery and is usb recharagable. There’s an unpopulated capacitor trace so I’d like to populate that.

[@stevenc22]

@@ps3customgamer if it works don't mess with it. A good battery won't need the capacitor because it won't suffer battery droop.

[@MrWeaponlord]

Is this still working?

[@stevenc22]

Yes. My Bifrc is my main spot welder.

[@MrWeaponlord]

@@stevenc22 I'm currently using my Stanley Fatmax PowerIt 1000a jump starter(this way I can cycle the battery and keep it fresh). I'm leaving the onboard 12v charger plugged in and the welder is hooked up straight to the battery via a "custom" port (xt150's). I'm a couple hundred welds into it (just got it, can't stop welding). I have the Purple 99 gear welder with 5 IRL40SC209 mosfets on the front. Another 5 are on order for the back. Picked up some VRM heatsinks as well. I'm just glad to hear this works since I just dumped more money into the hobby!

[@stevenc22]

@@MrWeaponlord Damn sounds like a serious setup you got there. Yeah these things are great, just dont overheat them!

[@stephenmaynard5408]

Would a Larger Capacitor hold the 12V up during weld ? Wouldn't a nice big Electrolytic do the trick ? Seems less complicated than cutting etches !!!

[@stevenc22]

Yes. But if you have a strong battery you actually don't need anything

[@wolfeatsheep163]

Good job not blowing up another board lol lot us know if it lengthens the life of the new board

[@Rcfishingagadir]

Hi can i use a lithuim battery 12.6v about 18amp.

[@stevenc22]

No. You need about 150 amps minimum to weld... My Lipo delivers about 400amps.

[@hasger1941]

Is it still working ? was the issue with a poor connection only ??

[@stevenc22]

Yeah my BIFRC is still working

[@hasger1941]

​@@stevenc22 Ahh ok, thought there was an issue with the connection. Also wonder whether you could use a modified MOT transformer inline to fets instead of 12v DC.. i.e. 12 turns one lead through board the other direct.. being ac not sure it would work...being the 12vdc wall supply will also be powering board..

[@mihabedow6007]

Какая из них работает в ручном режиме?

[@edikxp]

Guys help, I can not switch to manual mode

[@juanhernandez1238215]

Well I see u did must watched those videos link I sent u from that Asian man doing this with smaller battery and yes all that does works even with small battery 🔋, nice video u trying it

[@Mods-Lover]

Can you drop the links here?

[@rpawaskar22]

Can we use 12 v pc 800w smps instead of battery

[@stevenc22]

No. You need 150-200 amps to weld. No power supply is delivering that

[@user-2uf2kr2c]

Why don't you use a desoldering pump ?

[@stevenc22]

I wish I had a nice one but they expensive.

[@WarrenKozey-mg4mq]

You cant do that it does not work that way just connect a float charger. Wait until the battery voltage drops

[@relectric720]

Thank you for the video .You know where I can find one on eBay.

[@stevenc22]

www.ebay.com/itm/18650-Battery-Energy-Spot-Welder-PCB-Circuit-Board-DIY-Auto-Spot-Welding-Pen-US-/393097826262?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0

[@diydad5067]

Is it possible to use 18650 batteries? Im planning 3S 15P. The cells are reclaimed Panasonic NCR18650BD: 3 Ah per cell with 10 amps max discharge. More or less can kick out 150 Amps. I can go to 3S 20P, but would rather save the cells if not necessary.

[@stevenc22]

Yes but lots of work. Maybe a car battery might be easier?

[@diydad5067]

@@stevenc22 I don’t have a spare car battery but I can probably splice jumper cables with lugs and tap in my car battery. Although, I really want to have a portable spot welder unit.

[@relectric720]

Thank you for the ebay link

[@wolfhahnemann2734]

Löten solltest du noch üben

[@technicaltamila.g3319]

Which awg wire you used

[@stevenc22]

10awg