SimpleBot Battery Pack Assembly
Assembling the battery pack requires 4 parts:
- Battery holder
- 2.1mm DC jack
- Heat-shrink tubing
- 6 x 1.5V AA cells
Unscrew the black plastic cover on the 2.1mm DC jack.
Insert both the battery holder wires through the plastic cover. Important: you must do this before anything else! It's a common mistake to miss this step, then have to unsolder everything and start again.
Use a soldering iron to "tin" the metal tabs on the back of the DC jack. This means heating up the tab and placing a small blob of solder on the tab in preparation for making a joint.
Solder the black wire to the longer tab that connects to the outside of the DC jack, then use a pair of pliers to bend over the anchor tabs to mechanically hold the wire in place.
Slip the heat-shrink tubing over the red wire, and then solder the wire to the shorter tab that connects to the centre of the DC jack.
Slide the heat-shrink tubing along the red wire to cover the solder joint and terminal, to prevent any possibility of a short circuit between the terminals.
Touch the side of the soldering iron tip (not the end of the tip) on the heat-shrink tubing to make it shrink onto the joint and hold firmly in place.
Screw the plastic cover back onto the DC jack.
