Replacing Anki Overdrive Batteries

There are two ways of replacing the battery in an Anki Overdrive car, you can unsolder the old battery and then solder in a new one, or you can use my method of cutting the old battery off then joining the cables together. 

This is a step by step guide on how I use the non–solder technique; please note these are guide lines showing the way I affix the batteries in to the cars, I accept no responsibility for you completing this on your own cars. Please read through the guide fully before you start, this will avoid any accidents or mishaps, I advise doing this procedure in a quite well–lit area as the cars and components are small, don’t try rushing it, that being said I have a 100% success rate with this method. 

Step 1: Things you will need

a. Your anki overdrive car/truck

b. A small pozi screwdriver

c. A small flat-head screwdriver

d. A pair of wire strippers or scissors

e. A hairdryer/lighter

Step 2:

Take your Anki Overdrive car, turn over and using the pozi screwdriver undo the single screw at the front near to the front wheels.

Step 3:

The outer cover will then come off.

Step 4:

Using the small flat head screwdriver gently take out the circuit board, there are two clips either side (highlighted in the bottom picture) that you need to gently prise apart then lift the circuit board out noting this is wired to the motors at the back.

Step 5:

You then need to flip the circuit board going from front to back (imagine it’s on a pivot fixed at the back)

Step 6:

You will see the old battery is stuck on to the circuit board with some double-sided sticky tape, gently pull the battery upwards.

Step 7:

Taking your scissors, cut the old battery off as near to the battery body as possible, PLEASE NOTE do this one wire at a time or you could short the circuit board. I always start with the live wire the red one.

Step 8:

Once you have the old battery removed you can strip the ends so as to expose some metal, this is the trickiest part of the whole process as you need to ensure you don’t pull the sleeve (coloured covering) off the wire, you need to fold the wire as low down as possible then grip here with your fingers whilst trimming to avoid this happening, try to get this as near to the circuit board as possible, you can then use wire strippers, or gently use a pair of scissors as shown,  complete this process on the red and black wires.

Step 9:

Take your new battery with the heat shrink wrap pushed up towards the battery, and then one by one starting with the black wire this time twist the wire together.

Step 10:

Once you have the black wires nicely wrapped together pull the shrink wrap over the join, then you can start joining the red wires in the same way, then again covering the join.

Step 11:

Next we need to heat the shrink wrap cable covers,  this needs to be done with a hair dryer or lighter (this should not take longer than a minute on full heat using a hairdryer and much less time using a lighter) you need to move the hairdryer/lighter around making sure you don’t burn yourself

Step 12:

The cable shrink wrap does not go really tight, I then twist the cables so it’s neat and fits back in the car (we have more cable than with the original battery.)

Step 13:

Next take the old battery and peel off the sticky foam, and take off the white double sided sticky tape on the new battery and stick the foam to the new battery

Step 14:

Press the battery on to the circuit board. Ensuring that no cables cover the contacts or black clips

Step 15:

The circuit board is now ready to put back into the car, be aware of the small cables as the back slots in first, then pivots forwards (the opposite way we opened the car.)

Step 16:

 Then just gently push the circuit board to seal back in the body, then put on outer cover and screw back into place. You will need to run the car as it is, once then once the battery has run down give it its 1st charge.)

Step 17:

Enjoy racing. Any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me at simon@ukanki.uk, I will endeavour to help