"Joerg" wrote in message
t...



Until the most recent amateur radio convention in Plano, I was charging
my HT batteries with my bench supply.

Seeing as how your design can do lead acid and Nimh, that would be nice.

I don't have any lithium batteries in the radios though I did note the
new
HT designs used them...Man, are they pricey and small.


I wish that radios, cordless phones, drills and whatnot would be run off
regular AA cells. But no, one has to plunk down big bucks the instant
the battery dies. I'd rather forego the increased capacity of LiIon.

Right now all (!) my power sticks for the hand tools are dead. Here goes
another $60 for a capacity the equivalent of $5 worth of AA-NiMH.


Then there seems to be the upgrade game. I can't find 12V packs for my
Ryobi drill unless I buy another drill. I can get 18V packs however. These
will become the source for the required sub C cells as they are most cost
effective.

Unknown is the cost to get them spot welded into the required configuration.

It just MIGHT be cheaper to buy a new drill with two battery packs and sell
the old one for a small offset.