On 17/11/2020 20:14, Lobster wrote:

Hi all To those that recognise me - long time no see, it's been a
while!!

Welcome back :-)

I'm wanting to re-cell my old cordless Makita 8390D drill - at least
one of the three power packs, maybe more.... I'm aware that finding
decent quality cells to replace the originals is a complete jungle,
so I'm wondering if anyone who's done this before can recommend a
good supplier of decent kit please?

Not bought any NiMh cells in ages so hard to recommend. CPC will
probably do you "real" ones - but may be far from the cheapest.

Part 2 of the question is that the original power packs are NiCd.
The OEM charger (a DC1804T) states that it's good for both NiMH and
NiCd: so does that mean I can buy NiMH cells and simply swap those
out for the existing duff NiCd items? Or will there be
electronickery inside the power packs that I would need to contend
with, and should therefore stick with NiCd?

It should be fine with NiMh - the tools were the same, and the chargers
will do either. There are no particular smarts in the battery itself
except for perhaps a temperature sensor.

You can still buy the NiMh cells new (OEM and "compatible").

You can also get adaptors that will let you fit the modern LiIon packs
onto the old drills although you need to be careful to not run the packs
too low since the old drills don't have any smarts to communicate with
the battery management system in the new batts - so you run a higher
risk of bricking a battery.


--
Cheers,

John.

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