Generic Smart Charger For Electric Drill?
 

My trusty Makita finally died.

BJ's had a Coleman battery-powered 21.6v with two batteries for
fifty bucks.

Seemed reasonable, so I grabbed it.

Got it home to find out that the charger isn't much of
anything... just a generic brick that puts out 24v.

Instruction manual cautions that leaving it on charge more than
"3-5 hours" will fry the battery. The light on the charger
doesn't even go out when the battery is charged.

Soooo... sounds like I either find a smarter charger, resign
myself to cooking the batteries eventually... or find an "egg
timer" type switch that I can crank to 3 hours and forget.

Anybody had any luck finding a generic charger for an electric
drill?

The form factor looks pretty conventional:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/48262653@N00/2113870826/
--
PeteCresswell

Generic Smart Charger For Electric Drill?
 

In article ,
(PeteCresswell) wrote:
My trusty Makita finally died.

BJ's had a Coleman battery-powered 21.6v with two batteries for
fifty bucks.

Seemed reasonable, so I grabbed it.

Got it home to find out that the charger isn't much of
anything... just a generic brick that puts out 24v.

Instruction manual cautions that leaving it on charge more than
"3-5 hours" will fry the battery. The light on the charger
doesn't even go out when the battery is charged.

Soooo... sounds like I either find a smarter charger, resign
myself to cooking the batteries eventually... or find an "egg
timer" type switch that I can crank to 3 hours and forget.

Anybody had any luck finding a generic charger for an electric
drill?

The form factor looks pretty conventional:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/48262653@N00/2113870826/

I tend to modify these crude chargers to a 1/10th constant current type -
only needs a transistor and a couple of components. There's usually plenty
room inside the base. It then requires a 14 hour (overnight) charge, but
makes the best of these poor quality batteries. If you do the modification
carefully it could be put back to original without anyone knowing in event
of a warranty claim.

--
*Why don't sheep shrink when it rains?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Generic Smart Charger For Electric Drill?
 

"(PeteCresswell)" wrote in
:

My trusty Makita finally died.

BJ's had a Coleman battery-powered 21.6v with two batteries for
fifty bucks.

Seemed reasonable, so I grabbed it.

Got it home to find out that the charger isn't much of
anything... just a generic brick that puts out 24v.

Instruction manual cautions that leaving it on charge more than
"3-5 hours" will fry the battery. The light on the charger
doesn't even go out when the battery is charged.

Gotta do your research first,before buying.


Soooo... sounds like I either find a smarter charger, resign
myself to cooking the batteries eventually... or find an "egg
timer" type switch that I can crank to 3 hours and forget.

Anybody had any luck finding a generic charger for an electric
drill?

The form factor looks pretty conventional:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/48262653@N00/2113870826/

better to bite the bullet and buy another Makita.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
kua.net

Generic Smart Charger For Electric Drill?
 

Per Jim Yanik:

Gotta do your research first,before buying.

I'll take that.

I've never made an impulse purchase without regretting it in the
end.

--
PeteCresswell

Generic Smart Charger For Electric Drill?
 

In article ,
(PeteCresswell) wrote:
Per Jim Yanik:

Gotta do your research first,before buying.

I'll take that.

I've never made an impulse purchase without regretting it in the
end.

There's not a *vast* difference between these cheap brands and the 'names'
as regards the drill itself for DIY use. The real differences are the
battery quality and charger. Changing to decent batteries with a lower
internal impedance can make a cheap drill work much better. I've got a
cheap PPPro (UK shed brand) I carry around to sites as they're not so
desirable to thieves as the 'names'. I did however fit Sanyo cells to the
batteries after they failed in short order and altered the charger as I
mentioned earlier. It's given good service for a few years now - although
admittedly only light use by myself. I'm not trying to decry the quality
of Makita etc - I have some of their tools too.

--
*I went to school to become a wit, only got halfway through.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Generic Smart Charger For Electric Drill?
 

On Sun, 16 Dec 2007 09:37:49 -0500, "(PeteCresswell)"
wrote:

Per Jim Yanik:

Gotta do your research first,before buying.

I'll take that.

I've never made an impulse purchase without regretting it in the
end.

And avoid, like the plague names like Poloroid, Coleman (possibly
except coolers) and Stanley (a few tools), and... g We get the
picture, peter!

Generic Smart Charger For Electric Drill?
 

PeterD wrote:
And avoid, like the plague names like Poloroid, Coleman (possibly
except coolers) and Stanley (a few tools), and... g We get the
picture, peter!

I remember years ago seeing a satire on ads that gave an example ad saying
"On Sale, Famous Name Appliances!" and cited a George Washington television,
San Ysidro washer-dryer and Napoleon dishwasher (or something like that).

--
Dec. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Government officials and activists flying to Bali,
Indonesia, for the United Nations meeting on climate change will cause
as much pollution as 20,000 cars in a year.

Generic Smart Charger For Electric Drill?
 

"(PeteCresswell)" wrote in message
...
Per Jim Yanik:

Gotta do your research first,before buying.

I'll take that.

I've never made an impulse purchase without regretting it in the
end.



While cheap tools frustrate me in so many ways, there are smart chargers out
there. I saw an ad the other day in Nuts & Volts, I forget who it was,
Jaycar maybe? They offered a power tool smart charger designed to retrofit
the original, I've never dealt with them personally but it might be worth
looking into.

Generic Smart Charger For Electric Drill?
 

On 17 Dec, 03:45, "James Sweet" wrote:
"(PeteCresswell)" wrote in message

...

Per Jim Yanik:

Gotta do your research first,before buying.

I'll take that.

I've never made an impulse purchase without regretting it in the
end.

While cheap tools frustrate me in so many ways, there are smart chargers out
there. I saw an ad the other day in Nuts & Volts, I forget who it was,
Jaycar maybe? They offered a power tool smart charger designed to retrofit
the original, I've never dealt with them personally but it might be worth
looking into.

Sometimes cheap charger ccts are over simplified to meet cost demands.
Then the first time the battery is allowed to go flat the charge cct
blows up !

I have been on the design end with very strict constarints.
A penny off on a million items is a lot of money.
So every penny is saved where possible.

Generic Smart Charger For Electric Drill?
 

Meat Plow wrote in
:

On Mon, 17 Dec 2007 08:40:25 -0800, Marra wrote:

On 17 Dec, 03:45, "James Sweet" wrote:
"(PeteCresswell)" wrote in message

...

Per Jim Yanik:

Gotta do your research first,before buying.

I'll take that.

I've never made an impulse purchase without regretting it in the
end.

While cheap tools frustrate me in so many ways, there are smart
chargers out there. I saw an ad the other day in Nuts & Volts, I
forget who it was, Jaycar maybe? They offered a power tool smart
charger designed to retrofit the original, I've never dealt with
them personally but it might be worth looking into.

Sometimes cheap charger ccts are over simplified to meet cost
demands. Then the first time the battery is allowed to go flat the
charge cct blows up !

I have been on the design end with very strict constarints.
A penny off on a million items is a lot of money.
So every penny is saved where possible.

Generic Smart Charger is an oxymoron as far as I'm concerned. I'm a
ham radio operator with several hand held walkie talkies. I bought a
couple generic chargers for battery packs for these radios and these
generic charges just don't work as well as the original. I've even
ruined a battery pack for my Yaesu FT-60 portable that cost me 50
bucks to replace.



that's why I advocated buying a quality drill-driver with a 1hr or faster
charger,that actually monitors the battery pack in some manner,and cuts off
charge when a limit is reached.
IMO,rechargables last longer when properly fast-charged.

Then there's the matter of fire hazard with modified chargers.
At least a factory charger is UL approved.

even just putting a timer on a slow charger lets the battery discharge
through the charger after the timer cuts off the mains.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
kua.net

Generic Smart Charger For Electric Drill?
 

In article ,
Jim Yanik wrote:
that's why I advocated buying a quality drill-driver with a 1hr or
faster charger,that actually monitors the battery pack in some
manner,and cuts off charge when a limit is reached. IMO,rechargables
last longer when properly fast-charged.

In my experience as a heavy user of mainly Ni-Cads the longest life *by
far* is obtained by a 1/10th capacity constant charge rate for 14 hours.
But this is on devices with a relatively low current draw.

--
*It's a thankless job, but I've got a lot of Karma to burn off

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.