I've got a couple drills from Harbor Freight. They come with a "stupid
charger", if left on will just boil the batteries dry.

What would be nice is some kind of count down timer to switch the 110 volt
power to the charge plug. So, I could set the timer to 1 hour, 2 hours,
whatever I'd guess to be needed. That would cut down on over charging, and
boiling the nicads dry.

I'm at a bit of a loss for how to find such a gadget. Any ideas?

--

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
www.mormons.com

"Stormin Mormon" wrote in message
news
I've got a couple drills from Harbor Freight. They come with a "stupid
charger", if left on will just boil the batteries dry.

What would be nice is some kind of count down timer to switch the 110 volt
power to the charge plug. So, I could set the timer to 1 hour, 2 hours,
whatever I'd guess to be needed. That would cut down on over charging, and
boiling the nicads dry.

I'm at a bit of a loss for how to find such a gadget. Any ideas?

--

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
www.mormons.com

use a regular lamp timer. just remove the turn-on pin, leaving the turn-off
pin for your time in the future.

Stormy,

You can always use the cheap lamp timers (K-Mart, WalMart, Lowes,
H.D., etc.) if you want to gamble that way. Do the chargers have
indicator lights which let you know when the cells are fully charged?
If so, then you really should monitor the recharge visually. With the
timer, you are just guessing how much undercharge or overcharge
you will apply to the cells.

Better yet, buy one of the many "universal smart chargers" and do it
right. You can cut the cord from the dumb chargers and tie it into
the smart charger via a "quick connect" plug. That way your new
setup consists of smart charger tied to cable which has a quick
connect, tied to the original cable which now has a quick connect,
tied to Harbor Freight tool (or the Harbor Freight battery charger
cradle.)

Harbor freight sells some great bargain tools, but many of their
chargers are crap. They sell more tools that way.

Good luck,
Gideon

=======

Stormin Mormon wrote in message ...
I've got a couple drills from Harbor Freight. They come with a "stupid
charger", if left on will just boil the batteries dry.

What would be nice is some kind of count down timer to switch the 110 volt
power to the charge plug. So, I could set the timer to 1 hour, 2 hours,
whatever I'd guess to be needed. That would cut down on over charging, and
boiling the nicads dry.

I'm at a bit of a loss for how to find such a gadget. Any ideas?

--

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
www.mormons.com

That could work.... I know what you mean about remove the turn on pin, I had
one awhile back that did that by accident.

--

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
www.mormons.com


"Charles Spitzer" wrote in message
...


use a regular lamp timer. just remove the turn-on pin, leaving the turn-off
pin for your time in the future.

Regrets, no there isn't a full charge light. However, it's a 12 volt system,
so I'd considered tying it into a float charger. Seems that would be smarter
than the trickle charger it's got now.

Wondering also maybe to try adaptor to lighter socket, charge while on the
road.

Someone else suggested a shutoff timer like like they use in bathrooms for
an infared light. That would work nicely, also.

--

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
www.mormons.com


"Gideon" wrote in message
...
Stormy,

You can always use the cheap lamp timers (K-Mart, WalMart, Lowes,
H.D., etc.) if you want to gamble that way. Do the chargers have
indicator lights which let you know when the cells are fully charged?
If so, then you really should monitor the recharge visually. With the
timer, you are just guessing how much undercharge or overcharge
you will apply to the cells.

Better yet, buy one of the many "universal smart chargers" and do it
right. You can cut the cord from the dumb chargers and tie it into
the smart charger via a "quick connect" plug. That way your new
setup consists of smart charger tied to cable which has a quick
connect, tied to the original cable which now has a quick connect,
tied to Harbor Freight tool (or the Harbor Freight battery charger
cradle.)

Harbor freight sells some great bargain tools, but many of their
chargers are crap. They sell more tools that way.

Good luck,
Gideon

"Stormin Mormon" wrote in
:

Regrets, no there isn't a full charge light. However, it's a 12 volt
system, so I'd considered tying it into a float charger. Seems that
would be smarter than the trickle charger it's got now.

Wondering also maybe to try adaptor to lighter socket, charge while on
the road.

Someone else suggested a shutoff timer like like they use in bathrooms
for an infared light. That would work nicely, also.


A electric fan timer wired into an outlet box with an outlet for the
charger to plug into.

I wired a lamp dimmer into a dual outlet box with an outlet for speed
controlling my older Dremel model 270.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
kua.net

Buy a common "lamp timer" from Walmart for about 6 bucks

What would be nice is some kind of count down timer to switch the 110 volt
power to the charge plug. So, I could set the timer to 1 hour, 2 hours,
whatever I'd guess to be needed. That would cut down on over charging, and
boiling the nicads dry.

I'm at a bit of a loss for how to find such a gadget. Any ideas?

Stormy,

I would very strongly assume that your cordless drills do
NOT have lead acid batteries, in which case I would strongly
suggest that you do not use a float charger. An auto battery
float charger on NiCad batteries would create even more
problems for you.

Gideon

==============

Stormin Mormon wrote in message ...
Regrets, no there isn't a full charge light. However, it's a 12 volt system,
so I'd considered tying it into a float charger. Seems that would be smarter
than the trickle charger it's got now.

Wondering also maybe to try adaptor to lighter socket, charge while on the
road.

Someone else suggested a shutoff timer like like they use in bathrooms for
an infared light. That would work nicely, also.

--

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
www.mormons.com


"Gideon" wrote in message
...
Stormy,

You can always use the cheap lamp timers (K-Mart, WalMart, Lowes,
H.D., etc.) if you want to gamble that way. Do the chargers have
indicator lights which let you know when the cells are fully charged?
If so, then you really should monitor the recharge visually. With the
timer, you are just guessing how much undercharge or overcharge
you will apply to the cells.

Better yet, buy one of the many "universal smart chargers" and do it
right. You can cut the cord from the dumb chargers and tie it into
the smart charger via a "quick connect" plug. That way your new
setup consists of smart charger tied to cable which has a quick
connect, tied to the original cable which now has a quick connect,
tied to Harbor Freight tool (or the Harbor Freight battery charger
cradle.)

Harbor freight sells some great bargain tools, but many of their
chargers are crap. They sell more tools that way.

Good luck,
Gideon