Generic Smart Charger For Electric Drill?

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.

"(PeteCresswell)" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Gotta do your research first,before buying.

better to bite the bullet and buy another Makita.

Per Jim Yanik:

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.

And avoid, like the plague names like Poloroid, Coleman (possibly except coolers) and Stanley (a few tools), and... 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).

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.

Meat Plow wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.alt.net:

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.

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.