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domwild Guru Joined: 16/12/2005 Location: AustraliaPosts: 873
Posted: 09:37pm 18 Mar 2015
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Hi,
Own a cheap "Performer" drill from Kmart. During charging two LEDs come on, a red one and a green one. The red one, by the way, still stays on for a while when I remove the charger.
I have never had the patience to only charge the drill until the green LED went off as I also never wanted to overcharge the battery. In other words, I haven't got a clue what the two LEDs mean. Does the green light have to go off to signal fully charged???
Thanks.Taxation as a means of achieving prosperity is like a man standing inside a bucket trying to lift himself up.
Winston Churchill
Prime_8 Regular Member Joined: 07/12/2014 Location: CanadaPosts: 51
Posted: 06:45am 03 Apr 2015
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i have a few chargers like that from store brand rigs .
LED that takes a while to go out is usually linked to the larger capacitors in the power supply, most often indicates that supply power is good .
i would expect the green to go off . If it MiMh cells and the charger is a quality one ther should be no harm charging till teh green light goes out just as long as you dont have a charger that enters a trickle / keeping mode.
NiMh actually don't do well exposed to low charge rates for longer times.
All of my NiMh micro power packs for R/C stuff lasted longer using a precision fast charger, that would taper of towards the end of the charge and then actually disconnect internally until reset .
any charger i don't trust so much , i put on a light timer. set it for the number of hours i want my battery to charge .
I have many drills and power tools that people figured the packs were dead , but all they needed was proper charge.
house brand chargers can be very good and the tech has been arround for a while now and some charge controllers are just one IC now , and even if not the basic circuits are well known .
>> Still I use light timers as full backup to cut power to iffy looking chargers.
+ NiMh packs should be getting warm when charging , if not the rate is actually too low, can indicate your drill charger was a slighlty modified nicad charger , and may accidentally overcharge your nimh cells by slow cooking .
Old coder, and bodger of things that may spark.
domwild Guru Joined: 16/12/2005 Location: AustraliaPosts: 873
Posted: 12:33pm 03 Apr 2015
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Thanks Old Coder! I will have the patience to charge until the green light goes off and hope it will disconnect internally when charged.
Old coder? How old? I go back to the teletype/paper tape/punched card days! Toggling the boot program in in octal with three fingers on the PDP's front panel!Taxation as a means of achieving prosperity is like a man standing inside a bucket trying to lift himself up.
Winston Churchill
Georgen Guru Joined: 13/09/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 462
Posted: 07:24pm 03 Apr 2015
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I have one charger for 12V drill, both lights red and green turn on as soon as charger is turned on and never go out.
I keep battery charged for 6 hours, battery gets warm and I have no idea at what state of charge it is disconnected.
It is inexpensive Australian K-Mart drill.
I am surprised it still works.
Got it on special, few years later got brand new 12V battery on special too for $5, just about when old one gave up and I was going to get 10 off 1.2V AA batteries at Aldi.
So there was no point to do it for $21 as would have to get 3 packets of 4 rechargeable AA for $7 a packet.
Maybe next time, as K-Mart doesn't sell 12V drills any more.
Now they sell 18V ones.
George
Prime_8 Regular Member Joined: 07/12/2014 Location: CanadaPosts: 51
Posted: 08:40pm 03 Apr 2015
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i figure not that old.
i think my first computer was a vic 20 , and i remember helping my dad puch cards for something older . LOL
I dont think we have K-mat in Canada anymore. Old coder, and bodger of things that may spark.
domwild Guru Joined: 16/12/2005 Location: AustraliaPosts: 873
Posted: 11:49pm 03 Apr 2015
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Georgen,
Must be the same model I have. Anyway, I will manually disconnect. K-Mart still has a few 12V ones here in Maddington, WA. Only about $30 or so from memory.
Taxation as a means of achieving prosperity is like a man standing inside a bucket trying to lift himself up.
Winston Churchill
BobD Guru Joined: 07/12/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 935
Posted: 02:47am 04 Apr 2015
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Dom
I thought I was one of the oldies here but you beat me by nearly 3 years. I was into all that good stuff that you talk about except that I was with NCR and then IBM back in the 60s. NCR loved the paper tape.
George
If you are after a new drill then you should seriously consider one of the new drills with 18 volt Lithium batteries. They are so good and they have charge management built into the batteries. No over charge and they shut off before going dangerously (for the battery) flat. I still have a 240 volt drill somewhere but I haven't used it for several years. The battery drill is quite OK to drill brick and concrete. The catch, of course, is the cost but if you are into battery drills then they are worth it. I use the Ryobi One + range from Bunnings which is the cheaper end of the market. They also have Ozito which is cheaper again. I can't afford the Hitachi or Makita stuff.
Bob
Downwind Guru Joined: 09/09/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2333
Posted: 03:36am 04 Apr 2015
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I use a 3.6v Milwaukee drill and driver for 99% of what i do all day, everyday, off a single daily charge (each night for 10 - 30 minutes or less per pack)
I also have a 18v Dewalt drill that is 10 years old with many miles on the clock which has more torque than i can hold onto, but weighs a brick compared to the Milwaukee tools with 3.6v batteries.
Trade tools cost more, but are well worth the money if you have the demand of use for them.
Ryobi is what i would class a the upper end handyman tool, not a trade tool for every day use, all day.
As BobD said it all depends on your budget, and the use requirement, but once you have a quality trade tool you soon see the rest is rubbish even at the cheaper price range.
Pete.Sometimes it just works
Georgen Guru Joined: 13/09/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 462
Posted: 11:38pm 05 Apr 2015
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This my K-Mart drill with replacement battery.
Not sure if I threw out pieces of opened original battery, but doesn't matter.
If this one dies, I am going to get 10 NiMh batteries and make replacement battery.
Actually I thought about 18V cordless drill and to charge it directly from my 40W solar panels, but got this cheap 12V one.
George
Pete Locke Senior Member Joined: 26/06/2013 Location: New ZealandPosts: 181
Posted: 09:00pm 06 Apr 2015
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Yes making your own battery packs up isn't rocket science. Soldering requires a large heavy tip to throw the heat at the top of the cell quickly so as not to melt the nylon seal. Better if you build a spot welder for the task. Of course you have to hope that your drill's mechanics don't wear out about the same time as your batteries I still have a million year old Ryobe 12v cordless in the shed that the batteries were shagged on. I put a lead on it with clips to attach to a car battery. Still going. I have a cordless drill with a cord Cheers
N.Z Pete'.
Prime_8 Regular Member Joined: 07/12/2014 Location: CanadaPosts: 51
Posted: 02:14pm 08 Apr 2015
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i love making the old ones powerd by car battery .
show pic of your charger .. i think your k-mart one is the same as my cobra brand one . all made by onehunglow lol.Old coder, and bodger of things that may spark.
Notice. New forum software under development. It's going to miss a few functions and look a bit ugly for a while, but I'm working on it full time now as the old forum was too unstable. Couple days, all good. If you notice any issues, please contact me.
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