they may need a few cycles to “wake up” but should be ok.he could at least make a good pack with them.
Hi Phil,
As always, thanks for the offer, but that I’m interested in seeing how using Li-ion works out, and if it doesn’t may or may not get a new drill. That was why I got the corded one, to “tide me over” until I either get the Craftsman+Li-ion working or get a new one. Although, I have to say that the deal that HD has on the Ridgid drill is kind of tempting. The only thing that is preventing me from jumping on that one is some reviews say that the 1.5aH batteries that come with that don’t last long, but the 4aH batteries cost as much as the drill. Kind of catch-22.
Thanks again!
Jim
Ok then- I’ll use them to build another pack for my DeWalt stuff now that I’ve found them. I must have a dozen ‘hosts’ for that build in that box. Amazing what you forget about when you store things away 
Am I getting old?
Phil
No, just getting “better” :)!!
Post pics when you get somewhere and I’ll do the same when I get going?
Earlier that one battery was @21.95V. It is now at 21.08V.
The 2nd battery (the one I marked as ‘good’) was about 20.76V off the charger, maybe an hour ago. Now it is at 19.84V.
So, both batteries dropped/dropping off of the just-of-the-charger voltages pretty quickly.
Voltage drop from warm and fresh off the charger for NiMh is normal. Power cells tend to drop more and faster than consumer grade cells. (Normal for lithium too, which seems to make a lot of people in this forum crazy. They don’t drop nearly as much but drop they do.)
10% in 24 hours is about right. At that point they should stabilize and only lose a bit (1-3%/day depending on the quality and age).
For my ‘bad’ pack I simply could not get the voltage up to where it was supposed to be when fully charged fresh and warm. I was ‘one cells shy’ of full. I pulled the pack apart, found the cell, zapped it, charged it singly, and got the pack up to full charge. 4 days later it went from 21v+ > less than 15v. The whole pack just plummeted and at least that one cell went dead again as it would not charge up as a pack to full voltage.
I did try using the pack after a ‘revival cycle’. It worked but was lame compared to the still function pack and the bad cell died again.
IMO these NiXX packs are too much of a pain to bother replacing cells or even building new ones, though that is certainly possible. I’ve got low end Harbor Freight drills that the pack died, I threw 4S x 18650 in there and it works great years later. I didn’t know squat about 18650 cells then, got them used from a free box in a electronics surplus store and have no idea what quality they are……but they are still better than the HF NiCads.
For my pack the cells will be a double high stack of 3 cells, which seems to fit. Usually you end up with a lot of extra room replacing NiXX.
BTW-those 18650 boxes you linked to will have skinny wires and probably high resistance. They will choke down the cells performance, possibly a lot. There can be a lot of draw in a drill.
A buddy has a battery operated small chainsaw he loves. It’s great for pruning when the big lopper is too small. It’s old and impossible to get replacement packs for. I told him about 18650 replacement and even provided him with some laptop cells that seemed fine for LED light use. They did not work well for the chainsaw, not enough amp capability. The little monster sucks amps hard. Another learning opportunity.
Flydiver,
THAT is my plan also!!!
Does anyone have some pics of a conversion? I just got the 3x18650 holders in, and I don’t think they’ll fit into the Diehard battery case (the holders are too wide). Plus, I’m not quite sure how to make the 4-pronged connector for the Die-hard. On the original battery, those prongs look like they’re actually just soldered to a sub-C battery that is standing on it’s end.
Here’s the video of the conversion I plan to do. Haven’t gotten around to it yet.
Upgrade Black & Decker 18v Single Source to Lithium Ion for $5
One of my drills had that vertical cell that held the connectors in place. I just used a dowel to fill the space and hot glued it and the connectors in place.
I did drill a hole in the back of the case and run a separate charge dongle out. But, it’s just wired in series, NOT a balance connector, so I could have just as easily used the main blade connectors with alligator clips to my Accucel-6.
On this conversion I wanted to solder on a balance charge port but I don’t have any for 6S. I top out at 4S on hand. I suppose I could do 2x3S.
This is probably more than what you are looking for but I got mine on sale for $300 a year or so ago and I couldnt be happier. You cant beat the lifetime replacement after registering. Although I am now retired I have used all the tools and I dont think I have recharged but two times in a year. They run forever!! Some good demos on youtube.
Actually I paid full price for it when they first got them and they did a promo sale about 3 weeks later but HD credited me the difference …. or it could have been when they were $399 and they credited me $100, I cant remember but I paid $300. I was lucky but I thought it was still a good deal at full price. They may run another sale.
Did the conversion to 6S 18650 Li-on, in my case some LG cells out of a laptop that were about 2200mA. I did add a balancing tap (plug) that can go to my hobby charger (Accucell 6). Lots of fiddly soldering, took longer than I thought.
NiCad was about 22v warm and full (15-cell). This one is 25v. Only tried it out from about half charged and it worked fine. Probably be a bit perkier when fully charged. Lighter than the stock pack but the thing is now 1/3 empty.
I also built a 2s2p pack for my canister dive light, also with balance tap. Did a complete cycle with that and it worked great. Might be useful on my dive trip to Canada next month.
Lots f good info here. In my experience, if you rotate through the packs regularly, they tend to die at about the same time. When one battery pack dies, the others are probably not going to last a whole lot longer.
FYI…… they are running a sale on the Ridgid 5 piece combo now.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/RIDGID-GEN5X-18-Volt-Lithium-Ion-Cordless-Combo-Kit-5-Piece-R9652/205883898
or if you are just interested in the drill/2batts/charger/bag for $100
Update on the Li-on conversion for my B&D weed whacker:
It works….but, I chose cells not up to the draw capabilities of the motor. I have a gizmo that I can plug into the balance port that will measure each cell and alarm if it drops below a programmable limit. I got it from an Radio Controlled site. I chose 3.0v (per cell).
It started alarming immediately.
I dropped it to 2.7v (lowest it will go) > it ran about 10” alarming for the last 5” (I ignored) and then completely cut out. No voltage reading?! I thought maybe I’d melted a solder joint. Nope, a couple minutes later it came back on and cells read about 3.9v/cell. I’d barely tapped the capacity, but the cells can’t hold the amp. requirement.
Not sure why it cut out completely. There is no device in there at all to do that. Cells are not protected nor is there a limiting circuit. I’m baffled.
I’ll try re-building with better cells, and try to remember to take a few pix.
Addendum - This time I wired it up so I could do an amp reading before I committed to adding the balance tap and packaging it up > 24A peak! No wonder the previous cells didn’t cut it. This time I’m using some Samsung 13B (supposedly 25A/1300mA), but I only have 5. I added a much older 13Q but it wasn’t holding up so I soldered another one in parallel to it and that seemed to prop that cell up.
I had no idea the motor was that demanding. I may just order up a 6S lipo from Hobby King and put that in there if I can find the size.
Then, onto a 12v drill pack that just died….completely. Both packs, won’t charge at all anymore.
I don’t want actually to sound silly, but I need to know which exactly chainsaws you all use. I’m on the fence about Stihl and Husqvarna, have read much info online, but still cannot decide which will work best for me.
For those of you converting high power cell packs, neither skimp with cells nor connections (solder/spot weld, heavy gauge wiring). Add cells in parallel if required. The newer Samsung INR18650-20S is now available in major retailers, europe included (nkon).
Cheers ^:)
I agree with that. The 6S packs I made for my weed whacker (pulls 24A), work, but they ‘sag’ (I have a hobby monitor attached to the balance tap). I have no doubt the NiCad packs sagged also, but no way to monitor those. One pack was Samsung 30Q, the other HE2. Can’t really tell the difference and they seem pretty equivalent cells. I made the packs as Barkuti described since I knew they had to deal with current.
I now think high output 21700 cells might have been superior. The case is not big enough to parallel 18650 or use 26650, but 21700 would have fit.
FWIW. the whacker actually works quite well this way, much better than with NiCad.