How to convert an old Ni-Cad battery drill to Lithium Ion!

[@baronvonlimbourgh1716]

If you are going to make more of these please make a little jig for the batteries. Complete a pack, take it out of the casing and then make 2 little plates of mdf that exactly fit the bottom of the battery pack and fix them in place on a baseplate. Next time just put the cells one at a time in the jig and fix them together. When completed, pick it up and simply lower it in it's casing. A lot easier for testing and also a lot safer.

[@TheFlyingKiwiNZ]

Great idea! I only have these two to do though

[@KevinNguyen-zn4vv]

I'd use the hardware to convert them to work with your main toolset brand of batteries.

[@orlatris96]

Usa o mesmo carregador?

[@tjacksonwoodworker3726]

What do you use for a charger? Does the old NiCd charger charge the modified battery pack?

[@TheFlyingKiwiNZ]

I just use the old NiCd charger, however, some people have said it doesn't do balanced charging even with that BMS, I need to look into that.

[@johnnguyen2376]

No, Lithium ion is unsafe to charge on Nicad charger!

[@ericchabot2174]

On a different video, the guy purchased a wall charger for lithium, took the guts out, remove the guts from the old charger and swap them.

[@gazbullen]

How come that didnt short out when the main +/- where touching 21.49 in on the video??

[@TheFlyingKiwiNZ]

That's what I was saying a little bit further on, the BMS protects against any short circuit by cutting the output, and you 'unlock' the cut-out by putting it on the charger for a few seconds. Really I should have not let these touch at all and not rely on the BMS protection, but I guess I got lazy.

[@navigator_071]

What about charger, the NiMH charger has no CC-CV intended for li-ion ?

[@TheFlyingKiwiNZ]

It's a Ni-cad charger, not NiMH. The BMS takes care of charging the Li-Ion cells. It analyses the input voltage and current and gives protection to the cells and charges them the way they need.

[@navigator_071]

@@TheFlyingKiwiNZ I assumed that, but am not sure the BMS is reliable Further, I believe that a lack of constant voltage charging phase can affect SOC of batteries.

[@TheFlyingKiwiNZ]

@@navigator_071 yes maybe it's possible, however the first battery I converted over a year ago and it's still working fine. I wanted to test it thoroughly before doing the second battery with a video.

[@flyerh]

@@TheFlyingKiwiNZ nicad and nimh use the same charger. The BMS only balances the charge,you still need a constant voltage and current for lithium ion.

[@chrisdavis7368]

Wouldn't it be easier to change bottom of drill to accept new battery instead

[@TheFlyingKiwiNZ]

like an adapter to accept say a Makita battery? Possibly!

[@flyerh]

If you had measured the voltage of each of the cells in the old battery, you might have found only one was dead and saved a heap of money,I did.

[@TheFlyingKiwiNZ]

They were all useless leaky NICAD cells. Once they get that old, not worth mucking around with them.