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?
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
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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?
That could work.... I know what you mean about remove the turn on pin, I had one awhile back that did that by accident.
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.
"Stormin Mormon" wrote in news:b0Mie.43208$ snipped-for-privacy@twister.nyroc.rr.com:
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.
Buy a common "lamp timer" from Walmart for about 6 bucks
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
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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.
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