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Fast charging a Craftsman 14.4 battery pack


By Norm, Section Controls
Posted on Mon Dec 17, 2007 at 09:49:17 PM MST
I got a cordless drill 14.4 craftsman with fast charge

When one of the two batteries went, I got another
14.4 craftsman drill but the second one had a
slow charger the batteries have a different
number and cannot be charged fast with the fast
charger the battery that can be fast charged has
a third connection....any one have one of these
that knows what part of the battery pack this goes
to or what that enables it to fast charge?
      any help would be greatly appreciated..
Thanks
               
Fast charging a Craftsman 14.4 battery pack | 7 comments (7 topical)

Re: Fast charging a Craftsman 14.4 battery pack (3.00 / 0) (#1)
by crashk6 on Mon Dec 17, 2007 at 03:06:05 PM MST

The third contact is generaly connected to a thermal resistor to mesure pack tempurature, without it the charger risks cooking the batteries.

I have seen some where this is not the case and the third contact is just jumpered to one of the other terminals, usually in lower quality tools. Another possibility is a sense wire for some smart chargers to calculate voltage rise and drop with respect to charge rate to determine if the pack is optimally charged.

But Id bet it's for a thermal resistor.
--
crashK6



Re: Fast charging a Craftsman 14.4 battery pack (3.00 / 0) (#2)
by Cloaked User on Mon Dec 17, 2007 at 03:07:18 PM MST

That third contact on the more expensive battery pack is connected to a thermal sensor down in between the cells. It gives the charging circuit in the fast charger a value  indicating the temperature change in the pack as it charges. I have replaced the cells in some 14.4 Craftsman batteries with cells from the cheaper pack, and put the heat sensor (a semiconductor called a thermistor, I think) in between the new cells. The pack housings are screwed together on many Craftsman cordless batteries, so all you need is a small "tamper resistent" torx driver. It's a pretty easy swap, and then you can use the good charger. The cheaper charger is little more than a wall wart that will toast your nicads if you leave it on there all the time. I did this a couple of years ago, when I decided to start rebuilding my own battery packs. Sears had a whole drill kit for sale for less than I could buy the individual cells for. The battery packs would run my right angle drill, but I was in the same fix as you, with no way to use the good charger.



Re: Fast charging a Craftsman 14.4 battery pack (3.00 / 0) (#3)
by Norm on Mon Dec 17, 2007 at 04:04:22 PM MST

Thanks guys....in other words if it gets a
certain voltage it'll get a fast charge until
it gets a certain tempature and then it quits
or drops to slow charge?
On mine it has to be a certain voltage ...any
lower and the yellow and green light go on
indicating slow charge or defective battery
on fast charge the red light is on till its fully
charged..
With the wrong14.4 battery it just turns on the
green light and slow charges forever until you
unplug it.
 
( :>) Norm


Re: Fast charging a Craftsman 14.4 battery pack (3.00 / 0) (#5)
by Cloaked User on Mon Dec 17, 2007 at 05:50:59 PM MST

Yup. Those fast chargers are pretty sophisticated. I have been wearing out cordless tools for many years now, in the construction biz, and the recent improvements in the technology are impressive. Sure makes my work easier!

I learned several years ago that DeWalt chargers use what is known as "Delta V" charge sensing, which does not use any additional contacts. I found this out while researching bicycle headlights, and I have converted a charger for use on nicad packs for bike lights. You can use one to charge any battery pack made up of "sc" or the standard industrial nicad (ni-mh too) cells up to about 18 volts. One word of caution though! When you solder in some wires to carry the current to your battery pack, you have to be very careful not to touch either conductor, because there is 120vac on one conductor (to ground). I don't understand how that works, but apparently you can get a bad--even lethal--jolt from it. You can use an isolation transformer to make a safe system out of it. I bought a transformer a long time ago, but never got around to wiring it up. Anyway, the charger works great. You just use the positive and negative terminals in the charger, add wires and connectors, and hook up to the pack. The charger measures the pack's voltage every second as the pwm pulses go on and off, and when the voltage peaks and then drops slightly, it switches into slow trickle mode. Later model DeWalt chargers, like the one I converted, do have the third contact for the later battery packs, but the chargers are made to be backward compatible and will charge the old DeWalt two-contact batteries just fine. Or your RC car pack, or your 6 volt bike light pack, or other brand drill pack. Be very careful to get the polarity right, especially if you are going to charge low ah packs. The charger will beat the smaller packs to death if you get it wrong. Don't ask me how I know, just be careful. :)

People who know a bit about the differences in nicad and ni-mh cells will note that delta v charge sensing is pretty tricky with ni-mh chemistry. I don't know of any DeWalt two-terminal battery packs that used ni-mh cells, probably for that reason. In the bike light realm, however, the chargers are still pretty dismal, even now, and in my experience, my hacked (and dangerous) charger works just fine with the ni-mh packs I have used it with. Many times more reliable and easier on the cells than the cheesy factory set ups.

[ Parent ]



Re: Fast charging a Craftsman 14.4 battery pack (3.00 / 0) (#4)
by asheets on Mon Dec 17, 2007 at 05:16:33 PM MST

Does the Craftsman guarantee apply to their batteries and chargers?  If I have any doubt at all about a Craftsman tool, I just get it replaced.
_____________________________

Alan Sheets



Re: Fast charging a Craftsman 14.4 battery pack (3.00 / 0) (#6)
by ghurd on Tue Dec 18, 2007 at 06:12:38 AM MST

It does not.

BTW, Some of their charger manuals specify "No Inverters".  And they mean it.
G-
Ghurd.info
[ Parent ]



Re: Fast charging a Craftsman 14.4 battery pack (3.00 / 0) (#7)
by Norm on Tue Dec 18, 2007 at 07:54:23 AM MST

You always have to look at the numbers....in the
case of a router I got one time.
It was on sale, so I got it, it went flooey after
a week...took another week before I brought it
back....I thought hand it to the salesman...same
guy....even remembered me! .....and he would hand
me the replacement.....
 'Oh ....I can't do that' ,he says
 'Why not? ',I ask, 'There they are...they're
exactly alike! ', I insist
 'NO...They're Not!....they have a different
number !
 So to make a long story shorter...I had to wait
until the routers were on sale again !
  Good thing I paid cash or I might never known
or cared...(on Credit...it's only money...(sign
here))
( :>) Norm
[ Parent ]


Fast charging a Craftsman 14.4 battery pack | 7 comments (7 topical)
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