When my Makita drill batteries died I was looking for new ones only to find that’s it’s cheaper to buy a whole new drill with batteries than to just replace my dead batteries. Absolutely stupid and wasteful.
Yeah they usually have a chip in them tho. If the voltage gets below a threshold, the chip disconnects the cells from the output. The idea is the cells are probably damaged beyond recovery at that point and attempting to use or charge them is a fire risk.
But another result is when people replace the cells, the battery still won’t work. And because right to repair laws are still a joke, the people making either the tools or the batteries don’t release any documentation about what chip is used or if/how it can be reset once new cells are inserted.
I had a pretty nifty cordless vacuum cleaner which had a battery built in. The battery wore out, so I looked into replacing it. But it was a nightmare. All plastic clips that broke when trying to get stuff apart. A ton of hidden screws and the worst part: the cells were all encased in a lot of plastic, a tape like stuff and what looked like epoxy. Plus the connections were spot welded. In the end I gave up and bought a new corded one. A waste to replace something that could have been repaired, had it not been terribly made. The new corded one will last longer I hope and at least remain at max power till it dies.
If you remove and replace the BMS you can keep using the pack. This of course assumes the manufacturer wasn’t a real bastard and chipped each battery with some kind of proprietary key for the unit.
I think the way forward is to 3D print a case and wire the batteries yourself. Getting a 3d printer isn’t cost effective but maybe someone’s already selling kits online. Hopefully the chips can be faked easily.
When my Makita drill batteries died I was looking for new ones only to find that’s it’s cheaper to buy a whole new drill with batteries than to just replace my dead batteries. Absolutely stupid and wasteful.
The batteries inside the pack are far cheaper. Opening the pack to replace them will be a challenge.
Yeah they usually have a chip in them tho. If the voltage gets below a threshold, the chip disconnects the cells from the output. The idea is the cells are probably damaged beyond recovery at that point and attempting to use or charge them is a fire risk.
But another result is when people replace the cells, the battery still won’t work. And because right to repair laws are still a joke, the people making either the tools or the batteries don’t release any documentation about what chip is used or if/how it can be reset once new cells are inserted.
I had a pretty nifty cordless vacuum cleaner which had a battery built in. The battery wore out, so I looked into replacing it. But it was a nightmare. All plastic clips that broke when trying to get stuff apart. A ton of hidden screws and the worst part: the cells were all encased in a lot of plastic, a tape like stuff and what looked like epoxy. Plus the connections were spot welded. In the end I gave up and bought a new corded one. A waste to replace something that could have been repaired, had it not been terribly made. The new corded one will last longer I hope and at least remain at max power till it dies.
If you remove and replace the BMS you can keep using the pack. This of course assumes the manufacturer wasn’t a real bastard and chipped each battery with some kind of proprietary key for the unit.
I think the way forward is to 3D print a case and wire the batteries yourself. Getting a 3d printer isn’t cost effective but maybe someone’s already selling kits online. Hopefully the chips can be faked easily.
If you’re super handy some of these can be cut apart and batteries replaced. I did that for an old craftsman drill. Worked until the motor quit.