+[None of this applies to the Bosch drills and their battery packs.] -
Please check with a battery nerd whether this is still up to date. It was valid on Friday 27th July 2018. -
These instructions are for the -Pro Peak/ Makita Charger [photo needed]: This will charge all Makita drill batteries. -This is the charger which has the Makita slide-socket for the battery which is connected to the yellow ProPeak box. +
Please check with a battery nerd whether this is still up to date. It was valid on Expo 2022. + +
We have 2 types of batteries: +
Batteries need to be charged on compatible chargers.
+ +We have 3 types of charger: +
1 will charge only Blue-taped standard batts. Do NOT just try again more than once if you get an error. 3 tries can make a battery permanently unusable. This is the normal charger to use for Blue taped batts.
+ +2 will charge only Green-taped modified batts. Charge Green-taped batts on this.
+ +3 can charge all the batteries, but needs to be set up correctly. See below. It is normally used for diagnostics and recovering over-discharged packs which will not charge on the normal chargers.
+ + +This is the set of 3 (2 half-width) chargers made from old green/turquoise Makita chargers. +They have a set of 4 LEDs. (The full-width one only has 1 LED in 2018). Charges at 40W.
+ +This is the black all-purpose charger with LCD display. Charges at up to 50W
+ +The Yellow Propeak chargers do the same job, and instructions are +similar, but have no fan, no backlit display, and if pack is low +voltage will charge at C/10 (10% of normal) until voltage rises +sufficiently. Charges at up to 50W.
+ +
+LiIo CHARGE
+C=3300mAh 14.4Vp
+
This information will not go out of date. +
Note that the drills have no battery-voltage monitoring at all, and the +monitoring circuit in the battery is bypassed when connected to the drill. Thus the drill can easily be used to over-discharge a +battery, so please stop drilling when it gets slow and put on a new +battery, unless it's an emergency. Drilling with an excessively-sagged +voltage will knacker the weakest cell-pair. If your battery +does get to this state, try to charge it up as soon as possible. Cells +must not be left at <2V for any length of time as they rapidly +(hours/days?) degrade to useless in this state (and that pair will +need replacing - which means reassembling it back in Cambridge and welding in a new cell pair).
+ +
+Makita have put very 'conservative' software in the batteries (as bought) which +will stop them working on an as-bought, unmodified Makita charger, even when they are in +fact fine. The monitoring board in the batteries is powered from the 1st cell pair so +that pair tends to get discharged more than the others when left +sitting for the 11 months of not-expo. If an unbalanced (or +over-disharged, or too-hot) pack is inserted into the Makita charger +the charger and battery will do serial-comms negotiation, the charger +will refuse to charge the battery and the battery will remember this. +If you try this 3 times, the battery will mark itself bad and will +never charge again on a Makita charger. Only a replacement circuit +board in the battery can fix this (or new software if we knew how to nobble it).
+ +Such batteries are normally still fine and charge on a sensible (RC +- Radio Control, because RC people are the main market for these +chargers) charger, possible after a "balance charge" to get the cells in +the pack in sync again. Expo has a couple of chargers capable of doing a "balance charge" (Black Accucell6 and older Yellow Pro-power +Prodigy II). Unfortunataly Makita don't build the 14.4V packs with +the necessary connections to the cells, so the circuit board in the battery has to be replaced to +make this work easily for expo. For 2018 this was done for 7 of our +packs, and 3 automatic balance chargers were built by Wookey.
+ + +Further explanation: the charger uses a different pair of electrical connections from those used by the drill - that's why there are +not just two electrical connectors in the charger - to accommodate those extra connections. +
+We have these types of charger; the non-mains chargers are all at top camp and can run all night using the car batteries: +
New for 2018 is varying battery capacity. We have 3Ah, 4Ah and 5Ah +packs. Bigger packs will take longer to charge from empty. The +capacity is on the cell label next to the yellow connector.
+ +Each pack has a sliding indicator on the side. This is entirely +manual, but is very useful for indicating when a pack is known to be +charged, flat, or partly discharged. Slide the slider to show green +for full, red for flat, half and half for 'partly used'.
+ +If a battery has green insulation tape on it it has been +modified by us and will not charge on an unmodified as-bought Makita charger. +
Simplest is try to charge it again and find that it says it is done +in a couple of minutes (Up to 4 mins on the balance chargers). This +may 'waste a life' on batteries that still work on the Makita +charger. Checking it on the RC charger will not waste a life. It will +quickly rise to 16.4V, and the current drop to 0.1A or so. That +indicates a full pack. It will tell you so after a while (1-5 +mins).
+ + +The drill batts are 4S2P 14.4V lithium ion packs (8 18650 cells: 4 in +series, each being a parallel pair). This means that they are charged +as 4-cell packs, to 4.1V per cell-pair. They can be charged at up to +3A rate. Battery 1 has connector wired as balance connector. No other +packs have this yet (2017). The official Makita packs use Sony SE +US18650VT (1.5Ah, 20A high-drain) cells, and we have a few with with Samsung +INR18650-13Q (1.3Ah high-drain cells). All give a reliable 2.3-2.6Ah + capacity in practice, even after 9 years expo useage.
+ +At end 2017 we bought two 4Ah packs. The non-makita one uses LG +DAHD21865 cells (2Ah, 25A). I can't read the Makita cell type without +unwelding the pack. For 2018 we made 3 new 5Ah packs from Samsung 25R +cells (2.5Ah, 20A) (Sponsored by uk18650.com).
+ +The drill discharges at 26A current draw when drilling (~400W), so +that's 13A per cell in a 2P configuration.
+ +This is the green/turquoise charger with 3 LEDs, and diagrammatic charging info on RH side. Charges at up to 100W.
+ +First insert the battery.
@@ -92,206 +316,6 @@ CHG 0.04 00002
LI+3.26A 15.331V
This information will not go out of date. -
Note that the drills have no battery-voltage monitoring at all, and the -monitoring circuit in the battery is bypassed when connected to the drill. Thus the drill can easily be used to over-discharge a -battery, so please stop drilling when it gets slow and put on a new -battery, unless it's an emergency. Drilling with an excessively-sagged -voltage will knacker the weakest cell-pair. If your battery -does get to this state, try to charge it up as soon as possible. Cells -must not be left at <2V for any length of time as they rapidly -(hours/days?) degrade to useless in this state (and that pair will -need replacing - which means reassembling it back in Cambridge and welding in a new cell pair).
- -
-Makita have put very 'conservative' software in the batteries (as bought) which -will stop them working on an as-bought, unmodified Makita charger, even when they are in -fact fine. The monitoring board in the batteries is powered from the 1st cell pair so -that pair tends to get discharged more than the others when left -sitting for the 11 months of not-expo. If an unbalanced (or -over-disharged, or too-hot) pack is inserted into the Makita charger -the charger and battery will do serial-comms negotiation, the charger -will refuse to charge the battery and the battery will remember this. -If you try this 3 times, the battery will mark itself bad and will -never charge again on a Makita charger. Only a replacement circuit -board in the battery can fix this (or new software if we knew how to nobble it).
- -Such batteries are normally still fine and charge on a sensible (RC -- Radio Control, because RC people are the main market for these -chargers) charger, possible after a "balance charge" to get the cells in -the pack in sync again. Expo has a couple of chargers capable of doing a "balance charge" (Yellow Pro-power -Prodigy II). Unfortunataly Makita don't build the 14.4V packs with -the necessary connections to the cells, so the circuit board in the battery has to be replaced to -make this work easily for expo. For 2018 this was done for 7 of our -packs, and 3 automatic balance chargers were built by Wookey.
- - - -Further explanation: the charger uses a different pair of electrical connections from those used by the drill - that's why there are -not just two electrical connectors in the charger - to accommodate those extra connections. -
-We have these types of charger; the non-mains chargers are all at top camp and can run all night using the car batteries: -
New for 2018 is varying battery capacity. We have 3Ah, 4Ah and 5Ah -packs. Bigger packs will take longer to charge from empty. The -capacity is on the cell label next to the yellow connector.
- -Each pack has a sliding indicator on the side. This is entirely -manual, but is very useful for indicating when a pack is known to be -charged, flat, or partly discharged. Slide the slider to show green -for full, red for flat, half and half for 'partly used'.
- -If a battery has green insulation tape on it it has been -modified by us and will not charge on an unmodified as-bought Makita charger. -
Simplest is try to charge it again and find that it says it is done -in a couple of minutes (Up to 4 mins on the balance chargers). This -may 'waste a life' on batteries that still work on the Makita -charger. Checking it on the RC charger will not waste a life. It will -quickly rise to 16.4V, and the current drop to 0.1A or so. That -indicates a full pack. It will tell you so after a while (1-5 -mins).
- - -The drill batts are 4S2P 14.4V lithium ion packs (8 18650 cells: 4 in -series, each being a parallel pair). This means that they are charged -as 4-cell packs, to 4.1V per cell-pair. They can be charged at up to -3A rate. Battery 1 has connector wired as balance connector. No other -packs have this yet (2017). The official Makita packs use Sony SE -US18650VT (1.5Ah, 20A high-drain) cells, and we have a few with with Samsung -INR18650-13Q (1.3Ah high-drain cells). All give a reliable 2.3-2.6Ah - capacity in practice, even after 9 years expo useage.
- -At end 2017 we bought two 4Ah packs. The non-makita one uses LG -DAHD21865 cells (2Ah, 25A). I can't read the Makita cell type without -unwelding the pack. For 2018 we made 3 new 5Ah packs from Samsung 25R -cells (2.5Ah, 20A) (Sponsored by uk18650.com).
- -The drill discharges at 26A current draw when drilling (~400W), so -that's 13A per cell in a 2P configuration.
- -This is the green/turquoise charger with 3 LEDs, and diagrammatic charging info on RH side. Charges at up to 100W.
- -This is the set of 3 (2 half-width) chargers made from old green/turquoise Makita chargers. -They have a set of 4 LEDs. (The full-width one only has 1 LED in 2018). Charges at 40W.
- -This is black all-purpose charger with LCD display. Charges at up to 50W
- -The Yellow Propeak chargers do the same job, and instructions are -similar, but have no fan, no backlit display, and if pack is low -voltage will charge at C/10 (10% of normal) until voltage rises -sufficiently. Ensure that charge rate is set to 4000mA otherwise -charging will be un-usably slow. Charges at up to 50W (5W in C/10 gnetle start).
- -
-LiIo CHARGE
-C=3300mAh 14.4Vp
-