From fd1bbb3a885092549be76c4daed93ff4a57a5ff5 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Wookey Date: Thu, 4 Aug 2022 00:43:02 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] Update charging info for Blue/Green taped packs in 2022. --- handbook/charging.html | 434 ++++++++++++++++++++++------------------- 1 file changed, 229 insertions(+), 205 deletions(-) diff --git a/handbook/charging.html b/handbook/charging.html index 0bb479738..cd73abcbe 100644 --- a/handbook/charging.html +++ b/handbook/charging.html @@ -13,11 +13,235 @@

Makita Drill Battery Charging

[None of this applies to the Bosch drills and their battery packs.] -

Instructions for charging in 2018

-

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. +

Instructions for charging

+

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: +

    +
  1. Blue taped, which are original Makita
    2. +
  2. Green taped, which are modified by us
    3. +
+

+ +

Batteries need to be charged on compatible chargers.

+ +

We have 3 types of charger: +

    +
  1. Standard Makita, both 12V at top camp and 240V at base camp.
    2. +
  2. ´Triple' balance charger made of 3 makita chargers munged together.
    3. +
  3. Accucell6 (or older Pro-Power Prodigy) 'RC' chargers plus adaptor to connect to batteries
    4. +
+

+ +

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.

+ + +

Using Balance charger

+ +

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.

+ +
    +
  1. Make sure charger is powered (flashing green LEDs).
    2. + +
  2. Plug batt into charger. After a few seconds it should start charging.
    3. + +
  3. Look at the LEDs for status - the legend is printed on the RH end charger. Steady red for bulk charging to 80%. Steady orange for last 20% charging. Steady green for finished. If it flashes red and beeps (repeated 5 times) something is wrong - see table. If you get an 'undervoltage' reading, use an RC charger instead to get the charging started.
    4. + +
  4. Eventually it should show '100%' (steady green LEDs). (1hr 50 max possible charge time). You are done.
    5. +
+ + + +

Accucell 6 RC charger

+ +

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.

+ +
    +
  1. Make sure charger is powered (display lit up)
    2. + +
  2. Connect charger to battery (either hardboard adaptor or empty +Makita green/turquoise base adaptor). Check polarity is correct with hardboard +adaptor.
    3. + + +
  3. Check display says 'Lion' or 'Lipo' and '14.4V' and '3A' and 'CHARGE'. Hold +down "Enter, Start Stop" button +(the one at the right-hand end, the 4th one from the left) . It will do a battery check. +

    +LiIo CHARGE
    +C=3300mAh 14.4Vp +

    4. + +
  4. If it shows '4' as the number of cells, then press +"start/enter" again. Charging will start (fan comes on, display +changes). If it shows anything else like 'polarity reversed' or +'connection break' then fix the connection to the battery. If +it shows '3' as number of cells it may be knackered, but more +likely is just overdischarged, and thus can be coaxed back into +action. Let it charge is if 3-cells for a minute or so, then +restart. It should now register 4 cells.
    5. + +
  5. Once it beeps and says 'FULL' (flashing) then you are done (should +be less than 2 hours). Display shows number of mAh put in in +bottom right. Should be a number like 250 for each hole drilled + (between 50 and 2900 depending how discharged it was).
    6. + +
+ +

Background knowledge about drills and batteries

+

This information will not go out of date. +

Drills - read this!

+

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 charging protocol issues

+
+ +
+An unmodified Makita mains charger +
+
+

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. +
+ +
+A close-up of the control panel of an unmodified Makita mains charger +
+
+ +

Types of charger

+

We have these types of charger; the non-mains chargers are all at top camp and can run all night using the car batteries: +

+ +

Makita 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'.

+ +

Makita batteries: blue and green taped

+ +

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. +

+All batteries will +charge on the RC chargers, but not as fast as on the as-bought (mains power only) Makita +charger. Go to RC charger. + +

Can I tell if a battery is already charged?

+ +

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).

+ + +

What sort of batteries are they

+ +

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.

+ +

Using Makita mains charger

+ +

This is the green/turquoise charger with 3 LEDs, and diagrammatic charging info on RH side. Charges at up to 100W.

+ +
    +
  1. Make sure charger is powered (flashing green LED).
    2. + +
  2. Slide battery into Makita charger. It should start charging.
    3. + +
  3. Look at the LEDs for status - the legend is printed on the charger. + If it flashes 'broken battery' (flashing red and gren LED) at you + after a few seconds, use the yellow (Pro-Peak Prodigy II) charger instead.
    4. + +
  4. Eventually it should show '100%' (steady green LED) (in about 1 + hour max). You are done.
    5. +
+ +

Everything below here may be out of date due to breakages

+ +Pro-peak Chargers (~2010-2019)

Short Instructions

First insert the battery.

@@ -92,206 +316,6 @@ CHG 0.04 00002
LI+3.26A 15.331V

-

Background knowledge about drills and batteries

-

This information will not go out of date. -

Drills - read this!

-

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 charging protocol issues

-
- -
-An unmodified Makita mains charger -
-
-

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. -
- -
-A close-up of the control panel of an unmodified Makita mains charger -
-
- -

Types of charger

-

We have these types of charger; the non-mains chargers are all at top camp and can run all night using the car batteries: -

- -

Makita 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'.

- -

Makita batteries: taped and un-taped

- -

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. -

-All batteries will -charge on the RC chargers, but not as fast as on the as-bought (mains power only) Makita -charger. Go to RC charger. - -

Can I tell if a battery is already charged?

- -

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).

- - -

What sort of batteries are they

- -

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.

- -

Using Makita mains charger

- -

This is the green/turquoise charger with 3 LEDs, and diagrammatic charging info on RH side. Charges at up to 100W.

- -
    -
  1. Make sure charger is powered (flashing green LED).
    2. - -
  2. Slide battery into Makita charger. It should start charging.
    3. - -
  3. Look at the LEDs for status - the legend is printed on the charger. - If it flashes 'broken battery' (flashing red and gren LED) at you - after a few seconds, use the yellow (Pro-Peak Prodigy II) charger instead.
    4. - -
  4. Eventually it should show '100%' (steady green LED) (in about 1 - hour max). You are done.
    5. -
- -

Everything below here may be out of date due to breakages

- - -

Using Balance charger

- -

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.

- -
    -
  1. Make sure charger is powered (flashing green LEDs).
    2. - -
  2. Plug batt into charger. After a few seconds it should start charging.
    3. - -
  3. Look at the LEDs for status - the legend is printed on the RH end charger. Steady red for bulk charging to 80%. Steady orange for last 20% charging. Steady green for finished. If it flashes red and beeps (repeated 5 times) something is wrong - see table. If you get an 'undervoltage' reading, use an RC charger instead to get the charging started.
    4. - -
  4. Eventually it should show '100%' (steady green LEDs). (1hr 50 max possible charge time). You are done.
    5. -
- - -

Accucell 6 RC charger

- -

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).

- -
    -
  1. Make sure charger is powered (display lit up)
    2. - -
  2. Connect charger to battery (either hardboard adaptor or empty -Makita green/turquoise base adaptor). Check polarity is correct with hardboard -adaptor.
    3. - - -
  3. Check display says 'Lion' or 'Lipo' and '14.4V' and '3A' and 'CHARGE'. Hold -down "Enter, Start Stop" button -(the one at the right-hand end, the 4th one from the left) . It will do a battery check. -

    -LiIo CHARGE
    -C=3300mAh 14.4Vp -

    4. - -
  4. If it shows '4' as the number of cells, then press "start/enter" -again. Charging will start (fan comes on, display changes). If it -shows anything else like 'polarity reversed' or 'connection break' -then fix the connection to the battery. If it shows '3' as number of -cells it is probably knackered, but possibly can be coaxed back into -action. Find a battery expert - don't just use the charger anyway.
    5. - -
  5. Once it beeps and says 'FULL' (flashing) then you are done (should -be less than 2 hours). Display shows number of mAh put in in -bottom right. Should be a number like 250 for each hole drilled - (between 50 and 2900 depending how discharged it was).
    6. - -