The power supply for my old cordless drill has died but the drill itself is ready to give me many more years of faithful service (I hope!)

The label on the old transformer says 538W 11.6v 220mA 2.55VA
I have another here that says 12v 1.6A

What I want to know is if there any point in wiring this to the battery station replacing the original or is it too underpowered to charge the battery?

I have no idea how a mA compares to an A or what the VA part is (the replacement makes no mention of this or Watts)

 

An mA is a thousandth of an A.

As for the rest, no idea.

 

So the new one might actually be over-powered?

Would that damage the battery or would it just charge quicker?

Anyone know?

 

Are you not better to check Ebay out for a replacement charger? Might only cost you a fiver?

 

in my experience with power tools, i use them every day.

only use the correct charger and battery. or youll end up replacing the whole lot.

and you'll find normally a replacement battery is about Ł20 less than buying the entire tool, battery and charger!

can you not just contact the company, quote part number and order a new charger unit!?

what make is it?

 

You might find as well, depending on the age, that its not the corrrect type of battery charger. Batteries used to be Ni-Cad, then Ni-mh, and now Li-po/Li-ion. And using the wrong charger on the wrong battery can result in fire and explosions.

 

Cool!


Just been on ebay and got a new charger for Ł17 or thereabouts.

 

Afaik, Watts and VA are figures of power that the device can produce.
You can obtain these figures from the other supply simply enough (volts x amps = VA) and they actually work out a lot higher.
However, these figures only show what the unit is capable of producing - NOT what it will put out continuously.
Hence, if you connect a drill that only needs 2.55VA to a charger thats capable of supplying much more the drill will simply take what it needs.

By this logic I should imagine it'll be fine.
I'm not sure on the affect of using a 12v supply as opposed to an 11.6v supply but I should imagine such a small difference wouldnt hurt.

Dont take my word for this though.

 

my mate did that with a model aeroplane, charged it in his vw polo from the cig lighter.

battery went bang and was like a fire ball. firebrigade were caled, car was a burnt out write off

 

Don't mess with the wrong charger, the batteries, especially LITIUM variants often explode, even when using the correct charger, if they are charged when HOT that can enough.
One will easily blow your hand off, even a little AA NIMH.
tabetha

 

Just to clarify, Lithium batteries wont explode, they are the ones that go up in flames. Its Nimh and Nicad that explode. Although I remember the days when we charged our AAs straight of a 12v battery with 2 lengths of wire

 

they look pretty when u therw them in a fire as well along with the empty lynx cans

 

Just going by the bumph I got with mine.
tabetha

 

i've got the same problem but it's the battery that won't hold it's charge

but for the price of a battery and shit it was just as cheap to buy another cordless, this time i went from a 12V and an 18V to a 24V, and the difference is fairly substantial

on that note, both my 12V and my 18V shared the same battery size and fitment, but they came with 2 different chargers
if i put the 12V into the 18V drill it was much slower and felt less powerfull, but by putting the 18V battery into the 12V drill, it seemed to feel as if the battery was way to powerfull for the drill, it was much faster to spin p, had much more torque to drive the screws in, but felt the same as putting a V8 into mini, just a bit wrong