Current Club Drills (Bosch)
Location Currently the four old Bosch drills and two batteries are at my house (Frank) in Bristol, Generally so as they can be tested and generally fettled.
Drills The newest two drills have been tested with teh Alubox batteries and appear ok (44 & 52 holes) For teh first 2 mins one of the drills that took too much current but this settled dowm and then worked ok I'm asuming this was the grease in the hammer bit sorting itself out. Interestingly if the drill is run backwards it takes loads of current and flattens the battery really quick. (Dosent drill quick either as drill sparol forces teh dust back into the hole.)
Testing to continue... --Frank 12:21, 27 May 2008 (BST)
Batteries Last year I made three new batteries for the drills using NiCad’s. Only two survive now... These are OK, mainly because they have not been used a lot. I also have a fair number of NiCad ‘D’ 4Ah cells they were free, I was going to fettle two packs of these to see how they last. (They’re not designed for power applications so I suspect will not live long)
The batteries I have will be fettled with the drills.
We probably do not need additional battery packs for the old Bosch drills, especially as we have two new reliable Makita drills.
Battery chargers base camp We have two mains chargers for base camp . One is an old Bosch charger, the other is a trickel charger.
Battery chargers top camp Last year after the demise of first battery I used my lamp trickel charger to regulate the battery charging current, This works but uses two solar panels in series to get the 24V. It is therefore not much use in the dark. (It means I can charge my lamp batteries overnight then)
- A Bosch battery charger is being dicussed between Edvin, Wookey and Frank, we're awainting results from sponsorship requests --Frank 12:21, 27 May 2008 (BST)
New Drills
Makita are very kindly giving us 2 new BHR180 rotary hammer drills - these arrived on 15th May. These use 18V battery packs:
Modifications
- Do we want to mod them so battery packs aren't attached to the drill but can stay in a tacklesack?
- As the drills use lightweight Li-Ion packs, there may be little advantage in shifting the battery packs from the drill to a tacklesack. Apparently the drill+battery weighs 3kg, compared with around 4kg for a Bosch GBH24VRE. Duncan.collis 14:06, 9 May 2008 (BST)
- Looking at a picture of these drills, it appears that most of the weight of the machine is out in front, with the battery pack directly below the handle. The battery in this position may provide some balance to the drill, preventing it from being too front-heavy. Duncan.collis 14:06, 9 May 2008 (BST)
Tackle sacs for the new drills
- We need to make some padded tacklesacks for transporting them underground.
- The main purpose of padding is to protect the dry bag the drill is in. First choose good tacklesacks that don't have holes in them! Use some old karrimat, foam floor tiles or knackered wetsuit to make the packing. Pad both inside and outside the drybag. Duncan.collis 14:06, 9 May 2008 (BST)
Charging of the new drills
- Do the two new drills come with two mains chargers?
- Yes - each drill came with a mains charger Edvin
The new Drill batteries cannot be charged with the Bosch drill chargers. LiIon cells can be harder to charge than NiMH, they are 'much' less tollerant of overcharging. --Frank 20:22, 12 May 2008 (BST)
- Someone needs to contact Makita to see if they make a car charger for their 18V LiIon cells. They do make a car charger for NiMH/NiCad (DC1822) This will not work.
- Probably best if the same contact is used as with the sponsorship. It would definatly be worth 'buying' a car charger. --Frank 20:22, 12 May 2008 (BST)
- I have been informed Makita do not make a car (12V) charger for this battery yet.
- The next best option is to use a mains charger with the inverter at top camp. See section on Bivi fettling for dicussion on use of the inverter at top camp.
- Investigations are on going by Edvin, Wookey and Frank, into getting a rc car/plane battery Lion charger to charge at top camp. Currently we are awainting replys from sponsorship requests. --Frank 12:35, 27 May 2008 (BST)
- Charging: am I right in thinking solar panels at top camp can only charge 12V or 24V? We can either try to make a transforer, bring a mains adaptor up, or take battery packs down to basecamp for charging. Thoughts?
- If you're using the manufacturer's Li-Ion packs, it goes without saying that you shouldn't try charging them on a home-made charger unless it was designed for the purpose by someone who knew what they were doing. Duncan.collis 14:06, 9 May 2008 (BST)
Aditional batteries
- Spare batteries will be very useful, how many batteries are supplied with teh drills?
- Can we make spare battery packs using some cells from gp batteries?
- It is probably not a good idea to modify the existing drills/batteries this year, we want to run them as is for as long as possible. --Frank 20:22, 12 May 2008 (BST)
- The batteries should be as far as possible be of the same technology as the drill batteries. Because in the future confusion will cause the chargers to be mixed up and problems will occur. --Frank 20:22, 12 May 2008 (BST)
- Each drill came with two 3.0Ah battery packs so we probably don't need any more?Edvin
- Looking at Wikipedia LiFe and LiPol batteries are primerially affected by age and less so by the number of discharges than other battery technologies, so buy new batteries when the cells start gettting old n tired. --Frank 12:35, 27 May 2008 (BST)
Drill Bits Do we need some new drill bits?