Well Andy, that was an interesting video on spent battery packs that everybody has at least 5 of. Oh, thanks for the mix of cool fun geek guy stuff and the pretty ladies. The new shirt for tool girl was rather stunning.....
When I did a similar fix for a ryobi pack I used a lab bench power supply. I believe I set a current limit of 250 mA to be safe and 4.2 V max. I left it on for a few minutes monitoring the temp of the battery during the charge. With that said, I had a 5 cell pack not a 10 cell.
New to your channel. If I may offer you a tip for your soldering iron. Take a paper towel wet it and put it in a little cup (to keep from making a mess)then heat your iron up put some solder on then wipe it on your wet paper towel to clean your tip.
Andy it was a long one but I stuck it out. Now that was a tedious task. Good job mate get yourself a cold one after that. Hana would of been good at that one Andy . Cheers 👍❤️
Lithium cells shouldnt drop below 3v, otherwise they risk loss of total capacity... Not 3.7v 3.7v is its nominal voltage. Lithium Fully discarged 3v, fully charged is 4.20, storage charge is 3.79, because thats its nominal voltage.. Also, that "little dangly bit that goes down into the plastic". is a thermistor.... Resistor that changes resistance by temperature.. In short, Its temperature sensor for the board.. To stop batteries getting too hot...
I would have thrown that piece of crap against the cement floor a long time ago. Then the same with the charger, put the tools individually in the vise and crushed them, box it all up and send to Makita. Montana Rick.
I was told if unhook the power to the circuit board for one minute it will reset and work again... I have not tried it yet to see if this is true... if you have not rebuilt the other batteries would you please try this and see if it works...
No. At the time I wasn't aware that was an option unfortunately. However, you have to ask the question why those cells had discharged so much compared to the others? I do still have the old cells that were removed so I'll charge them up and see if they retain their charge or discharge over time. Cheers Andy
Andy Mechanic - cheers, I didnt realise you could charge them up individually either and i can offer no idea as to why a cell would discharge - it was just when you found that the replacement cells had lost strength since being replaced and that you had then found out the charger didnt want to know if there was a disparity between the cells , I thought , Mmmmmmm.........
if you look on the makita boards you may find a surface mount gate mosfet. if you do the board mite be saved by reopen the gate in the mosfet with a small voltage
I think Makita may have mis-labled that charger I have 4 different Makita Chargers. 2 that are 6-10 yrs old and Blue/Green like yours and one that is maybe 1 yr old, a new Black one and a dual bay newer Black one. Mine all say 9 amps per channel. OK, Here is the short version of what you need to know. ALL these power tool packs are made up of 18650 cells that are 3.7 volts each. Any 18 volt lithium battery has 5 cells. Its is ALWAYS better to NOT fast Charge a Lithium Ion Cell! Heat and High amperage charging (Which Produces Heat ) Shortens ANY Lithium Ion's battery Life Expectancy! A LOT! So Now you Know! Also completely draining a cell or pack dead kills life expectancy/cell capacity. The BLACK Charger is the One to keep! (if its really is only 2.6 amps!) The green one is the charger that will help you destroy your batteries quicker ! Just remember its better to Buy an extra Battery and "Always Be charging" While your working with the other pack ! Rather than throwing a battery on and trying to "Fast Charge" This way your batteries last many many years! I have Makita 18 volt LXT batteries that lasted almost 10 years of Hard Use! I have had others not last 1 year! (its all about the quality of cells and how it is charging!) Makita's packs are really good in both cases.They used to be even better in charging with balanced charging. They use really good cells and they developed their charging system with enginerds from Sony!
I replaced a cell in my battery and it has over 20 volts again but the charger still wont charge it why does the chip still think their is a problem? I guess replacing the bad cell doesn't make a difference their is no way to reset the chip even after it lost power it retained its data.
Once the logic in the chip has been triggered it can't be reversed as far as I am aware - that's why the logic board also needs to be replaced - it's a safety lock out. Cheers Andy
Don't you love making videos with somebody mowing in the neighbourhood :(, I presume that noise in the background is mowing. Very interesting work you are doing there, never really given a lot a thought to how to re-life them just winged a lot about the cost of replacement ones. Thanks Andy.
Very useful but very long, i watched all the way to the end, you need to do a little bit of editing, specifically when you try to install new circuit board. I hope you are OK with my little input and good luck to you Sir. Best wishes from Norway.
Erm....no, please don't do that! It's an 18v DC battery & what comes out of your wall socket it either 120v or 240v AC so you are likely to get electrocuted and probably the battery pack will explode. So don't do it! Stay safe. Andy
The Newer Makita Chargers/Batteries don't balance themselves between each cell . Most of the older ones did. This keeps batteries from going bad. The newer stuff for many years now doesn't balance it just lets a weak cell pass for 2-3-4- charges then it wont let it charge anymore. Then you are forced to buy a new battery, unless you can balance the pack, or replace the weak cell. Which is the right way to do this. You lose so much of your capacity with a weak cell it keeps the battery from being able to be run down or charged all the way up. Best thing to do is hack the battery and put a 5 pin balance plug on it and balance your batteries yourself or pay lots of money and buy new batteries often. Milwaukee, Makita, Dewalt, Ryobi, and Bosch like you to do the later. Buy more batteries because they make a ton of money on the dirty Chinese lithium packs ! Ha Ha I would rather spend a few minutes to learn. I will fix mine and balance charge them like RC guys have done for decades.
Great info, Thank You for contributing. Personally I had only 1 of the 3 batteries come back to life with any reasonable capacity. I'd consider having another crack at it when either of the 2 new battery packs I purchased develop an issue & your advice is invaluable Thanks again Andy
Don't use the black charger, it's for ni-mh batteries not the new li-ion. The fast charger will slow it's speed down before they get too hot to avoid damage. Read the manual. The series is interesting I can see all your mistakes before you figure them out so I've been skipping bits. I've still learnt a bit about how the makita batteries work. I haven't finished this video but I hope you have success. There would be a way to reset the makita boards but probably easier to get replacements. In the end the rest of the cells would be at the end of their lives I'm surprised they lasted 3 to 5 years. It also looks like you can get a new battery for cheaper than the cost of all the cells so I don't feel as ripped off anymore. still it'll be interesting to see how long they last if you get them working. I'm going to continue watching this video now to see if you work out how to balance charge them and get it running. :)
Wrong, Commander ZIN! The DC18SD charger IS suitable for 18V Li-ion battery packs. Take a close look at the bottom of the black charger at 6:57 in the video. It is clearly written "NiMH & Li-ion 7.2 - 18V"
Has anybody seen an actual uncased lithium cell explode? Ive only seen an explosion once when a battery case melted and sealed the vent holes and the guy had a teapot steaming on the table when the plastic case finally burst..water...lithium...oxygen..and meddling with things we dont understand can be a whammer! Carefull kids .put the dog outside when you get to gettin wreckless..tyvek suits are cheap..safety glasses keep you able to see the results of your maddness.. a face shield (grinder type) will keep you pretty when your batteries outgass in your face while you are checking the temp and state of your experiment.. and all this gear is super cheap, keeps ya safe and makes you look cool and important like you actually know what you are doing.. fun fun furry furry funfun!!
Great advice & yes, wear the safety gear. These battery packs can be dangerous and I have also found the sucess rate in bringing them back to life is pretty low & even when you do it seems the capacity is greatly reduced. In my opinion it's just not really worth the risk or hassle - just buy new power packs & look after them. Cheers Andy
Hi had this problem too (and I suspect this video never showed it charging properly cause it doesn't in this configuration. These clone bms boards need 3 - 4.2 volts they way he has it shown here it is more than that, I had the same issue but once I changed the thin red wire over to the positive of the first cell 3. - 4.2 volts, then it all worked. hope it helps
Well` thumbs up with persistence, I watched all when you started this quest, In the future , I would suggest buying some nickle strip and a proper battery spot solder they are not dear and some thermal heat tape for the edge of the batteries be for replacing back into its casing, using that solder iron can destroy the battery, As for protection I would recommend a goggles and vizier and gloves. goggles won`t protect the rest of your face and neck. from burning. when them batteries go` the flame is like a jet. it admits such a fears uncontrollable burst of extremely hot heat and at length and if one goes it possibly will set the others off,you won`t know what hit ya.please think more safety be for its to late and regret what you never done. The trouble with them batteries you may trigger a thermal run out with out spotting it first. You also have to consider persons who watch these video`s will follow your league and may not be so lucky with not triggering a thermal run out. The other thing you have to consider if the battery shows the 3.7 v 4.20 charge there Mah may only last 10 minutes be for it drains, The other batteries try to share power so where you have a low battery it will absorb power from other, to equalize , So even charging a battery up to 3.7 or over and replaced back into the pack, then charge up, then use for a bit, then recharge and it flashes broken pack. So be for replacing a battery its good practice to charge that sell then discharge slowly to see give you a indication of its Mah, be for you solder it in and trigger the circuit board to stop charging I know that time has to be considered and you were just, giving it a go to whether you could bring back the pack to working condition again and you did that, And you have possibly learnt a few things on the way now, But I can not tell you enough about safety especially when using that screw driver to peal around the edge of the battery, I was cringing if that battery outer cover had a bit of damage and the screw driver made contact to the center and top outer side that would of caused thermal run out, The best way to remover the nickle is snip all batteries , then get a pair of nose pliers and roll the pliers to pull the nickle strip off, just like a tin of spam with its key, The key would be the pliers. Any ways , glad to see you got there in the end,
Very interesting and informative video thank you Andy. I’m looking for information on how to repair two snap on vantage pro batteries EETM303A01 if anyone can help I would be grateful. I live in the U.K. and snap on wants £155.00 for new one and I can’t find anyone in the U.K.who rebuilds them. Kind regards Chris.
