Moze Posted July 18, 2012 Report Share Posted July 18, 2012 I have a 36v Black & Decker trimmer. Would it be possible to make some sort of adapter so that my 20v Max DeWalt batteries would work with it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PutnamEco Posted July 19, 2012 Report Share Posted July 19, 2012 It certainly would be possible to make an adapter, the question is are you willing to put the time, energy, and money into creating one? I would assume you will need a sacrificial 36v battery and you would need to source a couple of 20v Max battery mounts or be willing to manufacturer your own. You may end up messing up the on board circuitry of the batteries so there is always the possibility that it could turn into an expensive period of trial and error, or you could reverse engineer the circuitry to insure that no harm would come to them. Might have to do some electrical engineering to overcome the batteries on board circuitry, they might not like being run in series.To bad your not a Makita fan, The offer an adapter off the shelf. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conductor562 Posted July 19, 2012 Report Share Posted July 19, 2012 At one time Dewalt and B&D batteries were interchangeable. This was several years ago though and is no longer true. The B&D batteries were half the price so many people bought them as replacements instead of Dewalt. I can't say for certain that this was true of all voltages, but my 9.6V Dewalt and my father in-laws 9.6V B&D would fit one another's drills. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moze Posted July 19, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 19, 2012 It certainly would be possible to make an adapter, the question is are you willing to put the time...into creating one?...noIt certainly would be possible to make an adapter, the question is are you willing to put the energy...into creating one?...noIt certainly would be possible to make an adapter, the question is are you willing to put the money into someone else creating one?....yes. lolI would assume you will need a sacrificial 36v battery and you would need to source a couple of 20v Max battery mounts or be willing to manufacturer your own. You may end up messing up the on board circuitry of the batteries so there is always the possibility that it could turn into an expensive period of trial and error, or you could reverse engineer the circuitry to insure that no harm would come to them. Might have to do some electrical engineering to overcome the batteries on board circuitry, they might not like being run in series.To bad your not a Makita fan, The offer an adapter off the shelf.I hate wiring - I don't have the patience (or knowledge) for it. I was just thinking of creating a harness of sorts that would allow the battery to be used with the trimmer.With my old 18v batteries and trimmer, I just took two lengths of 6" wire and put female terminals on one end and male terminals on the other end. The female terminals plugged directly onto the stems of the DeWalt batteries and the male terminals plugged directly into the 'tension-terminals' on the trimmer. A large hose clamp secured the DeWalt battery to the trimmer and I was good to go. The new batteries/weedeater aren't so simple. I don't know what the multiple terminals are for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PutnamEco Posted July 20, 2012 Report Share Posted July 20, 2012 The new batteries/weedeater aren't so simple. I don't know what the multiple terminals are for.Lith-Ion batteries are a lot more sensitive towards improper charging, a bad charge could easily result in fire. If a Ni-Cad is overcharged it can dissipate a fair amount of overcharge through heat. The additional terminals are for monitoring/controlling the charge cycle of the Lith-Ion cells. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moze Posted July 20, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 20, 2012 Gotchya. So just running wires straight from the negative and positive terminals shouldn't affect anything negatively, correct? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wayneburgess Posted July 20, 2012 Report Share Posted July 20, 2012 Here comes Wayney with the boring science bit.LOLAll battery packs are designed for the specific use a manufacturer has for them.Altering the use will also alter the discharge rate, the amp loading across the cells above and beyond a certain number of amps will guarantee to discharge those cells unevenly this will do unrepairable damage to them no matter what the chemical make up of the cells.Manufacturers spend millions and years of research to ensure batteries not only charge evenly but also discharge evenly.Any attempt to simply run a few wires and group them to power larger tools will sooner or later end in expensive failure of the cells.Makita makes a system where two 18v batteries can be used to power a larger tool but this system has circuitry that prevents the battery packs from suffering this kind of failure.I hope this is of use and I urge a large portion of caution. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PutnamEco Posted July 20, 2012 Report Share Posted July 20, 2012 Gotchya. So just running wires straight from the negative and positive terminals shouldn't affect anything negatively, correct?Without seeing a schematic on them I could not guarantee that it would work. I have no clue how Dewalt has engineered their batteries. Chances are though that you may be able to do just as you suggested. You may kill the 20v max pack or some of the cells in it if they lack an on board low voltage cutout or you may run into an overload protection circuit. I would not attempt it unless you were willing to chance loosing any or all of what your experimenting with or were willing research the cells and then monitor them closely with a voltage meter through a discharge cycle or two. The remote control crowd would be a good place to research info on the cells and be able to tell you how low a voltage you can safely take them to, some of them are into buying power tool batteries and dissecting them for their cells.Then again if you just wanted to throw money at it.http://www.batterygi...m_pack_builder/ may be a place you could try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conductor562 Posted July 21, 2012 Report Share Posted July 21, 2012 I love projects like this. You gotta be willing to throw a little coin at it though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moze Posted July 28, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 28, 2012 Well, the outermost terminals are marked negative and positive on the DeWalt batteries as well as the Black & Decker batteries, although they're on opposite sides relatively speaking. Anyway, I just ran a wire from + to + and - to - and it works fine. Only thing is, the trimmer operates at a noticeably lower speed. To be expected I guess since the B&D is 36v and the DeWalt is 18v.Anyway, it works well enough to finish the lawn lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conductor562 Posted July 28, 2012 Report Share Posted July 28, 2012 Well, if that was the goal than congrats, lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wayneburgess Posted July 28, 2012 Report Share Posted July 28, 2012 LOL Result Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PutnamEco Posted July 29, 2012 Report Share Posted July 29, 2012 Well, the outermost terminals are marked negative and positive on the DeWalt batteries as well as the Black & Decker batteries, although they're on opposite sides relatively speaking. Anyway, I just ran a wire from + to + and - to - and it works fine. Only thing is, the trimmer operates at a noticeably lower speed. To be expected I guess since the B&D is 36v and the DeWalt is 18v.Anyway, it works well enough to finish the lawn lolYou wired them in parallel, that is 18v. run the wire from one batteries + terminal to the others - terminal and the other terminals to their respective terminals on the tool and you will be supplying 36v which should bring the speed back up where it should be.Explained @ Z battery.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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