John Kaufman said: > > I bought a cheap drill from Harbor Freight that wouldn't hold a charge > worth a damn. I took the battery pack apart and it a a bundle of the > slightly smaller size "C" cells. A couple of the cells were dead zero. I > bought a few of the NiCad small "C's" from Digi Key. They were less that > $3 each as I recall. 1 800 DIGI-KEY. Great source for low cost electronic > stuff.
A recent problem I had with a battery powered fan used to inflate an air mattress was that some cells were significantly weaker than another which caused 3 of 4 of the cells to drain to 0. Unfortunately, the weak, dumb trickle charger included with the blower was not enough to get the cells to hold a charge. I wired it up to my smart electric RC-car charger which supplies enough juice to force the cells to start taking a charge without overcharging. The fan works great, now. Make sure you recycle those dead NiCads. -Dave
