Charging a 12drill without inverter in motorhome

[76zedfour]

One for the techy minded. I have a really nice little 12v DeWalt drill model dcd701

 

 

 

Be nice to have it in the van but I don't have an inverter to charge it. Could the drill battery be charged direct from a 12v cigarette lighter socket? A cigarette lighter plug with the wiring from it literally held onto the terminals of the DeWalt battery or are the amps all wrong and does the battery need some sort of monitoring/ safety device inline?

 

Edit; it just occurred to me that although the DeWalt branding says it is 12v I think all these tools are in fact 10.8v and the same goes for all manufacturers. It's just a marketing ploy calling them 12v. I think I have answered my own question. I will need an inverter and use the supplied DeWalt 240v step down charger.

 

Trust DeWalt to think of everything! Screwfix stock a DeWalt in car multi voltage battery charger that does exactly what I need but at this price of £65 I might as well buy an inverter!

https://www.screwfix.com/p/dewalt-dcb119-xj-10-8-18v-xr-in-car-multi-voltage-battery-charger/7844j

 

[spirou]

A decent inverter will cost quite a bit more. If that's the only reason you need one I'd go for the charger.

[simian]

 

I realise you wish to utilise the deWalt drill you already have as intended ie rechargeable.

 

But you could as plan B consider doing what I do.

I have a Bosch 14V rechargeable which is uneconomical to purchase a new battery for.

Rather than chucking it out I've wired it up to a standard 12v cigarette lighter plug.

Had it for years lightweight because sans battery. and with solar panels never runs out of power.

Well not on a sunny day ! And with 300A of leisure battery power it would go for a day or 2 or 3 !

I'm slightly careful not to overload it because it will occasionally blow a 15A fuse.

A 12V or 10.8V drill would be slightly more appropriate of course.

 

[Derek Uzzell]

Simian’s approach is discussed online, including a few YouTube videos.

 

https://tinyurl.com/rcc8y5jr

 

How easy it would be to ‘adapt’ a De Walt drill (without mutilating it!) would need to be investigated.

 

 

[simian]

Of course adaption does usually involve a varying degree of DIY skill.

Mine just involved a couple of terminal push on connectors, some might require dismantling and soldering. Which I did carry out on a cheap Hilka for someone else, moreover that runs OK at 15.5V.

The Bosch drill I use, I 'converted' some +20 years ago .I use it regularly so a testament to the quality Bosch of that era, not so sure of todays. On other forums under various user names I've posted up the simple idea several times over the years.

Just yesterday I circular saw cut a 75mm dia hole through 18mm marine ply Mercedes van flooring (my van is in a remote location) takes a fair bit of torque power didn't blow a 16A fuse at 14.4V

[veletron]

It might slow charge directly off the leisure battery, but this would ONLY work with the engine running which would raise the voltage to ~14.4V (once main battery is no longer providing a load. To charge while stationary, you could buy a universal laptop adapter that supports 15V (see what it says re output voltage on original charger). Also beware that many chargers are 3-pin eg they have a sense wire that measures the voltage at the battery end. This cannot be done reliably from the +ve/-ve due to voltage drops. Still more chargers also have an ID resistor between the sense and ground to ID the type of battery being charged.

 

Whatever you do, I suggest supervision as charging Lion with a non standard jury-rigged setup could lead to heat!

 

On the laptop adapter front, I have an 18V 'dust buster' cleaner in the van, I removed the battery, fitted a 20V laptop power brick in its place and then run directly off the leisure battery. Works well.

 

Karen