Richard Lane wrote in
:

Yes those are certainly other alternatives however going via the NiCad
battery and then recharging reduces the peak current demand of directly
running the drill from the house battery via a 12/19.2v dc-dc inverter.
In fact I am thinking of replacing the NiCad cells with NiMH cells when
the two packs lose their charge taking ability and so achieving
increased AH.
Dick



I took my dead B&D battery pack to Batteries Plus (www.batteriesplus.com)
and instructed the kid to replace the cheap ni-cd cells with the biggest
Ni-Mh cells he could fit in the case. Battery technology grows by leaps
and bounds. The case was full of C-size cells. The "newsed" pack now has
FOUR TIMES the A-H capacity of a B&D pack at 1/2 the cost. Of course, it
also takes the charger 4 times as long to charge them, but drill chargers
are always overcharging the hell out of them, unregulated, anyways. When
you pull the pack and plug it in the drill, you have a time stalling the
drill, now. The voltage on the giant Ni-Mh pack holds up much better than
the POS OEM cheap crap (any manufacturer is the same). I can use it for
days before it would go dead. The Ni-Mh cells DO NOT HAVE MEMORY so
recharging the drill when you're done with it from 60% charge, no longer
destroys the cheap Ni-Cd battery pack. The second pack is getting weaker
and will be, again, replaced with a "newsed" pack this way.....

Ni-Cd chargers charge Ni-Mh packs just fine.....albeit slower. I think the
new pack could crank the diesel in the truck...(c;

--
Larry