How to wire your own battery to a cordless tool (edited)

[AstonHill]

I own a Aldi's type Ferrex cordless angle grinder (faw 40Q) 40volt that I bough from Aldi that has no battery!
Im considering taking it back or just wiring my own stuff to the tool
Trouble is the tool has 5 pins on it with no simbols unter any of the pins or enything! what ever happened to positive and negative

 

[robinbanks]

Aldi's tool range is specifically designed such that batteries and chargers are sold separately so you can purchase as many of each as you required

It's a good idea, the tool+battery+charger costs less than the more typical model where you buy a body, battery and charger in one case, and you don't end up with multiples of things you don't want. If you want 5 tools, 10 batteries and 2 chargers, Aldi make that easy

In fairness to them also, they make it blindingly obvious on the outside of the box that it contains no battery:

If you bought it recently, there may still be a big pile of batteries and chargers in an adjacent basket to where you found the tool

Given that they market batteries as 20v/40v I expect that one of the pins will be 20v positive, another will be 40v positive and one will be negative, with some internal trickery used to have two banks of 20v either wired in series or parallel with a mechanical change over or diode strategy.

It's not marked on the tool because it doesn't need to be; you're supposed to buy the fitting battery, not jury rig your own.

That said, it may be marked on the battery or charger, so if you're dead set against buying one you may be able to visit Aldi, take one out of a box, use it to work out which pin is which and jack 3 car batteries together (or whatever you were planning) for a chance at success.

The other pins are for the tool to communicate with the battery and it may or may not work without them connected, but there is no harm in giving it a go (I have some Aldi gear that I run off adapters that fit my Bosch batteries, and the adapters have only 2 wires)..

..but I'd just pick up a battery and charger off eBay if Aldi is out of stock, and move on with setting the job started

 

[ericmark]

Lidi is the same, so are many manufacturers today, I know Lidi do 12 volt and 20 volt, but old Lidi was 18 volt, so when my old Lidi drill battery dies, my drill is useless as can't get a battery unless one can send away for one. It is a problem in some ways, as the first item is so expensive, and once you buy the first, you are in essence locked into their system, so I have a 40 volt Lidi multi garden tool, that takes 2 x 20 volt batteries and I have 4 of them and a twin battery charger, which will charge batteries in about the same time as it takes to discharge them, so could garden all day if I could keep going.

But when I want a new battery drill, angle grinder, or other tool, I need to wait for Lidi to have them on offer, as then only need to buy the tool, not also the charger and battery, and because I have a duel charger and 4 batteries I am unlikely to need to wait for the battery to charge. I would not have got such a rapid charger if buying it with each tool, nor would each battery be likely to have a charge condition button on it.

It rather defeats the whole idea if you have a lead connecting to a battery, OK with my first battery hedge cutter there was a belt to hold the battery, but that was back in the days of lead acid batteries.

Either use the whole system, or don't use whole system, no point trying to mix and match.

 

[SUNRAY]

Lidi is the same, so are many manufacturers today, I know Lidi do 12 volt and 20 volt, but old Lidi was 18 volt, so when my old Lidi drill battery dies, my drill is useless as can't get a battery unless one can send away for one. It is a problem in some ways, as the first item is so expensive, and once you buy the first, you are in essence locked into their system, so I have a 40 volt Lidi multi garden tool, that takes 2 x 20 volt batteries and I have 4 of them and a twin battery charger, which will charge batteries in about the same time as it takes to discharge them, so could garden all day if I could keep going.

But when I want a new battery drill, angle grinder, or other tool, I need to wait for Lidi to have them on offer, as then only need to buy the tool, not also the charger and battery, and because I have a duel charger and 4 batteries I am unlikely to need to wait for the battery to charge. I would not have got such a rapid charger if buying it with each tool, nor would each battery be likely to have a charge condition button on it.

It rather defeats the whole idea if you have a lead connecting to a battery, OK with my first battery hedge cutter there was a belt to hold the battery, but that was back in the days of lead acid batteries.

Either use the whole system, or don't use whole system, no point trying to mix and match.

Well...

I have a selection of old drills with unobtainium batteries. When using as screwdriver (which for me was basically an all day thing) for which electric drills (which I drilled the holes with) are not ideally suited. I simply soldered a bit of twin flex to the otherwise useless cordless drills and a couple of ¼" spades on t'other end to run on a 7Ah jelcell. This was primarily for bench work so not a problem.

The early cordless drills (primarily Makita) had the battery slide up inside the handle and the packs ran for about half hour for plasterboard fixers and the packs didn't last long if recharged warm. Similar adaption was often made to a dead pack to run on a belt mounted battery (I did a number for people) and I believe Makita brought out their own version.

 

[AstonHill]

Aldi's tool range is specifically designed such that batteries and chargers are sold separately so you can purchase as many of each as you required

It's a good idea, the tool+battery+charger costs less than the more typical model where you buy a body, battery and charger in one case, and you don't end up with multiples of things you don't want. If you want 5 tools, 10 batteries and 2 chargers, Aldi make that easy

In fairness to them also, they make it blindingly obvious on the outside of the box that it contains no battery:



If you bought it recently, there may still be a big pile of batteries and chargers in an adjacent basket to where you found the tool

Given that they market batteries as 20v/40v I expect that one of the pins will be 20v positive, another will be 40v positive and one will be negative, with some internal trickery used to have two banks of 20v either wired in series or parallel with a mechanical change over or diode strategy.

It's not marked on the tool because it doesn't need to be; you're supposed to buy the fitting battery, not jury rig your own.

That said, it may be marked on the battery or charger, so if you're dead set against buying one you may be able to visit Aldi, take one out of a box, use it to work out which pin is which and jack 3 car batteries together (or whatever you were planning) for a chance at success.

The other pins are for the tool to communicate with the battery and it may or may not work without them connected, but there is no harm in giving it a go (I have some Aldi gear that I run off adapters that fit my Bosch batteries, and the adapters have only 2 wires)..

..but I'd just pick up a battery and charger off eBay if Aldi is out of stock, and move on with setting the job started

Sorry forgot to say. I started another thread on this in the tool section; and it was concluded that I can not buy a battery for this tool. As the tool was on offer, I am of the opinion as to wire it direct to several batteries

 

[AstonHill]

It rather defeats the whole idea if you have a lead connecting to a battery, OK with my first battery hedge cutter there was a belt to hold the battery, but that was back in the days of lead acid batteries.

The problem we have hear though is there are 5 terminals to and from the battery to the tool with no symbols as what they are

 

[AstonHill]

Well...

I have a selection of old drills with unobtainium batteries. When using as screwdriver (which for me was basically an all day thing) for which electric drills (which I drilled the holes with) are not ideally suited. I simply soldered a bit of twin flex to the otherwise useless cordless drills and a couple of ¼" spades on t'other end to run on a 7Ah jelcell. This was primarily for bench work so not a problem.

As i stated before; there a 5 terminals and I think a small f-male terminal crimed onto a wire would easy fit them. but again I dont know what is what hear

Why 5 terminals?
Negative+possitive=2 right?

 

[jj4091]

Ring the number on the warranty page or the label on the tool itself. Ferrex have subcontracted their repair/ spares to a company in Yorkshire who have been very helpful when I have wanted parts for my Alddi tools. They will supply a battery & charger if your local store is out of stock.

 

[JohnD]

 

[AstonHill]

Ring the number on the warranty page or the label on the tool itself. Ferrex have subcontracted their repair/ spares to a company in Yorkshire who have been very helpful when I have wanted parts for my Alddi tools. They will supply a battery & charger if your local store is out of stock.

Cheers! I'll give it a try anyway

 

[robinbanks]

no point trying to mix and match.

There is a growing industry it seems in productive adapters to interface brand A tool body with brand B batteries. I have a few and they work well, though I keep the original charger.

As tool makers gear up to defeat this by having circuitry in the body that communicates with the battery the adaptor producers will have to start providing adapters for that too.. But there's clearly a will ..

 

[robinbanks]

and it was concluded that I can not buy a battery for this tool.

I don't recall that being my conclusion, I just recall you moaning that the battery I linked you to on eBay was 20 quid more than Aldi were allegedly selling it for.

Internally I gave up on trying to shift your perspective that messing around for any longer than an hour, either on jury-rigging a battery out of something else, or going to a remote Aldi would make it more cost effective to just pay the extra 20 quid

It's 20 quid

 

[ericmark]

There is a growing industry it seems in productive adapters to interface brand A tool body with brand B batteries. I have a few and they work well, though I keep the original charger.

As tool makers gear up to defeat this by having circuitry in the body that communicates with the battery the adaptor producers will have to start providing adapters for that too.. But there's clearly a will ..

Camera batteries have this now, if you upload the updates, the camera will not work with third party batteries, well known problem with Nikon.

 

[AstonHill]

Cheers! I'll give it a try anyway

it would appear that the number they have listed in there warrenty card is faules.
00800 34 99 67 53
Go and try it your self

 

[AstonHill]

I don't recall that being my conclusion, I just recall you moaning that the battery I linked you to on eBay was 20 quid more than Aldi were allegedly selling it for.

Internally I gave up on trying to shift your perspective that messing around for any longer than an hour, either on jury-rigging a battery out of something else, or going to a remote Aldi would make it more cost effective to just pay the extra 20 quid

It's 20 quid

But they dont have a battary to start with, so its a non stater