Drill battery 3S TRX4!

[Shergar]

So I picked up a new drill recently, but it got me thinking….. 18V charger would also charge a 12V battery - which low and behold was actually a 10.8 3S!

 

 

I have had success using lithium ION batteries, but they are odd shapes sizes and cost a fortune. But they need zero looking after or discharging. So armed with nothing else but gut instict and 47 years of stupidity, I hit ebay up 😂

 

£13.50 got a nice  new  4A charger delivered 

£15.99 got a nice fake Dewalt 5Ah lithium copy battery

£8.30 got a charging ‘shoe’ for said battery with fly leads attached (the black plastic ones were dearer!)

 

£37.80 experiment it was!
 

 

 

The fly leads soldered nicely to an XT60 plug, and some how the battery wedged nicely in the tray AND the shell locked down to its normal position (I have a low CG tray fitted, not a standard Traxxas one please note!) I added a long velcro strap and plugged all in. These batteries come in various heights (Ah dependent) so a 2Ah would be a lot lower, a 6Ah higher.

 

 

SAFETY NOTE: In the interests of H&S I stood as far away as possible, stretched my finger (with both eyes closed) and pressed the power button. The Hobbywing bleeped happily - EUREKA no flames 🤣

 

So went for a test drive. The intention was a gentle trail run, however you know on Top Gear where Jeremy grows horns and shouts POWAHHH well that happened instead.
 

Donuts, jumps full throttle reverse in full throttle forward wheelies for 5 minute’s. After that a pensioner with 3 unleashed dogs gave me dirty glance and I calmed down. Nothing appeared to be on fire or melting, motor seemed happy (I am low geared as a TRX4 will go however) and I kept on the trail to the muddy wet stagnant bit….

 

 

 

Where the poor old thing behaved impeccably if somewhat filthy! I did have to use a fair bit of throttle though to get out the swamp and subsequently  10 minutes later all 5A of fake Dewalt battery had ran out of charge. So all told 45 minutes of careless battery use till it ran till flat. Experiment over I carried the now 3 times as heavy stinking thing back to the car.

No low voltage alarms here, so who knew if the battery would take charge again! I plugged it and left it whilst I washed and oiled the truck up. And you know what it bloody did charge back up 🤠 YEE HAAHH redneck RC rules 🤣 So there you go, a drill battery will run an RC your mileage may vary 👍

 

 

Edited September 29, 2022 by Shergar

[Ross9999992]

Voltage is voltage regardless of chemistry it’s just the current you need to be careful about really.

 

As long as they aren’t getting hot then happy days.

 

Lithium based power tool batteries should have their own cutoff circuitry built in so as your knock off died and recharged then all good in theory.

 

Cool idea for some carefree crawling 👍🏻👍🏻

[Kpowell911]

Someone on Reddit ran their Rustler on an 18v dewalt battery haha

[Lone-wolf]

Im pretty sure the drill pack just has a number of 18650 cells and these cells can be very useful in a crawler, i have made a couple of packs from 16650 cells for crawlers and they do work really well, rated at 4200mah but i do use a low volts alarm with them

But job well done looks a good option