I want to turn all my power tools and batteries a universal connector like USB-C. I have a 3d printerand skills so getting the manual interface is easy enough, but I don’t a lot about ports and tech. I’m learning fast, but I’m not quite there yet.
From what I understand, I’d need to put a female port on the battery which isn’t difficult and has been done plenty for charging.
I’d need to put a male plug on the tools to interface with it, and my initial research says I can’t just solder the power pins to the cables in the tool, I’ll need a circuit board that requests the 20v from the usb source? Is that doable? It looks like I can pick them up on AliExpress. But I need a qualified adult to verify that’s what I need to do.
From there, would I be able to cord them with this method or would I need to build a better usb charger port?
Is there a better port to use? Usb-C is nice and small so I can fit it in wherever I like, but can it handle tool use? Would it be better to do usb or something else?
If you want tools to run off a wire, independent of battery, I’d suggest just buy mains powered tools with built in cords. It’s not worth the hassle - sorry that’s not a very diy answer. I think you’d find most diy tool projects would just use mains rated motors and such.
The power requirements is sort of the reason battery tools take a lot longer to charge than to run down (continuous).
Since you need approximately mains level power, then you need mains rated connectors, or probably even fatter wires depending on how much current there’ll be down at 20V. The tool itself probably has thermal cutoff(s) somewhere in it if it overheats, so you don’t want wires or connectors generating too much heat where that thermal cutoff won’t detect it.
I’d assume you don’t want to add a mains AC:DC 20V 20A converter into the “hand” tool side of the cable so that probably means thicker cables.
Mains powered tools are just designed better to do this @110/220V~. It keeps the current down so you can have thinner, lighter, longer more flexible wire.
Better just limit the USB to top up the battery at lower power. The battery would still deplete in use, but you’d be topping it up in between.
Yeah, I think for better or worse, the most universal and least consumerist “cordless” system is picking up your favorite used Mains corded tools, and getting yourself a Jackery/Ecoflow/whatever battery bank to plug into. This can be really cost effective for a DIY setup.
USBC (at least in its current form) likely can’t provide enough power to run most tools well also. According to what I can find for Ryobi tools (as an example) they’re rated to pull 10x the Ah rating in A continuously. That means a typical 4 Ah battery can deliver up to 40 A at 18V or 720 W continuously. I’d guess tools pull 400-600 W continuously, and may be up to 25x on start up or stall for a few seconds before the BMS cuts the tool off. USBC maxes at 240W right now. For reference - that’s about half of what a typical NA wall socket can deliver at 120V/15A.
Using USBC to charge batteries is fine but we don’t appreciate just how much energy can be delivered by batteries and how quickly.
You’d have to have something that can deliver that peak amperage without catching fire, and the wiring to handle it too.
That’s the kind of info I’m looking for, I figure I’ll just be wiring it directly into the tool so the wires in there should handle it. so now I just need to find a readily available male to female port that came handle that.
You mean something like this but put it inside the battery?
https://www.homedepot.com/p/DEWALT-20V-MAX-Charger-and-USBC-Adaptor-Kit-DCB094K/318666174
Exactly like that for part 1, part 2 would be adapting the battery port to use a compatible plug instead of the current property nonsense.
So you want to change the tool and the battery to USB? So the battery plugs into the tool with USB and then the battery whrn unplugged is charged with usb?
I hate the proprietary too but I don’t think usb-c is robust enough for power tools. Vibration and dirt will kill it quickly.
There are numerous adapters on printables to convert one charger to another so you aren’t stuck with one brand of battery. Although I’ve taken the lazy way and buy 3rd party batteries which are super cheap.
However one brand puts the BMS inside the tool, not in the battery but I can’t rember which brand and quick Google didn’t help.
That’s my biggest worry, I’d hate to do all the work just to have to redo it regularly, so I’m not attached to USB-C, that’s just the current trend and I’d like to build this idea to last.
The battery to tool converter is actually how I got to this idea. I live by the idea than anything worth doing is worth overdoing, so why stop at an adapter when I can just make my own interface and modify all future tools with that? It will look cleaner, and all I’ll need to do going forward is solder in the port for any new tools I get.