I have a Craftsman 14.4 V. rechargeable drill that uses NiCad
batteries.
It has no ready light, just a charging light.
The manual says it may take up to 6 hrs. to charge.
I left it on overnight.
What are the consequences of that?
It has screws, so I may be able to replace the batteries.
Is there some place that would help me in
determining what a good charger would charge it at?
I looked around and could not find anything.
I tried to find a manual for a Makita universal charger which looks like a good quality charger,
but all I could find was a parts manual.
Thanks,
Andy
you may left overnight it doesnt affect the battery. thats a 2.0amp battery? if you want to charge more quickly you may go and have a look for a 3amps battery charger or universal 0.5-3A. just be sure to discharge the battery fully before using 3amps charger.
many of these batteries have temp sensors that tell the charger when they are done charging
that is why there are more than 2 contacts between the charger and the battery
http://www.batteriesplus.com/
A lot of Craftsman/Sears stuff is built by Ryobi
http://www.angelfire.com/electronic/hayles/charge1.html
from old-school methodology :P
we used to use a charge rate that was 10% of the battery capacity (with a bit of term-mixing)
so, if you have a 500 mAH battery, we would charge it with a 50 mA constant current source until full-charge is reached
this is probably old info that has been out of date for decades - lol
but, it might give you a starting place
obviously, if yours reaches full charge in 6 hrs, they are using a little higher current - maybe ~20%