Sure you can run a battery charger with a portable generator, but why not cut out the middle man, especially if you’re off the beaten path where you don’t want to haul around a large generator? This would be especially great for charging up an electric trolling motor battery or camper battery when you’re 150 miles from the nearest outlet.

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DeWalt’s done some great things with their cordless tools lately. They just introduced an upgraded lithium-ion battery pack for a new range of tools, but designed the plugs for compatibility with the older generation (which, while clever, isn’t what I’m after here). Most importantly, they’ve built fans into one of their 24V NiCad battery packs as a means of extending life.

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Sony’s new LiFePO4 (olivine-type lithium iron phosphate) batteries have a high power density (1800W/kg), a life span of around 2,000 charge-discharge cycles, an “excellent” shelf life, and can charge to 99% capacity in 30 minutes. Sony first supplied the new batteries in June 2009 for use in power tools, but their capabilities open up many other applications, including electric vehicles.

Patented by the University of Texas’ Dr. John Goodenough in 1996, LiFePO4 has a cell structure that remains stable in temperatures as high as 300°-500° Celsius. The batteries have a nominal cell voltage of 3.2V, a 1.1Ah capacity, and a 20A maximum continuous discharge current — so you don’t want to accidentally short these, or things might get hot in a hurry.

Sony [Manufacturer's Site]
EE Times [Source]

The lights are out. The mutated alien horde is coming. You need power for the Tesla cannon. This is when you’re really glad Duracell’s Powerpack DPP-300EP is sitting on the basement shelf. Essentially a small car battery powering a 120V AC inverter and a 250 psi compressor, it can even fill your truck’s tires for a mad dash to the burnt-out supermarket for a scavenging run. Just watch out for the stray dogs.

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So a C battery just croaked, and all you have handy is an AA. With the $3-$4 Ziotek Battery Upsizer kit, you place the AA in the C-sized plastic holder, and you’re back in business (although for a shorter time because AA batteries cannot supply the current available from C batteries: see battery details). Likewise, you can “upsize” an AAA to an AA using the small plastic tube, a C to a D using the large tube, or go all the way from an AAA to a D by nesting all the tubes.

The manufacturer cautions: “Do not use Battery Upsizers in a battery charger. If you use multiple battery upsizers, do not use batteries of different types at once, or new and used batteries together.”

Has anyone used these? Would they be handy in an emergency?

Ziotek Battery Upsizer [Manufacturer's Site]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]

The DeoxIT® Service Kit, $60 from Caig Laboratories, comes in a zip-top bag with a variety of products incorporating their DeoxIT® contact cleaner including sprays, wipes, and brush applicators. Caig claims that DeoxIT® is a “fast-acting, deoxidizing solution that cleans, protects, lubricates, and improves conductivity on all metal connectors and contacts.”

Different versions and sizes of DeoxIT® are available through Amazon and other web sites.

I have used DeoxIT® on many connections including tool battery packs, flashlight batteries, vehicle batteries, vehicle audio and antennas, and computers — and found that it does work. Have you used DeoxIT®, or similar contact cleaners? What’s your opinion of it?

Caig Laboratories [Manufacturer's Site]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]

The loss of power that occurs when you change your vehicle’s battery might reset its systems back to factory state, so you have to drive the damn thing 50 miles to get it running correctly again. Worse yet, you could lose all your radio presets.

Before you disconnect you battery, plug the Auto Memory Saver from EZ-Red into your OBD2 port. It uses the port’s power and ground pins to supply juice to critical systems so they don’t forget their settings. The neon-red coiled cord reaches 8′, has its own inline fuse, and terminates in a cigarette lighter connector. Obviously you’ll need to plug the cable into another power source while the vehicle’s battery is disconnected.

Just in case you don’t know any better, do not use cables of this type to jump-start a vehicle. The best thing that could happen is you’d blow the inline fuse — if the cable has one. Pricing for the Auto Memory saver starts around $15.

Auto Memory Saver [EZ-Red]
Street Pricing [Google]

Need something to keep those spare batteries from rattling around? I know — a ZipLock bag works well and is usually waterproof, but this battery caddy will keep things secure and allows easy access for testing the batteries. It’s a convenient holder of the extra batteries for the flashlight(s) (or radios, digital multimeters, cameras, flash units…) in your truck, your toolbox, your bench drawer, your desk drawer, your kitchen “utility” drawer, your backpack, your briefcase, your suitcase, your camping gear, your boat, your travel trailer, your camera bag…

Versions are available for AA, AAA, C, D, 9V, and CR123 batteries in addition to various combinations such as the one pictured above. Prices range from $5 – $14, and colors includes black, orange, and Glow in the Dark!

PowerPax
Via Amazon [What’s This?]

Lithium ion technology in cordless tools is fast moving away from the “new gimmick” to the standard type of battery being marketed across most brands.  Now DeWalt has taken a step beyond the standard lithium ion design — they’ve formulated their own proprietary “nano phosphate lithium ion” battery.

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CostPlus Tools is selling KD Tools’ 204 Battery Cable Terminal Spreader and Cleaner for $15.74.  Sure, you can just pry apart tight cable terminals with a screwdriver, but the KD 204 provides even pressure to preserve the round tapered opening that slips over your battery terminals, ensuring good contact. The teeth also clean oxides from the terminal when twisted back and forth.

Battery Cable Terminal Spreader and Cleaner [CostPlus Tools]
Street Pricing [Google]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]

I’ve tried rechargeable batteries — mostly because I hate paying for new batteries all the time, and getting rid of the old ones — but I use the crap out of my batteries, and inevitably I wake up one day and those rechargeable batteries I shelled out for no longer hold a charge.  The La Crosse BC-900 promises to remedy that problem;  its refresh mode will bring those dead batteries back to life.

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Love it or hate it (don’t tell me which, please), the new economic stimulus package “sets aside $2 billion in grants for manufacturing advanced batteries” according to MIT Review’s Technology blog.  MIT further speculates that some of the $7.5 billion in loans for “advanced technology vehicles” from another related bill and even some of the $500 million in “funding for retraining workers for green jobs” might end up pointed at solving the problem of storing a lot of juice in a little space safely.

Obviously creating new, more powerful batteries will help to reduce America’s dependency on foreign oil, but as a Toolmonger I’m more excited about another prospect: badder-ass cordless tools.

The needs of rough-’n-tumble cordless tools seem very similar to that of hybrid and electric cars: lots of power stored in a small space with the ability to deliver a high amp load without damage — and a short recharge time with long cycle life. And we’ve seen similar technology jumps before. The special lithium-ion battery utilized in DeWalt’s last major tool update started its life in hybrid busses.

So here’s to hoping we’ll see some exciting new cordless tools in the next few years. (Now if we can just all get jobs at the plant…)

(Thanks, spakattacks, for the great CC-licensed photo!)

Stimulus Big Winner: Battery Manufacturing [MIT Review/Technology]

Central Online Sales is selling this battery post and terminal cleaner for $1.04.  You can probably pick one up as cheap locally, but we figure it’s a good reminder to always have one of these in your car.  When you’re having problems starting, you clean the battery terminals first thing, and this type of cleaner does the job.

Battery Post and Terminal Cleaner [Central Online Sales]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]

About two years ago we talked about Husky’s portable AC/DC power system. We’ve aired up a ball or bicycle tire with it here and there, but it largely remained stowed — that is, until earlier this week when we found out firsthand that this little jumper set will save our crappy-truck-driving rear.

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Wired.com reports that a team at the University of Texas has developed a process that utilizes microwaves to simplify the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries, knocking hours out of the production cycle and dramatically reducing the heat required to create the battery’s complex phosphate structure.

Wired says that companies like A123 Systems — who was responsible for DeWalt’s high-end 36V line and those of other manufacturers as well — are working on their own version of this technology, but the UT team is already receiving inquiries.

What’s this mean to Toolmongers? Should this process pan out, we might see a significant decrease in the cost of lithium-ion phosphate batteries, which many consider superior to other chemistries. Even lower-buck li-ion power tools, anyone?

Li-Ion Phosphate Batteries Baked In Microwave [Wired]

Your drill is a Bosch, your reciprocating saw a Milkwaukee, your router a DeWalt, and that’s just your tools — the rest of your crew also owns a widely mixed set of cordless tools. You could, and routinely do, fill a bench with chargers. With the Crew Charge from 10C Technologies you can charge up to four different-style batteries at the same time.

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There’s so much crap stuffed into a modern engine compartment, sometimes you have to take things apart just to reach the frickin’ battery — and then there’s not enough room to get your hands around the battery to pull it out. In this situation, a battery lifter can save the day. We’ve posted about EZ Red’s Top Post Battery Lifter, but how do you handle a battery with side terminals? You grab their side battery lifter.

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