Broken battery charger- electrical help please
 

I have a Black and Decker Firestorm 14.4 cordless drill. About 4 or 5 years old. It was a comprimise at the time, but it had better battery life and comparable performace to a co-workers new 14.4 dewalt, back at the time I bought it. Bottom line, it is a good drill as far as I'm concerned. The drill works fine, always has, but the batteries are near dead.

The battery charger is broken. It stopped charging, period. I've made the phone calls and learned that it just isn't cost-effective to buy a new charger, it would be comparable to a whole new drill. I've talked to a guy at a B&w repair depot and he tells me not to bother for the cost and hassle, (although the next time he gets an unrepairable drill like mine, he'll hit the owner up for the charger).

I've snipped the cord and played with my multimeter. As far as I can tell, the transformer (black box that plugs into the wall... I call it a transformer) is the problem. No DC voltage coming out of it. I dug out an old discman DC adapter and got 4.5 Vdc from the same process.

So... is it possible, reasonable, and safe to replace the transformer? It's supposed to put out 17.4V DC at 210 mAmps. Is there anyway I can replicate this from parts from Radioshack?

if you can find a transformer that will put out 17.4V at 210mA, then there's no problem. Make sure you get the poliarity right - if outside is positive and you route positive to inside, you'll see smoke and wreck your charger.


BTW, your drill IS a dewalt drill ;) They're owned by the same company.

Replace the charger with the new multi-voltage fast charger (about $24). I fryed my cheapo trickle charger (original equipment) at a construction site with flaky 135V wall power. The local B&D center replaced it (2 year warranty) for $8 with the new fast charger.....also I believe the transformer puts out AC and that the recifier ins in the base unit....

depends on how old the drill is. B&D drills are basically scaled-down dewalt drills. they even used the same battery. So the guys buying dewalts were buying B&D batteries 'cause they're the same thing, only much cheaper. B&D didn't want any of that so they changed the design of the B&D drill and battery pack entirely.

The drill is old enough to have the 'dewalt style' deep plug batteries. Otherwise I would have probably just went and bought a new b&d one and shared the charger and the batteries and had two drills.

I phoned and asked the local black and decker centre again and asked about a 'fast charger' and didn't have much luck. I'm going to head down there tomorrow in person to see if I can get around dealing with the brilliant fellow that anwsers the phone.

Well if you are thinking about buying a new drill just buy a dewalt 14.4 drill or battery charger. Also hit up a few pawn shops sometimes they have good bargains on power tools.

Flea markets are great sources for battery chargers for drills.

I m not 100% sure but..
I was constantly buying tools and that for my ex. He liked the Firestorm products so thats what he was getting. He had drill and the kit that came with the skillsaw, drill and flashlight. They were all 14.4 so all the batteries were interchangable. Anyways they came out with a hammer drill and I went out and bought it for him and it was 14.4 so I never thought anything about it. I brought it home and its a good thing it had its own battery and charger because they had changed the battery style. I dont know why. So you might want to watch if you happen to find a charger in the flea market.

Thanks for the input. As it turns out, the charger was toast and it managed to fry both my batteries, so I was left with a functional (but almost worn out drill), no charger, and no batteries.

I bought a nice new BOSCH at a boxing day sale.

Also, as far as Dewalt vs Black and Decker are concerned, which I've clarified in my mind after talking to a few people, in particular the guys at a B&D/Dewalt repair depot. ----- Black and Decker used to -15, 20 years ago- have the best tools around. Black and Decker developed a line of professional grade tools, as a market developed for do-it-yourselfers and the regular line was made more affordable. They still own Dewalt, and these days there are still a few interchangeable parts, but not like it used to be when they started out identical. Dewalt has become one of the most used and best reviewed pro grade tool lines (but I'd never buy a cordless drill) and B&D is pretty close to that 'too cheap' line. The firestorm line was created using a hybrid of dewalt parts and b&d parts for the 'heavy duty weekender'.

Well if it's the transformer there is a little problem....
Transformer only put out AC Power It needs a rectifier to convert it to DC to use for charging batteries.

My suggestion is to find a used one on ebay...