Ozito tool batteries - battery protection?

Hey all, I've got a TS100 iron that I'd like to be able to use portable as it's hard to run power from the apartment down to the car/garage. I'd been looking at PD power banks and USB-C - DC barrel adapters with simulation triggers, but they work out pretty expensive, and I realised I have a bunch of Ozito power x-change 18V battery packs already.

What I haven't been able to get an answer on though is whether the battery protection circuits are in the battery packs, or in the tools themselves. I'd expect them to be in the packs, but the Ozito manuals seem to reference protection circuitry being part of the 'tools', although it's very vague.

I don't want to go and make up an adapter only to find that I accidentally kill a battery by overheating it/running it too low.

Anybody got some info to share?

 

It certainly looks like it's all in the pack.


Doing it in the pack is almost universal but the low voltage cutout is often set lower than ideal for maximum cycle life.

 

Thanks mate, a friend sent me the same clip this morning, certainly looks positive.

Makes sense too, there's only two contacts on the pack terminals so the cells must be balanced internally when charging too.

I went ahead and tested it with the ts100 today, just with the dodgy spades-jammed-in-the-terminals setup but it worked nicely.
Gonna model up a sled and get a mate to print it for me so I have something a bit more robust and easy to handle.

Definitely a better option than the expensive PD powerbank!

 

All the Li rechargable packs I've autopsied to scrounge cells out of or rebuild (Yum Cha and Name Brand) have have the smarts in the pack, as a board separate to the cells.

Else simply crack that pack open and have a peek.

All the power tool ones used screws, either Philips or some security Hex/Torx. The only ones I've had to go into Mr Gumby mode or use some strategic BFI to break into have been Dyson cordless vaccum ones.

 

Why not just get a https://www.bunnings.com.au/ozito-pxc-18v-usb-power-station_p6290517 open it up and knock a jack out the side linked before the reg for the usb? Just a suggestion, for $13.50 worth a shot anyway..

 

That was actually going to be plan A since I'd see it before, but the product page was dead for me when I checked on the weekebd, thought it was a discontinued product.
Seems like it might just not be listed when your location is set to NSW?

The model for the sled is just about done now anyway, only need to add screw bosses. Will probably head to bunnings to look for some little screw anyway so I'll see if they actually have any of the usb docks in store.

 

Update: checked at a Sydney Bunnings and they had none of the USB docks, and no idea if more were coming, only checked one store though.
In better news, the print was right first time! Kinda regret telling my mate to just use his excess blue filament now though...
Very happy with the result: compact and easy to use.


Click to view full size!

 

I can see a market for that adapter. The one Bunnings used to sell seems gone so there's an opportunity.

 

Very sexy.

A slightly bigger Mk II version with onboard charger socket from a laptop plugpack, to all geeky maybe?

 

KISS. A Charger is already available for a reasonable price that if it dies Bunnings will replace no questions asked. The trick to moderate success is to fill a gap in someone else's market.

 

Nice of you to say. The bunnings one gave a regulated 5v over USB though, this is just a straight feed of whatever the battery is putting out, luckily this iron is flexible enough to deal with a pretty wide range of input voltages.
I think a pretty cool application would be to make one with a 12v regulator in it so that you could use the output to power hobby projects or car accessories.

You mean to power the iron in lieu of using the battery, or to actually charge the battery? Not really keen on trying to build my own li-ion charging controller, but adding an input jack and using a three position switch for off/battery/mains could be cool.

 

True.

But if you're forced to going the trouble of home-rolling an adaptor to go from the pack to USB (admittedly out of necessity there) then why not go the entire piggy and add a universal pack charger, albeit not as "sophisticated" as a genuine one? Make it more... portable per se...

OP is already pondering a MK II version with 12 volt output, so Why The Hell Not?

 

Sure for your own use you might as well add whatever might be useful to you however I was looking at it from the perspective of a marketable product.
The main market would be for people who already own Ozito batteries and if they own them they're already going to own a charger for them. So adding the charger feature doesn't make it more attractive to most of the market for the product. Also whilst many here might have a suitable laptop power supply the intended market is unlikely to have one, kind of need to put a power supply in the box and that would add a lot of cost.
One thing certainly does need to be addressed and that's getting any USB outlet to conform to the USB spec.

 

This is sort of what I did. There is not as much room inside as you would expect - the step-down/buck circuit takes up more space than I imagined it would.

Instead I connected a cable out to a XT60 connection.

There wasn't an easy way to create stress relief before closing up the lid, so I added the clips to the side to hold the cable coming out.

 

I did similarly, but straight to the 5.5mm barrel plug that the TS100 takes.

 

Nice. Clean and practical.

Not sure why they need so much circuitry for just a usb port, seems like overkill.. Planning to do similar, unfortunately I have milwaukee and the usb hat is almost 4 times to price of the ozito..

 

You can get step down converters off Ebay/ Ali express that are really cheap and pretty small. They take a variable input voltage so it would be a super easy upgrade if yo wanted regulated 12V.

Most are max 3A though so might need a beefier ones if you Iron pulls more than 36W.

 

Already have a couple of QC3.0 modules winging their way over, but I was still going to bypass that and go straight from the battery for an iron via a port out the side. That's the idea anyway.

 

Neat! You using yours to power an iron as well? I actually needed to use my iron for the first time on the weekend and even though I was just making up a cable inside, it was still much simpler to just grab the battery pack and use the sled than try and find a free power point and use the laptop PSU

 

Yep, I bought my TS100 from www.phaserfpv.com.au and they threw in a XT60 to DC cable with it which is what gave me the idea to terminate with the XT60 instead.

I'm glad I did, as I also use the ozito batteries to power my telescope RA tracking drive with this too, so much better than the sealed lead acid 12v I was running before.

Its great isn't it. So much easier to grab the ts100 and the battery pack than moving my hakko around.