wrench

[G7PSK]

They must have had different Zetors in Australia than those sold in the UK as the ones that were being sold by a dealer just up the road from me were just about unbreakable, and believe me I have found during my 30 plus years in the engineering business that if it can be broke a farmer will break it, and even if you think it cant be broken a farmer will bust it.

[BradC]

I just popped the cover off mine. 1300mAh with a date code of 11A31 and the screwdriver has 1105 stamped into the base.

You can probably charge it faster than the plugpack does simply by using a charger with a better current capacity. I charge mine with the psu set to 6V and 300mA. The screwdriver pulls the full 300mA until it is charged. I've not been game to turn it up any higher than that as the semis on the PCB around the power socket look pretty small.

I completely agree with amyk that this is a high current cell. Replacing it with a standard 18650 would be a big mistake.

[BradC]

11A31s is the 11th year? like 2011 , ok on the cell but could you donate a opinion on the capacity please as one has screwed plenty of screws , 1300mah is fine? like never ran out of juice in one session so far?

I don't tend to charge proactively. It just lies around and gets used until it goes flat, then I charge it back up. Battery is big enough for me. If I ran out of juice even semi-regularly I'd buy a second and rotate them, but as yet I've not needed to.
Driving screws into hardwood tends to knacker it pretty quickly as do self tappers into 3mm steel, but it's really not the right tool for that. I just abuse it sometimes when my drill is flat to get the job finished.
For less than $20 it's one of the cheap Chinese tools I own that I'm actually quite impressed by. and didn't feel the need to improve.

[amyk]

I just popped the cover off mine. 1300mAh with a date code of 11A31 and the screwdriver has 1105 stamped into the base.

You can probably charge it faster than the plugpack does simply by using a charger with a better current capacity. I charge mine with the psu set to 6V and 300mA. The screwdriver pulls the full 300mA until it is charged. I've not been game to turn it up any higher than that as the semis on the PCB around the power socket look pretty small.

I completely agree with amyk that this is a high current cell. Replacing it with a standard 18650 would be a big mistake.

1.3Ah is a bit small these days even for high-current cells but maybe that was the best at the time - and 6.2A  is not so high current for an 18650 anymore. Something like this might be a good replacement: http://lygte-info.dk/review/batteries2012/Keeppower%20IMR18650%202500mAh%20%28Black%29%202014%20UK.html

[BradC]

]1.3Ah is a bit small these days even for high-current cells but maybe that was the best at the time - and 6.2A  is not so high current for an 18650 anymore. Something like this might be a good replacement: http://lygte-info.dk/review/batteries2012/Keeppower%20IMR18650%202500mAh%20%28Black%29%202014%20UK.html

I sincerely believe that this tool along with most of its cousins have never used the best of anything, ever. It was/is probably more a case of what is the cell they can get that is just big enough to do the job and reliable enough to last the warranty period. I also believe that my particular unit is probably a Wednesday build and I got lucky.

If I could source the raw cells that go into that unit you linked I'd buy a handful to re-cell a few cordless tools that are reaching their use by date.

[BradC]

No, no, no, no, no.. that won't do at all. No torque limiter.... bad. My Ozito unit is green & grey, but the one my old man bought last weeks is orange and grey (normal Ozito colours).

[BradC]

The one purchased last week is brand new stock, so they still exist. I've even seen some in tradies toolboxes in the last couple of days which is a tacit endorsement if I've ever seen one.

[Monkeh]

For those interested, the guts of a Bosch one.

[Monkeh]

Nice PCB there Monkeh , thanks for those I'm interested for sure , someone should start a "shootout" on them , Holster included excuse the pun .

There is a Ryobi one about that also looks nice but I could not tell wether one can twist the handle straight , it also says 4v in the ad where the others say 3.6v (maybe just rounding up to a full charged battery 4.2v)

ps> what's that switch? do on the left above the gen marking .

Ryobi are doing the same thing as Dewalt (in the US, they can't get away with it in a rational country) and marking the open-circuit voltage of a freshly charged cell as the nominal voltage of a cell.

The second switch triggers the front LED for positioning, or if the battery is very low, a charge warning light on top. The front light isn't very strong, though, I may fix that.