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| Tring to convert Black and decker 18 volt battery Grass Hogg to plug in--Help? |
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| crackersx5:
OK, want to convert my Black and decker 18 Volt battery Black and Decker Grass Hogg to run off house current. Bought a 18 Volt 20 Amp DC power supply. First measured the voltage of the battery, 19+volts, snapped it into a test tool B&D 18V GC818 Garden Cultivator) that uses the same battery pack and it ran fine. Adjusted the power supply to 18.5 volts, hooked to GC818 and the motor would not run. Motor started for a ½ second then stopped. Adjusted output to 15.5 V and motor ran fine. Snapped battery into Grass Hogg to test-ran fine. Hooked leads of power supply at 15.v volt to Grass Hogg leads and motor started for a ½ second then stopped. Adjusted to max and minimum output and still get same result: motor started for a ½ second then stopped. Any suggestions? Recommendations? Help?! |
| alpher:
I don't have good answer to your question, but I wonder if for the price of 18V, 20A psu you couldn't just buy a decent gas trimmer? Sometimes is best to just cut :) your losses . |
| james_s:
Have you measured the actual current that the motor draws? I have a 24V cordless lawnmower that can draw up to 40A, mine had dead SLA batteries so I modified it to use a series-parallel arrangement of the LiPo packs I use in my RC airplanes. |
| JohnnyMalaria:
Are you sure you want to do that? I've seen (okay, did it myself) a corded Grass Hog cause a lot of scary damage to the cord. I would assume the corded version is grounded in someway. Not sure how you'd modify the battery version to be safe around 120V. I agree with alpher, looking at the PSU prices you could get a reasonable Stihl. Anyhoo, I found this: http://www.instructables.com/id/Cordless-Power-Tool-Conversion-18VDC-to-120240VAC/ |
| james_s:
I've been using corded string trimmers for years and it's a pain, I've been keeping my eye out for an older cordless one I can convert to use LiPos. I can't imagine why one would want to go the other way, batteries are not particularly expensive and it saves dragging a cord around. |
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