Dewalt Battery Pack Mod

Hi, what's more annoying than run out of battery when you need it?

I received a new cordeless drill for Christmas and I love it. But one thing bothers me, I can't see how much battery I have left. The drill stop to work when the battery is empty. So I decided to add "Battery Voltage Display Indicator Board"

Here the link for the module : https://goo.gl/t26K2V

Step 1: Opening

Battery model : DCB207

Screwdriver bit : T10

You only have 4 screws to unscrew to open the case.

The case open in 2 sections. Be careful with the spring.

Step 2: Drilling

I used a 3/32 bit to drill a hole and feed the wire inside the case.

Step 3: Gluing

I used hot glue to install the module to the battery pack.

After gluing, I trimmed the excess of glue.

Step 4: Soldering

The module is very easy to soldered. Only two wires are needed. They need to be soldered on each side of the battery pack. The easiest way to attach the module is to find the mains leads and soldered directly on it.
After the soldering, push the little button on the module to test the battery.

Step 5: Finishing

One last step... Close the battery pack and use it!

Comments

[blue LED]

Very good idea and your instructions are both well written and the photographs clearly show the process. I had no idea such a circuit board such as this was available, now thanks to you I will be looking at my battery powered tools with a new eye to improveing them.

[michbushi]

hmm... didn't exactly make it more robust.

[TravisS114]

I agree, that would get broken easily if the tool was dropped from a small height. I'd have tried to mount it inside.

[MTKapp27]

Neat! Makes you wonder why dewalt didn't include this feature in their design.

[electricaveman]

Milwaukee has it on their batteries

[TravisS114]

Dewalt has it on all of theirs EXCEPT this battery size which is the tiniest 1.5 ah battery. Everything bigger that I've seen has the standard 3 light battery checker.

[Yonatan24]

I made an external voltmeter to test my drill batteries, in case you might interested. Much easier than improvising something to contact the contacts inside:

[mimil2014]

Easier for sure but not handy as mine:)

[gm280]

Nice idea. I have batteries with this option built into them. The only issue you have to watch for is that fact that you soldered the wires directly to the mains coming out of the battery. And that offers a shorting issue. If you ever short the wires on the outside of the battery, you will see lots of smoke and maybe even a fire. The monitoring module you use has solder connections that could short in some situations depending where it is laid down on. But that can be addressed as well.

[mimil2014]

I'm working on something to protect it. Maybe a 3D printed case or something like "conformal coating" to isolate the module.

[RobertW327]

Nice idea . but would only do this after the batteries warranty has run out . most good brands have a 3 year warranty . this would void it for sure .

[mimil2014]

Yeah you're right but I cannot wait for the warranty expire.