That adapter looks decent, and would have been perfect to have found out about earlier this year, when Tractor Supply cleared out their PC 20v Max batteries (4Ah for $17!) and I still had my 18v stuff. The PC 18v system was my first foray into serious cordless tools (now DeWalt, Milwaukee, Ridgid, Ryobi, and Ego have supplanted PC), and like yours, my tools were still very enjoyable to use, albeit a bit underpowered and lacking the runtime of, say FlexVolt.
Surebonder makes a hot-glue gun that takes Ryobi 18v post batteries, and then they make adapters for Makita and Milwaukee batteries to fit their glue guns. Of course these work in other Ryobi 18v tools, too. Link: https://surebonder.com/collections/battery-adapter
I wish SOMEone would make an adapter to use Ridgid 18v slide batteries on Ryobi post tools. All the parts are on Thingiverse, just gotta combine 'em and print one…
I made a simple adapter by chopping up a scrap Ryobi flashlight to get the battery socket, and grafting it into a gutted Black&Decker battery, to allow my dad’s B&D weedwacker to run from his Ryobi batteries. It moved the center of gravity back a bit too, which was welcome on an otherwise-nose-heavy tool.
I’ve gutted the cheap Ryobi battery-cap chargers (the P111 and there’s one other whose number I don’t know) and the P150 battery-gauge, to bring out the power contacts to run stuff like my TS100 soldering iron, a series of LED lights, and yes, another gutted DeWalt 18v battery so we could run my buddy’s DeWalt radio off my spare Ryobi batteries.
I believe all the 18v lithium batteries have a protection board in 'em. (The 12’s not so much!), and of course the NiCd don’t care what you do, so I consider it safe to intermix every which way. It’s still prudent not to run something all the way until it stops – when you hear the tool slowing down, stop right there and recharge the battery!
Of course do NOT use these adapters for charging! Always use the native charger, unless you have your own balance charger and know exactly what you’re doing. (And even in that case, you might confuse the coulomb-counter in the board, if present. I haven’t looked into that.)
battery adapter to use 20v batteries on 18v tools
https://www.amazon.com/adapter-20V-BATTERY-12v-outlet/dp/B07MM97MZD/
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Any idea if walmarts hyper tough 20v batteries will work with PC or BD tools.
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Stanley tools own Dewalt which is basically B&D re branded. they also own Mac tools Facom and Britool and Irwin. all their Power tools use the same batteries regardless of what brand name they choose to sell them as.
Milwaukee and Ryobi are owned by Techtronic industries in Tiawan. and their batteries are also interchangeable.
Snapon make their own cordless tools and their batteries are not interchangeable with any other brand
some Bluepoint tools are interchangeable with Bosch. and are not made by Snapon.
Dewalt and Mac cordless tools and batteries being compatible is the exception, not the rule.
Milwaukee and Ryobi are most certainly NOT compatible.
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This is mostly incorrect, I’ve talked of the Stanley Black and Decker brands battery cross compatibility at length. The short of it is 20v Black and Decker, Porter Cable, Fat Max and (Walmart) Bostitch batteries can be used with one another with MODIFICATIONS to the plastic or to tool and or battery. DeWalt and Mac are seamlessly interchangeable and 20v Bostitch (nail guns) can be MODIFIED, again by cutting plastic.
TTI brands, Milwaukee, Ryobi, Ridgid, can NOT be cross compatible. With a very minor exception with Ryobi and Artic Cove, they are completely compatible. Also I can’t confirm but I think Ridgid batteries work on Senco(not a TTI brand).
I can confirm that the Surebonder Milwaukee-to-Ryobi 18V adapter works in Ryobi’s big, 18-inch room fan. I am powering my Ryobi room fan with a Milwaukee M18 12AH battery. With that battery, the fan lasts 18 or 19 hours on Low and, if I recall correctly, about 6 or 7 hours on High. I didn’t test the battery and fan on Medium.
With the large battery, held farther from the fan by the adapter, the fan even balances better. That is, it’s less easy to tip over.
If you want to use the fan’s AC input, you’ll need to remove the adapter. But even if you were using the fan with a native Ryobi battery, you’d need to remove the battery.
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Regarding PC and B&D max, would you possibly have knowledge about the general idea that someone, (many cordless tool owners)want to act on their older tool line; they want to see if these nicad tools would take the robustness of lithium 20 volt.
So in my case, do you have any thoughts or experience with me just using a cord to feed out of the two prongs in my Craftsman 19.2 drill handle and “rigging” those ends to the lithium’s POS&neg? Or does the internal Bauer battery chip prevent the current flow entirely? And the given is,(I’ve obviously just gone ahead to buy some of Bauer’s line because that investment is my “break-in” to lithium power, and the charger that came with the whole tool deal too good to pass.
Wanted to mention Dremel and Bosch 12v are interchangeable if you pop off the plastic shoe at the base. The chargers are identical. Of course, same parent company.
I use Bosch 12v batts in an old pod-style Makita saw. The mod involved removing some of the plastic from the inside of the handle, swapping the poles in tool, and bending the posts together slightly. I’ve also done this mod for a Makita vacuum. Been running them for 2 years steadily without issue.
There is no battery that I know of that doesn’t connect the cells directly to the terminals – except for Flexvolt which has a mechanical selector switch for 20V or 60V. You can basially arc weld with the batteries and they will keep giving current until you either melt down the li-ion cells or melt through the wires or contacts.
What does happen is the battery has electronics inside the cell, anything from a thermistor to a microprocessor monitoring all the cells that will communicate with only that brands tools and tell the tool to stop running if there is a problem. Some low draw tools don’t even listen to the battery because they can’t draw enough current to damage it. .
This is why there is no battery standard. Dewalt doesn’t want to trust that Ryobi is going to do the monitoring correctly and doesn’t want to be responsible when somebody smokes their tools or batteries.
You can do what you are asking, but you need to be careful. YOU are the circuitry between the tool and the battery and you need to make sure you aren’t killing either or going to burn down your shop.
a lot of good things in this post thank you all for sharing!
I bought a populo 20v max Li-Ion Impact Driver and didn’t receive the battery with it. Does anyone know where i can get a battery for it? Or know of any universal batteries? I can’t find them anywhere.
Looks alot Black & Decker like…
Just to keep the thread going, IF anyone has a conversion of a current(get it?) Li Ion battery source to fit an older Bosch 18v Blue Core Ni Cad tool, I’d be tickled to get my hands on one or two. There are aftermarket folks making the Ni Cad knockoffs; but the efficiency of the Li Ion is very attractive to me. I have about a dozen of the old Blue Core Bosch tools that are in great shape! Hate to see them go to waste! Thanks!!!
Not sure what is your problem. Li- batteries work on all Ni-cad designed tools, as long as voltage is correct and (of course) they can be physically connected.
There are battery adapters from one make in to other, as a last option, before that you could try to change insets of Ni-cad to lithium batteries, as well as charger. Ni-cad chargers will not charge lithium batteries, but Ni-cad batteries are commonly charge with Li-ion chargers.
IF you are responding to me, you re-stated the problem…I’ve not seen any sort of aftermarket adapter to allow Li Ion batteries to be used in my older NiCad tools. I’ve seen some pretty intricate mash-ups using the older case and rewiring for the new power source; but they are “bend this, cut that, trim this”. Buying a Li Ion battery AND charger and then rigging the “hybrid” battery to work IS the problem. I happily pay for a “clean” solution. Of course, the companies make such a process very complicated so the obsolete tools need to be replaced.
IF I were using the tools on a more regular basis, I’d be diving deeper into this project. As it is, I reckon I’ll keep muddling through with the aftermarket clones of the old Blue Core batteries.
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For an adapter, you could use red part of an battery and back end of any Li-ion tool…
Could use all Li-ion batteries on all tools, connecting just two output wires to the old battery terminals, but, yes, “I hear you” its bit messy to make one or to be making many batteries changing inserts…
And no, I haven’t seen Bosch Ni-Cad adapter to none other make of Li-ion. IE Ridgid-AEG use identical connection for Ni-cad and Li-ion, depending where you are based it would be either dear or reasonably cheap. Old Bosch Ni-Cad red battery end to Riddid (drill end?)…
ANW, cheers!