I have a bunch of questions so this is going to be a meandering thread. So, I'll start with what I know.
I have an older 18v DeWalt screwgun set that got rained on, so for Christmas my nice wife got me a 20v DeWalt Screwgun set. It's the differences in the two batteries (18v vs. 20v) that has provoked me to ask these questions.
The first thing I noticed was that the 20v batteries were incredibly light and about half the size of the 18v batteries. While trying to troubleshoot & fix the 18v batteries, I took it apart and it's a bunch of c-cell sized batteries soldered to metal foil in some configuration of series/parallel, but they look like standard c-cell batteries in both size and weight.
I don't know what's inside the 20v batteries, but they can't be c-cells (I don't think) because the size of the battery "case" is too small and it's WAY too light.
So I want to know if there has been a technological improvement on batteries from 18v to 20 v. I see the words "Li-ION" and the little dab of research I've done seems to indicate that is the current state of battery technological development. I've been looking for a new word or phrase to describe the technical differences between the two. Sometimes I see the letters "XR" and wonder if that's some kind of an upgrade from basic-grade Li-ION, or if that's some kind of proprietary branding.
The new 20v batteries seem to last as long as the 18v batteries did, at about half the weight and half the size, which implies to me they're a (roughly) 400% improvement. Seems like they should have their own, special and unique name. What's different between the two, and is the 20v tech at a plateau, or is there something even better coming on the horizon?
All of this is aimed at exploring the possibility of taking advantage of the best battery technology available, for the purpose of adapting a TK102 GPS tracker for use with drones, hot air balloons and other uses. The batteries that come from the factory with the TK102 are pure trash and what I'd like to do is remanufacture these units in order to take advantage of their cheap price and the better batteries that are available, and then resell them as a unit.
As an aside, the case of the TK102 is mostly air. What's in there is a small pc board with some components, and a battery. I've found a guy on Youtube that has a custom chip he installs to force the TK102 to turn on whenever power is applied, because the factory unit must be manually turned back on whenever power is interrupted, so if you bury it somewhere, say in the back of the vehicle (say, affixed to the "roof" of the trunk), if the power is interrupted you have to manually push the "on" button again.
These things are quite cool, and my sense is that if a manufacturer (maybe me, someday) were to provide a simple and easy way for the non-tech savvy person to put them to use, the size of the current market might expand, thereby creating new opportunities.
So I guess the general idea here is "Ways to Market Modified Variations on the TK102 GPS Tracker", but for this thread I want to explore finding ways to improve the device's "working time" by increasing the battery capacity.
I have an older 18v DeWalt screwgun set that got rained on, so for Christmas my nice wife got me a 20v DeWalt Screwgun set. It's the differences in the two batteries (18v vs. 20v) that has provoked me to ask these questions.
The first thing I noticed was that the 20v batteries were incredibly light and about half the size of the 18v batteries. While trying to troubleshoot & fix the 18v batteries, I took it apart and it's a bunch of c-cell sized batteries soldered to metal foil in some configuration of series/parallel, but they look like standard c-cell batteries in both size and weight.
I don't know what's inside the 20v batteries, but they can't be c-cells (I don't think) because the size of the battery "case" is too small and it's WAY too light.
So I want to know if there has been a technological improvement on batteries from 18v to 20 v. I see the words "Li-ION" and the little dab of research I've done seems to indicate that is the current state of battery technological development. I've been looking for a new word or phrase to describe the technical differences between the two. Sometimes I see the letters "XR" and wonder if that's some kind of an upgrade from basic-grade Li-ION, or if that's some kind of proprietary branding.
The new 20v batteries seem to last as long as the 18v batteries did, at about half the weight and half the size, which implies to me they're a (roughly) 400% improvement. Seems like they should have their own, special and unique name. What's different between the two, and is the 20v tech at a plateau, or is there something even better coming on the horizon?
All of this is aimed at exploring the possibility of taking advantage of the best battery technology available, for the purpose of adapting a TK102 GPS tracker for use with drones, hot air balloons and other uses. The batteries that come from the factory with the TK102 are pure trash and what I'd like to do is remanufacture these units in order to take advantage of their cheap price and the better batteries that are available, and then resell them as a unit.
As an aside, the case of the TK102 is mostly air. What's in there is a small pc board with some components, and a battery. I've found a guy on Youtube that has a custom chip he installs to force the TK102 to turn on whenever power is applied, because the factory unit must be manually turned back on whenever power is interrupted, so if you bury it somewhere, say in the back of the vehicle (say, affixed to the "roof" of the trunk), if the power is interrupted you have to manually push the "on" button again.
These things are quite cool, and my sense is that if a manufacturer (maybe me, someday) were to provide a simple and easy way for the non-tech savvy person to put them to use, the size of the current market might expand, thereby creating new opportunities.
So I guess the general idea here is "Ways to Market Modified Variations on the TK102 GPS Tracker", but for this thread I want to explore finding ways to improve the device's "working time" by increasing the battery capacity.
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