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Comment by criddell | Hacker News Reader

> It’s like the tool world: I use DEWALT mostly, because the first tool I bought was a DEWALT. So you gotta use the DEWALT battery, and then you’re like, well, I could buy this cheaper tool, it’s better. But then it won’t work with my battery. So now I have something like 25 DEWALT tools.

Oh man, this is something I wish the EU would work on fixing. There's no reason there couldn't be a battery standard.

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I hate it :(

At least with the tools, if you pick a brand like DeWalt or Milwaukee... they have been around for decades and will stay around for decades, and the tools don't just die if the company gets bought out.

Well, at least until 'smart' tools start getting forcibly pushed into the market. But Internet connectivity is bad enough in many construction environments that it might never happen (we can hope...).

If only this was true!

I have a bunch of Makita cordless tools (and IME, Makita was #1 for pros 10-15 years ago, not a niche brand).

Several years ago (2015-ish?) they changed up the battery shape a little bit so newer batteries wouldn't fit on older tools. It was to add another pin so the battery could tell the tool it was dead and quit drawing power (why the battery couldn't just cut power is beyond me). So (at the time) I had a drawer full of year-old tools that wouldn't work with the extra batteries I just bought.

As it turns out, you can file down part of the tool body and the new batteries fit old tools, but without the power protection. So they didn't end up in the landfill, but it's still hugely annoying.

Yup, I have a Dewalt set, with their older battery design.... unfortunately my batteries are getting old, the tools are fine, but I can't get the old batteries, and if I buy new tools, they will use the new batteries. So... do I buy aftermarket batteries for my existing tools, or get rid of my existing tools and switch to whatever brand next? It is silly.

DeWalt sells adapters so the 20V lithium batteries fit the 18V NiCad tools. You're still locked in, but at least your old tools keep working. It's part number DCA1820: https://www.dewalt.com/product/dca1820/18v-20v-adapter

Thanks! The price is pretty high unfortunately. There are some third party adapters I may get for around 10 dollars each. May be worth it to keep my old tools working.

I’ve had great luck with NOS 18v batteries from eBay. Had to pick up a pair for an 18v trim nailer that doesn’t support their 20v adapter. My neighbor did the same for his 18v collection. All going strong.

Having done a bunch of research into top-end Milwaukee, DeWalt, Makita, Bosch, Hilti, etc tools I've learned that the tools themselves have management circuitry that talks to the circuitry in the battery (which is monitoring remaining charge, temperature, and a lot of other variables) and the tool and battery can negotiate bursts of electrical current based on the work that is happening (like hammer drilling into concrete, hard wood, steel, etc) giving noticeable boosts of torque at times. While I suppose it's possible that a generic battery management/demand API could be built to allow any number of tools make use of it's electrical reserve that hasn't happened yet. I'm kinda surprised that Tesla hasn't pushed for an idea like that... aren't they just a battery company that sells cars as a way to sell their batteries? Why not create a kick-ass line of power tools and outdoor power equipment made to use Tesla batteries on any manufacturer's equipment that is API compliant.

(Oh and Japan mandates a particular kind of battery-to-device interface that isn't required anywhere else in the world which is why Makita batteries look different than everyone else's...)

That's true, but there really aren't that many power tool companies:

https://www.protoolreviews.com/power-tool-manufacturers-who-...

And that doesn't account for brands like Harbor Freight who clearly are having their tools made by someone else but they refuse to say who is making their Bauer and Hercules lines.

And it doesn't seem to account many brands from Europe and Asia.

> (Oh and Japan mandates a particular kind of battery-to-device interface that isn't required anywhere else in the world which is why Makita batteries look different than everyone else's...)

This is interesting, got any sources?

Bosch opened their battery ecosystem, branded as "Bosch AmpShare" together with Fein and Rothenberger, which covers now more than 25 brands: https://www.ampshare.com/us/en/

Do they own all of the brands though?

There are adapters for different tool batteries now.

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