After I repair these Ryobi 18volt batteries I place them on a load tester that I made to verify they really work. Just recharging them doesn't necessarily mean they're fixed. Even placing them in a tool, making sure it turns on, doesn't provide much testing. The real test is placing a load to determine whether it’s going to hold up under load for a certain amount of time. The load tester I made uses a 10-ohm 100-watt power resistor with a heat sink and a fan along with a meter showing the battery voltage and the amount of current being drawn. If the battery’s voltage is at 20 volts that means the load is drawing 2 amperes.
The BMS should take back over and balances and start managing the battery again. If this does not happen,, most people are best off, replacing the battery. But most of the time the battery,, is just to low and the BMS thinks it is F***ed.
Maybe it took so much time to charge because the bms balanced the cells. .I would have checked the voltage on every cell to test if they vere balanced in the end. But nice video🙏😘
How did you get 2 amps did you calculate using the formula E = I x R or P = I x E ? I=P÷E P=I x E E = P ÷ I E = I x R I=amps. Solve for amperage P=watts. 100 watt resistor E=volts 20 volts I=100÷20 I=5 amps R = resistance 10 ohms I = E÷R 20 ÷ 10 = 2 amps
I have done this repair on several batteries packs.... in Many cases, one or more of the cells.to be replaced with a working cell. This is much more difficult and potentially dangerous because of the design. Be careful, if these cells are shorted or overheat, they could potentially explode.
You just earned my subscription! I used your suggestion on a Bissel vacumn that incredibly does NOT allow you to replace the battery! I charged it at 15 volts and 120 milliamps just like you did and BAM fixed the battery! I also have a collection of Ryobi batteries going back over 10 years. I plan on reviving all of them too. I paid $50 for my bench power supply but it has already aid for itself. Thanks!
Morten, The United States Air Force sent me through electronics school but assigned me to a skillset of systems troubleshooting where I never did component level bench work. I am retired from Verizon after 40 years as a telecommunications technician and program manager. There is no reason that I should not be able to repair my own dead batteries. Thank you for the inspiration! I have a multimeter, of course, and some old power supplies with the voltage and current identified; one with a switchable output. Again thanks.
this is a very common problem, even with other brands of batteries. It happened to me recently in a similar battery from ryobi, in which a single cell was discharged, and apparently defective, because after being properly charged (separately) it would discharge again, even without use... After replacing the respective cell, it was also discharged. Result: it was the electronic circuit that was defective and made the cell discharge. greetings from Portugal
Awesome - this process worked for me using one of the after-market batteries - didn't let it reach 15V, just reassembled and dropped it into the charger once the bench supply reached 10V, and it all worked fine then. Excellent video - really clear and explained all the necessary detail.
The most readily available means of providing the necessary starting level is a pair of 9V alkaline batteries, Connected in series the represent 18 V. Their initial current into a battery as empty as yours was would be a bit too much, like over one ampere, but you could add a third component in series with the batteries -- 100 ohm resistor and you have 180 mA maximum charging current. Use 5 W wire wound resistor, so it can dissipate the initial heat. Just like with your bench power supply, the current will decay when the battery voltage increases. Of course, you still should have a volt meter to verify the process, starting with a check that all cells are still OK. If any one of them is all the way down to zero, or even reversed, you probably need to do some cell replacement before expecting a successful repair.
@ My PlayHouse I just discovered that I made the same exercis with an RB18L20 battery as you do in your video. But I accidentally discovered a way to revive it without taking it apart. Connect two wires with crocodile clips to plus and minus terminals in the Ryobi charger and connect them to plus and minus on the battery. A rubber band can be used for this. Be careful not to mix the polarity up! What I discovered was that when I wet my thumb and index finger and held them against the plus and the terminal between plus and minus the charging started. I also tried to replace my fingers with a 150 kOhm resistor and that worked too. I have not figured out if it is safe to replace the resistor with a short. When I found this out the charging was well on its way, but I think it would be sufficient with just a few minutes to reach a sufficient battery voltage to proceed with the Ryobi charger. It seems to me that these Ryobi batteries should shut down with more juice left in them. By the way, many car battery chargers behave in the same way, they refuse to charge a dead battery.
Thanks for another entertaining video. I did some battery repairs in the past and refurbished my Gardena robomower battery pack. When reading the many articles on this topic, you could conclude that the BMS should prevent the battery pack from discharging to such a low level. So when you have an undercharged pack, you should ask yourself why it has discharged? BMS partly defective, battery stored at too low temperatures? When 3.7 li-ion cells discharge below 2V or so, a chemical process starts dissolving the cathode and/or anode and the overall performance drops. So even when reactivating a pack in the way shown in this video, you may discover that the pack has lost lots of its capacity or will self discharge rapidly. Would be a pity when you arrive in Portugal and it is empty again... On the other hand, there are worse excuses to find a reason to go to Portugal.
The saw is usually called a Jigsaw in English speaking countries. It's now been 52 years since I used Danish every day, so I've forgotten the correct term in my own language (which is crazy). Nice solution to that battery. A bench power supply is a very useful idea. I've used Ryobi equipment since about 1992 & still have some 14.4 volt drill-drivers. Also about 12 different 18+ tools of all kinds. Nice to see another Dane on TH-cam.
I recently did a similar treatment to revive four Porter-Cable packs. They were purchased in 2019 as door prizes for the local woodworking club but before they could be given out, COVID happened. When the two drill sets were finally given, the packs were all dead and would not take a charge. I pushed current into each for five minutes with a charger that was not "Smart" and then each of the four packs took a charge from the Porter-Cable equipment, and the door prize manager was very happy. My theory is that there is something in the internal circuit board that draws a small current, enough to flatten the battery completely in two years.
This is good to see. I've got several Ryobi lithium batteries that are getting rather old. I've also got a couple of lab power supplies that I scavenged from the trash pile at work (I've tested one of them and it works great). I'm surprised they didn't glue the case together. I once took apart a battery for my old Roomba vacuum and they had not only put in security screws, but glued the damned thing together.
Thank you for the video! I used a car battery charger on trickle charge for 30 seconds, shot it up to 15 Volts! I stuck the probes from my amp meter in the same spots as he used alligator clips, then made some pig tails out of 16 gauge wire to connect the car battery charger.
With the batteries having been left to go so low there may yet be consequences - increased self-discharge or whatever. I don't usually see all 5 cells go down so evenly. By the way, if you use a cheap 12v supply to do this you probably want a series resistor to current limit. The other option would be a CC/CV buck converter which is about the cheapest CC device on ebay these days.
I agree with your statement that severely discharged cells often experience high self-discharge. After rebuilding dozens of these I've found that the degree of self-discharge is directly related to the length of time they were left below 2.00 Volts. You'll see progressively worse self-discharging with extended durations at low voltages. (e.g. ----> 1 day sitting below 2.00 Volts = very slight self-discharge when you finally charge it back up to 4.20 Volts. However, 6 months or more sitting below 2.00 Volts = high self-discharge when you finally charge it back up to 4.20 Volts). The same problem can be said about the cell's capacity. For example: a 3000mAh cell that is discharged down to 2.00 Volts and left to sit for a month will only recover about 2700mAh when you finally do charge it back up. If you were to let it sit for another month at 2.00 Volts, it will likely drop to about 1.50 Volts and the recoverable capacity will only be about 2500mAh. If you still didn't charge it up and let it sit for another month, the voltage will Likely drop to 1.20 Volts... with a best case capacity recovery of only 2200mAh when you finally charge it up. Last comment... the internal resistance of the cell is also affected. The internal resistance will increase from abuse (voltage dropping too low for too long, overcharging, high heat, fast charging, or fast discharging) and gradually start to limit the maximum current the cell is capable of delivering to your power tools. The cells will still function with a high internal resistance, but don't expect high currents from these cells.
Nice video, I also use a lot of Ryobi tools ( their commitment to keep using the same battery for most of their tools is amazing) and I’m from Belgium but living already for 24 years in Portugal. Love your videos
What I found was that when a battery is fully discharged, it does exactly this. The fix I used didn't involve dismantling the battery at all. Plug in the battery, you get the red blinking light, the tick symbol means that the charger is communicating with the battery okay. Wait ten seconds, and remove the battery. Repeat a few times, until the battery indicates it is charging, which is steady red and flashing green. My maximum tries was about 10, I think.
When you mentioned about being able to recharge a over discharged pack like this using a 12v battery but the current would be too high, this could be done by using a suitable sized resistor in the circuit to limit the current or any suitable resistive load such as one or more 12v car bulbs.
If you leave the low charged battery in your tool and not charge it , over time your amp charge will drop off and the voltage will become under the threshold for the electronics and will lock the battery out from the charger. A 12 volt charger is fine but one should do it for about 1/2 a minute or so, just to bring it up to about 8 volts surface charge achievement (as it will drop fairly soon, but just to get it over the line and let the Ryobi charger to take over. Just place the internal pack in its receptacle trays and whack it in. Screw it up later. I've done one; it works. If, you have uneven cell voltages, (battery shows full, but you can't run anything,) you need to make all cells differ in voltage by only 0.1 of a volt. Make sure you don't have over charged cell(s) or you need to draw them down. Hook up your simple drill and run to drain. (Obviously a direct relevant cell connection to your drill terminals. Know your positive and negative terminations. Bring up your weak cell voltages. Use a bench charger for this as shown, as you must have all cells within 0.1 of a volt difference between all cells. (I had two at about 1.4 volts. The others were full, but I drew them down.) When all of this has been achieved, there is one more step: On the circuit board the are a series of test points in a small row. They start from an outer edge and head in. There are 4 solder plated holes on the circuit board. One is labeled RST (reset) side by side is a GND test point. Short between these two. Also near is the 4.4 volt test point. Find all this; you're in the right spot. All this is down the monitoring end; not where the power transistor is with it's heat sink. Whack it in the charger and see what you get? (I got all this info from another youtuber.) All these batteries that I'm working on were left for months either in the tool near flat or may be only partially discharged but out of the tool? I'm not sure on the one with two low cells snd the rest were fully charged? I'm thinking may be after you've had a decent run with the tool on any battery, the evening up between cells may take time after a period from the job; so keep it connected for a time? Or that they just drain over months and months in the tool and over that time discharge unevenly as you leave them in the device? Lithium ion needs to stay charged, so take it out of the power equipment to charge but after, let sit by itself, until a check up or use? The old NiCads, I would leave them flat when in storage. Seemed to last that way. Charging those up and not using them, just stuffed them with charge memory...
Good video to learn about battery salvaging but should have checked individual cell voltages during charging to see cell health/ balance for better diagnoses of battery condition
I've learned from experience that leaving the battery in an unplugged charger will completely flatten it like that Seems to be a design "feature" of the Ryobi chargers
I've thought the same whenever unplugging charger disconnect battery as well. In a normal transformer type charger battery is part of circuit. But if no charge current applied to primary windings, then secondaries will slowly drain bat. Now I don't know about modern digital chargers but I don't take chances.
Hello from the USA! Very informative video! Owning six Ryobi tools and my fair share of batteries I now know (thanks to you) what to look for when they won't take a charge.
Great video, I have a plethora of Ryobi tools and batteries and this is very helpful I'm going to get a power supply and put it to work. I look forward to watching some of your other videos I also would like to build a battery pack for the home once I get some solar cells up and working.
Nice video presentation and very informative. I found your lab power supply available here in the states but I also found another one half the voltage but includes a USB port which I think would be most helpful on other devices testing and a four place LED display. As for the voltage draining so deeply on that battery pack I've come across an interesting issue with Ryobi tools specifically their FM radio attachment which apparently has a parasitic draw on the battery even when it is in the power off position which necessitates removing the battery when not using the radio. I have since then always remove the batteries from all my tools regardless of mfgr or the tool when not in use just in case other tools have that parasitic voltage draining.
It looks like that "thing" is likely a current shunt to measure the voltage drop across for measuring battery current. It is also possible a thermistor is under it to also monitor the temperature of the current shunt. These are both things that have commonly been used over the years on various battery monitor circuits.
I processed thousand of lithium cells from recycle laptop computers for my solar battery pack. 18650 cells identical to the Ryobi. I also fixed numerous Ryobi pack from 18v to 24v to 40V. all used 18650 cells. Not only Ryobi but DeWalt, Milwaukee, Craftsman, Black and Decker, Ego. I became an expert in the process mainly build lithium solar pack for the whole house. They all use lithium cell either the round or flat pack. There are two things that always will fix the pack for the Ryobi. 18V or any voltage. 1. unbalance cell with one or more cell defective; the fix is to replace the weak cell but internal resistance needs to match up or guarantee failure again 2. the power mosfet is cooked or damaged board from water or dirt to fix no1. requires a special charger to bring extremely low voltage. 0 - 2.5v back to 4.1V, an impedance tester to measure internal resistance for matching, mismatched of resistance will guarantee failure again; internal resistance : lower is better and all has to closely matched lithium lasts the longest of 25% discharge to 80% charge with slow charge up to 4.1V. 3.2V to 4V is ideal for longest longevity whole pack charge will not work for really weak cell; it requires individual cell charge one at a time to fix no2. if board is good is to simply bypass the mosfet; a simple short to ground of the mosfet will fix it; it is ground switching for the negative mosfet There is more than just charge and recharge; ability to fix requires deeper knowledge and a special charger; I build that special charger NOT sold in any store. I no longer buy any lithium battery pack because there are ton of stuffs out there to runs on lithium. OUr modern world is not possible without lithium battery. EV car is coming up and they all run on lithium battery. Identical cell voltage of 4.1v per cell as power tool pack. Know how to revive lithium battery will open a whole new world of things for free because when anything that uses them that has a bad battery that item is either throw out or sell for dirt cheap. My special tools are special charger to revive dead dead lithium cell, a tab welder, a battery impedance tester and know how. That is what really needs to fix any lithium battery, include EV battery. I build the special charger and a tab welder myself. Lithium battery is the future and here to stay. BTW Ryobi is my favorite brand. I have many power tools of this brand, include garden tools.
What do you recommend, leave the batteries on the charger? I have a Ryobi blower and whipper sniper at my beach house some batteries, one charger transformer gets rather hot and I don’t like to leave it on and in the power point in case it starts a fire. Should I just leave them connected all the time? Thanks. 🇦🇺👍🍺
I've heard that the lights kill more batteries than anything else if it is left turned on, draining the battery completely dead. But the modern electronics in batteries and tools may have solved that problem?
Tanks for sharing that way to fix a battery, but I have a question to you and an advise: Q: why is that you need to disassemble the battery just to connect the charger into + and - ( init and end of 5 batteries in SERIE) if that is the same you do when inserting the battery tower into the charger? Adv: cut the smallest side of your ALLENS and insert that cut side into a drill, as a bit, you will easily remove Allen head screws very easy.
If there is maybe two cells inside the battery that is shorted. And I try and relive it with maybe 15volt. then there are only 3 cells to try and take that 15volt,, and bad things can happen if charged more than 4.2volt.
The problem is that discharging lipo cells below a certain voltage is often a death sentence, and while you can recharge them using this, or similar methods, they often never recover back to the same amount of power they had prior, so while it will work it will likely have reduced capacity. going forward. For example, instead of 2ah it might only be be 1.5ah, so will the battery will die sooner than usual going forward and have to be recharged more often. I expect this is the reason they refuse to charge below 12v; Also to ensure tools performs optimally, or to avoid customers complaining that the batteries die quickly. Sometimes you can apply high current pulses to the battery, in order to undo the dendrites that have formed on the electrode, but might not work in all situations (this works on some situations because it causes the electrode to heat up, so flux will cause surface diffusion, which 'smooths' the dendrites).
@@MyPlayHouse Yeah, it will definitely get it working again, my worry is whether or not the battery will have a slightly diminished capacity afterwards. The only real way to test the capacity would be a load test that discharges the battery over time so you can calculate the Ah based on how long it takes the voltage to drop from charged to when the pack shuts off at a given resistance. For example, on the tester I built, I used a 36 ohm high wattage resistor, which dissipates 0.5a (~9w), so if it takes 8hrs to discharge, then the capacity is 4ah, if it takes 2hrs, the capacity is 1ah, etc.
I think it would have been prudent to check the voltage of each cell after charging, and also try to do some work with a tool. Cut a piece of wood for example. Nonetheless, I learned a lot from this video. Thanks.
I still couldn't fix my Ryobi battery and it was just a 2Ah version anyway. My Bunnings (large hardware store in Australia) had a trade in program so it was worth AUD50 towards DeWalt batteries so I saved more than the battery was worth. Plus the Ryobi line trimmer was pathetic that reminds me why I never used it regularly and that's why it died in the first place.
I would recommend taking a look at 'Quick Test Hook Clips' - and go get some ;ø) - they are nearly completely insulated, where only the tip itself is exposed (but it retracts into the insulated tube when disconnected) They are often easier to connect directly onto the battery welding taps directly, and not as the alligator clips onto connections/components on the BMS, where they can easily jump off, then move/slide around and short stuff you really don't want to short. Nice fix, hopefully the cells didn't take any damage from being discharged nearly completely
I've "jump started" these types using a higher voltage battery connected to the dead battery... This has worked some of the times to allow the charger to recognize that the battery has some life... A little shortcut from what you did...
Am I correct in taking from this, that the circuit board (the balancer?) was preventing the charging of the individual cells? If so, why is it designed to do that? Perhaps there is some other video that explains the reason why?
The circuit board is there to protect the batteries,, if your drill motor shorts out, it makes sure you are not also shorting out the batteries,, to larger loses than just a drill. Also,, If two cells in the battery was shorted and you started to charge with 18-20volt,, not good!
Great video, thanks. My problem is that my battery got wet in the rain and now doesn’t work. The charger indicates it is no good. I was going to take it apart and spray with contact cleaner and see if there are any obvious defects. What would you do please?
Does the battery have a self protect function built in? Will it stop providing power if the voltage drops below a safe voltage, or will it allow the batttery to drain to zero? Maybe the protection is in the tool?
Ryobi should have put in the proection circuit, it is expensive enough. My cheaper "Works" brand even indicates battery capacity with 4 LEDs on the tool itself. When showing the last led, it can happen after a while that the tool shuts down, protecting the battery from deep discharge. I really like that feature.
Would you be able to connect the battery in parallel to another Ryobi+ battery just so you get some charge into it to be able to continue charging in a proper charger. Or would that damage the inside board?
Great video about batteries with a balancer board. Many fix powertool batteries videos on TH-cam tend to be the ones that do not have the balancer board on the battery unit. I do have a question for these types of batteries: Suppose that if one does not have a laboratory power supply, one can simulate the same voltage by direct connecting the terminals to a working identical spare battery that is fully charged?
My Ryobi drill batt did the same thing flashed no good so i stuck wire to pos and one neg used my car bat charger with lythium opp and it charged fine and in only 5 min full charge works great in drill
I would check all the cells for voltage, and if all just seams to be way to low.. I would start with 12v 200-300mAh for like 10min,, and then try on the normal charger.
Good job! Btw, do you think I need to worry about the voltage if one cell only reads 1.8Volts as opposed to another that reads 3.8Volts and both are brand new and never used or charged? Purchased them a month ago.
Yes,, if it does not keep the cells at the same voltages,, it is not working. You can charge the 1.8volt cell up to what the others are,, but if it does it again,, the BMS is bad,, and you need to use your warranty...
If it's only one month old I would take it back to where you purchased it and get your warranty on it then may possibly just hand you another brand new battery / Because like he says if you take that 1 little screw out on the left side and they noticed that that little plastic cap has been tempered with it may void your warranty on that risinap or else if you go ahead and get the warranty you don't have to worry about it at all/ But like all the batteries I have laying around the house I have 10 of them do not work I own them and I don't care if I void the warranty if they come back to life that is super super super super fantastic
It would have been good to see what current the draw was without it connected to anything i.e. was there still a fault on the PCB causing it to discharge, maybe a microprocessor not going to sleep. I would expect a battery to still be ok after at least 5 or 6 months without any work.
I'm racking up boxes of lithium batteries myself - especially finding mower battery packs lately that will charge. I have over 20 of these Ryobi battery packs that will charge to 20v(if i connect straight to battery) but they won't charge if I connect the charger to the BMS. Does the OEM ryobi charger talk to the board telling the bms to switch on to charge the battery or something?
@@MyPlayHouse no. If i connect power straight to the battery when it is below 20v, no board will send the power to charge the battery. Maybe the charger actually talks to the BMS to activate to charge. Some brands of drills I find if I do this, power immediately reaches to charge the batteries. Personally, being most Ryobi batteries I find are still good, I have a feeling the BMS is set to stop working at a time. In other words, the batteries are actually still good and they just want to make you buy more batteries. Or else, find what stops it from charging. I can't image only this company makes crappy BMSs that so many go bad. (fyi I tried the reset, no go)
So if you use the battery in a tool and draw down the voltage will it charge back again in a regular charger? I can charge my battery and it will run a power tool but left for a day and it will be dead. Batteries are no longer made for my model.😥
If you use up all the power in your Ryobi battery, and let it sit a cold place for a couple of months with out charging it up,, you might run into this.
I have repaired a few Dewalt and Bosch batteries but had to replace the circuit board because they have a memory so even if you charge the battery and put it back together they register as bad and will not charge obviously to force most people to buy a new expensive battery just because they tried to drill one to many holes, they could make the chargers with a recovery slow charge setting but would lose a lot of battery sales.
The Ryobi battery i have just repaired seems to go into a sleep mode in a couple of minutes of no use .If i measure the terminals fully charged i only get 8.5 v no load , if i then put the battery in a drill and operate for a few seconds then take the battery back out and measure it says 20.5v .Leaving the meter connected to the terminals it goes back to 8.5v after a couple of minutes .Battery works fine now , but is this right ?
I have nog run in to that yet,, it has this fare only been batteries that has become to discharged to start charging. But this is not my job,, at all so I am sure broken PCB's happen.
Have you any experience with Rigid brand batteries? One of my tools got left in the rain and now it tests as charged, all lights come on, but it won't make a tool work, no output to the tool, I'm a mechanic but know very little about electronics, thanks
If the small electronic inside has gotten wet,, you might have to dry it with compressed air and put it somewhere warm for some days. and check the contacts.
Hi You seem to gloss over the issue of the screw driving keys and the labatory charging equipment, and the voltage tester. You may be surprised to learn that most people are unfamiliar with these tools, their: names, their cost, and where they're available to purchase? The process you carried out to revive the battery cells was impressive, but lacking the required tool details. Can you advise? Regards Robert
There must be differences between countries design of Ryobi batteries or versions. For one. The output voltage won't show on terminals unless a load is applied for one I have. Secondly, the bms seems to fail and unrecoverable when cells fail. So it seems some are recoverable but in my experience the bms is programmed to not accepting resetting. I'm in Australia. My Makita batteries on the other hand seemed more fixable and longer lasting. I think Ryobi cheap out on cell quality these days.
@@MyPlayHouse it's why we have BMS that shut off when voltage gets low. Also average people don't have bench PSUs or open battery packs. You might find "no user serviceable parts inside"
Not sure if you can help. My 18 volt battery has 18.40 at the battery and 6.30 at each battery. Where I plug the battery in .33. The lights are blinking all 4 green. How can I fix?
You're missing a few more tests. Charge to 100% leave 24 hours check charge. Drain in a light power tool, test voltage and charge. This could be a simple just left uncharged for a while
I had what I think was a similar problem, in that it would not charge on the fast(?) charger. I also have a basic slow charger, (both Ryobi) and it would charge on that. Battery now seems fine.
I have one with a different issue. It charges, but every time I release the rigger it doesn't want to run for a second or two. It also pulsates when it's running. The problem went away at one point, but returned after I charged it. My other battery doesn't have this problem. Any advice? Thanks
could you use a 12 volt(usually actually 14 volts) automobile battery to charge these, since most of us don't have those neat charging gizmos like you made there, nor have the electronic knowledge nor materials to make them?...
I have a 6ah Ryobi battery that i got a surprise when I went to use it in My Impact Drill. It did /nothing, yet when I pushed the button for checking level, It showed fully charged. When I took My volt meter to check for the voltage, I got a 7v reading so put it in charger & charger told Me "Defective". Now what happened is I forgot to bring the battery inside, It got wet last night from the rain. Any Ideas?
That sounds like a bad board :-/ I do not know how to fix that yet. If you would like to donate your dead battery for me to try and fix it,, my shipping address is under the about tab on my channel.
I have two Ryobi 18 volt batteries that are putting out 20 v testing directly from the battery. But at the tower only 8 v., PCB screwed? Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Yes,, go through the cells and make sure they are all about the same voltage 🤔 but that is about it. If you give up on it,, do ship it to me,, might be a video there 😳
Only a nine volt battery is required mate try it will save you a lot of time as you said you only need a little so the charger can recognise the battery
DO NOT LEAVE THESE BATTERIES ATTACHED TO TOOLS!!!!! The tool's switches do NOT DISCONNECT THE BATTERY WHEN OFF! They will slowly discharge over time and then go below the acceptable voltage for the battery protection circuit. The smaller the capacity of the battery the faster it reaches that low voltage threshold....
We did it and it started charging but then it pooped out again and lights went red/green :( oh well... nothing ventured nothing gained. Any suggestions for furthering the process?
There is a link to a video in the description, for a later video I did, using simpler methods. You do not need this much stuff, and it would be more expensive than a new battery to get it all. :-)
@@MyPlayHouse I used my DC power supply (which I suppose regulates the current draw) and incrementally increased voltage on the Ryobi battery pack (in 1 or 2 second bursts until it reached 14 volts. Current draw rarely spiked above 1amp and would immediately drop to zero. I slowly raised the voltage and the current draw became fairly smooth, generally less than 100 milliamps. I threw it on a charger, and it charged!! Successfully operated the tool as well. Thanks again for your help.
I usually give it about 10-20 seconds from dead.. then switch to lipo. I have Turnigy nano-tech 30-60c discharge 7.4v 2S saddle packs 5000mah. New on LiPO they SWELL right away and fatigue after about 10 charges needing revival. They are the flat 3x brick style like a cellphone battery not the cylinder type cells. ElectriFly Triton EQ $300 charger. It automatically charges at 3.5amps... I reduced the charge to 3500 mah hoping they don't pop. And have about 30 charges total now. I've herd your not supposed to run over 5 minutes because of heat and get 3-4 runs between charges.. the speed control has a low V cut off. Maybe it's too low?
it's possible that the battery got so low due to a fault that was draining current slowly. is a good idea when recovering an over-discharged battery to charge it only to the normal "empty" state of 2.5-3v per cell (make them all match), and then let it sit for several days to see if it holds the voltage. It will drop slightly (like 0.1v) within 15 minutes after taking off the charge but after that settles it should hold the same level easily for a couple of days. If it does, then that clears the concern of a slow draining fault and you can then charge up to full capacity in a regular charger and again, check with your meter that all cells are balanced (full = 4.2v for Li-Ion, maybe 4.15v after taking off the charger) and let it sit a day or two at least to know that it doesn't drain.
Why did they get so low? The circuit is supposed to stop discharge when the cells get to their minimum discharge voltage. [~2.6V - 3.0V per cell] When Lithium cells are over discharged, it damages the cell. Cells should be charged individually, never in a series format because you NEVER apply more than 4.2V to a cell and series charging because of differentials in each cells ability to take a charge one or more cells can have more than 4.2V applied to them while charging in series. That is why the BMS [Battery Managment System] has a wire going to each point where cells are connected together and at each end of the series pack. A fully charged 5 cell pack will be @ 21.0V [4.2 X 5] Nominal rating is 3.6V per cell which is why they rate the pack at 18V.
After I repair these Ryobi 18volt batteries I place them on a load tester that I made to verify they really work. Just recharging them doesn't necessarily mean they're fixed. Even placing them in a tool, making sure it turns on, doesn't provide much testing. The real test is placing a load to determine whether it’s going to hold up under load for a certain amount of time. The load tester I made uses a 10-ohm 100-watt power resistor with a heat sink and a fan along with a meter showing the battery voltage and the amount of current being drawn. If the battery’s voltage is at 20 volts that means the load is drawing 2 amperes.
The BMS should take back over and balances and start managing the battery again.
If this does not happen,, most people are best off, replacing the battery.
But most of the time the battery,, is just to low and the BMS thinks it is F***ed.
Maybe it took so much time to charge because the bms balanced the cells. .I would have checked the voltage on every cell to test if they vere balanced in the end. But nice video🙏😘
How did you get 2 amps did you calculate using the formula
E = I x R or P = I x E ?
I=P÷E P=I x E E = P ÷ I E = I x R
I=amps. Solve for amperage
P=watts. 100 watt resistor
E=volts 20 volts
I=100÷20
I=5 amps
R = resistance 10 ohms
I = E÷R
20 ÷ 10 = 2 amps
I have done this repair on several batteries packs.... in Many cases, one or more of the cells.to be replaced with a working cell. This is much more difficult and potentially dangerous because of the design. Be careful, if these cells are shorted or overheat, they could potentially explode.
How did you make your load tester? Can u post on your TH-cam channel a step by step please xo
You just earned my subscription! I used your suggestion on a Bissel vacumn that incredibly does NOT allow you to replace the battery! I charged it at 15 volts and 120 milliamps just like you did and BAM fixed the battery! I also have a collection of Ryobi batteries going back over 10 years. I plan on reviving all of them too. I paid $50 for my bench power supply but it has already aid for itself. Thanks!
Thank you Very much! so happy to see that this is helping people to relive their batteries.
Morten, The United States Air Force sent me through electronics school but assigned me to a skillset of systems troubleshooting where I never did component level bench work. I am retired from Verizon after 40 years as a telecommunications technician and program manager. There is no reason that I should not be able to repair my own dead batteries. Thank you for the inspiration!
I have a multimeter, of course, and some old power supplies with the voltage and current identified; one with a switchable output. Again thanks.
Thank You,, hope you manage it!! :-)
That’s why I love my 35 year old plug in power tools. They all still work and I haven’t had to pay for expensive batteries or buy new crappy tools.
35 Years,, that is back when cassette players was the thing! corded power tools has survived time better.
yea but you also have the inconvenience of that
this is a very common problem, even with other brands of batteries.
It happened to me recently in a similar battery from ryobi, in which a single cell was discharged, and apparently defective, because after being properly charged (separately) it would discharge again, even without use...
After replacing the respective cell, it was also discharged.
Result: it was the electronic circuit that was defective and made the cell discharge.
greetings from Portugal
Okay,, that call needs to be replaced. :-/
Awesome - this process worked for me using one of the after-market batteries - didn't let it reach 15V, just reassembled and dropped it into the charger once the bench supply reached 10V, and it all worked fine then.
Excellent video - really clear and explained all the necessary detail.
Excellent! It is so cool when we save these most of the time okay batteries :-)
B
Followed this exactly today and battery is happily charging on its charger. Thanks.
Hi Barry BDM1
Thank You very much! glad you liked the video :-)
Thank you for watching! :-)
It works! Thanks so much. Just saved my first battery and I'm on to the next. Power supply has already paid for itself.
That is awesome to hear!! I do enjoy being able to help getting peoples batteries back in working order.
The most readily available means of providing the necessary starting level is a pair of 9V alkaline batteries, Connected in series the represent 18 V. Their initial current into a battery as empty as yours was would be a bit too much, like over one ampere, but you could add a third component in series with the batteries -- 100 ohm resistor and you have 180 mA maximum charging current. Use 5 W wire wound resistor, so it can dissipate the initial heat. Just like with your bench power supply, the current will decay when the battery voltage increases. Of course, you still should have a volt meter to verify the process, starting with a check that all cells are still OK. If any one of them is all the way down to zero, or even reversed, you probably need to do some cell replacement before expecting a successful repair.
Good sugestion, with the two 9 volt,,, in my case here I could start by using one 9v,, and get the ryobi up to that, and then on to two batteries.
excellent idea. I always figured just get it up to 12.6 from a car battery, then try the charger. Should work as well.
@ My PlayHouse
I just discovered that I made the same exercis with an RB18L20 battery as you do in your video.
But I accidentally discovered a way to revive it without taking it apart.
Connect two wires with crocodile clips to plus and minus terminals in the Ryobi charger and connect them to plus and minus on the battery. A rubber band can be used for this.
Be careful not to mix the polarity up!
What I discovered was that when I wet my thumb and index finger and held them against the plus and the terminal between plus and minus the charging started.
I also tried to replace my fingers with a 150 kOhm resistor and that worked too.
I have not figured out if it is safe to replace the resistor with a short.
When I found this out the charging was well on its way, but I think it would be sufficient with just a few minutes to reach a sufficient battery voltage to proceed with the Ryobi charger.
It seems to me that these Ryobi batteries should shut down with more juice left in them.
By the way, many car battery chargers behave in the same way, they refuse to charge a dead battery.
Humm thank You!! very cool trick.
Thanks for another entertaining video. I did some battery repairs in the past and refurbished my Gardena robomower battery pack. When reading the many articles on this topic, you could conclude that the BMS should prevent the battery pack from discharging to such a low level. So when you have an undercharged pack, you should ask yourself why it has discharged? BMS partly defective, battery stored at too low temperatures? When 3.7 li-ion cells discharge below 2V or so, a chemical process starts dissolving the cathode and/or anode and the overall performance drops. So even when reactivating a pack in the way shown in this video, you may discover that the pack has lost lots of its capacity or will self discharge rapidly. Would be a pity when you arrive in Portugal and it is empty again... On the other hand, there are worse excuses to find a reason to go to Portugal.
It was fine when I got it back to Portugal :-)
I think the batteries become way under charged when the battery is left discharged for to long.
The saw is usually called a Jigsaw in English speaking countries. It's now been 52 years since I used Danish every day, so I've forgotten the correct term in my own language (which is crazy). Nice solution to that battery. A bench power supply is a very useful idea. I've used Ryobi equipment since about 1992 & still have some 14.4 volt drill-drivers. Also about 12 different 18+ tools of all kinds. Nice to see another Dane on TH-cam.
Thanks for sharing! we Danes are all over the place,,, Det hedder en stiksaw :-)
I recently did a similar treatment to revive four Porter-Cable packs. They were purchased in 2019 as door prizes for the local woodworking club but before they could be given out, COVID happened. When the two drill sets were finally given, the packs were all dead and would not take a charge. I pushed current into each for five minutes with a charger that was not "Smart" and then each of the four packs took a charge from the Porter-Cable equipment, and the door prize manager was very happy. My theory is that there is something in the internal circuit board that draws a small current, enough to flatten the battery completely in two years.
Balancer,, making sure the cells are at the same voltage 😬
This is good to see. I've got several Ryobi lithium batteries that are getting rather old. I've also got a couple of lab power supplies that I scavenged from the trash pile at work (I've tested one of them and it works great). I'm surprised they didn't glue the case together. I once took apart a battery for my old Roomba vacuum and they had not only put in security screws, but glued the damned thing together.
I am happy that they did not glue it :-)
Glad you liked the video..
Thank you for the video!
I used a car battery charger on trickle charge for 30 seconds, shot it up to 15 Volts! I stuck the probes from my amp meter in the same spots as he used alligator clips, then made some pig tails out of 16 gauge wire to connect the car battery charger.
Good job 👍
With the batteries having been left to go so low there may yet be consequences - increased self-discharge or whatever. I don't usually see all 5 cells go down so evenly. By the way, if you use a cheap 12v supply to do this you probably want a series resistor to current limit. The other option would be a CC/CV buck converter which is about the cheapest CC device on ebay these days.
Hi Rhian Taylor
Thank You very much! glad you liked the video :-)
Thank you for watching! :-)
I agree with your statement that severely discharged cells often experience high self-discharge. After rebuilding dozens of these I've found that the degree of self-discharge is directly related to the length of time they were left below 2.00 Volts. You'll see progressively worse self-discharging with extended durations at low voltages.
(e.g. ----> 1 day sitting below 2.00 Volts = very slight self-discharge when you finally charge it back up to 4.20 Volts. However, 6 months or more sitting below 2.00 Volts = high self-discharge when you finally charge it back up to 4.20 Volts).
The same problem can be said about the cell's capacity. For example: a 3000mAh cell that is discharged down to 2.00 Volts and left to sit for a month will only recover about 2700mAh when you finally do charge it back up. If you were to let it sit for another month at 2.00 Volts, it will likely drop to about 1.50 Volts and the recoverable capacity will only be about 2500mAh. If you still didn't charge it up and let it sit for another month, the voltage will Likely drop to 1.20 Volts... with a best case capacity recovery of only 2200mAh when you finally charge it up.
Last comment... the internal resistance of the cell is also affected. The internal resistance will increase from abuse (voltage dropping too low for too long, overcharging, high heat, fast charging, or fast discharging) and gradually start to limit the maximum current the cell is capable of delivering to your power tools. The cells will still function with a high internal resistance, but don't expect high currents from these cells.
I have heard yhat allowing the cells to be discharged too low for too long causes actual chemical changes that may be irreversible. Result no charge.
Nice video, I also use a lot of Ryobi tools ( their commitment to keep using the same battery for most of their tools is amazing) and I’m from Belgium but living already for 24 years in Portugal. Love your videos
Same battery for lots of tools are brilliant!! I am looking to buy a places in Portugal :-)
What I found was that when a battery is fully discharged, it does exactly this.
The fix I used didn't involve dismantling the battery at all. Plug in the battery, you get the red blinking light, the tick symbol means that the charger is communicating with the battery okay. Wait ten seconds, and remove the battery. Repeat a few times, until the battery indicates it is charging, which is steady red and flashing green. My maximum tries was about 10, I think.
Interesting,, I will try that next time I have a dodgy non charging battery.
When you mentioned about being able to recharge a over discharged pack like this using a 12v battery but the current would be too high, this could be done by using a suitable sized resistor in the circuit to limit the current or any suitable resistive load such as one or more 12v car bulbs.
Yes a 12v car bulb is a good sugestion.
The protecting circuit board is protecting the cells against charging. That is pretty cool.
Well in this case it’s being a little bit to protective 😄
Ryobi should be sponsoring you... I have literally spent over £1,000 on Ryobi products because of your channel!
I do not disagree :-) do you have any cool tools that I do not have?
Sensational salvage of a perfectly good battery!
Thank You very much!
Excellent video. I have a Ryobi battery that I have been unwilling to throw out for years. It may be too far gone but I'm going to try this out.
Good luck! hope you get them going!!
I called Ryobi and I gave them the serial number, they looked it up and my battery was less than 3 years old and they sent me a new battery!
I do like your solution,, did you get to keep the "not charging one" ?
If you leave the low charged battery in your tool and not charge it , over time your amp charge will drop off and the voltage will become under the threshold for the electronics and will lock the battery out from the charger.
A 12 volt charger is fine but one should do it for about 1/2 a minute or so, just to bring it up to about 8 volts surface charge achievement (as it will drop fairly soon, but just to get it over the line and let the Ryobi charger to take over. Just place the internal pack in its receptacle trays and whack it in. Screw it up later. I've done one; it works.
If, you have uneven cell voltages, (battery shows full, but you can't run anything,) you need to make all cells differ in voltage by only 0.1 of a volt. Make sure you don't have over charged cell(s) or you need to draw them down. Hook up your simple drill and run to drain. (Obviously a direct relevant cell connection to your drill terminals. Know your positive and negative terminations. Bring up your weak cell voltages. Use a bench charger for this as shown, as you must have all cells within 0.1 of a volt difference between all cells. (I had two at about 1.4 volts. The others were full, but I drew them down.)
When all of this has been achieved, there is one more step: On the circuit board the are a series of test points in a small row. They start from an outer edge and head in. There are 4 solder plated holes on the circuit board. One is labeled RST (reset) side by side is a GND test point. Short between these two. Also near is the 4.4 volt test point. Find all this; you're in the right spot. All this is down the monitoring end; not where the power transistor is with it's heat sink. Whack it in the charger and see what you get? (I got all this info from another youtuber.)
All these batteries that I'm working on were left for months either in the tool near flat or may be only partially discharged but out of the tool? I'm not sure on the one with two low cells snd the rest were fully charged? I'm thinking may be after you've had a decent run with the tool on any battery, the evening up between cells may take time after a period from the job; so keep it connected for a time? Or that they just drain over months and months in the tool and over that time discharge unevenly as you leave them in the device?
Lithium ion needs to stay charged, so take it out of the power equipment to charge but after, let sit by itself, until a check up or use?
The old NiCads, I would leave them flat when in storage. Seemed to last that way. Charging those up and not using them, just stuffed them with charge memory...
Thank you,, this was a long one :-) I have done a few more videos on this.
Good video to learn about battery salvaging but should have checked individual cell voltages during charging to see cell health/ balance for better diagnoses of battery condition
I checked the cells,, and there was nothing pointing at a bad cell,, and the ryobi charger will detect a low cell.
If the cells are unbslance, can they be rebalance?
I've learned from experience that leaving the battery in an unplugged charger will completely flatten it like that Seems to be a design "feature" of the Ryobi chargers
That is a good suggestion to what could have happened.
I've thought the same whenever unplugging charger disconnect battery as well. In a normal transformer type charger battery is part of circuit. But if no charge current applied to primary windings, then secondaries will slowly drain bat.
Now I don't know about modern digital chargers but I don't take chances.
Same thing with the actual tools, the switches don't disconnect the batteries when off!
Hello from the USA! Very informative video! Owning six Ryobi tools and my fair share of batteries I now know (thanks to you) what to look for when they won't take a charge.
Glad to help! hope you can keep your batteries going for longer :-)
The cells seem to be pretty well balanced on low 0.3 Volts. The balancer is working pretty well.👍👍👍👍
Yes it has been busy 🤔
the batteries should not go below 3v other wise they will be damaged and no the balancer is crap and is not doing it job that it needs to
Great video, I have a plethora of Ryobi tools and batteries and this is very helpful I'm going to get a power supply and put it to work. I look forward to watching some of your other videos I also would like to build a battery pack for the home once I get some solar cells up and working.
Glad it helped,, do start by watching this one : th-cam.com/video/aM_HhjdVpwU/w-d-xo.html
It might save you even more on fixing your battery.
Nice video presentation and very informative. I found your lab power supply available here in the states but I also found another one half the voltage but includes a USB port which I think would be most helpful on other devices testing and a four place LED display. As for the voltage draining so deeply on that battery pack I've come across an interesting issue with Ryobi tools specifically their FM radio attachment which apparently has a parasitic draw on the battery even when it is in the power off position which necessitates removing the battery when not using the radio. I have since then always remove the batteries from all my tools regardless of mfgr or the tool when not in use just in case other tools have that parasitic voltage draining.
Hi Top C
Thank You very much! glad you liked the video :-)
Thank you for watching! :-)
It looks like that "thing" is likely a current shunt to measure the voltage drop across for measuring battery current.
It is also possible a thermistor is under it to also monitor the temperature of the current shunt.
These are both things that have commonly been used over the years on various battery monitor circuits.
Well the battery was probably discharged and left in a box for ½ a year,, and tried to balances or something.. It still works!
You guys make a nice couple. those batteries never last
Best tool battery’s I have ever had.
I processed thousand of lithium cells from recycle laptop computers for my solar battery pack. 18650 cells identical to the Ryobi. I also fixed numerous Ryobi pack from 18v to 24v to 40V. all used 18650 cells. Not only Ryobi but DeWalt, Milwaukee, Craftsman, Black and Decker, Ego. I became an expert in the process mainly build lithium solar pack for the whole house. They all use lithium cell either the round or flat pack.
There are two things that always will fix the pack for the Ryobi. 18V or any voltage.
1. unbalance cell with one or more cell defective; the fix is to replace the weak cell but internal resistance needs to match up or guarantee failure again
2. the power mosfet is cooked or damaged board from water or dirt
to fix no1. requires a special charger to bring extremely low voltage. 0 - 2.5v back to 4.1V, an impedance tester to measure internal resistance for matching, mismatched of resistance will guarantee failure again; internal resistance : lower is better and all has to closely matched
lithium lasts the longest of 25% discharge to 80% charge with slow charge up to 4.1V. 3.2V to 4V is ideal for longest longevity
whole pack charge will not work for really weak cell; it requires individual cell charge one at a time
to fix no2. if board is good is to simply bypass the mosfet; a simple short to ground of the mosfet will fix it; it is ground switching for the negative mosfet
There is more than just charge and recharge; ability to fix requires deeper knowledge and a special charger; I build that special charger NOT sold in any store.
I no longer buy any lithium battery pack because there are ton of stuffs out there to runs on lithium. OUr modern world is not possible without lithium battery. EV car is coming up and they all run on lithium battery. Identical cell voltage of 4.1v per cell as power tool pack.
Know how to revive lithium battery will open a whole new world of things for free because when anything that uses them that has a bad battery that item is either throw out or sell for dirt cheap.
My special tools are special charger to revive dead dead lithium cell, a tab welder, a battery impedance tester and know how. That is what really needs to fix any lithium battery, include EV battery. I build the special charger and a tab welder myself.
Lithium battery is the future and here to stay. BTW Ryobi is my favorite brand. I have many power tools of this brand, include garden tools.
Hi what must
Thank You very much! glad you liked the video :-)
Thank you for watching! :-)
What do you recommend, leave the batteries on the charger? I have a Ryobi blower and whipper sniper at my beach house some batteries, one charger transformer gets rather hot and I don’t like to leave it on and in the power point in case it starts a fire. Should I just leave them connected all the time? Thanks. 🇦🇺👍🍺
No,, do not leave it on the charger,, but charge it up, if you have used it up. Do not leave it flat for very long.
I've heard that the lights kill more batteries than anything else if it is left turned on, draining the battery completely dead. But the modern electronics in batteries and tools may have solved that problem?
Anything that does not cut off when the voltages becomes to low,, will do that.
Tanks for sharing that way to fix a battery, but I have a question to you and an advise:
Q: why is that you need to disassemble the battery just to connect the charger into + and - ( init and end of 5 batteries in SERIE) if that is the same you do when inserting the battery tower into the charger?
Adv: cut the smallest side of your ALLENS and insert that cut side into a drill, as a bit, you will easily remove Allen head screws very easy.
If there is maybe two cells inside the battery that is shorted. And I try and relive it with maybe 15volt. then there are only 3 cells to try and take that 15volt,, and bad things can happen if charged more than 4.2volt.
The problem is that discharging lipo cells below a certain voltage is often a death sentence, and while you can recharge them using this, or similar methods, they often never recover back to the same amount of power they had prior, so while it will work it will likely have reduced capacity. going forward. For example, instead of 2ah it might only be be 1.5ah, so will the battery will die sooner than usual going forward and have to be recharged more often. I expect this is the reason they refuse to charge below 12v; Also to ensure tools performs optimally, or to avoid customers complaining that the batteries die quickly.
Sometimes you can apply high current pulses to the battery, in order to undo the dendrites that have formed on the electrode, but might not work in all situations (this works on some situations because it causes the electrode to heat up, so flux will cause surface diffusion, which 'smooths' the dendrites).
I have fixed 4 of these,, same thing every time.
@@MyPlayHouse Yeah, it will definitely get it working again, my worry is whether or not the battery will have a slightly diminished capacity afterwards.
The only real way to test the capacity would be a load test that discharges the battery over time so you can calculate the Ah based on how long it takes the voltage to drop from charged to when the pack shuts off at a given resistance. For example, on the tester I built, I used a 36 ohm high wattage resistor, which dissipates 0.5a (~9w), so if it takes 8hrs to discharge, then the capacity is 4ah, if it takes 2hrs, the capacity is 1ah, etc.
I think it would have been prudent to check the voltage of each cell after charging, and also try to do some work with a tool. Cut a piece of wood for example. Nonetheless, I learned a lot from this video. Thanks.
as the cells was all equally low,, I did not suspect that any cells was bad.
I still couldn't fix my Ryobi battery and it was just a 2Ah version anyway. My Bunnings (large hardware store in Australia) had a trade in program so it was worth AUD50 towards DeWalt batteries so I saved more than the battery was worth. Plus the Ryobi line trimmer was pathetic that reminds me why I never used it regularly and that's why it died in the first place.
If the battery is under warranty that is an option,, I have also made videos fixing DeWalt batteries,, they more or less fails just as much.
Thanks for the video which is very good. Would I be able to do this with a 12volt trickle charger?
I have also done this video : th-cam.com/video/aM_HhjdVpwU/w-d-xo.html
Fixing the battery with very simple tools.
I would recommend taking a look at 'Quick Test Hook Clips' - and go get some ;ø)
- they are nearly completely insulated, where only the tip itself is exposed (but it retracts into the insulated tube when disconnected)
They are often easier to connect directly onto the battery welding taps directly, and not as the alligator clips onto connections/components on the BMS, where they can easily jump off, then move/slide around and short stuff you really don't want to short.
Nice fix, hopefully the cells didn't take any damage from being discharged nearly completely
I do have some of those,, somewhere..
Don't you just love knowledgeable and helpful people?
I do enjoy, hearing that people relieved there batteries, and saved $30-$50.. I do enjoy that..
Nice, thanks. I'd be interested in just how much power that 2Ah battery still will hold, as well as if it holds a charge over time and not used.
Li-ion are rather good at keeping a charge over a long period. It’s usually the electronics that mess up 😳
@@MyPlayHouse Thanks. How about actual capacity now?
I've "jump started" these types using a higher voltage battery connected to the dead battery...
This has worked some of the times to allow the charger to recognize that the battery has some life...
A little shortcut from what you did...
This is kind of also what I do in this video,, lift the voltages just enough for the charger to take over. Thank You for watching.
Am I correct in taking from this, that the circuit board (the balancer?) was preventing the charging of the individual cells? If so, why is it designed to do that? Perhaps there is some other video that explains the reason why?
The circuit board is there to protect the batteries,, if your drill motor shorts out, it makes sure you are not also shorting out the batteries,, to larger loses than just a drill. Also,, If two cells in the battery was shorted and you started to charge with 18-20volt,, not good!
Great video, thanks. My problem is that my battery got wet in the rain and now doesn’t work. The charger indicates it is no good. I was going to take it apart and spray with contact cleaner and see if there are any obvious defects. What would you do please?
It's not good when they become wet,, You might be able to save it using this video,, bit it is not as easy : th-cam.com/video/Wx2lC6vsEjw/w-d-xo.html
Does the battery have a self protect function built in? Will it stop providing power if the voltage drops below a safe voltage, or will it allow the batttery to drain to zero? Maybe the protection is in the tool?
Ryobi should have put in the proection circuit, it is expensive enough. My cheaper "Works" brand even indicates battery capacity with 4 LEDs on the tool itself. When showing the last led, it can happen after a while that the tool shuts down, protecting the battery from deep discharge. I really like that feature.
Yes,, this is why the charger does not charge it,, it was discharged and left for to long,,way to long in this case.
Would you be able to connect the battery in parallel to another Ryobi+ battery just so you get some charge into it to be able to continue charging in a proper charger. Or would that damage the inside board?
I have not tried that,,, that would be interesting to test.... but I am out of failed batteries for now :-)
Great video about batteries with a balancer board. Many fix powertool batteries videos on TH-cam tend to be the ones that do not have the balancer board on the battery unit. I do have a question for these types of batteries: Suppose that if one does not have a laboratory power supply, one can simulate the same voltage by direct connecting the terminals to a working identical spare battery that is fully charged?
You are so lucky 🍀
See what I made : th-cam.com/video/aM_HhjdVpwU/w-d-xo.html
How to fix the batteries without a laboratory power supply 🤗
My Ryobi drill batt did the same thing flashed no good so i stuck wire to pos and one neg used my car bat charger with lythium opp and it charged fine and in only 5 min full charge works great in drill
I did another video,, and fixed the batteries rally simple : th-cam.com/video/aM_HhjdVpwU/w-d-xo.html
Great video! I have 9AH battery that failed to charge for couple years now. What Volt and Amp should I start with? Tank you
I would check all the cells for voltage, and if all just seams to be way to low.. I would start with 12v 200-300mAh for like 10min,, and then try on the normal charger.
@@MyPlayHouse Thank you
Great content!!
What’s the name of the video showing how the science charger works? I’ve looked and must be overlooking it. Thanks
Maybe this is what you mean : th-cam.com/video/3P014_gAJUk/w-d-xo.html
Good job! Btw, do you think I need to worry about the voltage if one cell only reads 1.8Volts as opposed to another that reads 3.8Volts and both are brand new and never used or charged? Purchased them a month ago.
Yes,, if it does not keep the cells at the same voltages,, it is not working. You can charge the 1.8volt cell up to what the others are,, but if it does it again,, the BMS is bad,, and you need to use your warranty...
If it's only one month old I would take it back to where you purchased it and get your warranty on it then may possibly just hand you another brand new battery / Because like he says if you take that 1 little screw out on the left side and they noticed that that little plastic cap has been tempered with it may void your warranty on that risinap or else if you go ahead and get the warranty you don't have to worry about it at all/ But like all the batteries I have laying around the house I have 10 of them do not work I own them and I don't care if I void the warranty if they come back to life that is super super super super fantastic
It would have been good to see what current the draw was without it connected to anything i.e. was there still a fault on the PCB causing it to discharge, maybe a microprocessor not going to sleep. I would expect a battery to still be ok after at least 5 or 6 months without any work.
I hear that it is still okay..
I'm racking up boxes of lithium batteries myself - especially finding mower battery packs lately that will charge.
I have over 20 of these Ryobi battery packs that will charge to 20v(if i connect straight to battery) but they won't charge if I connect the charger to the BMS. Does the OEM ryobi charger talk to the board telling the bms to switch on to charge the battery or something?
I think the BMS in the battery tells the charger if it wants a charge or not.
@@MyPlayHouse no. If i connect power straight to the battery when it is below 20v, no board will send the power to charge the battery. Maybe the charger actually talks to the BMS to activate to charge.
Some brands of drills I find if I do this, power immediately reaches to charge the batteries.
Personally, being most Ryobi batteries I find are still good, I have a feeling the BMS is set to stop working at a time. In other words, the batteries are actually still good and they just want to make you buy more batteries. Or else, find what stops it from charging. I can't image only this company makes crappy BMSs that so many go bad. (fyi I tried the reset, no go)
thanks - needed exactly this and I already have the lab power supply
Best of luck fixing it,, and please do let me know if it works out for you.
So if you use the battery in a tool and draw down the voltage will it charge back again in a regular charger?
I can charge my battery and it will run a power tool but left for a day and it will be dead. Batteries are no longer made for my model.😥
If you use up all the power in your Ryobi battery, and let it sit a cold place for a couple of months with out charging it up,, you might run into this.
I have repaired a few Dewalt and Bosch batteries but had to replace the circuit board because they have a memory so even if you charge the battery and put it back together they register as bad and will not charge obviously to force most people to buy a new expensive battery just because they tried to drill one to many holes, they could make the chargers with a recovery slow charge setting but would lose a lot of battery sales.
Hi heli-man-2007
Thank You very much! glad you liked the video :-)
Thank you for watching! :-)
Good morning, a question, if I place 5 more batteries, can this module energize them?
I think the limit will be the two mos-fet´s that protects the battery,,, might be to much for them :-/
The Ryobi battery i have just repaired seems to go into a sleep mode in a couple of minutes of no use .If i measure the terminals fully charged i only get 8.5 v no load , if i then put the battery in a drill and operate for a few seconds then take the battery back out and measure it says 20.5v .Leaving the meter connected to the terminals it goes back to 8.5v after a couple of minutes .Battery works fine now , but is this right ?
I have not seen that,,,
Would have been interesting to see individual cell voltage after your initial charge. And then again after a couple of days.
Yes,, sorry I did not do that,, that would have been nice to see if they had charged up equally.
Thank for this interesting video.... do you have a link to the bench power unit?
Thank you!,, There is a ling in the video description
I love your enthusiasm.
Hi David Worsley
Thank You very much! glad you liked the video :-)
Thank you for watching! :-)
How often do you find a defective circuit board? Can you fix them?
I have nog run in to that yet,, it has this fare only been batteries that has become to discharged to start charging.
But this is not my job,, at all so I am sure broken PCB's happen.
Have you any experience with Rigid brand batteries? One of my tools got left in the rain and now it tests as charged, all lights come on, but it won't make a tool work, no output to the tool, I'm a mechanic but know very little about electronics, thanks
If the small electronic inside has gotten wet,, you might have to dry it with compressed air and put it somewhere warm for some days. and check the contacts.
Hi
You seem to gloss over the issue of the screw driving keys and the labatory charging equipment, and the voltage tester.
You may be surprised to learn that most people are unfamiliar with these tools, their: names, their cost, and where they're available to purchase?
The process you carried out to revive the battery cells was impressive, but lacking the required tool details.
Can you advise?
Regards
Robert
Yes,, the top comment here is one I pinned,, with a video I made, fixing two Ryobi batteries, using simple tools.
There must be differences between countries design of Ryobi batteries or versions. For one. The output voltage won't show on terminals unless a load is applied for one I have. Secondly, the bms seems to fail and unrecoverable when cells fail. So it seems some are recoverable but in my experience the bms is programmed to not accepting resetting. I'm in Australia. My Makita batteries on the other hand seemed more fixable and longer lasting. I think Ryobi cheap out on cell quality these days.
The batteries are the same,, but a 18v battery here is a 20v battery in the US,,,, a bit weird.
@@MyPlayHouse I've seen LG and Samsung bats used in Ryobi. The LG seem the worse
I have never worried about the cells,,, all the issues I have run in to this far,, has been low voltages.
@@MyPlayHouse mine have been CID popped mostly.
Lithium Ions should not really be used if they went below 2.5v.
Heard that they can be short circuited internally due to a chemical reaction
If this was so,,there would be a big scary sticker, warning you about this. On everything that could ever end up in the US.
@@MyPlayHouse it's why we have BMS that shut off when voltage gets low.
Also average people don't have bench PSUs or open battery packs.
You might find "no user serviceable parts inside"
Try giving the battery a short zap from an AA battery. Sometimes that is all that’s needed to fool the charger in to charging a dead battery
I did this video a few weeks after : th-cam.com/video/aM_HhjdVpwU/w-d-xo.html
Can you fo the same thing by taking a good battery that's charged to about 60%, and jumping the terminals from one battery to the other?
I do not know,, have not tried.
Not sure if you can help. My 18 volt battery has 18.40 at the battery and 6.30 at each battery. Where I plug the battery in .33. The lights are blinking all 4 green. How can I fix?
I do not understand what you are seeing 6,3 volt,, the cells cant go over 4,2 volt,, something is way off.
Can you simply recharge the battery without taking it apart, using an appropriate bench charger?
It is a good idea to open up and check that non of the cells are shorted,, because that could be bad.
Will the cells eventually die, or can you continue your fix indefinitely?
They will become bad with time.
I have probably 4 or 5 that I'm going to try. Thanks for the video
Hope it helps you to bring them back to life!
Nice. Airways good to extend the life of things.
2020,, this still has many good years back in it!! :-)
Yes. Without airways we suffocate to death. Good observation
@@yewwtooob *always, not always. That autocorrect
You're missing a few more tests. Charge to 100% leave 24 hours check charge. Drain in a light power tool, test voltage and charge. This could be a simple just left uncharged for a while
I am a user,, I am not selling this services... I charge up the battery,, and use it! it has worked so far.
@@MyPlayHouse same here, but I need to be sure it is safe as I am not the only user of Ryobi appliances in my family.
I had what I think was a similar problem, in that it would not charge on the fast(?) charger. I also have a basic slow charger, (both Ryobi) and it would charge on that. Battery now seems fine.
Hi Graham Monk
Thank You very much! glad you liked the video :-)
Thank you for watching! :-)
I have one with a different issue. It charges, but every time I release the rigger it doesn't want to run for a second or two. It also pulsates when it's running. The problem went away at one point, but returned after I charged it. My other battery doesn't have this problem. Any advice? Thanks
Not really,, Sounds like the BMS is bad.
@@MyPlayHouse I had a feeling g it was in the circuitry. Thanks.
could you use a 12 volt(usually actually 14 volts) automobile battery to charge these, since most of us don't have those neat charging gizmos like you made there, nor have the electronic knowledge nor materials to make them?...
I do this in another video,, see my pinned comment! :-)
I have a 6ah Ryobi battery that i got a surprise when I went to use it in My Impact Drill. It did /nothing, yet when I pushed the button for checking level, It showed fully charged. When I took My volt meter to check for the voltage, I got a 7v reading so put it in charger & charger told Me "Defective". Now what happened is I forgot to bring the battery inside, It got wet last night from the rain. Any Ideas?
Yes,, but it is way more difficult :-/ but : th-cam.com/video/Wx2lC6vsEjw/w-d-xo.html
I have a similar battery. The voltage across the battery internally is 19.5 volts. But at the external terminals there is a few milivolts.
That sounds like a bad board :-/ I do not know how to fix that yet. If you would like to donate your dead battery for me to try and fix it,, my shipping address is under the about tab on my channel.
Don’t leave them in the tool during long storage as noted in the user manual and they don’t discharge too low.
I would say,, don´t discharge them and leave them in the tools or other vices to long, without charging them again.
I have two Ryobi 18 volt batteries that are putting out 20 v testing directly from the battery. But at the tower only 8 v., PCB screwed? Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Yes,, go through the cells and make sure they are all about the same voltage 🤔 but that is about it.
If you give up on it,, do ship it to me,, might be a video there 😳
@@MyPlayHouse yes all the cells are reading over four v
Only a nine volt battery is required mate try it will save you a lot of time as you said you only need a little so the charger can recognise the battery
I did a later video fixing it with simple tools...
DO NOT LEAVE THESE BATTERIES ATTACHED TO TOOLS!!!!!
The tool's switches do NOT DISCONNECT THE BATTERY WHEN OFF!
They will slowly discharge over time and then go below the acceptable voltage for the battery protection circuit.
The smaller the capacity of the battery the faster it reaches that low voltage threshold....
That does depend on the tool! But it is important to charge them up again not to long after depleting them,, within a few days...
One of my around one dozen Ryobi batteries is faulty and has the same blinking red light. I don’t have that instrument and how can I fix it??
I have pinned e comment to the top of the comments,, with a video doing just that.
This is a good way to use a bench top power supply to charge batteries and do it safely.
Hi ddistrbd1
Thank You very much! glad you liked the video :-)
Thank you for watching! :-)
Nice easy repair job :-)
Shipping costs are a bit high!
Yes,, and I am not that lazy that I am not going to put in the time to go and hand it back. :-)
I wasn't doubting your willingness to do a personal delivery off-grid :-)
How do you fix a brushless drill light comes on but nothing happens and I’ve got 4 of them
Sorry I don’t know 😬
We did it and it started charging but then it pooped out again and lights went red/green :( oh well... nothing ventured nothing gained. Any suggestions for furthering the process?
Ohh,, there could be something else wrong,,, but checking voltages on the cells,, would be where I would start.
A DC power supply like a charger for a nother tool?
Hi Bennie Knape
Thank You very much! glad you liked the video :-)
Thank you for watching! :-)
How can i purchase THE TOOLS you used to repair the battery
There is a link to a video in the description, for a later video I did, using simpler methods. You do not need this much stuff, and it would be more expensive than a new battery to get it all. :-)
Is it too dangerous to use a power supply without amperage adjustment? (It's a cheap Chinese model with adjustable voltage only).
it can be done,, but I did make a newer video,,, doing this with simple tools : th-cam.com/video/aM_HhjdVpwU/w-d-xo.html
@@MyPlayHouse I used my DC power supply (which I suppose regulates the current draw) and incrementally increased voltage on the Ryobi battery pack (in 1 or 2 second bursts until it reached 14 volts. Current draw rarely spiked above 1amp and would immediately drop to zero. I slowly raised the voltage and the current draw became fairly smooth, generally less than 100 milliamps. I threw it on a charger, and it charged!! Successfully operated the tool as well. Thanks again for your help.
My Bad...Yay You Fixed it ..New thing I learned never overdischarge...thanx very mucho..
You are welcome.
I have a RC car battery charger and you can switch to NiMh to bump a LiPo battery and get it revived to feed the LiPo sensor.
Be sure to check the charge voltages,, that it is not over 4.2volts,, and try not to charge them to fast,, slower is better :-)
I usually give it about 10-20 seconds from dead.. then switch to lipo.
I have Turnigy nano-tech 30-60c discharge 7.4v 2S saddle packs 5000mah. New on LiPO they SWELL right away and fatigue after about 10 charges needing revival. They are the flat 3x brick style like a cellphone battery not the cylinder type cells.
ElectriFly Triton EQ $300 charger. It automatically charges at 3.5amps... I reduced the charge to 3500 mah hoping they don't pop. And have about 30 charges total now. I've herd your not supposed to run over 5 minutes because of heat and get 3-4 runs between charges.. the speed control has a low V cut off. Maybe it's too low?
it's possible that the battery got so low due to a fault that was draining current slowly. is a good idea when recovering an over-discharged battery to charge it only to the normal "empty" state of 2.5-3v per cell (make them all match), and then let it sit for several days to see if it holds the voltage. It will drop slightly (like 0.1v) within 15 minutes after taking off the charge but after that settles it should hold the same level easily for a couple of days. If it does, then that clears the concern of a slow draining fault and you can then charge up to full capacity in a regular charger and again, check with your meter that all cells are balanced (full = 4.2v for Li-Ion, maybe 4.15v after taking off the charger) and let it sit a day or two at least to know that it doesn't drain.
Thank you very much!
You could charge each battery individually with a small 3V charger if you don't have a power supply as in the video.
Yes,, but that would take a lot longer.
Thanks for this clip!
Hi Nick Wong
Thank You very much! glad you liked the video :-)
Thank you for watching! :-)
Why did they get so low? The circuit is supposed to stop discharge when the cells get to their minimum discharge voltage. [~2.6V - 3.0V per cell] When Lithium cells are over discharged, it damages the cell. Cells should be charged individually, never in a series format because you NEVER apply more than 4.2V to a cell and series charging because of differentials in each cells ability to take a charge one or more cells can have more than 4.2V applied to them while charging in series. That is why the BMS [Battery Managment System] has a wire going to each point where cells are connected together and at each end of the series pack. A fully charged 5 cell pack will be @ 21.0V [4.2 X 5] Nominal rating is 3.6V per cell which is why they rate the pack at 18V.
If nothing else,, it has managed to discharge them very equally.