LOL!!!! I wrote this in August of 2024... it's now March 2026... 1.5years later... the drill's open battery-pack have been sitting in the same spot this entire time...

Just last month I *finally* modified the drill itself to *finally* work again (I've been darn-near drill-less for 1.5 years?! Well, I had my *old* one, similarly-modified, as I'll describe, a decade prior, but haven't had a reliable power-source...)

So, I added a friggin power-cord. Use any external power-supply in roughly the right voltage-range and deal with a cord on a cordless drill and be happy, dangit!

OK, but these things take a *lot* of power... and my *old* drill (originally 7.2V!), similarly-modified, has been mostly-unusable, as well, because the old PC power-supply I'd been using for its 12V(!) bit the bullet...

OK, so, this is a matter of many factors that *finally* came-together... Mainly: I just got a high-quality 15V 19A power supply for a really good price... 15V, I think, is *far* too much for my old 7.2V drill (12V was *really* pushing it; it's On/Off, not variable-speed... (well, two-speed: 3.6V 7.2V, choose your input) but the 5V rail on the PC power-supply usually kicked-out when I tried it). But 15V *regulated* for an "18V" cordless drill? Frankly, darn-near perfect, considering the voltage-sag of batteries under load!

Man, you should see the lights dim when you run this thing from stop to full-speed, though. Motors Take Power! Even this tiny DC battery-powered thing. 

It's rather amazing to think ancient technology like NiCds can handle such surges... 

(OTOH, I've had pretty bad luck with NiCds' longevity most my life... thus the 3.6/7.2V decade+ cord/ed/  drill, and its 7.2V cord/ed/ jigsaw brother which nearly destroyed itself at 12V. Oh, and the *other* 18V drill that's *also* sitting in pieces in one of these boxes).

But Wait!

I'd darn-near completely forgotten my diode-solution!!! 

What?!

Well, last I recall, I managed to charge-up a couple of the differently-depleted cells *externally* and it worked *great* until...

I don't exactly recall, but I think it revealed a different set of differently-depleted cells... and then there's the fact the charger has been funky for quite some time... the LEDs don't function as-described, nor consistently-not-as-described, and I never did look into why, and I wonder if maybe its current-limiting transistor might be blown-short so even though it's fine when the batteries are *low* to charge them *fast*, relying maybe on the thin cord's resistance to not shove a too-high voltage across 'em, that maybe when they've reached capacity it *should* be trickling at their fully-charged voltage, but are instead connected to a voltage-source that's *way* too high with essentially no resistance inbetween...

I dunno, it's a theory that kinda put a halt to the diode-idea.

(Note that my previous 18V drill, 25y/o, also kaputted its charger... huh. Its cells *could* be OK, for all I know! They're kinda crusty at the terminals, but allegedly that's normal, not *leaking*, but either way, I don't really like touching that stuff... I might just add another cord... throw that (or the 7.2V?) one in the van... cigarette-lighter... 

Or, heck, now having three drills, and a great powersupply, maybe it's time to set up my ol' normal-drill-modified "dremmel drillpress" again!

But... cordless...? Diode-cell-replacement...?

I guess not this time-around. I guess if my chargers were known-good (or if I was good-enough at analog to make one) I might think differently.

Next time!