Author: Lewin Day / Source: Hackaday
Sometimes, you move to a new city, and things just aren’t going your way. You’re out of cash, out of energy, and thanks to your own foolishness, your car’s battery is dead. You need to jump-start the car, but you’re feeling remarkably antisocial, and you don’t know anyone else in town you can call.
What do you do?It’s not a problem, because you’re a hacker and you have a cordless drill in the back seat of your car. The average drill of today tends to run on a nice 18 volt lithium battery pack. These packs are capable of delivering large amounts of current and can take a lot of abuse. This is where they come in handy.
Typically, when jump starting a car, another working vehicle is pulled into place, and the battery connected in parallel with the dead battery of the disabled vehicle. Ideally, the working vehicle is then started to enable its alternator to provide charge to the whole system to avoid draining its own battery. At this point, the disabled vehicle can be started and its alternator can begin to recharge its own battery. After disconnecting everything, you’re good to go.
Being stuck in a (relatively) foreign land and not wanting to speak to anyone, I decided instead to substitute the other vehicle’s battery for my RYOBI ONE+ drill battery. This presents several challenges and risks, however. The most basic problem of all is making a connection. Most drill batteries have a very unique molded connector designed to secure them mechanically into a drill, as well as make electrical contact. Trying to connect a sizable pair of automotive jumper leads to a terminal less than a square centimeter in area is difficult.
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