Racal Battery

[p111dom]

Does anyone know of a source for a Racal Airlite spare battery?

 

[Slim]

There was a post on the Dustmaster recently here

Although the thread descended into a slanging match there were some useful links posted. Maybe you can find what you want within one of those links.

 

[dickm]

Don't know of any source for the actual batteries, but replacing the cells in the original is not difficult - have a look in the thread Slimjim indicated, and if you wade through the argument between two contributors, you'll find a post from me giving the web address of a firm that sells single cells with solder tags that you can tack together. The available AA-size cells are not as long as the originals, which don't seem to be made any more, but modern ones have a higher capacity anyway, so this is irrelevant.
PM me if you want any more detailed advice.
(Or if don't fancy soldering and you're anywhere near Aberdeen, drop the thing in and I'll do the job for you!)

 

[p111dom]

Thanks for the offer but I'm a bit of a dab hand myself with the solerling iron. The problem is that this isn't my piece of kit but a friends so while the links and advise are all welcome I guess I'll have to wait and see it in the flesh to know which cells to order unless someone has a part number.

 

[dickm]

Don't really need a part number. The pack uses three cells of AA diameter, but the originals are about 1cm longer than the normal AA and don't appear to be made anywhere any more. But any AA size NiCd with solder tag ends will do the trick. The only question is capacity; I went for a middle range value, which seems to be a bit higher than the originals.

 

[9fingers]

NiMH cells have a higher energy density and use a similar charging regime.
The only reason to stick with nicads might be if you have a fast charger ( 1hour or two) where the specific properties of the NiCd chemistry is part of the rapid charging process.

You should be able get tagged AA cells with a capacity of 2300mAh.

The only downside to NiMH over NiCd that I know of is a higher self discharge rate which means tools left of some weeks will have flat batteries when you come to use them but a re-charge overnigth before the job in hand will suffice.

HTH

Bob

 

[dickm]

NiMH cells have a higher energy density and use a similar charging regime.
The only reason to stick with nicads might be if you have a fast charger ( 1hour or two) where the specific properties of the NiCd chemistry is part of the rapid charging process.

Thanks for that info, Rob. Since NiMH cells seemed to be sold with special charger, I'd assumed they would not work OK with the trickle charger on the Airlite. But in any case, the self-discharge would be a bit of a problem as I only use the Airlite intermittently, but when I do it's always "now".
There are now some NiMHs that are supposed not to self discharge so quickly - I got some for my wife's digital camera which she only uses occasionally, and they do seem to be somewhat better than the ordinary ones for holding charge.

 

[p111dom]

Cant find Nicd in that spec. Would these do the trick?

http://www.eurobatteries.com/sitepages/description1.asp?id=1867&cat=NIMH

 

[dickm]

Cant find Nicd in that spec. Would these do the trick?

http://www.eurobatteries.com/sitepages/description1.asp?id=1867&cat=NIMH

They are the right physical size, and high capacity, so should be OK, assuming your mate is using the standard trickle charger.

The cap of the pack should just pop off with finger pressure, but I suspect sometimes they add a bit of glue to make it more difficult.