In response to our recent post about the new Dewalt 20V Max compact 4.0Ah cordless power tool battery, Boggsy mentioned wishing it has a USB charging port for both trickle-charging the battery or charging electronic devices.
Why make a new battery without a USB-C out/in… In a pinch, you could trickle charge it with your phone/laptop/tablet charger. Or, plug your dying phone into your impact driver to make a business call. Lol. Technology.
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That actually sounds like a good idea, in theory, for power tool batteries to be rechargeable via USB.
In practice, it would be a huge headache for engineers and a costly upgrade for end users.
Black & Decker has made cordless power tool batteries with built-in USB device charging ports before.
And so has Skil – here’s our review of their 12V brushless drill/driver.
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One-way charging certainly adds to the price of battery packs. There’s more circuitry required in the battery pack, and the port is one more thing to protect.
USB charging is done at ~5V, and so step-down voltage regulation is required.
As for charging the battery via USB, that’s even trickier.
The battery pack would be larger. Charging times would be longer. Internally, the battery would have greater complexity. The port would have to be protected against the elements and jobsite bumps, tool vibrations, and what-not.
All this would lead to a more expensive battery.
For DIYer cordless power tools? Sure. How many cordless power tools and batteries does the average DIYer have? How many batteries might a pro use? How many pros buy separate batteries compared to how many batteries they get bundled in kits?
Let’s say that Dewalt did decide to come out with a battery pack that could be “trickle charged” via USB and charge electronic devices. I suppose USB could allow for one port to be used for two-way charging, and that likely further increases the complexity.
To be honest, I don’t know, my USB port pack has a micro USB for charging it and a USB A for charging devices. Looking at current-generation portable chargers from leading brands, they still have separate inputs and outputs.
But let’s continue and consider a hypothetical Dewalt cordless power tool battery that can be charged from a standard USB charger.
There are quite a few different “fast charging” standards out there, and so fast charging times would likely require that Dewalt bundle their own charger with the battery. That’s going to add further to the cost.
Let’s say that you use an off-the-shelf USB charger that can deliver a 2.1A charging rate. At 5V that’s what, 10.5 watts? This 20V Max 4.0Ah battery is rated at 80 watt-hours. The charging time would be more than 7-1/2 hours – at the least- which is quite slow.
And remember, you have to step up then 5V to >20V to be able to charge the 20V Max battery. That will usually mean added heat and efficiency losses.
Now, are users going to pay for all this stuff to be incorporated into a single battery pack?
This is Dewalt’s DCB090 USB power source, priced at $40 via Amazon. I have one (a review sample) and like it, but it’ll slowly drain a connected battery even if it’s not being used to charge something. If Dewalt were to come out with a USB charger for their 20V Max cordless power tool batteries, it would be in this type of slide-on accessory.
With such an accessory, you could potentially have an input and an output. Something like this is possible and much more likely than having the tech built right into a new 20V Max battery.
Although it’s pricey, Dewalt does make a 12V DC charger that can be plugged into car’s ports. At the time of this posting, it’s ~$104 via Amazon.
Maybe it’s something Dewalt and other cordless power tool brands have considered. There are economic of practical reasons why such a charging adapter doesn’t exist yet.
Milwaukee has an M12 USB charger and device power port, but I don’t think I’ve seen an M18 version yet.
Hmm, you know what would be nice? Having an adapter for each brand and being able to recharge any brand’s cordless power tool battery via the same USB cable. But for everyday use, standalone chargers will likely continue to be easier, faster, and more functional.
Would you pay more for an 18V or 20V Max cordless power tool battery with built-in USB charging capabilities? What about a two-way USB charging adapter accessory? How much would you be willing to pay for it?
Altan
I want a cordless table top tile saw first 🙂 then I can think of it….
Stuart
https://toolguyd.com/craftsman-cordless-tile-saw-cmcs4000m1/
https://toolguyd.com/porter-cable-cordless-corded-tile-saws/
Altan
I want it to work with DeWALT batteries, I know them, I don’t want to carry bunch of different batteries from different brands, also chargers.
Altan
If I buy any Craftsman/Porter cable cordless tool, how I am going to charge their batteries in UK with 240V power supply? That is why it should be at least DeWALT, Porter Cable and Craftsman do not have 240V chargers.
Altan
Also a cordless 20V Biscuit Joiner, 12V compact 65mm Planer…
Also a cordless Rebar Tier, a 7″ cordless 60V Grinder and …
Also 12V cordless Soldering Tool and 8V cordless Rotary Tool….
Also 60V/120V cordless/corded Wet/Dry Toughsystem Dust Collector/Vac
Also 60V/120V cordless/corded Wet/Dry Toughsystem Dust Collector/Vac
Stuart
Did this really have to be 6 different comments?
And please stay on topic.
Altan
Lol, It is not to annoy you, It is to annoy DeWALT 🙂
Stuart
It breaks up the conversation and makes things messy.
Annoying anyone on purpose won’t help. Dewalt people would be more likely to dismiss your comments as being extreme fanboyism, and more headaches or work for me will place you in the manual moderation list.
Altan
OK, I will!
eric schiller
Metabo HPT has as USB port on some chargers that let you plug a charged battery into the charger and it will charge the phone plugged into the USB port from that.
Hugo
> USB charging is done at ~5V, and so step-down voltage regulation is required.
Not quite that simple. USB-C PD (“power delivery”) chargers and devices can negotiate to supply/sink at up to 20V@5A. Such chargers are still rare, but with economies of scale the circuitry for doing this is going to get very cheap indeed, and the chargers ubiquitous, so in my view (I design such electronics for a living) it will make an awful lot of sense to do this in the next few years.
Stuart
But how likely will it be for brands to adopt this, and for both devices and chargers to be ubiquitous?
Hugo
The whole of the consumer electronics world is going to USB-C PD anyway. Within a few years, your phone, laptop, etc will all use USB-C charging if they don’t already. If you have a recent Apple or PC laptop, (or even something like the new battery powered Sonos speaker) you already have a 20V USB-C PD charger. So the chips and other electronics will become cheap and ubiquitous, just like for the ubiquitous 5V/2A USB chargers today. Whether tool brands adopt it, I have no idea, but I can imagine some of the lower end store brand lineups moving to USB-C charging and not including a charger in the box.
Mark Wilmoth
Was a DeWalt fan for few years. But for this electrician nothing but Milwaukee in my tool bags
Boggsy
Even my cute old QC3 Battery pack tells me what its outputting too. 5v 3a, 9v 2a, and usually 12v 1.5a. And it has pass thru power! What a freaking novel idea! There’s also some crazy genius (but $250+) 26,000mah battery packs now that can fully recharge in an hour thru 100w pd. With one 100w in/out, one 60w, and I believe two 18w qc3 outputs. Which can all allegedly be used simultaneously. Sorcery!
Thunderbolt 3–and her less hot, but starts looking good after 12 shots of whiskey friend… USB-C) came out what… 5 years ago now? Whenever I think “There’s got to be a decent, cheap 2- in-1 laptop now!” And all I see is more incredibly specific, completely unusable for anything else DC plugs. All way under 100 watts. WHY!! Who do you think you are?! Power tool companies?! My storage is already filled to the brim with Plugs and adapters to god knows what. It’s time the world go Universal. Serial. Bus.
At least until something cooler comes out in a few weeks.
Champs
The M18 system has a USB Power Source. Add the radio, lights, and saws… that’s a whole weekend off the grid with just a couple batteries.
Stuart
A power source, yes, but not with USB battery charging capabilities.
Corey Moore
So do Bosch, DeWalt, Makita, and a slew of other brands.
Abner
What do you guys think about 3rd party cross brand battery adapters? Like ones that you can use to connect a dewalt 20v Max battery to a milwaukee m18 tool.
Jared
Surbonder makes some for Dewalt, Milwaukee and Makita batteries in Ryobi tools. I keep eyeing them up – but only because Ryobi keeps coming out with cheap tools I want – yet I am resistant to adding a sixth battery platform to my stable.
Clayton
Stewart, have you ever posted about these and I’m curious about Them also, never heard of them
Clayton
My question mark (?) Turned into “and” for some reason on my reply
Stuart
Adapters? Not yet.
Jared
*Surebonder
Just spellchecking myself in case someone was trying to google the company.
Dave S
I certainly see Hugo’s point (above). USB-C PD is the way of the future. (Slightly more distant future is USB4, but that’s another story.)
To answer your questions, I wouldn’t pay extra for the technology built into the battery. It would add unnecessary cost/size to already expensive/bulky batteries.
I would gladly pay for an update of the DCB090 adapter that was actually done well. I own one of these adapters and it’s too tall to fit even a small battery and the adapter in a coat pocket. It drains the battery for no reason, making it impossible to keep ready to use. And it’s just clunky. But, if they make a thin, efficient, only-on-when-it-needs-to-be, version of this with a USB-C plug (and keep functionality in the heated gear) and I’ll pre-order several immediately.
Michael S.
Bosch has a line of consumer oriented power tools (the YOUseries) that charge by USB C *only*:
https://www.bosch-heroes.com/en/youseries/home/
(Maybe only available in the EU.)
Jared
It’s not necessary for Dewalt to add that kind of circuitry in my opinion. Expense and complexity don’t make sense when the adapter is cheap. I realize it can’t charge though – a version that could would be nice, even if it was slow.
My use-case would be a backup while camping. E.g. Run out of battery power for a heated jacket or your drill to run your stabilizer jacks up and down on the trailer? Leave the battery on the USB trickle charger adapter for a few hours. I’d be willing to trade the slow charge time if it was compact and cheap.
Might also be good for keeping a battery as a power-pack in your car. That way there’s a (slow) way to charge it and keep it ready for use as a mobile battery pack. When you unplug from the car the charger becomes the power source adapter.
I have the Dewalt adapter already – and I think only I paid ~$25 for it on sale. That’s a very cheap way to use my batteries as power packs and I’m happy it exists. The batteries make very expensive power packs were you to buy them for that purpose, but if you already have a bunch of batteries, the adapter is a cheap way to give yourself a massive collection of fast-charging power packs.
I also bought a 3rd party version of the same style of adapter because it had a barrel plug 12v out which I could use for my Bosch heated jacket. I assume the adapter that comes with the Dewalt jacket must have the same – but I wasn’t sure where to find it.
Nathan
Even with USB-C PD system or Qualcomm’s QC4 whatever. Sure with the right controler and handshake the systems allow for upwards of 18V with 2-5 amps output. etc over a hopefully quality USB C cable.
Reason your laptops and and a few other electronics have USB-PD is because they have to have the USB_C port and associated controller circuit anyway. Using USBC – PD let’s them get rid of the docking port so there is an advantage.
For power tool batteries other than the additional complexity, the shock protection, the temp issues . . . . . they would also have to pay USB group royalties to implement any of those things. It’s not necessary for the tool
I do however want Dewalt to come out with a new USB power source that would be nice. and I would like to see all companies put a USB output only port on the chargers. Some do – some don’t. But I will say I don’t really need it. Hell I have enough wall warts etc that I just keep one in the garage anyway.
loup68
I just bought an after market version of Dewalt”s DCB 090 USB charger. Dewalt is being extremely stupid in not upgrading their device to put out the 2.1 A that most modern devices need. It is only a simple internal electronic change, but their greed keeps them milking the pathetic output of their device, not wanting to spend the extra money on upgrading it.
Nathan
Or they are biding their time is making some changes.
I mean if I was to clean sheet a battery to USB adapter today I would start with offering it with a USB port and a USBC port – why because might as well. Then I would probably consider offering Qualcomm QC charging standards on the USBC side since most mobile devices work on that standard. Then I might if apple would cut me a deal – also include thunderbolt and apple qc.
and I might put another USB C port specifically for laptops and use USBC-PD but only when connected to a FlexVolt battery due to draw demand.
Right now nobody makes anything close to that based off a tool battery. There are many standalone battery bank devices that can do the job.
Actually scratch all that – I would partner with someone like ANKER and make work up an ANKER charge station device that does those things – and accepts Dewalt batteries as an option.
Boggsy
Haha, yesss! Flexvolt Thunderbolt 3 docking station. For mobile video editors.
That’s thinking with my dingus!
BJAMES
I don’t at all disagree with the logic here. However, I will call out that with USB-C PD, one port that can be used as an charge IN and power OUT is common-place.
My phone can charge another phone from its USB-C.
My battery bank can be charged AND charge from its single USB-C port.
So that is not a technical limitation. But everything else you said is spot on.
Rory
Lets consider how slow it will be with the current technology Milwaukee uses in their M12 usb charger.
This charger systems charges at 7.2 Watts / Hour.
Say you have a 5Ah 18V battery – thats a 90wh capacity.
90 / 7.2 = 12.5
So it will take 12.5 hours to charge a 5ah 18v battery….
or
Say you have a 12Ah 18V battery – thats a 216wh capacity.
216 / 7.2 = 30
It will take 30 hours to charge a 12Ah 18v battery….
NO THANKS
Boggsy
You can pump 100 watts thru usb-c…. So 2 hrs and some change for a 12ah battery, if they can do it without being fan-cooled.
The What?
Those of you that think all batteries should have the latest usb and that Dewalt is being greedy are completely missing the point of why they’re not going to do it. Why should they? Because people failed to apply common sense and charge their phone or device before they went to sleep? Because people are too fkn cheap to buy a ten dollar car charger or they don’t keep a wall charger in their vehicle? Because people don’t want to buy a portable power pack or other means to charge their device? None of these are a valid excuse for why Dewalt or any battery manufacturer should incorporate a usb port into their batteries which will make the price go up for something that is already expensive enough as it is. And I don’t want to have to pay more money for an unwarranted expense due to stupidity. Whether it’s cheap for them to do it or not, it’s not gonna be cheap for the guy buying the battery(s).
Rory
TLDR:
What we are talking about here is charging your dewalt batteries FROM a usb source.
Read before rant.
Boggsy
I have 6 portable battery packs, and probably 30 usb-rechargable devices. Big lights, little lights, headlamps, fans, headphones…. A battery is a battery is a battery. I wind up using battery packs in my car instead of my car charger, so stuff can fully charge without interruption from key turns. Long drives: recharge the packs. I use the packs at work too, so I can leave my phone where I want instead of finding wall holes.
125% of things use 18650 batteries now (including Tesla’s), why the hell should anything be incompatible?! It’s just juice. And I was just merely suggesting an option. Tool connect batteries exist. Does anybody buy them? No. But they exist. I like things that exist.
Christos X
Isn’t it only a matter of time before wireless charging takes over? I know it has been slow to catch on in the smartphone market but there are other factors at work there. A mat that users of any brand cordless tool could set their batteries on to charge would be a major upgrade from the maze of chargers found on a typical job site. USB, while convenient and ubiquitous, just won’t get it done.
Rory
Bosch made this system 3 years ago – didnt fly then, probably wont now.
80% of users aren’t at a work bench so a “charging matt” isnt an option.
Boggsy
I love the idea… Unfortunately, you’d have to shove a qi chip and probably some liquid cooling system in each battery pack. When I used these, my phone would get about 300 degrees, take about twice as long to charge (not bad, considering)…but the real kicker, when I used it off a battery pack that actually tells me the %…. It drained almost 4 TIMES as much juice to get a full charge vs plugging it into the pack directly. =(
One day though!
Roger
Where’s the 20v/60V biscuit joiner? Affordable 20V/60V vac? Anyways,
#1 reason they wouldn’t.. DUST and moisture
No matter how much rubber gasket you put, it’s either going to be torn off, or beaten off. The less open and exposed the internals are, the better. That’s why they make those special ones for the flexvolt pipe threader.
#2 USB5V@2A recharging anything above a 20V-2AH is not worth the time. However, using a 20V to recharge a 5V is. I have an aftermarket USB adapter. It works better than the OEM and cuts out after a few seconds if it doesn’t sense pull over a certain amount.
#3 Cheaper to make a basic design and sell tools that do the adapting. Back to the adapter. That’s what you’d use the level indicator for. Batteries without the meter.
One of the biggest issues I have is that Dewalt doesn’t offer solid 2A+ USB output. Many devices need that. Even Type-C that can output fast charge rates.
Offer Type-C along side regular USB@2A+ charging.
Evadman
It would definitely add cost, but it isn’t as much as may be thought. The batteries internally can also be charged in parallel instead of series, which means stepping down 5v to 4.2v.
A already-made charging and discharge board for any size pack of 18650 batteries is about 30 cents. The usb out connector is about a dime. Wiring is probably around a dime. Full cost of perhaps a buck. I can link to all the parts to do this, but I’m not sure if I’m allowed.
The cost would be warranty cost, not material or engineering. Usb ports are prone to damage. Charging a tool battery pack also takes an exceptionally long time if it is done within the usb spec. A significant amount of chargers only output 100ma, but newer usb can go way higher within spec.
JoeM
The materials used in the USB connectors can’t handle more than 4.2Amps. That’s in the IEEE specs.
Powering the major batteries via USB is pointless. Either you’re charging it for hours/overnight, or you’re melting the actual metals in the connector, potentially welding them together, in order to get the amperage transfer you want in a reasonable timeframe.
These batteries are not toys. They aren’t bound by the rules of mobile devices. People make their living off of them being charged, and ready, when they need them. The main charging devices are ideal due to their thermal, electrical, and safety controls built in.
USB is for SMALL devices. Get it into your skulls. “The Bleeding Edge” of technology is not where successful companies reside. One error, and it kills them. Sensible tool use, and MAINTENANCE of said tools, rules out USB as a power source for anything above 4 Volts. Looking at all the equations that have been used to try and justify the USB-C PS standard, I notice a GLARING miscalculation. Thermal Overload and Step-Down Resistance Time. Both of these conditions on the IEEE USB standard say these connectors are made of Tin, Steel, and the odd Gold plating… All of which heat up when conducting electricity, and at the voltage rate of 5 Volts, Max 4.2 Amps, the Thermal Overload point is ONE HOUR. The Step-Down Resistance Time, AKA “When the Resistance cuts the circut due to melting, like a fuse or circut breaker” on Tin, Gold, Copper, and Steel, limits the number of max cycles to just about 100 cycles max, before the resistors and capacitors required to step down the cirucuitry literally pop and melt. At which point, the connector ceases to function at all.
Again… This is all taught standard in the USB specs in any A+ or MCSE certification exam.
Simply Put: They’re Tool companies, not Phone companies. Such a flawed method of charging their batteries will NEVER be considered viable. Stop wasting your time on it. I believe Altan has a nice list of things far more important than USB charging batteries. It’s that simple.
Boggsy
You’re right!
Batteries should also have an ssd, and a micro SD slot!
For you iPhone users… A micro SD card is up to 1 Terabyte of storage space, crammed–by very evil pixies– into a piece of dark matter, 1/10th the size of a postage stamp.
Steve
I fly with my Milwaukee M12 tools frequently and I used to carry 3 batteries (for fear that the TSA would take away anything above that.) I could never justify packing a full sized M12 charger for a job which rarely needed 3 fully charged batteries. But with the Milwaukee M12 USB charger, I no longer worry about running out of power at the job site and am usually comfortable packing only 2 batteries now.
That said, with all the sketchy USB chargers out there that would likely be used to charge these batteries, I’m sure the manufacturers are wary of warranty issues which may arise. Would they be able to prove that a broken/dead battery was charged with their provided USB charger and cable, or whether someone used their Amazon sourced USB charger?
Boggsy
You forgot the 240v (4x flexvolt) plasma cutter/welder.
– might lend itself to too many “made you a sunroof” pranks.
But more obviously:
60v belt sander
And where in the actual f is the cordless M2 stapler. No company has one, nor can I find any rumors about it. Make it 60v if ya need to, just figure it out. And if it’s a flywheel, I’d pay extra for it to have tool connect, just to add a few seconds before the auto-shutdown.
Stuart
They have a cordless welder. =)
https://toolguyd.com/dewalt-cordless-welder/
https://toolguyd.com/dewalt-cordless-welder-additional-info/
Not FlexVolt though. Yet?
JoeM
I was afraid to ask about that actually… Thank You, Stuart.
I’m not so concerned about “When is it coming out” I’m more wondering “Have you heard anything good about how well/successful the original Welder was? Do you think it will end up worth a FlexVOLT upgrade?”
I remember the release of that welder, and that giant battery pack seemed pretty necessary to get the power up to welding needs. I don’t know how a FlexVOLT version would work, aside from having about 8, 12Ah FlexVOLT batteries locked in an array.
What do YOU think, Stuart?
Boggsy
Ah, nice!
AvE mentions something that might be worth exploring:
Combining corded with flexvolt (1x or 2x) to supercharge a thing.
Even if it needed two separate motors, they might be able to pull off something like a 120v + 120 flexvolt shop vac. Batteries for portability, but plug it in too… And it might be able to act like a 3 hp dust collector.
Heh, I bought into Dewalt because of the 120v idea. Almost 4 years later, and the chop saw’s still the only thing! Decent jig saw and trim router, recently… But that doesn’t excuse the atomic abortion.
JoeM
First off… The whole point of the FlexVOLT line is to be capable of having a fully-cordless worksite. The cord on the 120V saws are an Either/Or option, they don’t augment the power of the saw.
They will NEVER make a dual-capacity device like that. It goes against the design purpose of their Cordless AND Corded devices.
And second… Let’s be mature adults here… They release what sells. If they didn’t sell X number of units of the 120 Volt saws, they aren’t going to expand the line immediately. Everything else is a pipedream.
I’ve gone to Home Depot, and held the Atomic in my hands. I guarantee they’re for compact spaces, not construction. They’re not an “Abortion” of any sort. They’re just not meant to work along side the rest of the line. You’re being hyperbolic here, and expecting DeWALT, or ANY company for that matter, to simply dump your wishlist on you because you complain about it, is simply nonsense. Go ahead. Ask Altan how successful HIS ranting about what DeWALT HASN’T released yet has been.
About the only thing that is widespread about the FlexVOLT line seems to be the Batteries themselves. The 60/120Volt line is just not a major seller for them. Per unit, they just sell more of the other Max/XR lines. Plus SBD has Craftsman now, and the DeWALT designs are being duplicated in Red for them, so development is VERY slow.
I don’t like the waiting either, but… We have to be at least somewhat reasonable as to what is genuinely useful to the niche DeWALT and Milwaukee serve. These are not exclusive to the home market, so their demographics don’t fit the bleeding edge crazy ideas and gimmicky experiments.
Whimsey is rarely an admirable quality in a tool.
Altan
Monsieur JoeM,
I don’t expect to be more successful than this regarding what you said 🙂
I don’t think anyone else here or in other platforms was asking for a Flexvolt Wall Chaser from DeWALT and as you see they did listen to me! It is a big success if you look at us individually within 9.000.000.000 population we have around the world. Just think about how many people DeWALT has listened to…
I was one of the rare ones here asking for a cordless Polisher from DeWALT and they did respond accordingly also.
From what I was asking to be upgraded from 18V to 20V platform all has been done except the Biscuit Joiner. Caulking Gun, Die Grinder, Shears, Concrete Vibrator and many others have been upgraded.
I was one of the rare ones complaining about the multi tool not having variable speed controller and they came up with a newer version DCS356 (I think) which is not available in the UK (yet!)
They have even upgraded some of their corded tools into cordless platform, like Planer, Sander, Router and some others, I don’t mention it in the same way as so many people were asking for them, but if you look at total outcome you can notice DeWALT has listened…
There are a lot of examples which it would take more time to think of and mention them here, but for now I think this much is enough.
Boggsy
Joe, atomic is absolutely an abortion. The little long saw is cute, and has its place I guess, but the torque is a joke.
The ATOMIC impact driver is wider, heavier, and taller than the 887 (xr). Front to back length is smaller, by less than 1/4 inch. Oh, and it’s worse.
It’s very Apple of them.
Don’t ever waste time and resources developing something worse than what you already released. Especially when Craftsman is already doing that for you.
Hydraulic oil impulse would have been the perfect route. Even if it’s bigger… It coulda been the “don’t wake up the neighborhood” line.
Being slow is not the right strategy, they’re playing with technology now, which is way more fast paced and unforgiving than the classic tool world. I don’t know how many years are left before the next paradigm shift in battery tech… But you can be sure they’ll finally release every possible flexvolt tool just before it happens.
I.e. carbon dioxide lithium with something like 7 times the capacity of current cells… And would probably need new connectors and be completely inadaptable. Just a hunch.
But my hunches are good.
Altan
1000 % agreed, Boggsy.
Andrew
Milwaukee makes a M18 power source, 49-24-2371. Some local Home Depot’s around here have them for $30, they have a single usb charger and can supposedly run their heated gear as well.
Stuart
Power source, yes. USB battery charger? Not that I’m aware of.
Robert Adkins
Don’t like USB or other features in a battery. I think of them as semi-expendable, maybe like a good saw blade. I like my batteries cheap, easy to find, and simple, with branded cells within. Even the “fuel gage” should probably be on the drill, driver, saw, or other tool. Keep those batteries cheap!
It would make more sense to put a USB port in the charger, but even that is meh.
What’s needed is a slim, pocket-sized device that would plug into the 20v Max battery. In addition to a USB port, it could include a rudimentary flashlight, maybe a stud finder, laser straight edge, or a bunch of stuff I can’t imagine right now.
Boggsy
Now that’s a great idea!
Light, stud finder, laser level!
Swiss army adapter
Laser distance measure, and…obviously, bottle opener.
They’ll never put a laser on their tools, unless it is the tool–I think everything should have one.
I even mounted a scope on my impact driver, so I can see if people used a damn torx screw from a mile away. And it lights up and makes space gun sounds when you pull the trigger. It makes it more powerful.
Andy Dodd
I agree that building USB functionality into the battery is undesirable, for the reasons stated. It would make batteries more expensive.
However a USB PD in/out adapter that attaches to the battery and charges it or charges other devices would be GREAT.
For reference, it’s easy to find 45W and 60W USB PD supplies nowadays. My car USB-PD power supply that is always in my car is rated 45W, and I also have a car laptop power supply rated 60W (but that’s usually in storage). I have 3-4 different 45-60W USB-PD supplies around my home.
I don’t know about DeWalt, but Ridgid’s lower-end chargers are 55W units – that wattage is right around where you can get USB-IF certified USB PD supplies such as https://www.amazon.com/Nekteck-Certified-Charger-Delivery-Included/dp/B075WQQG7C for <$20.
Another Jeff
I have the Ridgid USB charger for mine. I bought it mainly for taking it with us when hiking or camping and it works great. It takes a little longer than the wall charger, but it’s to be expected. It does drain a 2AH battery in the process to go from, lets say, 20% to 100%, but, considering I’m not going to also be using my drill or circular saw while on a camping trip, it’s never been an issue. I would love; however, if it could be recharged in the car in case I was going to be camping longer than my young kids can currently tolerate camping. Either way, it’s far more reliable than any of the bricks and battery chargers I’ve ever found that were made for that purpose. 95% of those are junk made by questionable Chinese manufacturers you’ve never heard of and with 80% fake reviews on Amazon, only the 20% negative reviews are real. I’m afraid of half of them having their lithium ion batteries burning our house down in the middle of the night, so getting something that would work off my tried and true Ridgid batteries was a no brainer.
Tony
I wouldn’t buy one I have 14-20v batteries and have the radio I can plug stuff into If I need more than that break out the generator