Upgrading a Neuton Mower to Run on Drill Batteries
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- čas přidán 18. 08. 2021
- Rather than shell out for replacement lead-acid batteries for an old Neuton CE6.3 electric mower, I convert it to work on two 20V DeWALT drill batteries that I already have.
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Genius! I'm blown away. I mow a gnarly community garden field with a donated CE5.2. The heavy lead acid replacements & their long charging times are frustrating, & the battery case is nearing end of life. Your improvements would save this wonderful mower from the scrap heap pretty much indefinitely. If you ever produce/sell your set-up as a kit, I hope you'll let the community know - ebay/amazon have little for Neuton fans, & replacing the lead acids costs ~$100+/yr. And the disposal nightmare.... Hope you jump in, I'm too old to be lugging this battery around!
Really impressive bed of work. Thank you for doing that. I have a slightly older model with a CE5 24V battery, and I’m going to give this some serious thought. My approach might be a little different in that I would try to use the existing mower battery case to construct the holder for the portable tool batteries. It would also mean that the mower would run always at 20 V, but I could have two in parallel, which would give it a lot of oomph.
You should sell a kit. Some of us can put that together but we can't machine the plastic material. You have a great idea there to save the Newton mower from extinction.
Thanks for the feedback Dale. You're right, machining plastic is quite specialized. The good news is that there already are drill battery holders commercially available from sites like Amazon which make this type of conversion easier for those who are interested.
@@BusyMDan I will check that out on Amazon. High fives on the innovative conversion, Thanks Dan.
@@moci42 If anyone has a link to one of these kits I would be very interested! Thanks in advance.
I had to use my Newton 6.3 today and the battery was clearly very low. So I pulled the batteries they looked physically like new. I disconnected all the wires and am now charging each battery on my bench charger. The bench charger doesn't show any problem with the first battery, it shows 90 percent capacity. I'm now charging the second battery then will be the third. I checked the charger wall wart and it shows 40 volt no load so it should be fine, however I did find the charger plug was badly rusted. I used some very light sandpaper to get the rust off and bare metal then used DeOxit on the plug. After I get all the batteries charged up I'll reinstall then try the wall wart charger again. I checked Amazon replacement batteries are all over the place price wise, it looks like exact replacement of three would be about $75 at the low end.
I found three specifically for the Newton 6.3 priced at $68 on Amazon. I finishted the second battery and it tested good with 90 percent capacity. The third battery is on the charger and so far it's charging just like the other two. I expect it too will have 90 percent capacity.
Can you link the switch that you used in the video?
great project, well done explaining. couple of question; you appear to be using the multimeter in place of the safety key, does this use the fuse in the meter as the breaker then? also, is there a schematic for the voltage switch?
thanks
Mac👍👍👍
Hi Mac, I’m so glad you enjoyed my project! You’re right, I did use the multimeter in place of the safety key- but only while taking measurements for the video. It was simply a convenient spot. Otherwise, I just use the safety key as normal. Regarding the schematic of the switch, I included one in my other mower conversion video: "Electric Lawnmower Upgrade, Take 2". Take a look :)
Question, the mower with the original battery pack comes with a DC input to charge it, is there any way to wire this into the setup you have to easily charge the drill batteries?
It possible, however not practical. The individual battery cells ideally should be balanced when charged and the mower only connects to the positive and negative terminals of the battery. There are additional pins on the battery which I believe the charger uses to perform a balance. Also, there is no monitoring of the batteries temperature while in the mower while is important for safety. It may be possible to pump current directly into the battery overall, but I don't think this is the best/safest option.
@@BusyMDan ah, I was under the assumption that the batteries had a BMS built in 🫡 thank you!
Is there already a low voltage cut off for the battery built into the mower? My guess is no, im just wondering if you have killed any batteries with it. Thank you, i will work on converting mine!
Thanks for your question- no, I don't believe there is a low voltage cutoff in the existing circuitry. I added a little voltage display so I can make sure I don't run the batteries lower than 3.0V per cell. But even without that display, it noticeably bogs down before that point and its pretty obviously when things are getting too discharged.
@@BusyMDan I bought the proper toggle, do you have a video on wiring the switch? I watched some guitar videos but I am still an amateur.
What brand was your old mower?
Hi Sue, my old mower was made by American Yard Products Inc.
😂❤
That’s so weird. I get way better run time on my ryobi 18v mower running on two battery’s in series.