Can anyone tell me the trick to finding the charge in the li-ion battery?

[jcpsmallwoodworkershop]

by default i charge it every nite, since i cannot tell the state of
charge on any lithium ion battery. i cannot be the only person
in all of fog with this problem, what tricks do you have to not
have a dead battery, i know have a charger and full battery
handy, good, what to you do when lots of people use your
batteries, swap them and rearrange them? there is no charge
state light, is there?

 

[Administrator_JSVN]

The charger for our batteries have a charge indicator light. Blinks while charging, solid when finished.

 

[jonny round boy]

The charger for our batteries have a charge indicator light. Blinks while charging, solid when finished.

Shane,

I think he means "how do you tell how much charge is left in the battery at the end of the day, without putting it on charge".

I don't worry about it. I just use the drill, and when it runs out I fit the second battery, and put the first one on charge. I just repeat that. Same with the carvex.

Occasionally it does catch me out when using the drill and the cordless carvex too, and both the drill and jigsaw run out around the same time (I have three batteries total) but I don't worry about it. I just do something else for a bit, or use it as an excuse for a tea-break. [big grin]

 

[jcpsmallwoodworkershop]

The charger for our batteries have a charge indicator light. Blinks while charging, solid when finished.

Shane,

I think he means "how do you tell how much charge is left in the battery at the end of the day, without putting it on charge".

I don't worry about it. I just use the drill, and when it runs out I fit the second battery, and put the first one on charge. I just repeat that. Same with the carvex.

Occasionally it does catch me out when using the drill and the cordless carvex too, and both the drill and jigsaw run out around the same time (I have three batteries total) but I don't worry about it. I just do something else for a bit, or use it as an excuse for a tea-break. [big grin]

thanks jonny, you understood my issue.
i understand the liion battery is good for 3 yrs, so i can go ahead and charge every nite,
no memory issue. why not?
but i know li ion batteries have electronics, and internally there
is a chip with overcharge limits, keeping count of the life time charges
it has experienced (i think there is a charge limiter too) and while this
stuff is not "displayed" i thought there could be a secret trick someone
has noticed.

alas, i could be wrong, and should instead ask when festool will bring
"state of battery charge display" to the battery? the battery knows,
its just the poor user left in the dark.

i want to get more batteries but alas, i wait till they are dead, in the
hopes that i dont waste too many, never returned a battery under
warranty yet.

thanks

 

[jonny round boy]

and should instead ask when festool will bring
"state of battery charge display" to the battery? the battery knows,
its just the poor user left in the dark.

Some (but by no means all) of the newer tools have a battery indicator built-in (to the tool, not the battery itself). The TS55C, PDC, BHC, T series, and I think C series have them. I know the Carvex doesn't. After you release the trigger a green LED comes on for a few seconds to roughly indicate the remaining battery life. Solid green means pretty much fully charged, then a rapid flash for lower charge level, slow flash for even less, then an amber or even red light for no charge. Something like that anyway - not too sure of the charge levels they each indicate but I'm sure someone will chime in with the answer.

EDIT: Forgot to mention - you're right about the electronics inside counting the charge cycles. I heard that, at least in the UK, the warranty on the battery is 3 years or 500 full charging cycles, whichever comes sooner. The electronic counter does differentiate between a full charge and a top-up charge though, so if you stick a battery on charge that doesn't need it, it doesn't count it. That's what I was told by a Festool employee, though I've not seen anything in writing to confirm any of it.