Ok, now I got a gripe with you! I always thought you were using batteries like mine to make the test fair. You know, run down to the last electron, been charged 200 times, got chips and dents all over 'cause the apprentice can't catch it when I throw it down to put on the charger and left out in the rain a couple million times... Sheesh! What ever happened to real world testing? Lol
Holy crap that's expensive, what a great device, so handy to check the status of batteries, not sure why it would be that price!! Can't wait for the 30k sub giveaway, a long time subscriber, when a new video shows up I stop what I'm doing and watch and then I watch it again later. No one else doing the type and amount of reviews you do, keep up the great work!!
Each cell is 4.2v fully charged so an 18v nominal battery will have 5 cells if you have a bigger battery like a 4ah or a 5ah or bigger it will have 2 pair of cells parraleled to give you more amphours you cant check cells in parallel
this device I knew from my first Makita kit I've bought. One of the batteries came dead, and the repair center where I live tested the batteries on this device. So they RMA the battery and I've received a new one a week later. Good to know how this device works. Guess I'll visit the repair center one of these days with all my batteries, lol. I guess all Makita repair centers have this tester.
have you tried this with off brand batteries that are made to work with makita? I think the checker is communicating with the Yellow plug, and it would be interesting to see if any of the clone batteries use the yellow plug to do the star communication system with the tool.
That is such a useful tool. Only I am not on the Makita platform. Could have been and should have been. Went to a tool show intending to buy Makita but the salesman would hardly give me the time of day. His Bosch competitor complete opposite. Ended up spending a lot of money on Bosch and they keep dying. Bosch do a simpler diagnostic battery charger but mine never worked. In fact it corrupted and killed four of my batteries that Bosch begrudgingly had to replace. And a new charger but scared to use that. So thanks to a bad salesman I can only watch your videos of superior tools.
That's an interesting gadget. I have about 6 Makita batteries. The oldest are two 3ah that came with the first kit I bought in 2015 before they started putting the gauges on them. They both still seem to be going strong.
This is great info! I'd be curious about a runtime test of that 6.0ah battery with 196 charge cycles vs a brand new one. A real world test of how much capacity is lost. Your channel(s) is awesome!
By the way, I heard some of the birds in the background--I was searching the house for a loud unusual bird that I thought had come in through an open window and it took a couple minutes to realize it was coming from the TV. Your audio quality must be awesome since it had me looking for a tropical bird in Indiana!
I watched this video when you first released it and have been wanting a BTC04 ever since ! Finally ordered one the other day as they'd come down in price to £185 ( and maybe £50 import charges , ohh tthe joys of the UK Government ) Its a christmas present to myself and the wifes chipped in 👍 I've not ordered the BTC05 yet as my two BL4040's dont get used a lot but hopefull as a treat ( and seeing as sites in the UK are supposed to be M-class for a while the companies providing me with the 80v extractor and a couple of BL4950's ) . Also i'm not sure if it was you that i first saw the makita battery dates but i know you shared it so thanks for that too 👍
I don't even use Makita tools, but i still want one. Seriously though, other tool brands should be selling this for their own batteries too. Thanks for the great review as usual. I didn't even know this exists.
Nice love you work I am stuck on the 3 amp 18 volt batteries ×7and ×1 5amp 18 volt just lost 3 hesitant to upgrade all my Makita tools to the 40 volt but so far Makita is winning
BTC06 For 12V CXT. Hefty. Pretty cool though. Parallel-stacked battery packs shows single bar per cell as there is no measurable difference on parallel circuits voltage.
great stuff mate, yeah i wonder if when the charger goes green then it writes to the battery, since then its "officially" charged with the charger so makes sense to increment it.
You have reason,it,s the Ah or Wh interest me,not the voltage i work in a battery and change the cells in for more Amp and i have the same voltage more energy.
I'll have to remember to look for this in Japan, whenever travel becomes less problematic. I wonder how much it is there, and if it is widely available
When I do get to travel I ask on Reddit or ask small UA-camrs if I happen to know they’re in the county I’m headed. That way I can kind of get a lead on tools and even order them and sent to them. Usually only after a few annoying to get items.
@@FearsomeWarrior Japan is difficult because of the language barrier and "DIY" seems less common than the US. Even in the US, without these networks, it would be hard to find a knowledgeable person in a given field, and I know the language well. For consumer electronics it's a bit easier because it is part of mainstream culture, but power tools are less so.
I first saw one of these yesterday, at a Makita service center. and I would be vary interested in knowing what counts as a charge because when I was at the Makita service center I was told they normally wave the 2 year warranty and as long as a battery has not been abused and is under 200 charges. they will replace it.
Excellent. Now I want one… 🤦♂️ Edit to add, I would like to see if the radio overdischarges the batteries, I overheard it in a tool shop one-day and ever since I've tried to use my older crappier batteries. I have a 1.5A battery that errors on the charger you could have, unfortunately shipping to NZ from Australia would be exxy I think 🙁
I think it would be cool to see the difference in temperature between 18 and 40v on a similar tool. The 5ah 18v can only show 5 cells bucause they are wired in parallel pairs of 2 wich will have always the same voltage. Same for the 5ah 40 v
I’ve had same makita batteries for 4 years and surely they must have had some abuse in that time but they still work as good as when I got them? Not a noticeable drop anyway
Temperature and longevity test. Uk can go below 1c in winter and I had a couple of ryobi batteries stop working. So test for v low temp and how long they last for high load tool. Charging between uses
Very interesting. You never fail to bring all the makita goodies to the masses tools. Thank you very much for these videos. This thing could come I handy for a certain type of makita user, such as yourself. Obviously. But, that price tag is steep. It us all good info though that I can correlate to my own batteries. Cheers 🍻
Sweet as broh.. These batteries don't have individual cell monitoring. So this isn't foolproof. Sometimes only one cell goes bad and you need to disassemble and individually charge and test the cells
I’m actually deep involved in battery testing. I’m going out on a limb to say: nope, it doesn’t work like that. Globally, it depends on how the battery analyzer is built. Most of the modern ones can do serial, parallel, and the various combinations of the serial / parallel used in multi cell construction. The 18v sounds like it’s 5 serial of 2 parallel. The complicating factor is the chip in the battery that most likely is communicating with the Makita analyzer.
@@grahamwilliams4417 Maybe I was not clear. Just disassemble a battery and you will see: two cells are in parallel and 5 of these are in series. The balancer circuit meassures and controls these 5 pairs, hence it only can provide data of these voltages.
I would love to see the cycle counter on bunch of my 1.5Ah batteries. Been using them for 5ish years now doing Ikea and other flatpack assembly. I tend to charge each one about once or twice a week so guessing about 250-300 cycles. They are all still going strong though. They are great for the subcompact drill and impact
This appears to merely read the battery metrics Makita stores inside of it. I was hoping it also did a capacity check. Where it can drain the battery as if it were in actual use and display the results. So I can tell if the 6Ah battery I bought off Amazon is really a .5Ah battery. The batteries bought off Amazon all seem to weigh less and go dead quickly.
I'm curious if the 40V batteries are cutting out with some juice left in the tank because at the higher temperatures they get derated otherwise they get really damaged. But 75C is way higher than lithium batteries want to be (typically you only want to charge them if they're between 0 and 35/40C)
I didn't realise how much of a Makita nut I was until now, I was entertained by a video on Makita battery health. Great content, I'm hanging out for your review on the 40V Plunge saw, if Makita ever bring it out?
I have a question. Do makita batteries have a undervoltage protection built in the battery? Because i would like to use the batteries with other stuff which wasnt intended for
Makita batteries 18V are 5 series 2 pararel cell configuration. It has 10 cells but in paralel to provide more current and also it reduces stress on single cell. They use VTC4/5/6 mostly I have never seen makita battery with other cells than Sony so far. Yes, you can pull 30A from single cell but you can also reduce the current for each cell if you do paralel connection and as a natural bonus you benefit from extended capacity while lowering load on a single cell - battery lives longer.
Yeah I know, D'oh! I have filmed another video on this battery checker, and you just reminded me that I forgot that again! Double D'oh! I'll get there one day.
@@ToolsAndStuffOFFICIAL oh well, I'm sure it works. Interesting that it doesn't use power from the tool battery to power its self, but then again it won't turn on if the battery is bad.
Try charging the battery 50% and se if the charges number go up. On sites it happens a lot to take the battery from the charger when is 50-75% charged, but this is not a full charge, and if it counts it as craged then it might not be extremely accurate 🤔
i have several makita 18v batteries for various cordless tools for home use (each probably gets recharged 2-3 times a month) had them for almost 7+ years now and they still seem to keep their full charge and last a while.. 7 years seems like a long time .. question- can batteries that old become “dangerous” or fire hazards? or will they eventually just stop holding a charge for an adequate time?
I was curious about this battery checker (BTC04) and decided to call Makita to ask what the deal was with it...why so expensive, why so 'rare'. The Makita rep found the part# but said it was not meant for endusers/customers. This device is meant for Makita Service Centers. So that's why it's so expensive and kind of hard to get. I'd love to get one but not interested in spending $250 to get one. It's too bad that Makita doesn't make it available for customers, but I can kind of see why they'd probably think it would perhaps open a 'can of worms'.
@@ToolsAndStuffOFFICIAL Yes. I’m in the U.S.. Thanks for the info. I guess the entire issue is a bit murky because with online commerce, individual national sales policies are moot. So, I guess we’re talking about purchasing in a ‘physical’ store, and Makita’s policy for U.S. as I said is a ‘NO’ for sales of this to tool users. In the U.S., Makita tools are sold at hardware stores, lumber yards, Home Depot, etc.. So, what you appear to be saying that if other countries had physical stores and/or outlets like these that sell Makita Tools, that the BTC04 would be a regular item to purchase just like a drill, router, or saw.
Saw one of these online somewhere a couple of years ago and always wanted one but they were £800 back then , i was told it was more of a dealer tool . still want one but they're still £500 if you can find them . Great video thanks 👍
Thanks again for this extremely helpful video. I actually just got a BTC04 and it's very cool. I had a few questions. First off, the manual that came with mine is in Japanese. Do you by any chance know how to get one in English? I did a couple online searches and came up empty. Secondly, is that SD card the only way to update the tool's software? I'm not concerned because mine came loaded with version 2.1. Just wondering with regards to moving forward.. would an SD card be the only way to update the machine in the future? If so, it probably would be a hassle to get. I'm in the U.S. and had to use EBay to buy the BTC04 from a seller in Japan. Thirdly: the 'Battery Health' test which is at the top of the second test screen. It shows the 4 bars. Does each bar essentially equal 1/4 of the battery's charge capacity when charged to 100%? So, for example, for a 6.0Ah battery, with only 3 bars, would that mean that the battery when charged to 100% would have the charge capacity of a 4.5Ah battery with full health (4 bars)? You can see where I'm going with this, right? 6 / 4 = 1.5. So, if a 6.0Ah battery has 3 bars, meaning that 1/4 of it's bars are gone, will the battery effectively be a 4.5Ah battery when it's fully charged?
was gonna say immediately with that adapter, it's only got basic DC connections. You need to have a full connection to the cells individually and chip with all the extra connections. A bit like how you balance charge a LiPo. Ah, looks like covered that with the number of pins.
Here in NL they're easily available, for around €250. I'd expect similar in other European countries. Got me one after watching this video, and tested most of my 18V batteries so far. I have had my 2x18V chainsaw cutting out with blinking battery indicators several times and then usually I push on as soon as I can, causing some serious temperatures in the batteries. So I expected some of them to report some overload/overheat count, but all of them reported perfectly healthy. I guess the protection in the battery/tools does its job. Still need to test my 14.4V batteries, which are a bit older. Interested to see how those have held up.
They only ship certain tools down-under. I don't buy many tools from Amazon. But I have noticed some brands are easier to get than others. i.e. it is much easier to get Milwaukee and Metabo HPT stuff than Makita.
@@ToolsAndStuffOFFICIAL Yeah, trying to get the new 36v Metabo htp nailer and the new 18 guage Metabo htp bradder. Can you suggest any other way of getting these? Hikoki Australia isn't expecting stock of the bradder til April next year🤯.
Well I know what I'm gonna look for next time I'm in Japan ^^ Also regarding parts of the world for the contest, if the UK viewers are more numerous than the rest of Europe then fair enough. But since the UK has left the EU there's a ton of taxes and tolls for the rest of Europe when buying from the UK (so much that a lot of us really don't bother anymore). So if the viewers from the rest of Europe outnumber the UK ones I'd suggest getting the voucher from one of the Amazon branches inside the EU (France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Sweden, of the top of my head), since anyone within the EU can buy from any of those without any tolls or extra taxes. :)
Excellent video. I'm curious, what kind of readings would you get if you refurbished an old dead makita battery with new 18650 cells. And if so, is there a way of resetting the number of charges to make it count from 0 on fresh cells?
Ahh ok, it's good to know that's an option then. I should try to get one of these, it would be so helpful. I didnt know you could see how long I've been subscribed 😅 That's pretty cool, I love watching your tool review videos when I get time. They're great, thanks for your content. Keep it coming please 😁
The Broken makita battery won't work after setting new cells unfortunately. It's impossible to reset it) Oh 4years. I've found this channel by chance only thanks to makita came up with their new line xgt)
Wish someone would make a universal battery checker. Check 12/18/36(40) batteries of most/all manufacturers. Include a refresh mode for any batteries with the blinks of death, etc.
I contacted the Makita Service Center in Denver as I have dozens of Makita tools and have ordered parts from them over the years and they are quite knowledgeable and helpful. They have no knowledge of this battery checker and the part number is not recognized in the MakitaUSA database. It would likely be a different part number here as the BTC04/5 is likely for Japan and/or Asia. Each country's Makita Corp. is operated as a completely separate entity. We are just getting 40v units in now and he thought it was likely a new device and might become available in the USA eventually. If I had the time I would pull out my o-scope and do an analysis of the serial communication between the battery and the charger and likely could extract this data and cobble together a similar device.
Yeah it would be super interesting what kind of data is exchanged over this bus connection. Also if the normal battery charger recieves the same amount of information. There should be a temperature readout of some sort on the 18v batteries for the charger
Depending on where in NZ your located the next time I’m over I’ll bring a couple of batteries that have been heavily flogged for the past 8+ years and some that flash as broken on the charger aswell to see what they come up as
Neat, but it's disappointing that it did not sound like it could do an actual full discharge test with a load, which is really the only way to know the health/capacity of the battery accurately. The indicators of battery life shown in the vid are likely just snapshots and extrapolation, but unless the battery circuitry actually measures real discharge numbers and memorize them, and the tester can read that, it's hard for me to believe that the shown indicators are very accurate. Still, on a relative basis quite helpful for a quick check. And could be quite helpful if you sell battery frequently, as buyers might be reassured of the battery health, which may save you some money. (for instance I don't buy used batteries cuz I can't tell how good they are and people lie too much.)
I need this just to see how I've abused the shjt out of my batteries everyday for years lol!!! 20 charges lol. If I sent u mine it probably wouldn't be able to count that high lol!!
Same here i think i have 1 or 2 batteries in the thousands of charges. I have only had 1 battery die completely ever. I couldn't be happier with makita.
I have a couple of 3ah bought from Loventools back in 2011. It's been used and abused almost everyday and still no sign of giving up. I wonder what this machine could tell me about those batteries
hi.great review on this tool! can you check what happpens with some old accu that you charge manually only on - and + (with some current limited 20.5v dc source)..and see if the bms inside does any balance? there seems to be a big mistery about this info. 10x!1
Hi T&S, I have a question, i'm just starting to get on makita brand tools and I don't know which batteries to buy. Should I invest in 6.0amp ones or 5.0amp ones. A friend said I better buy 5.0 because they are well received. I would however like to have more amps for 36v tools (longer run time) and the batteries are the same size but not if they have shorter lifespan. So 5amps or 6 amps? If you already talked about this I'm sorry.
The 5Ah batteries are better. With many makita tools the 6Ah batteries stop working when the battery is only half discharged, so you usually get more runtime from a 5 than a 6. And the 5s will save you money :)
Was the blower running on turbo? Makita doesn't recommend running the blower on turbo for an extended period, probably because of the high battery temperatures you saw. Would be nice if they had some air diverted to keep the motor and batteries a little cooler since blowers are run flat out most of the time.
Didn't I mention that it wasn't in the video? If it isn't in this video then it is in the blower video. It was on the full auto setting, but goes up a notch more if you pull the trigger.
@@ToolsAndStuffOFFICIAL I think you just said they're running flat out, but now that you mention it you can see in the video that you have it running running on full auto without the trigger pulled for the boost. Interesting that they get so hot. I have the 36v blower and the batteries definitely get warm, but some of my other tools get them much hotter.
Battery charges cycles counts when 0 to 100. Best case scenario for example this battery has 3 cycles and it 23% charged, I put in the charger to 100% it not going to show 4 cycles after because I haven't completed the 100% cycles yet. After depleting and charging it pass 23% I now have completed the 100% cycles, it really hard to explain. Also battery health degrades overtime when stored even if you don't use em. Fully charged battery stored degrades faster. For storage of lithium ion battery is 35% to 40%. If you notice certain devices you buy comes with around 40% charged that to protect the battery if the device stays on the shelf long time. Some devices now especially on Amazon comes fully charged because these devices sell quickly. There a lot more about lithium ion battery
I would be highly interested in see a video with that battery checker and knock off Makita batteries. I dont own any myself but have see tradesmen on jobs with them and they say they work great for them.
Another great vid as always👍. Amazing how much information this this gives you. came across the elusive battery refresher on the Amazon a few years ago for around i wanna say $250-$350. I shoulda grabbed that womp womp. Anyway I was reading a reviewer speaking of a service place where he was told about that gem of a piece of kit.
Wow, that's definitely helpful. Didn't know it was available. Is this Battery checker only available with Makita. Leessggooo 30k sub's. Good work brotha. 🙏🏾👍🏾🔔🤙🏾
To maintain perfect battery conditions is almost impossible in rl, batteries need to charge at the same time and and discharge at the same time, the battery cutting off instead of slowing down little by little is a sign of a great battery, when your battery hits different levels from fast to slow to off is a sign of a junk battery, perfect batteries that have been double computer matched will charge and discharge at the same time, giving maximum power all the way till it suddenly stops without changing speeds,because all 10 cells are in perfect unison and also they have the exact same storing capacity. in my almost 30yrs in the field as a finish carpenter, no battery will outlast a Big Mak battery year after year, I think it’d be an awesome test to get an adapter for the other big brands so you could do side by side tests then show the batteries and what batteries are the slowest to demise over multiple charges, my guess is Mak will be at least double as good as the second best battery. But I’m just guessing lol anyways great video.cheers🍻
ⒼⓇⒶⒷ ⓄⓃⒺ ⒽⒺⓇⒺ
ebay.us/amSrSI
They need to build this straight into the dual battery charger. Much like the Nitecore, Xtar, Skyrc, and other brands of Li-ion/NIMH battery chargers
@Steve D it's does to makita they make more money
Ok, now I got a gripe with you! I always thought you were using batteries like mine to make the test fair. You know, run down to the last electron, been charged 200 times, got chips and dents all over 'cause the apprentice can't catch it when I throw it down to put on the charger and left out in the rain a couple million times... Sheesh! What ever happened to real world testing? Lol
Holy crap that's expensive, what a great device, so handy to check the status of batteries, not sure why it would be that price!! Can't wait for the 30k sub giveaway, a long time subscriber, when a new video shows up I stop what I'm doing and watch and then I watch it again later. No one else doing the type and amount of reviews you do, keep up the great work!!
Each cell is 4.2v fully charged so an 18v nominal battery will have 5 cells if you have a bigger battery like a 4ah or a 5ah or bigger it will have 2 pair of cells parraleled to give you more amphours you cant check cells in parallel
Considering the price of this thing, that's what I call a dedication. Thanks for making your videos better all the time!
this device I knew from my first Makita kit I've bought. One of the batteries came dead, and the repair center where I live tested the batteries on this device. So they RMA the battery and I've received a new one a week later. Good to know how this device works. Guess I'll visit the repair center one of these days with all my batteries, lol. I guess all Makita repair centers have this tester.
I think a look at how the cells discharge in each battery of a 18v X2 tool would be neat to look at with this thing.
Very neat. Basic Makita chargers do these checks every time you charge one. They just don't have a visual readout like this awesome gadget!
Exactly. I think I have a new project. Where is my oscilloscope and logic analyzer? :D
@@zoltanberkes8559 Please do. I bet the serial communications are pretty simple and could be decoded pretty easily.
I'd live a little adapter you could connect to the battery, hit a button, and it uploads the stats to a DB for tracking purposes
have you tried this with off brand batteries that are made to work with makita? I think the checker is communicating with the Yellow plug, and it would be interesting to see if any of the clone batteries use the yellow plug to do the star communication system with the tool.
I never knew this existed. Now I need one. You'd think they would make something so useful more available!
That is such a useful tool. Only I am not on the Makita platform. Could have been and should have been. Went to a tool show intending to buy Makita but the salesman would hardly give me the time of day. His Bosch competitor complete opposite. Ended up spending a lot of money on Bosch and they keep dying. Bosch do a simpler diagnostic battery charger but mine never worked. In fact it corrupted and killed four of my batteries that Bosch begrudgingly had to replace. And a new charger but scared to use that. So thanks to a bad salesman I can only watch your videos of superior tools.
Bummer bro.
That's an interesting gadget. I have about 6 Makita batteries. The oldest are two 3ah that came with the first kit I bought in 2015 before they started putting the gauges on them. They both still seem to be going strong.
This is great info!
I'd be curious about a runtime test of that 6.0ah battery with 196 charge cycles vs a brand new one. A real world test of how much capacity is lost.
Your channel(s) is awesome!
Great suggestion!
@@ToolsAndStuffOFFICIAL Dont write the amp,just the voltage for what,it,s the AMP and WATTS for me interest.
By the way, I heard some of the birds in the background--I was searching the house for a loud unusual bird that I thought had come in through an open window and it took a couple minutes to realize it was coming from the TV. Your audio quality must be awesome since it had me looking for a tropical bird in Indiana!
HaHaHa Sorry dude!
Awesome.
🤭🤭😅👍👍
Indiana have strict drug laws?!
I watched this video when you first released it and have been wanting a BTC04 ever since !
Finally ordered one the other day as they'd come down in price to £185 ( and maybe £50 import charges , ohh tthe joys of the UK Government ) Its a christmas present to myself and the wifes chipped in 👍
I've not ordered the BTC05 yet as my two BL4040's dont get used a lot but hopefull as a treat ( and seeing as sites in the UK are supposed to be M-class for a while the companies providing me with the 80v extractor and a couple of BL4950's ) .
Also i'm not sure if it was you that i first saw the makita battery dates but i know you shared it so thanks for that too 👍
I don't even use Makita tools, but i still want one. Seriously though, other tool brands should be selling this for their own batteries too. Thanks for the great review as usual. I didn't even know this exists.
If this was sensibly priced then they'd probably sell loads. I'd buy one for sure.
Nice love you work I am stuck on the 3 amp 18 volt batteries ×7and ×1 5amp 18 volt just lost 3 hesitant to upgrade all my Makita tools to the 40 volt but so far Makita is winning
So darn cool! Would love to see Milwaukee, DeWalt etc to come out with this!
Worth the wait staying up for your video to come out keep up the amazing vids
Thanks man.
The battery health got better on the dodgy 2.5ah 40v after being drained on the blower
BTC06 For 12V CXT. Hefty. Pretty cool though. Parallel-stacked battery packs shows single bar per cell as there is no measurable difference on parallel circuits voltage.
Does it test non-Makita (aftermarket) batteries?
great stuff mate, yeah i wonder if when the charger goes green then it writes to the battery, since then its "officially" charged with the charger so makes sense to increment it.
Does anyone know if this will work with aftermarket makita batteries or is there something in the makita ones that identifies it as original??
Another data point that would be nice would be either the total Ah or Wh the pack has been run.
You have reason,it,s the Ah or Wh interest me,not the voltage i work in a battery and change the cells in for more Amp and i have the same voltage more energy.
You weren’t kidding about the price , but to quote
Wayne Campbell “She will be mine. Oh yes - she will be mine”
I'll have to remember to look for this in Japan, whenever travel becomes less problematic. I wonder how much it is there, and if it is widely available
When I do get to travel I ask on Reddit or ask small UA-camrs if I happen to know they’re in the county I’m headed. That way I can kind of get a lead on tools and even order them and sent to them. Usually only after a few annoying to get items.
@@FearsomeWarrior Japan is difficult because of the language barrier and "DIY" seems less common than the US. Even in the US, without these networks, it would be hard to find a knowledgeable person in a given field, and I know the language well. For consumer electronics it's a bit easier because it is part of mainstream culture, but power tools are less so.
@@ccbowers That’s why I got a best friend I grew up with installed in Tokyo with his Japanese wife. Oh the good times.
What does it have to say if you drop in a fake battery?
I first saw one of these yesterday, at a Makita service center. and I would be vary interested in knowing what counts as a charge because when I was at the Makita service center I was told they normally wave the 2 year warranty and as long as a battery has not been abused and is under 200 charges. they will replace it.
Excellent. Now I want one… 🤦♂️
Edit to add, I would like to see if the radio overdischarges the batteries, I overheard it in a tool shop one-day and ever since I've tried to use my older crappier batteries.
I have a 1.5A battery that errors on the charger you could have, unfortunately shipping to NZ from Australia would be exxy I think 🙁
I think it would be cool to see the difference in temperature between 18 and 40v on a similar tool.
The 5ah 18v can only show 5 cells bucause they are wired in parallel pairs of 2 wich will have always the same voltage. Same for the 5ah 40 v
I’ve had same makita batteries for 4 years and surely they must have had some abuse in that time but they still work as good as when I got them? Not a noticeable drop anyway
Cool toy thanks for sharing.
Any suggestion which 9AH aftermarket is best?
Temperature and longevity test. Uk can go below 1c in winter and I had a couple of ryobi batteries stop working. So test for v low temp and how long they last for high load tool. Charging between uses
Very interesting. You never fail to bring all the makita goodies to the masses tools. Thank you very much for these videos. This thing could come I handy for a certain type of makita user, such as yourself. Obviously. But, that price tag is steep. It us all good info though that I can correlate to my own batteries. Cheers 🍻
Can it fix anything or does it just tell you if there is a problem?
Sweet as broh..
These batteries don't have individual cell monitoring. So this isn't foolproof. Sometimes only one cell goes bad and you need to disassemble and individually charge and test the cells
It shows the cell voltage for only the half of the cells, because cell pairs are connected in parallel.
I’m actually deep involved in battery testing. I’m going out on a limb to say: nope, it doesn’t work like that.
Globally, it depends on how the battery analyzer is built. Most of the modern ones can do serial, parallel, and the various combinations of the serial / parallel used in multi cell construction. The 18v sounds like it’s 5 serial of 2 parallel.
The complicating factor is the chip in the battery that most likely is communicating with the Makita analyzer.
@@grahamwilliams4417 Maybe I was not clear. Just disassemble a battery and you will see: two cells are in parallel and 5 of these are in series. The balancer circuit meassures and controls these 5 pairs, hence it only can provide data of these voltages.
Very informative video
But your right, the price is eye watering.
Keep up the good work.
I would love to see the cycle counter on bunch of my 1.5Ah batteries. Been using them for 5ish years now doing Ikea and other flatpack assembly. I tend to charge each one about once or twice a week so guessing about 250-300 cycles. They are all still going strong though. They are great for the subcompact drill and impact
This appears to merely read the battery metrics Makita stores inside of it. I was hoping it also did a capacity check. Where it can drain the battery as if it were in actual use and display the results. So I can tell if the 6Ah battery I bought off Amazon is really a .5Ah battery. The batteries bought off Amazon all seem to weigh less and go dead quickly.
I'm curious if the 40V batteries are cutting out with some juice left in the tank because at the higher temperatures they get derated otherwise they get really damaged. But 75C is way higher than lithium batteries want to be (typically you only want to charge them if they're between 0 and 35/40C)
I can speak of heat numbers but Makita chargers won’t start charging if the battery is too hot
I didn't realise how much of a Makita nut I was until now, I was entertained by a video on Makita battery health. Great content, I'm hanging out for your review on the 40V Plunge saw, if Makita ever bring it out?
It's out here.
@@ToolsAndStuffOFFICIAL Bloody awesome, I’ll wait for your review 👍
I have a question. Do makita batteries have a undervoltage protection built in the battery? Because i would like to use the batteries with other stuff which wasnt intended for
Makita batteries 18V are 5 series 2 pararel cell configuration. It has 10 cells but in paralel to provide more current and also it reduces stress on single cell. They use VTC4/5/6 mostly I have never seen makita battery with other cells than Sony so far. Yes, you can pull 30A from single cell but you can also reduce the current for each cell if you do paralel connection and as a natural bonus you benefit from extended capacity while lowering load on a single cell - battery lives longer.
They use Samsung cells these days I've seen it myself
All the 40v ones I've seen use Murata (sony).
Love the dedication and honesty. Forgot to try out the usb port with a power bank or adapter.
Yeah I know, D'oh! I have filmed another video on this battery checker, and you just reminded me that I forgot that again! Double D'oh! I'll get there one day.
@@ToolsAndStuffOFFICIAL oh well, I'm sure it works. Interesting that it doesn't use power from the tool battery to power its self, but then again it won't turn on if the battery is bad.
Thank you for the video, very useful. It is available from Spain in Amazon EU for 250 euros. The prices in Yahoo Japan are just crazy.
Try charging the battery 50% and se if the charges number go up. On sites it happens a lot to take the battery from the charger when is 50-75% charged, but this is not a full charge, and if it counts it as craged then it might not be extremely accurate 🤔
Nice, would you know if any other brands do one?
I'd love to see how many cycles I have on my batteries (I work in construction). I've had some batteries for like 7 years.
Very cool find, how do you get new firmware for it for the SD card?
How many recharge cycles do these batteries hold up, before you'd have to buy a replacement?
193681-8
Refreshing Adapter, ADP03
This one says it can fix issues?
i have several makita 18v batteries for various cordless tools for home use (each probably gets recharged 2-3 times a month) had them for almost 7+ years now and they still seem to keep their full charge and last a while.. 7 years seems like a long time .. question- can batteries that old become “dangerous” or fire hazards? or will they eventually just stop holding a charge for an adequate time?
Can you use that adapter on a 18v tool with a 40v battery
I was curious about this battery checker (BTC04) and decided to call Makita to ask what the deal was with it...why so expensive, why so 'rare'. The Makita rep found the part# but said it was not meant for endusers/customers. This device is meant for Makita Service Centers. So that's why it's so expensive and kind of hard to get. I'd love to get one but not interested in spending $250 to get one. It's too bad that Makita doesn't make it available for customers, but I can kind of see why they'd probably think it would perhaps open a 'can of worms'.
It is available for anyone to purchase in Japan. And lots of other regions sell them direct to customers. I'm guessing you are in the US,?
@@ToolsAndStuffOFFICIAL Yes. I’m in the U.S.. Thanks for the info. I guess the entire issue is a bit murky because with online commerce, individual national sales policies are moot. So, I guess we’re talking about purchasing in a ‘physical’ store, and Makita’s policy for U.S. as I said is a ‘NO’ for sales of this to tool users. In the U.S., Makita tools are sold at hardware stores, lumber yards, Home Depot, etc.. So, what you appear to be saying that if other countries had physical stores and/or outlets like these that sell Makita Tools, that the BTC04 would be a regular item to purchase just like a drill, router, or saw.
Saw one of these online somewhere a couple of years ago and always wanted one but they were £800 back then , i was told it was more of a dealer tool . still want one but they're still £500 if you can find them .
Great video thanks 👍
Great video as always buddy. And I'm one of the 99.9 people 😃😉.
Thanks for sharing. I need that in my life ❤💪
Thanks again for this extremely helpful video. I actually just got a BTC04 and it's very cool. I had a few questions. First off, the manual that came with mine is in Japanese. Do you by any chance know how to get one in English? I did a couple online searches and came up empty. Secondly, is that SD card the only way to update the tool's software? I'm not concerned because mine came loaded with version 2.1. Just wondering with regards to moving forward.. would an SD card be the only way to update the machine in the future? If so, it probably would be a hassle to get. I'm in the U.S. and had to use EBay to buy the BTC04 from a seller in Japan. Thirdly: the 'Battery Health' test which is at the top of the second test screen. It shows the 4 bars. Does each bar essentially equal 1/4 of the battery's charge capacity when charged to 100%? So, for example, for a 6.0Ah battery, with only 3 bars, would that mean that the battery when charged to 100% would have the charge capacity of a 4.5Ah battery with full health (4 bars)? You can see where I'm going with this, right? 6 / 4 = 1.5. So, if a 6.0Ah battery has 3 bars, meaning that 1/4 of it's bars are gone, will the battery effectively be a 4.5Ah battery when it's fully charged?
was gonna say immediately with that adapter, it's only got basic DC connections. You need to have a full connection to the cells individually and chip with all the extra connections. A bit like how you balance charge a LiPo. Ah, looks like covered that with the number of pins.
I tried to get one of these from Makita a couple of years ago. It was listed but nobody had a clue what I was on about.
(Might have actually been an older style maybe the adp03?)
Here in NL they're easily available, for around €250. I'd expect similar in other European countries.
Got me one after watching this video, and tested most of my 18V batteries so far.
I have had my 2x18V chainsaw cutting out with blinking battery indicators several times and then usually I push on as soon as I can, causing some serious temperatures in the batteries. So I expected some of them to report some overload/overheat count, but all of them reported perfectly healthy. I guess the protection in the battery/tools does its job.
Still need to test my 14.4V batteries, which are a bit older. Interested to see how those have held up.
Just wondering how you buy things from Amazon USA . Tried but says won't send to Australia. How do you work around this to get tools?
They only ship certain tools down-under. I don't buy many tools from Amazon. But I have noticed some brands are easier to get than others. i.e. it is much easier to get Milwaukee and Metabo HPT stuff than Makita.
@@ToolsAndStuffOFFICIAL Yeah, trying to get the new 36v Metabo htp nailer and the new 18 guage Metabo htp bradder. Can you suggest any other way of getting these? Hikoki Australia isn't expecting stock of the bradder til April next year🤯.
@@hayden3488 hm, won't ebay ship stuff to your country, either?
Amazon doesn't ship stuff to my country,too)) (russia)
Hi there ..i am in NZ but i cant find this battery checker anywhere on internet . And i cant see your link
Well I know what I'm gonna look for next time I'm in Japan ^^
Also regarding parts of the world for the contest, if the UK viewers are more numerous than the rest of Europe then fair enough. But since the UK has left the EU there's a ton of taxes and tolls for the rest of Europe when buying from the UK (so much that a lot of us really don't bother anymore). So if the viewers from the rest of Europe outnumber the UK ones I'd suggest getting the voucher from one of the Amazon branches inside the EU (France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Sweden, of the top of my head), since anyone within the EU can buy from any of those without any tolls or extra taxes. :)
Very good suggestion!
Your work is beautiful and useful, I hope I am healthy and safe
Can check how many Amp. Battery have. I have some replacement battery and 5amp is not really 5amp
No.
Excellent video. I'm curious, what kind of readings would you get if you refurbished an old dead makita battery with new 18650 cells. And if so, is there a way of resetting the number of charges to make it count from 0 on fresh cells?
You can buy new chipsets for the batteries which will be set to zero
And thanks for being subscribed for 4 years!
Ahh ok, it's good to know that's an option then. I should try to get one of these, it would be so helpful. I didnt know you could see how long I've been subscribed 😅 That's pretty cool, I love watching your tool review videos when I get time. They're great, thanks for your content. Keep it coming please 😁
Plenty more coming...
The Broken makita battery won't work after setting new cells unfortunately. It's impossible to reset it)
Oh 4years. I've found this channel by chance only thanks to makita came up with their new line xgt)
Wish someone would make a universal battery checker. Check 12/18/36(40) batteries of most/all manufacturers. Include a refresh mode for any batteries with the blinks of death, etc.
I contacted the Makita Service Center in Denver as I have dozens of Makita tools and have ordered parts from them over the years and they are quite knowledgeable and helpful. They have no knowledge of this battery checker and the part number is not recognized in the MakitaUSA database. It would likely be a different part number here as the BTC04/5 is likely for Japan and/or Asia. Each country's Makita Corp. is operated as a completely separate entity. We are just getting 40v units in now and he thought it was likely a new device and might become available in the USA eventually.
If I had the time I would pull out my o-scope and do an analysis of the serial communication between the battery and the charger and likely could extract this data and cobble together a similar device.
The BTC04 has been out for a long time and uses the same number worldwide, including America.
Yeah it would be super interesting what kind of data is exchanged over this bus connection. Also if the normal battery charger recieves the same amount of information. There should be a temperature readout of some sort on the 18v batteries for the charger
They must be high at that service center.
Depending on where in NZ your located the next time I’m over I’ll bring a couple of batteries that have been heavily flogged for the past 8+ years and some that flash as broken on the charger aswell to see what they come up as
"I do this every week man!" killed me
Neat, but it's disappointing that it did not sound like it could do an actual full discharge test with a load, which is really the only way to know the health/capacity of the battery accurately. The indicators of battery life shown in the vid are likely just snapshots and extrapolation, but unless the battery circuitry actually measures real discharge numbers and memorize them, and the tester can read that, it's hard for me to believe that the shown indicators are very accurate. Still, on a relative basis quite helpful for a quick check. And could be quite helpful if you sell battery frequently, as buyers might be reassured of the battery health, which may save you some money. (for instance I don't buy used batteries cuz I can't tell how good they are and people lie too much.)
Would this detect a counterfeit battery? Did you try?
I'm waiting for someone to send me one. I don't use counterfeit batteries.
I need this just to see how I've abused the shjt out of my batteries everyday for years lol!!! 20 charges lol. If I sent u mine it probably wouldn't be able to count that high lol!!
900 bucks tho haha
@@brettwalkom948 yeah, just buy more batteries
@@jethro1066 you can buy alot of batteries for 900 bucks lol
Same here i think i have 1 or 2 batteries in the thousands of charges. I have only had 1 battery die completely ever. I couldn't be happier with makita.
Does the BTC05 work on the 18V charger????
Very very interesting video. Thank you. And for once, prices in Europe are correct: BTC04/05/06 247 € / 90 € / 135 € (Makita NL) 👍
I have a couple of 3ah bought from Loventools back in 2011. It's been used and abused almost everyday and still no sign of giving up. I wonder what this machine could tell me about those batteries
Any plans for reviewing the subcompact drill / hammer drill? DDF487/DHP487? Your reviews are the on UA-cam👍
Don't forget to check out my other tool channel ua-cam.com/users/BuildsStuff
Yup. Watch & tap the ☝🏾🔔🙃
signed up to builds and stuff too! can't complain at more great content bro!
@@ToolsAndStuffOFFICIAL Wow, those batteries get hot enough to cook eggs. That could be messy though. Great video 👍
Cells are in pairs. Their health is identical (because they are shorted with each other into a pair).
hi.great review on this tool! can you check what happpens with some old accu that you charge manually only on - and + (with some current limited 20.5v dc source)..and see if the bms inside does any balance? there seems to be a big mistery about this info. 10x!1
at 600-700 a pop but cant seem to show individual cell voltages? only parallel readings.
I need to get a hold of one of those battery checkers. You almost have as many makita batteries as i do.
That wasn't all of them.
Hi T&S, I have a question, i'm just starting to get on makita brand tools and I don't know which batteries to buy. Should I invest in 6.0amp ones or 5.0amp ones. A friend said I better buy 5.0 because they are well received. I would however like to have more amps for 36v tools (longer run time) and the batteries are the same size but not if they have shorter lifespan. So 5amps or 6 amps?
If you already talked about this I'm sorry.
The 5Ah batteries are better. With many makita tools the 6Ah batteries stop working when the battery is only half discharged, so you usually get more runtime from a 5 than a 6. And the 5s will save you money :)
@@ToolsAndStuffOFFICIAL5ah it is then, thank you very much. Now I know why 5.0 batteries are more popular.
Makita don't push the 6Ahs here anymore. Kits tend to come with 5s again.
@@ToolsAndStuffOFFICIAL that is so strange..because 6ah are basically 2 3ah in parallel ..which should have more juice and even can deliver more power
Was the blower running on turbo? Makita doesn't recommend running the blower on turbo for an extended period, probably because of the high battery temperatures you saw. Would be nice if they had some air diverted to keep the motor and batteries a little cooler since blowers are run flat out most of the time.
Didn't I mention that it wasn't in the video? If it isn't in this video then it is in the blower video. It was on the full auto setting, but goes up a notch more if you pull the trigger.
@@ToolsAndStuffOFFICIAL I think you just said they're running flat out, but now that you mention it you can see in the video that you have it running running on full auto without the trigger pulled for the boost.
Interesting that they get so hot. I have the 36v blower and the batteries definitely get warm, but some of my other tools get them much hotter.
Battery charges cycles counts when 0 to 100. Best case scenario for example this battery has 3 cycles and it 23% charged, I put in the charger to 100% it not going to show 4 cycles after because I haven't completed the 100% cycles yet. After depleting and charging it pass 23% I now have completed the 100% cycles, it really hard to explain. Also battery health degrades overtime when stored even if you don't use em. Fully charged battery stored degrades faster. For storage of lithium ion battery is 35% to 40%. If you notice certain devices you buy comes with around 40% charged that to protect the battery if the device stays on the shelf long time. Some devices now especially on Amazon comes fully charged because these devices sell quickly. There a lot more about lithium ion battery
If you want to store batteries (many days/weeks of no use) please keep them at 4.0V per cell max.
I think 4v is a little bit to much if you want them idle for months/years . 3.8v prob is better
Can you get a Hikoki one of these?
I would be highly interested in see a video with that battery checker and knock off Makita batteries. I dont own any myself but have see tradesmen on jobs with them and they say they work great for them.
I was thinking the same thing (along with wondering how much the older testing batteries go for)
Checking the comments and realizing ima tool nerd. Do you have a good way to track total charges on other brands?
Pen and paper? That's what I used to do with my old Hitachi batteries.
Can I use a Milwaukee to Makita adapter to check my Milwaukee batteries?
No
Still waiting for the electronic clutch tests between Makita, Dewalt and Milawaukee combi drills.
Another great vid as always👍. Amazing how much information this this gives you. came across the elusive battery refresher on the Amazon a few years ago for around i wanna say $250-$350. I shoulda grabbed that womp womp. Anyway I was reading a reviewer speaking of a service place where he was told about that gem of a piece of kit.
Nice, dont know about this tool. I ordered one!
Whats your trademe ? Ill keep an eye out for your listings
How many total charges do batteries get? I've read wildly varying info ranging from 300 to over 1500 charges for well cared for packs.
SES Direct in Invercargill sell these on their website for NZ$300. They said Makita NZ have a few left in stock.
Wow, that's definitely helpful. Didn't know it was available. Is this Battery checker only available with Makita.
Leessggooo 30k sub's. Good work brotha. 🙏🏾👍🏾🔔🤙🏾
I don't know if anyone else does one like this. Hilti do something similar apparently.
@@ToolsAndStuffOFFICIAL Owesome review & very helpful information bro. 🙏🏾🖤's
Chur
To maintain perfect battery conditions is almost impossible in rl, batteries need to charge at the same time and and discharge at the same time, the battery cutting off instead of slowing down little by little is a sign of a great battery, when your battery hits different levels from fast to slow to off is a sign of a junk battery, perfect batteries that have been double computer matched will charge and discharge at the same time, giving maximum power all the way till it suddenly stops without changing speeds,because all 10 cells are in perfect unison and also they have the exact same storing capacity. in my almost 30yrs in the field as a finish carpenter, no battery will outlast a Big Mak battery year after year, I think it’d be an awesome test to get an adapter for the other big brands so you could do side by side tests then show the batteries and what batteries are the slowest to demise over multiple charges, my guess is Mak will be at least double as good as the second best battery. But I’m just guessing lol anyways great video.cheers🍻
That's so cool!