18v Cordless Drills

- how long would an 18v 1.5ah battery last on an e-bike?
i wanted to convert my bike and noticed i have two hitachi 18v 1.5ah batteries.. if i use a 500watt brushless hub motor, how far would that take me on a flat road? bike and rider weight is about 190lbs i know that if i put them together i get the 36v but still at 1.5ah, unless i got it wrong. but i need help figuring out how long the batteries would last at 1.5ah. Thank you!!

A The bottom line is: these batteries are too small for a viable electric bike. Best case scenario: lets say you ALWAYS pedal and limit your average electric power demand to 150W. (In practice this would not be easy to do and would require some discipline) So, in series or in parallel, the average current drain from each battery is 0.5*150W / 18V = 4.2 amps 4.2 Amps is 2.8 TIMES the rated amp-hour capacity, or about 3C average discharge in technical terminology. Which means your batteries may not even deliver their rated 1.5Ah charge, because their discharge rate is too high (unless they are Lithium batteries with 5C or better rating, or NiMH batteries with a 3C or better rating). But, assuming they do give 1.5Ah, they will only last for 1.5Ah/4.2A = 0.36h = 20 minutes or so. So you won't get very far before you have to pedal 100%. And this is Best Case. It is most likely to be worse, because your discharge rate will be even higher, meaning your batteries will prematurely lose their capacity after a few charge cycles and then die... Viable Electric Bikes have batteries starting at 24V 10Ah and go up from there. Many have 36V batteries at up to 20Ah, some even as high as 48V 20Ah for a reasonable range of 100km+ and a riding time of 5 hours+.

- Somebody help me on voltage converter?
Ok, I just bought this HITACHI 18V battery drill for $700 and only used for 3 months or so in New Zealand. Anyway now I've moved to Canada and nobody seem to have the voltage converter that works. It says Input 240V~ 50 Hz 95 W FUSE T3.15 A Output 7.2V -18V 3.5A and I didn't quite understand why I can't use here, but something like I need to go up from 240V and it can only go down. and seemed very complicated to use it here. if you have knowledge on electronics please help me. I'll give you 5 stars. It's just was very expensive and seemed I'm gonna waste the money if I don't find the way to convert.I'm not going back to NZ. TV guy. I forget to mention it's a battery charger with cool fan and it's Li-ion Battery. is it gonna still work?

A You have two choices a) You simply need an AC/AC step-up transformer 110V to 240 V rated at least 95 W. This transformer allows you to plug your existing power adaptor and charge your drill. They go for about $15 http://www.dvdoverseas.com/store/index.html?loadfile=catalog6_0.html Or you need to find a new 110V - 7.2 to 18 V (3.5 A) power adaptor that fits the existing plug of your drill. Either one will work. Part 2 As long your AC step-up converter supports 100 W you will be OK Or as I said, even a 110V-DC (at least 3.5A, 7-18V ) will work, but it is probably harder to find.