[reuelt]

PDF copy of the GMC 2050W Magnesium Router Instruction manual

So sad GMC-Triton went bankrupt because Burnings suddenly cancelled orders of all GMC products because of a Bunnings-Ryobi exclusive dealership agreement.
Used cash flow sabotage to kill a competitor.
I never buy a Ryobi since then.

 

[reuelt]

I suspect there were other reasons. There was a GMC warranty agent here in Rockingham and I was in their shop one day and saw through an open door a mountain of faulty items that had been scrapped. The business was in a large factory unit with a really high roof and the pile which looked like an enormous Christmas tree almost reached the roof. In other words GMC were exchanging faulty products willy nilly. My own experience was one of their cordless drills, the batteries were not holding a charge so I phoned GMC and explained the situation and guess what, about a week later a brand new drill complete with it's two batteries arrived in it's original box. How can any company survive when A:it's products are not reliable and B: when they simply swap a product at the drop of a hat.
When I opened up the battery at least half the cells were totally dead and the rest close to it.

Original owners of GMC are still around on a smaller scale with the Brand called "909" sold worldwide.
For home users warranty is 909 days
For trade users warranty is 1 years (365 days)
Their products are about the same quality as Ryobi - often made out of the same factories.

Those NICAD batteries from China are bad not just GMC but my Ryobi, Markita, Ozito, Carbec drills etc all have the same problem.
I just replace them with cheap 3000mHA NIMH batteries and then they will hold charge for months.

The trick is to have a good charger. I found a old Metabo charger for AUD5 from an Opshop and found that if I solder a 10K thermistor from 3rd terminal to one of the battery case that charger will charge my repacked NIMH batteries automatically with temperature sensing and will never overcharge so my batteries last for many years now. This AUD5 charger now charge my Ryobi (14.4V), Ozito (18V), Carbac (18V) batteries as they all have almost identical dimensions (see next post).
Markita 18V drill charger has 4 terminals so I just buy 3rd party NIMH batteries and it's charger works perfectly so I gave the Markita to my daughter.

 

[reuelt]

My NiCAD/NIMH charger

This is a photo of my BEST and ONLY charger that I now need.
for Ryobi, Ozito, Carbac repacked batteries up to 18V.
The 3rd terminal of the batteries must have a 10K thermistor connected to a battery negative case.

This AUD5 charger now charge my Ryobi (14.4V), Ozito (18V), Carbac (18V) batteries as they all have almost identical dimensions - sorry Max 18V.

With most people going Li-Ions, this excellent charger for Ni-CAD/NiMH can be very cheap to buy.

Silicon Chip also designed a DIY charger using the same temperature sensing principles.

Before I found this charger, I just used a mains timer with my lab. constant current power supply to charge those NIMH batteries

 

[reuelt]

Hi Reuel,Thank you for this information.My eldest son is an electronics engineer so he is going to rig one of these chargers up for me (he just doesn't know about it yet}Jamesjj

I found the AU$5 Metabo IC25 charger on the shelf by chance as I often donate stuff to that Op shop near my house.
If you have not soldered 10K thermistor internally in the battery pack yet, you can still use it with an external thermistor connected from 3rd terminal to the -ve terminal.
Just rubberband or clip the thermistor to the battery outside while charging to detect the battery pack's temperature.
This charger saved me hundreds of dollars in powertool batteries.

 

[reuelt]

Before I bought the GMC drill I phoned GMC and asked if the charger is automatic, ie: goes into trickle charge when fully charged and was told definitely YES, but I doubt that it was. One day if I think about it I may do some tests on the chargers, I still have both. These days, for my two B & D drill batteries I use a count-down timer to be on the safe side.

Hi Harry
Using mains timer is a great idea for the health of Ni-CAD or NINH batteries.

My Ryobi chargers switches to trickle charge too but their circuit will overcharge and damage NiMH batteries because we cannot detect when NIMH batteries are already fully charged using rate of Voltage change alone.
Ozito charger and my Cabac drill charger just use a 500ma power pack + a simple transistor circuit to stop charging when battery pack reach a certain voltage. Not reliable at all.

The circuit of the Metabo IC25 is quite complex. It does not just detect temperature changes - I tried to open up and understand but could not as I do not have the circuit or service manual.