jarvist
New member
I just modified another Bosch Uneo for bolt climbing use this summer, and took a good few photos of the pristine gearbox + my modifications, to help anyone else that decides to get one themselves.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jarvist/sets/72157627025564123/
I choose to remove the internal lithium ion batteries entirely, and put it on a ~1.3m extension lead so you can directly use a battery in a SRT bag clipped to your chest harness without any extra leads.
The reason I'm having to do another is that our first Uneo died an unlikely death, possibly after being wired up backwards to the battery. Certainly something is wrong with the logic board, it's too clever by half. Drills should not have a 'Software Version'!
We also had a very irritating issue last summer in our 1C caves where the drill would refuse to run off cold NiMh batteries, instead just lighting up the 'low battery' red LED and refusing to put any juice into the motor.
The obvious thing to do is hot wire the blessed thing, which is what I intend to do with our 'broken one'. It's slightly complicated as the MOSFET to drive the motor is on the big PCB and the usual variable speed control has extra leads (again, going to the PCB!). If I succeed in driving a stake through it's over protective brain I'll report back here on such a positive modification. I thought it was a complicated (to drive) brushless motor, but this is not true.
So, overall the Uneo is pretty finicky (if you're not familiar with them, they also have odd and not widely available SDS-quick bits), but you can't get a lighter, or more pleasing to hold 1-handed & outstretched, drill for love nor money, and certainly not the ?60 or so that you can pick up an 8mm-'concrete bit' Uneo for.
A load of people on ukcaving + a Spanish caver I found on Youtube were really helpful when I did this for the first time last year, but I can't remember their names off the top of my head!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jarvist/sets/72157627025564123/
I choose to remove the internal lithium ion batteries entirely, and put it on a ~1.3m extension lead so you can directly use a battery in a SRT bag clipped to your chest harness without any extra leads.
The reason I'm having to do another is that our first Uneo died an unlikely death, possibly after being wired up backwards to the battery. Certainly something is wrong with the logic board, it's too clever by half. Drills should not have a 'Software Version'!
We also had a very irritating issue last summer in our 1C caves where the drill would refuse to run off cold NiMh batteries, instead just lighting up the 'low battery' red LED and refusing to put any juice into the motor.
The obvious thing to do is hot wire the blessed thing, which is what I intend to do with our 'broken one'. It's slightly complicated as the MOSFET to drive the motor is on the big PCB and the usual variable speed control has extra leads (again, going to the PCB!). If I succeed in driving a stake through it's over protective brain I'll report back here on such a positive modification. I thought it was a complicated (to drive) brushless motor, but this is not true.
So, overall the Uneo is pretty finicky (if you're not familiar with them, they also have odd and not widely available SDS-quick bits), but you can't get a lighter, or more pleasing to hold 1-handed & outstretched, drill for love nor money, and certainly not the ?60 or so that you can pick up an 8mm-'concrete bit' Uneo for.
A load of people on ukcaving + a Spanish caver I found on Youtube were really helpful when I did this for the first time last year, but I can't remember their names off the top of my head!