20 Volt Drill Converted to A Light/Horn
This will walk you though adding a Car Horn and a headlight to a drill to make a very portable and very loud jump scare.
Parts:
20 Volt Drill- (I used this cause its what I had laying around. If you use a 12 volt drill the wiring would be simpler.)
LED Fog light
Car Horn
Step-down voltage regulator
A few pieces of wire with spade connectors on one end
Tools:
Drill
Screw drivers
1/4″ Socket
Soldering Iron
Glue Gun
Once you have gathered all the parts and tools the first thing you will want to do is take apart the drill to prep it for the build. Start but removing all the of the screws that are holding the case together, After they are all out the 2 sides will come apart with a little prying. Set the one half aside, you can remove all of electronics from inside. Disconnect the battery adapter and trigger assembly and set it aside for another step. You will want to remove the screw from inside the drill chuck and save the adjuster piece that is seen in the last picture.
You will want to attach the LED light to the piece that you saved from the motor assembly. This will allow you to attach the light to the front of the drill very easily. You just pass the bolt on the back of the light thought the exsisting hole in the front piece, install a wash on the both after if it thought the hole and tighten the nut on to the bolt to secure the light to the housing. To pass the wire inside, I drilled a small hole in the front mount and pushed the wire all the way inside using two zip ties I secured it in place so it couldn’t be pulled out on accident. Once you complete this step you can move on to the wiring and testing.
Since the drill I am using is 20 volts I needed to install a regulator to bring it down to 12-13 volts for the light to avoid damaging it. I originally intended for the horn to run off the regulator as well but it ended up being to much and I wired it so that it will run directly from the battery. The horn is able to run off the 20 volts with no damage. ***If you use a 12 volt drill you can skip the regulator circuit all together and wire the light and horn right after the switch***
To wire everything up you will take the red and black wires that originally went to the motor and connect them to the input side of the regulator. There is one important step that needs to be done now while nothing is attached to the output. Attach the battery and hold down the trigger, This will power the regulator up, Using a small screw driver adjust the screw that is on the blue box in the middle of the regulator till the output display reads 12-13 volts. In the end I set this to about 13.5 volts to lower the amp draw just a little.
Once you have the regulator set you can move on. I soldered the wires to the output side of the regulator. At this point I tested to make sure the light would power on as expected. I installed the wires to the screw terminals of the output as well These are not currently used but I have plans to use them later on. The wires for the horn will be soldered to the input side of the regulator circuit to allow them to run from the battery. ***Make sure you thread the wires for the horn thought the case before you solder them down.***
Attaching the horn to the case if very simple you just drill a 1/4″ hole in the side, place a washer on the bolt for the horn and push it thought the casing. Thread on a nut to lock it in place and it is ready to go. I drilled to holes in the casing, one for the horn to mount to and one to pass the wires for it though.
Once all this is done everything in secured in place with a little glue to keep it from shifting around. Carefully place both sides of the housing back together making sure to avoid pinching any wires. Put all of the screws tightly back in place. Put in the battery in, and just pull the trigger to test. This is very bright and very loud.
Here is the finished Product:
18 Volt Alternative Build
Since the first version of this that I built used a 20 Volt drill, I collected the parts to build a simpler version using an 18 Volt drill and a light that could handle more voltage. This simplifies the wiring and removed the need for a voltage regulator.
This Build is very similar to the one above with only a few difference. One being the light attachment due to a different design and the second being the wiring. Since the parts can all handle the 18 volt power the wiring takes the positive and negative from the switch and feeds both the horn and light directly. I soldered all the positive wires together and wrapped them. I repeated this process for the negative wires. I later zip tied the bundle to the housing to keep it from moving around.
