General > General Technical Chat
Has anyone else seen 'shortened', by 1mm, AAA holders and consumer TOY AAA ?
RJSV:
Hi, bought a drugstore TOY, and I swear the AAA batteries / holder were about 1 mm shorter than my stock batteries. (???)
The clincher was, my 'regular' AAA batts did not fit, even with excessive force. When I noticed, I did some quick compares: The difference was close to 1mm.
Speculation is, perhaps a 'midnight run' at the (chinese) factory, deliberate mistake, or not but BOTH holder and AAA batt were matched, fit ok.
So I wonder, did that shave a couple percent off of a quick short factory run... A test?
Seems strange, that both components fit each other.
Any niche markets doing that ? Seems like ( they) could have, at least made the AAA holder with slightly more give, for fitting both sizes, if I got the 'visual' compares right.
Would like to hear about other battery inconsistancys, thanks.
NiHaoMike:
Any chance the batteries you have are the "high capacity" kind that try to squeeze more capacity into the same form factor?
amyk:
You can measure them with calipers (make sure not to short the cells out!) - the standard dimensions can be found here: http://www.batteryholders.org/aaa.pdf
RJSV:
I didn't know what that meant: a 'wider top', but no, the batteries, from the store TOY (led-fan or some such) they seemed normal, and my stock didn't have any special chemical designation or 'super capacity's labels, just plain old metal-hydride rechargeables.
No calipers in shop, but I have good eye-judgement, from previous draftsman work free-hand.
(Drugstore shelves helping to supply electronics, as Radio Shack been closed).
I'm suspicious because both items were abnormal, so started thinking how factory capacity, overnight, is sometimes used, to make 'grey area' products, often skipping regulatory steps and various tax requirements. You make product, ship it, and run w the cash...ACME TOIY Co. You can sometimes spot other things like typos.
Wish I kept that, couple years have passed.
Nusa:
As a quick fix if you need the toy to work, try AAAA batteries. They're 2 mm shorter than AAA. 2mm smaller in diameter too, but you can wrap some tape around each end to fix that if necessary.
In fact, if the original batteries are kaput, disassemble one. Would be funny if there was a AAAA cell inside.
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