General > General Technical Chat
I Hate Batteries
pardo-bsso:
--- Quote from: engrguy42 on April 07, 2020, 10:23:25 am ---If you like batteries, then fine. I hate them. With good reason.
--- End quote ---
You can always build a battery eliminator and forget about them. :box:
engrguy42:
Out of curiosity I decided to make a quick scan of those devices around the house that require batteries. At least the ones I can think of off the top of my head.
Below is a list of them. Wow.
Turns out I have at least 30 batteries in various devices, but when all is said and done I'm sure it's closer to 40 total. I know there's another TV remote around here somewhere, and I was too lazy to open up my R/C boat to see how many D (??) cells are in there. Oh yeah, and I know I've got another bluetooth mouse around here somewhere.
There are 5 different sizes, and I have no clue what charge state ANY of them are in. So yeah, trying to manage 40 batteries of 5 different sizes and varying (& unknown) ages and states in 15+ different devices is a freakin' PITA.
PTR_1275:
I have a text file on my phone with all the batteries in test gear and when they were last charged.
I bought a crap load of ikea ladda batteries and keep a spare set in each instrument case (some equipment lives at work, some in the car, some in my toolbag and some at home).
Things I don’t use often are stored with the batteries out of the device. I found having a list there makes it harder to forget the obscure thing tucked away on a shelf.
I have a isdt charger from hobby king that handles eneloops and other chemistries and gives quite a lot of information. The self discharge on the eneloop / Ladda batteries really is quite low.
Since I started doing this I’ve not been caught with a flat battery in about 3 years and it doesn’t take that much effort.
engrguy42:
--- Quote from: pardo-bsso on April 07, 2020, 02:59:47 pm ---
--- Quote from: engrguy42 on April 07, 2020, 10:23:25 am ---If you like batteries, then fine. I hate them. With good reason.
--- End quote ---
You can always build a battery eliminator and forget about them. :box:
--- End quote ---
Actually I just did that with a portable LED light. Bought a cool little buck converter and wired it up and it's wonderful. Unfortunately that won't work with stuff like my flashlights and multimeter and R/C stuff and TV remote and magnifying glass and blood pressure meter and so on....
coppercone2:
get a dewalt organizer box to put batteries in, they hold AA, AAA, C and 9V quite well. The smaller one.
1) don't mix cell types (brands). If you are paranoid, don't even mix cells from different boxes. Organizer box is important for this!. Due to their nature they are not a stable component as we are used to with things like foil capacitors.
2) don't mix cells used with different loads. You can't just measure voltage after its used and expect a reliable battery If you start making franken batteries out of multiple cells, If you have to resort to doing this, don't leave them in the device but keep the frankenbats separate. If you pull a cell out of an alarm clock and a cell out of a flashlight and combine them, expect bad things to happen eventually. The dewalt organizer is good because you get alot of compartments that the cells fit in, so you can segregate them (throw in a piece of post it note). This is considered really cheap, typically you are not supposed to mess with them after you install them till they are dead.. but they are expensive unfortunately. This has to do with electrolye migration and state of charge and gas pressure buildup. Measuring voltage is good, for making survivalist/emergency stockpile BACKUP (i.e. convenience). Not even a primary emergency stock.
3) respect the battery life date.
4) Spend a couple of dollars on good NiMH to put in stuff that is a bastard incase of leaks (i.e. barrel flashlights that you leave in car). Alkaline is a good value if its in something beefy that you check some what frequently, it's capacity and discharge characteristics are good. Keep spares for lower capacity NiMH stuff if you are in a bind (alkaline backup).
5) realize alot of devices suck and they have too high a standby current which can kill batteries. Most reliable is hard switch. Soft switch devices can be hit or miss. Designers can't make the circuit good enough in consumer objects with price points on soft switches sometimes so companies end up selling leaky BS.
6) avoid Zinc/Carbon unless you really can't afford alkaline. They are set to blow.
7) battery reuse is risky
Batteries are great but they are not easy to use because of price psychology. If you are cheap with everything you do, you will naturally suck with batteries because they are complex. I recommend a 6 month review, its like checking to make sure you don't have a leak under the sink.. yea, when you first realize it takes effort, anxiety... I was purging shady cells for like 2 months before I got everything on track. I feel like you can go through a big portion of life without thinking about batteries, but eventually you get into some kind of systemic failure situation that makes you change your ways.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version