Products > Test Equipment
Battery Test Function on VOM - Why Not?
floobydust:
Why do we reinvent the wheel?
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/alkaline-battery-tester/msg1774790/#msg1774790 at least 40 years old and does great.
BeBuLamar:
Let see!
If I want to check the AA alkaline battery what kind of load should it be and which range of voltage reading should it be considered good? And then for each type of batteries?
floobydust:
Yes.
Nusa:
--- Quote from: mwb1100 on August 01, 2023, 08:22:53 am ---
--- Quote from: Nusa on August 01, 2023, 12:30:00 am ---After all, anyone with a brain can check the battery voltage on the normal voltage range. That's all you need to know in 99% of cases.
--- End quote ---
Except sometimes that check lies.
A couple photos showing a 9V battery measuring 9.6+V on a couple meters (Fluke 179 and an el cheapo Mastfuyi FY77 that Amazon often sells for around $10). The FY77 has some battery test ranges that put a load on the battery, about 900 Ohm on the 9V test range. That photo shows the battery only putting out 5V when loaded. The battery was in a meter and couldn't keep the thing on for more than 10 seconds or so. Believe the simple voltage reading and you might think something other than the battery is the problem - at least until you put another battery in the meter.
I imagine that pro meters don't generally have a battery test because they don't want it taking up selector real estate and it's probably not in high demand among people who use meters for electronic or electrical work.
By the way, I kind of like the FY77 for $10. Seems accurate enough and it auto ranges unlike the HF cheapo/freebie. However there's no capacitance range. The continuity test is actually good - as long as you ditch the included leads for something better (which will probably cost you more than the meter itself).
The pics:
--- End quote ---
I recognize that battery. Labeled "heavy duty" (means carbon-zinc chemistry) and "not for retail sale" under your label, cheapest battery the manufacturer could buy to send with the device. Naturally it's not going to last as long or behave like the standard alkaline battery that people use 99% of the time. You found the 1% case.
mwb1100:
--- Quote from: Nusa on August 02, 2023, 08:25:56 pm ---I recognize that battery. Labeled "heavy duty" (means carbon-zinc chemistry) and "not for retail sale" under your label, cheapest battery the manufacturer could buy to send with the device. Naturally it's not going to last as long or behave like the standard alkaline battery that people use 99% of the time. You found the 1% case.
--- End quote ---
Yeah, it was a battery that came with some multimeter. I didn't expect that it was going to be a long lasting battery (in fact, it was already dead/near dead when I first tried out the device). I also understand that most of the time getting an open circuit voltage reading from a multimeter gives a fine indication of the state of the battery. But this wasn't the first time I've come across a battery that had a reasonable open circuit voltage but badly failed a loaded test.
Are you saying that alkalines don't exhibit that kind of behavior? Is it only a characteristic of carbon-zinc? (these are honest questions - I really don't know)
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version