On Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:01:51 -0500, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:
"Winston" wrote in message
...
Ed Huntress wrote:
(...)
Have you ever heard of a primary battery lasting 26 years?
Not me, Ed.
That greatly surpasses the shelf life of a mercury cell at *only* 10
years.
Mine used to get fairly heavy use; now it's only infrequent. But I'm
always astonished when it turns on.
I'm interested to know what kind of battery you have in that meter!
Did you buy it from a Metaluna catalog?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Island_Earth
Luckily you have at least one more DMM so you can measure that 75's
current in another decade or so, yes?
Those folks who design super low power yet feature - rich gear are
indistinguishable from geniuses, IMHO.
--Winston
I was one minute too quick in sending my last message; I didn't see this one
before I sent you the one about my call to Fluke.
Anyway, I'm worried about it leaking, so I opened it up to replace it. It's
the original equipment in there, and it's an "Eveready 9V General Purpose
Battery." It doesn't say alkaline, but I'm sure it is. No leaks. And I
haven't seen that cat and the "9" on a battery for a while. g
Don't be too sure. At low current draw, alkalines don't have hardly
any advantage over the old school ones. Is it red? I think that's a
good old-fashioned carbon-zinc Leclanché cell. I think the cheap
meters currently use a COB mounted Chinese knock-off of the 1970s-era
7106 chip which draw about 1mA all by itself, so the life won't be
more than 400-500 hours 'on'. The original US maker came out with a
chip that is 10x lower power consumption-- that might be what Fluke
used.
The only thing odd about it is that it says "Made in U.S.A." on the side.
Imagine that.
I know they used to make batteries in North America-- I went to an
auction of an alkaline battery plant only a few years ago. Chemicals,
a bit of metal forming, material handling, and a lot of automated
packaging, with some appropriate test equipment in the lab. They were
making OEM batteries for guys like Costco (Kirkland) and Sam's Club.
Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
--
"it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward"
Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers:
http://www.speff.com