For those of you who may have purchased one of these (the orange and
gray cased one which Maplin are selling for £30), I have found there is
a problem when using several different types of AA cells. The unit can
seem to work intermitantly, when the trigger is pressed.

This is due to the +ve post on the cell not quite making full contact
with the positive terminal of the unit. Basically - the terminal has
part of the case plastic on either side of it forming a bit of a
shoulder (to prevent reverse polarity insertion of the cells) and if
the +ve post of the AA cell doesn't protrude from the cell enough, the
unit become appears to be intermitant in operation.

AA Pro-cells are one example which cause the problem along with the
cells actually included with the unit at purchase. I actually took one
back to Maplin, thinking the units PCB had become intermitant. Maplins
tried some new cells with the same result and replaced it with a new
item.

--
Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk

In message , Harry
Bloomfield writes
AA Pro-cells are one example which cause the problem along with the
cells actually included with the unit at purchase. I actually took one
back to Maplin, thinking the units PCB had become intermitant. Maplins
tried some new cells with the same result and replaced it with a new item.

Duracell, known problem with them and poorly designed battery
compartments, the 'pip' on the top makes intermittent or no contact
because it's either too wide or not tall enough (sometimes both with
some really bad battery compartments).

Other makes also suffer but I can't remember which ones I have had
problems with off the top of my head.
--
Clint Sharp