AA spring contacts

[wptski]

I just replaced the original two AA cells in a new unit, which didn't last too long by the way! :(

It doesn't have a coil spring type contact at the negative like some have. It has a wide metal contacts at both ends. What makes it different than others is there is a piece of stiff round rubber-like material at each end behind the contacts for spring tension.

Talk about tension! :ohgeez: Catching a cell with your fingernail for removal, no way. It was difficult even when using a small screwdriver and inserting new CopperTop Duracells was tricky to getting them started in too.

The unit was made in the UK if that means anything. I was thinking about going to Ni-MH when I first got it but now, I don't know. The newer high capacity AA's are a bit longer, pushing the lenght specs. I'd have to remove one or both pieces of the spring material for sure. Or go with 2Ah AA's which are closer to AA lenght specs.

 

[wptski]

As mentioned above the original AA's didn't last too long but I found out something interesting about this unit! I won't go into detail but it does log data in intervals from 1 minute to 24 hrs. It was set to log at 5 minute intervals and I wanted at least 24 hrs. It'll do around 400 datapoints.

After connecting to my PC which can set the intervals also, I shut the logging OFF. Looking at the data which also contains the battery status, I noticed that it has a very unique power management system. It appears that when the battery status hits zero, the LCD screen is turned OFF conserving power which also revives the cells a bit too. It continued to log for several hours until I shut it OFF with my PC.

A feature like this ought to be any meter that logs!

EDIT: I just found that the unit logs while in the OFF position, what a battery saver! :D