first (~ serious) use of poor man's run-time meter

first (~ serious) use of poor man\'s run-time meter

Thanks to Doug Owen I now have a working run-time meter (see this post for details).
After a few purely gratuitous amusements with the magic film and various photo resistors/ CdS cells, I thought I might at least try to use it seriously /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Anyone tried the panasonic "Power Edge" AA's (zinc-nickel primary cells) ?
A search on them didn't yield anything, and they've only justed appeared in France, as the latest thing for digital cameras.
I compared them to Energizer e2 AA's, at light & heavy loads, as they are apparently designed for heavy load uses (low internal resistance?).

Low load: home-made voltage-regulated boost circuit for three 5mm white LED, fed by 2 batteries and set to 30mA on the new batteries. The resistor settings for the different batteries was different because the panasonics have a higher
no-load voltage (I measured ~1.85V but with .1 differences between cells /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif)

High load: BB400 & 2 white emitters, also 2 batteries.


Results:
low load
energizer 14 hours & 12 mins
panasonic 15 hours

high load
energizer 46 minutes /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif
panasonic 79 minutes /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif


FYI, in case anyone wanted to know:
- I payed the equivalent of 5$ for the 4 panasonic
- home-made circuit is about 60% efficient in these conditions
- it regulates down to about 1.6V
-uh, yeah, the test was stopped automatically, I didn't hang around for 13h!

Re: first (~ serious) use of poor man\'s run-time meter

Very interesting results.

If I understand them, the energizer and panasonic were 'a push' at low current, but the latter outperformed the former *two to one* at higher current.

Looks to me like energizer is bunk for high current loads....who's gonna break it to the bunny?

Thanks for posting this (at least to me) most interesting data. Exactly what I hoped would happen........

Doug Owen

Re: first (~ serious) use of poor man\'s run-time meter

This press release would confirm your findings.

Panasonic's long-lasting, high-performance PowerEdge batteries were specifically developed to quench digital cameras' unforgiving demand for battery power. According to Panasonic, the oxy-alkaline batteries can last up to 43 percent longer than traditional high-drain alkaline batteries in digital still cameras.

In a series of tests conducted for Panasonic by an independent laboratory, the Panasonic PowerEdge battery was pitted against the high-drain, AA alkaline batteries most frequently used in digital still cameras. Using four different digital still cameras from top manufacturers, pictures were taken continuously until the cameras ceased to function. The cameras' flash and LCD features were used, to consume even more battery power. The average number of shots taken using the PowerEdge batteries was 764; the average number of shots taken with Duracell M3 was 589; the average number of shots taken with Energizer e2 was 480.

The packaging for the batteries incorporates a breakaway wrap with an inner, perforated seal that surrounds four batteries. Consumers can remove one battery at a time while keeping the others intact. The four-pack has a manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) of $5.99.