Good afternoon all,
I'm playing with a pile of "vintage" (read: old and cheap) test equipment that I got a while back trying to see what works and what doesn't. Specifically a Simpson 460 bench VOM, a BK Precision 820 capacitance meter, and a Fluke something or other bench VOM. All use NiCD C or D cells and I was told they won't work properly on AC without the cells installed. Sure enough the Simpson was acting weird but I stole the NiMHs out of the Mag-Lite that sits by the front door (it has some old Maha Imedion AAs in it with D cell adapters) and it settled right down.
Now it looks like I can find NiCD D cells (Amazon sells Tenergy made ones) but my AAs in adapters actually have more capacity (5000 for the NiCd, let's say at 2100mAh three AAs would be 6300, or a purpose made D cell NiMH is 10,000 these days). I CAN'T seem to find C size NiCd cells with button tops at all.
Is it really bad to use NiMH instead? I'm sure when the meters are plugged in it just floats the cells at 5.something volts/4 cells. I'm well stocked on NiMH.
Unfortunately, only the Simpson came with cells in it and they were well and truly toast. Had to do the Deoxit treatment on the battery holder.
Thanks for any advice.
I'm playing with a pile of "vintage" (read: old and cheap) test equipment that I got a while back trying to see what works and what doesn't. Specifically a Simpson 460 bench VOM, a BK Precision 820 capacitance meter, and a Fluke something or other bench VOM. All use NiCD C or D cells and I was told they won't work properly on AC without the cells installed. Sure enough the Simpson was acting weird but I stole the NiMHs out of the Mag-Lite that sits by the front door (it has some old Maha Imedion AAs in it with D cell adapters) and it settled right down.
Now it looks like I can find NiCD D cells (Amazon sells Tenergy made ones) but my AAs in adapters actually have more capacity (5000 for the NiCd, let's say at 2100mAh three AAs would be 6300, or a purpose made D cell NiMH is 10,000 these days). I CAN'T seem to find C size NiCd cells with button tops at all.
Is it really bad to use NiMH instead? I'm sure when the meters are plugged in it just floats the cells at 5.something volts/4 cells. I'm well stocked on NiMH.
Unfortunately, only the Simpson came with cells in it and they were well and truly toast. Had to do the Deoxit treatment on the battery holder.
Thanks for any advice.
