Looking for a good way to compare CR2450 batteries

I use enough CR2450 coin cells in equipment in my shop that I think it
makes sense to test a few brands against each other to see which is
most economical. I don't know enough about how to load different
battery chemistries to test the batteries. But I was thinking about
just using an LED and a resistor combination so that the battery would
drain to some particular voltage in about a month. I can use a battery
I just replaced because it won't power the welding hood anymore and
use it for the low voltage reference. Maybe the battery package will
show the supposed milliwatt hour capacity and I can test for that too.
Or maybe there is an online reference to a standard capacity. Am I on
the right track?
Thanks,
Eric

 

[John Larkin]

On Sun, 14 Jan 2018 12:01:32 -0800, etpm@whidbey.com wrote:

I use enough CR2450 coin cells in equipment in my shop that I think it
makes sense to test a few brands against each other to see which is
most economical. I don't know enough about how to load different
battery chemistries to test the batteries. But I was thinking about
just using an LED and a resistor combination so that the battery would
drain to some particular voltage in about a month. I can use a battery
I just replaced because it won't power the welding hood anymore and
use it for the low voltage reference. Maybe the battery package will
show the supposed milliwatt hour capacity and I can test for that too.
Or maybe there is an online reference to a standard capacity. Am I on
the right track?
Thanks,
Eric

Just hang a resistor across a battery and log the voltage vs time,
maybe read it once a day. Size the resistor according to the nominal
mAh of the battery.




--

John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc

lunatic fringe electronics

 

[George Herold]

On Sunday, January 14, 2018 at 3:01:06 PM UTC-5, et...@whidbey.com wrote:

I use enough CR2450 coin cells in equipment in my shop that I think it
makes sense to test a few brands against each other to see which is
most economical. I don't know enough about how to load different
battery chemistries to test the batteries. But I was thinking about
just using an LED and a resistor combination so that the battery would
drain to some particular voltage in about a month. I can use a battery
I just replaced because it won't power the welding hood anymore and
use it for the low voltage reference. Maybe the battery package will
show the supposed milliwatt hour capacity and I can test for that too.
Or maybe there is an online reference to a standard capacity. Am I on
the right track?
Thanks,
Eric

Googling cr2450 MAH (milli-amp-hr) they mostly look to be the same.
~600 or 620 mah.

George H.

 

On Tue, 16 Jan 2018 13:16:24 -0800 (PST), George Herold
<gherold@teachspin.com> wrote:

On Sunday, January 14, 2018 at 3:01:06 PM UTC-5, et...@whidbey.com wrote:
I use enough CR2450 coin cells in equipment in my shop that I think it
makes sense to test a few brands against each other to see which is
most economical. I don't know enough about how to load different
battery chemistries to test the batteries. But I was thinking about
just using an LED and a resistor combination so that the battery would
drain to some particular voltage in about a month. I can use a battery
I just replaced because it won't power the welding hood anymore and
use it for the low voltage reference. Maybe the battery package will
show the supposed milliwatt hour capacity and I can test for that too.
Or maybe there is an online reference to a standard capacity. Am I on
the right track?
Thanks,
Eric

Googling cr2450 MAH (milli-amp-hr) they mostly look to be the same.
~600 or 620 mah.

George H.

Thanks John and George. I really shoulda thought about using just a
resistor as the load. I don't have any way to log the voltage over
time except to measure it manually every now and then. That will
probably be good enough though.
Eric

 

[default]

On Tue, 16 Jan 2018 14:48:14 -0800, etpm@whidbey.com wrote:

On Tue, 16 Jan 2018 13:16:24 -0800 (PST), George Herold
gherold@teachspin.com> wrote:

On Sunday, January 14, 2018 at 3:01:06 PM UTC-5, et...@whidbey.com wrote:
I use enough CR2450 coin cells in equipment in my shop that I think it
makes sense to test a few brands against each other to see which is
most economical. I don't know enough about how to load different
battery chemistries to test the batteries. But I was thinking about
just using an LED and a resistor combination so that the battery would
drain to some particular voltage in about a month. I can use a battery
I just replaced because it won't power the welding hood anymore and
use it for the low voltage reference. Maybe the battery package will
show the supposed milliwatt hour capacity and I can test for that too.
Or maybe there is an online reference to a standard capacity. Am I on
the right track?
Thanks,
Eric

Googling cr2450 MAH (milli-amp-hr) they mostly look to be the same.
~600 or 620 mah.

George H.
Thanks John and George. I really shoulda thought about using just a
resistor as the load. I don't have any way to log the voltage over
time except to measure it manually every now and then. That will
probably be good enough though.
Eric

It wouldn't be hard to add a quartz analog clock to a battery tester;
battery runs out, clock stops.

You could just make your dummy load a voltage divider to drop it to
1.5V for the clock if they don't sell lithium battery clocks.

Running batteries down to the point where the clock stops isn't the
best thing for the battery though, but it can't be much worse than
checking it when you think of checking it.

I'd try something like a red led in series with the clock and run the
clock on 3V. (clocks will work down to ~.8V, and red Leeds drop ~2V)
May even flash the LED when the second ticks.

 

[amdx]

On 1/14/2018 2:01 PM, etpm@whidbey.com wrote:

I use enough CR2450 coin cells in equipment in my shop that I think it
makes sense to test a few brands against each other to see which is
most economical. I don't know enough about how to load different
battery chemistries to test the batteries. But I was thinking about
just using an LED and a resistor combination so that the battery would
drain to some particular voltage in about a month. I can use a battery
I just replaced because it won't power the welding hood anymore and
use it for the low voltage reference. Maybe the battery package will
show the supposed milliwatt hour capacity and I can test for that too.
Or maybe there is an online reference to a standard capacity. Am I on
the right track?
Thanks,
Eric

Here's a test I found. 7.5k ohm load.
> http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/1496889.pdf

TI did some testing you might find some useful info.
> http://www.ti.com/lit/wp/swra349/swra349.pdf

Also found this in a newsgroup.

For CR2450 with a capacity of >600mAh at a 0.4mA rate;

If ESR is < 20 Ohms then you have at least 50% capacity left. If ESR is
> 50 Ohms then there is not much life left (20%?)

Use a 1K load and measure voltage before after and compute voltage drop
in % and multiply percent of 1K as your ESR.

Capacity drops with a load < 100*ESR and rapidly with < 50*ESR
Capacity increases with load resistance up to ~1000* ESR

Another company using 7.5k ohm test load.

http://www.mellert.de/images/Datenblaetter/85_590-620_00_Datenblatt_CR2450.pdf

And then for the best economic efficiency there's this.
> https://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/embedded-master/4413738/Selecting-the-Best-Battery-for-Embedded-System-Applications

With this usage profile, the CR2450 battery would last approximately
4.33 years. With the same usage profile, the AAA alkaline battery would
last approximately 4.65 years. This duration represents 16% higher
efficiency, resulting in a 7% increase in service life with a 60%
decrease in battery cost.

So modify it for a AAA battery.

Mikek

 

On Tuesday, January 16, 2018 at 2:41:33 PM UTC-8, et...@whidbey.com wrote:

On Tue, 16 Jan 2018 13:16:24 -0800 (PST), George Herold
gherold@teachspin.com> wrote:

On Sunday, January 14, 2018 at 3:01:06 PM UTC-5, et...@whidbey.com wrote:
I use enough CR2450 coin cells in equipment in my shop that I think it
makes sense to test a few brands against each other to see which is
most economical. I don't know enough about how to load different
battery chemistries to test the batteries. But I was thinking about
just using an LED and a resistor combination so that the battery would
drain to some particular voltage in about a month. I can use a battery
I just replaced because it won't power the welding hood anymore and
use it for the low voltage reference. Maybe the battery package will
show the supposed milliwatt hour capacity and I can test for that too.
Or maybe there is an online reference to a standard capacity. Am I on
the right track?
Thanks,
Eric

Googling cr2450 MAH (milli-amp-hr) they mostly look to be the same.
~600 or 620 mah.

George H.
Thanks John and George. I really shoulda thought about using just a
resistor as the load. I don't have any way to log the voltage over
time except to measure it manually every now and then. That will
probably be good enough though.
Eric

A 4$ arduino clone on ebay with a 3$ LCD display, a load resistor and a free sketch would do what you want.

G²

 

[Ralph Mowery]

In article <224e8ca9-9f7b-4a5d-bd25-90560ebd1e68@googlegroups.com>,
stratus46@yahoo.com says...

George H.
Thanks John and George. I really shoulda thought about using just a
resistor as the load. I don't have any way to log the voltage over
time except to measure it manually every now and then. That will
probably be good enough though.
Eric

A 4$ arduino clone on ebay with a 3$ LCD display, a load resistor and a free sketch would do what you want.

G˛

A few weeks ago I bought an Arduino clone kit from China for about $ 8.
Lots of parts plus the UNO board. Could not believe how inexpensive it
was. Most of the kits like like that are around $ 20. I think I do
have to download a manual insted of a paper one that seems to come with
most of them. Many inexpensive things are comming out of China now.
Some not so good, but some that work very well. I have not received it
yet, but they do seem very simple to program to do simple things and
there are free sketches (programs) for many things.