• irotsoma
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    85 months ago

    It failed often enough that it wasn’t all that useful. A cheap battery tester is better. And for 9volts you can also use the tongue test, lol (don’t really though). My grandfather used to do that all the time.

    • v_krishna
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      55 months ago

      What’s wrong with the tongue test for 9 volts? I know it tickles some but is it actually harmful? I’ve been doing that for over 30 years…

      • irotsoma
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        45 months ago

        It’s not much power, so it’s not likely to cause major or permanent damage, but it may affect others differently and could cause burns if left on too long like if someone is less sensitive and doesn’t think it’s live.

        And if the person is grounded and if they touch the hot side of the battery first there’s a chance the charge could travel through the body rather than just the tongue. It’s not enough to affect a heart, but might disrupt a pacemaker or other embedded device.

        And of the battery is leaking, it could cause permanent damage from chemical burns from the alkaline and poisoning from heavy metals which while unlikely to be deadly with just one battery, heavy metal poisoning is cumulative across a lifetime.

        So under ideal circumstances it is safe, but there are always risks with electricity and toxic chemicals, though relatively small.

    • @catloaf@lemm.ee
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      45 months ago

      The tongue test works great. Be warned, though, that a full battery will make your tongue go numb. It’ll feel like you have a big hole in the middle. Try it.

      • irotsoma
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        15 months ago

        Ouch, I never had that problem, but I only barely touch it, lol. It’s a little shock and slightly numb briefly. But fortunately I never had full numbness that lasted more than a second or two. But I haven’t done it in a long time since I have a tester now. 😁

    • @MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
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      25 months ago

      This I can get behind.

      I don’t need it on all my 18650s, but a few would be nice. Also 21700s.

      Someone bring this back.

    • @ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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      105 months ago

      The voltage-to-capacity radio for lithium is much less linear compared to alkaline so it wouldn’t really work well :(

  • @Asifall@lemmy.world
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    155 months ago

    I have a really distinct memory of finding a bunch of these in a friend’s house when I was a kid and every one was empty. After watching the TC video I think it’s more likely I just wasn’t pressing hard enough and had no way to know that. Anyway, I can see why they stopped making them.

  • snooggums
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    1115 months ago

    But the video purports that normal people don’t really test batteries.

    Yeah, it was a novelty that increased the price to manufacture and didn’t actually add anything of value to users.

    Either you put batteries in something and they worked or they didn’t, and if they stopped working the next step is try different batteries whether or not the little gauge showed it had charge left.

    Now if it was added to rechargeable batteries, it would be pretty useful because tou could do something with the knowledge of a battery being at 50%. But a lot of systems with rechargeable batteries have them built in and some other way to show remaining charge like a percentage on a screen.

    • @BakedCatboy@lemmy.ml
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      175 months ago

      I concur about rechargeables - it doesn’t seem common for devices that take AA or AAA to have a battery gauge and it would be nice to be able to check the level on my rechargeables stock so I can know if I should top them off without needing to put each of them into the charger.

    • @MirthfulAlembic@lemmy.world
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      175 months ago

      It was pretty useful as a kid for feeding my Gameboy and Game Gear with batteries I rescued from the junk drawers of friends and family. If they were low, I knew I had to save more often to avoid losing progress if they went dead while I was playing.

    • Brokkr
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      195 months ago

      I think all of your points were covered in the video, sometimes almost verbatim.

      • snooggums
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        75 months ago

        Neat!

        I didn’t bother watching the video, so I guess the reasons were pretty obvious.

        • Farid
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          115 months ago

          How dare you ignore Alec’s video? 😤

          • snooggums
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            75 months ago

            Select one or more of the following.

            • Too lazy.
            • I assumed it was a rickroll.
            • Figured the video was just another version of the article.
            • At work and didn’t headphones handy.
            • Farid
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              35 months ago

              I selected all and it’s still not enough of a reason!

              Bow to Alec! Let Alec consume you!

  • @vxx@lemmy.world
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    545 months ago

    It turned out that batteries randomly lying around are always empty. Functioning batteries are still in the device it’s operating or in the box it was sold in.

      • Lem Jukes
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        5 months ago

        I mean I’d rather Alec get the direct views than this weird hackaday article that’s just a description of his video with a link. Not trying to knock hackaday but this is real close to freebooting.

        Ok now I am trying to knock hackaday after learning the ownership chain goes up to Siemens. Frigg off with this corpo garbage.

        • @kernelle@lemmy.world
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          125 months ago

          Yeeaah I drew the line at the printscreens, it was a really interesting video with a lot of effort and research put in, unlike this article.

    • @BossDj@lemm.ee
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      125 months ago

      “Wait, is that a Duracell battery check?”

      Oh man that transition. Chef’s kiss. Amazing

  • @silentdon@lemmy.world
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    165 months ago

    Does anyone remember the battery testers that were built into the packaging? I think they were based on the same concept.

  • @Damage@feddit.it
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    815 months ago

    I was a kid then, but I remember that I had to push so hard my fingers hurt… I used a multimeter.

  • @TheObviousSolution@lemm.ee
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    75 months ago

    If they are not rechargeable, they don’t make sense, you just use them and throw them in the used up recycle pile. And if they are rechargeable, you already have a charger that does it.

    • @LarmyOfLone@lemm.ee
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      35 months ago

      It also has to be a waste of some resource that is rare to not use up and throw away like this.

  • SkaveRat
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    185 months ago

    It never went away. I have a duracell battery with power check sitting next to me on my desk

  • @LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    55 months ago

    My dad used to just put them on his tongue for a power check. Not entirely sure how that worked. Personally I just use a multimeter.

    • Jay
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      275 months ago

      You can do that with the 9 volt batteries and feel how much “tingle” they have, but never heard of it working with aa batteries. Wouldn’t he have to stick the whole thing in his mouth to complete the circuit?

  • @criticon@lemmy.ca
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    65 months ago

    There were cheaper ones with a tester attached to the box, maybe they were energizer?