Weak New CR2032/remote start + fob batteries

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I bought those before at Amazon they did not lasted to long. I change over to the more expensive Duracell and things are good.
 
Originally Posted by LazyDog
I bought those before at Amazon they did not lasted to long. I change over to the more expensive Duracell and things are good.


Most of the CR2032 on Amazon are fakes. Buy them from a reputable bricks and mortar.
 
Kind of dated thread, but I just got a shipment of 20 CR2032s. Cost $5.95. I also got a pack of 5 CR1620 batteries that I got for my parents as a favor. Even though they're smaller, they cost about $3.75 for the tear strip. They were all my preferred brand - Maxell. The new ones seem to be different. Previous versions used to say "MAXELL - CR2032 - 3V, then on the bottom Hitachi Maxell, Ltd. Japan".

Now the bottom just says "Made in Japan". Sounds also like the Hitachi Maxell name is no longer used. I found this notice:

Quote
http://www.hitachi.com/New/cnews/month/2017/03/f_170321a.pdf
As of October 1, 2017, Hitachi Maxell will change its corporate name to "Maxell Holdings, Ltd. (Tentative name)" as a token of its management independence, as put forward in its basic policies.

Even after the share transfer, Hitachi and Hitachi Maxell will keep their collaborative relationship in business fields such as energy storage system and automotive businesses, and in certain areas of R&D.

I found out that it's pretty easy to read the manufacturing date for Maxell batteries. The first digit marks the last digit of the year. The second digit/letter marks the month (1 - JAN, 2 - FEB...... O - Oct, N - Nov, D - Dec). Mine say 84 meaning April 2018. The packaging says use by 2023, so they now list a 5 year storage. This is different than Sony (I've bought them before) or other brands that seem to claim a 10 year shelf life. I doubt that their storage life is much worse, but it sounds like they're simply more conservative. I mean - I've bought a bunch of these batteries and found that after 8 years they may or may not last.

I've tried all sorts of brands from time to time, including Renata, Sony, Duracell, or Energizer. I won't buy an off brand, although sometimes I've used what came in a device like my kid's toys. Where they're made seems to have changed too. I remember a time when these were only made in Japan, except for Renata. I think Sony opened a factory in Indonesia. I'm distrustful of these coin cells made in China. I've never had any good experiences with coin/button cells from China.

The place I order from operates under a few names including Thebatterysupplier.com and MYBATTERYSUPPLIER on Amazon. They seem to be based in Brooklyn, where the same phone number is provided for all their business. They're kind of oddball in that their choices for even the same product seem to be endless with assorted prices (sometimes even pictures of older style packaging), but whenever I've ordered I've only gotten the latest versions and they always shipped. For instance, I just looked up their listings for those Maxell CR2032 batteries in a 5-pack tear strip, and I see 4 different listings at 2 different prices on their own website, but different listings (often using standard Amazon photos that multiple vendors use). They can get really random too, with sets of 2/10/15/20/24. On Amazon it's even more bizarre, although I suspect it's because they attach themselves as one of several sellers on a particular listing. Still - I've never been cheated and I have every confidence they're selling me the real thing. The retail markup of these batteries is ridiculous.

https://www.thebatterysupplier.com
https://www.amazon.com/shops/A19DY5EK03NION

This is the set I bought ($5.95 including shipping):

https://www.amazon.com/Lithium-Batt...ant-items&ie=UTF8&qid=1548573918
 
Originally Posted by y_p_w
The retail markup of these batteries is ridiculous.

The retail market of all batteries is ridiculous.
wink.gif
I don't go through a lot of these batteries. I've only changed out one set in the G37 fobs, so I don't make a big fuss. For other batteries, though, it's just ridiculous. You know there's trouble when the corner store sells a small pack of AA batteries for the same price as Walmart. The only way to get them at a reasonable price is if you buy like a 20+ pack.
 
Originally Posted by Garak
Originally Posted by y_p_w
The retail markup of these batteries is ridiculous.

The retail market of all batteries is ridiculous.
wink.gif
I don't go through a lot of these batteries. I've only changed out one set in the G37 fobs, so I don't make a big fuss. For other batteries, though, it's just ridiculous. You know there's trouble when the corner store sells a small pack of AA batteries for the same price as Walmart. The only way to get them at a reasonable price is if you buy like a 20+ pack.

They can sit on shelves for a long time. So I guess they're often pricing them for the amount of time they sit and perhaps having to dispose of items that they might not sell. Some of the highest prices I've seen for them are at auto parts stores, and those are often for the worst quality off-brands.

I remember way back when my uncle gave me a gift of a pricey Sharp "computer". It was really just a glorified calculator, but it had a full keyboard and one could program BASIC. I think there were also options like a printer and storage device, but for the most part the programming was useless. However, it was the first device I used that needed CR2032 batteries (or lithium coin cells of any kind). The only store where I could find them was a local drug store that had Energizer branded ones for about $3 each, which was really pricey for 1986.

[Linked Image]


After a while the back fell off because I always had it in my bag. It had it sliding cover that covered the keyboard, but could slide back on the other side when in use. That's basically what I used to keep the back in place. I could also tell when the batteries were getting weak, as the display started dimming. There was a dial on the side that could larked the LCD, but it only did so much when the battery was weak. And the thing that stressed it the most was that it did factorials by brute force. I think 67! was the largest that it could do with reaching overflow. It would take about 5 seconds and I could literally hear it make a faint buzzing noise.

Of course these batteries go into all sorts of things. In my house I've used on LED headlamps, watches, scales, battery clock backups, etc. They seem to be the most common type in car remotes/fobs, although my wife's Audivox remote for her Civic uses an A27.
 
I certainly watch battery dates, but I've been lucky the last number of years. Actually, my garage door opener uses one of those as well, but I've only had to change it once in three years, since the G37 has Homelink. They certainly are becoming more common. If they last suitably (and LED lights are helping over incandescent portable lights), the size and weight can be helpful.

That Sharp is an antique.
wink.gif
 
Originally Posted by Garak
I certainly watch battery dates, but I've been lucky the last number of years. Actually, my garage door opener uses one of those as well, but I've only had to change it once in three years, since the G37 has Homelink. They certainly are becoming more common. If they last suitably (and LED lights are helping over incandescent portable lights), the size and weight can be helpful.

That Sharp is an antique.
wink.gif


I have no idea where it is. Haven't used it since college, and even then I didn't really need it when I had a simpler solar-powered scientific calculator.

And yes I've used those in garage door remotes too. I own a rental house, and when I provided the keys and remotes to the tenants I also handed over the the remainder of my Sony CR2032 stash. Might have been just a single 5-pack tear strip. They were for a Chamberlain LiftMaster system. I don't remember if I reset the remotes with the new tenant, but I thought it was near impossible to clone those things with the rotating codes.

I guess there are some some weird ones too. Duracell sells "DL" batteries. No rhyme or reason for it other than to be different.

[Linked Image]


How they're sold seems to be the Wild West. A lot of listings say they're for a specific application (like a specific brand of car remote), even though the actual applications are almost endless. And many get steered to the lowest quality batteries made by some nameless company in China. I've even seen a few of these from OE installs that just say "Lithium Battery" with no brand name or perhaps something in Japanese (even though they're made in China).

I think on Amazon a retailer might go nuts trying to place itself into as many entries as possible. The pricing has no clear strategy especially with near identical listings showing different prices. But the place I use has some of the most extensive listings. 1/2/4/5/10/15/20/24/25/50/60/100. I found the sweet spot with that collection of 20. I think I could have gotten 100 for a tiny bit less.
 
I hear you. I just tend to buy them in a pack of two, since that's the most reasonable pricing for where I'm shopping, use one, toss the other one in the package in the drawer, and forget about it forever.
 
Originally Posted by Garak
I hear you. I just tend to buy them in a pack of two, since that's the most reasonable pricing for where I'm shopping, use one, toss the other one in the package in the drawer, and forget about it forever.

Well - I bought those 20 for less than the price I could buy a couple of 2-packs at Wal-Mart. I figured it was worth it to stockpile them for that price. My parents always ask me to help them since they inevitably pay someone else $7 to replace a single battery. My mom told me her Toyota remote wasn't working, and that her Nissan remote (the one with the CR1620) was weak.

I was looking for these batteries at a place called Daiso. Kind of the Japanese equivalent of a dollar store (a 100 yen store), except the price point is $1.50. They had Mitsubishi branded two packs, but almost never had CR2032 in stock. Apparently they're the first to sell out.
 
A lot of good information here ^^^^^^

I have replaced my cr2032 for my key fob about 3 maybe 4 times in 6 years... The Duracell ones did pretty decent. The Energizer were poor.. . But I bet they were old... So I don't hold that against Energizer.

The lithium batteries in my stethoscope made by Energizer are amazing. They last at least 4-5 times as long compared to alkaline batteries. When at work my stethoscope is on for 8-10 hours at a time. That impressed me quite a bit.
 
I'd have no aversion to buying online, but I didn't need a lot, and when I needed one I wanted one quickly. I suppose i could use the leftover in the other G37 fob since it's probably dead, having been unused since I got the car.
 
Originally Posted by bbhero
A lot of good information here ^^^^^^

I have replaced my cr2032 for my key fob about 3 maybe 4 times in 6 years... The Duracell ones did pretty decent. The Energizer were poor.. . But I bet they were old... So I don't hold that against Energizer.

The lithium batteries in my stethoscope made by Energizer are amazing. They last at least 4-5 times as long compared to alkaline batteries. When at work my stethoscope is on for 8-10 hours at a time. That impressed me quite a bit.

I don't even know about the Energizer brand any more. How much manufacturing do they even do any more? They went through a lot of hands after Union Carbide spun off pretty much all their consumer products after the Bhopal disaster. They were owned by Purina for over a decade. As far as I can tell, they have never made their own lithium button cells. I think they still make their own cylindrical alkaline. If you mean lithium AAs, I think they make those too. However, those used to have a nasty problem with voltage spikes until the technology got better. The actual battery chemistry is more like 3V, but they do something to ramp down the voltage. They're also lighter and work better in devices with a high peak drain than alkaline.

So you're using some sort of electronic stethoscope? What kind of batteries?
 
Yeah I have a electronically aided stethoscope... It is extremely good. Better be for $400 not on sale... I got mine for $320.... It is the top of the line pretty much. It is a Littman 3100.... There's even a stethoscope that can monitor a heart beat and send it to a ekg machine and then print out a ekg strip.. $800 for that one..

Mine used a single AA battery...


I got this type of scope because it is amazing... Everyone I give it to are amazed at hiwych they hear with it.... It blows their minds
lol.gif


Yeah the Energizer 2032 was a couple of years ago...
 
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OK, I will bite
Quote
And the thing that stressed it the most was that it did factorials by brute force.

How do you do it without brute force?
 
Originally Posted by kschachn
I thought most calculators had the values hard coded rather than calculating them each time.

There can always be errors in lookup tables. The Intel Pentium FDIV bug was the best known one.

Didn't think of that possibility, but this was designed back in 1984 or 1985. I've even done my own projects at work where we couldn't simply devote resources (i.e. silicon area) to lookup tables and resorted to using brute force with shared resources. This is just a multiply and accumulate. I'm guessing it was taking so long because it was doing serial multiplication, then floating point multiplication when the numbers started getting too big for the display.
 
Originally Posted by bbhero
Yeah I have a electronically aided stethoscope... It is extremely good. Better be for $400 not on sale... I got mine for $320.... It is the top of the line pretty much. It is a Littman 3100.... There's even a stethoscope that can monitor a heart beat and send it to a ekg machine and then print out a ekg strip.. $800 for that one..

Mine used a single AA battery...


I got this type of scope because it is amazing... Everyone I give it to are amazed at hiwych they hear with it.... It blows their minds
lol.gif


Yeah the Energizer 2032 was a couple of years ago...


I got curious yesterday and looked them up. The Littman ones I guess are marketed by 3M in the US? The other ones I saw were Welch-Allyn which used oddball (possibly proprietary) lithium batteries.

I suppose one advantage of those lithium batteries is that they're light, for something that's hanging from your neck/shoulders all day. They also have ridiculously low internal resistance. Alkalines do really poorly in devices that have high peak drains. But early versions of those lithium AAs were killing many devices - especially ones that weren't well regulated. They had a tendency to spike up to 3V when the circuit was first connected before the voltage dropped. That would severely reduce the life of flashlights or other devices designed to run on 1.5V (nominal) alkaline or zinc-carbon batteries.

I would have though maybe Eneloops. I cycle single AAs all the time with a wireless mouse here or a single AA flashlight there. Not sure if the charger is going to create electronic noise that wouldn't be acceptable in a medical setting with lots of sensitive equipment. I did look up one of those user manuals for the Littman stethoscopes, and it didn't say anything about what kind of batteries could be used other than AA. An Eneloop might be ideal if it can last an entire day, then just recharge overnight. Maybe have a set of them to rotate and/or keep spares.
 
Originally Posted by y_p_w
Didn't think of that possibility, but this was designed back in 1984 or 1985. I've even done my own projects at work where we couldn't simply devote resources (i.e. silicon area) to lookup tables and resorted to using brute force with shared resources. This is just a multiply and accumulate. I'm guessing it was taking so long because it was doing serial multiplication, then floating point multiplication when the numbers started getting too big for the display.

Yes, my TI calculator of a similar vintage (maybe a year newer) did factorials the same way. They took their time to come up, for sure, unlike anything more "normal."
 
I'll have to try it on my old HP-41 and see what happens.

In 30+ years of owning that calculator I'm not entirely sure I ever used the factorial function.
 
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