Battery tester for digital camera batteries

RussWWFC

I've got a Kodak digital camera and am fed up of getting to a location with supposodly full batteries only to find out that the camera won't accept them (IE wont switch on)

I bought one of these



But even though the meter says the batteries are "good", they still wont work.

Anyone got any suggestions of what would be a better tester

djheath

I dont really understand? Are you using new batteries and they are full, but the camera doesn't switch on? Wouldn't that point to a fault with the camera?

I proper multimeter would be able to diagnose the exact battery voltage accurately so you can see if they are half full empty etc.

Or you could buy rechargeable batteries and make sure you charge them before you go out.

amonra

Most battery testers only check the voltage of the batteries off-load. A proper tester checks the voltage ON-load, ie, when power is being drawn from from them. Some batteries can show a "good" voltage of 1.5 volts off-lad but drop significantly under load.
There is no foolproof way of checking batteries, just make sure you take a fully charged standby set of batteries with you when you go.
Another thing worth checking, try fitting a set of high capacity Duracell batteries when your camera rejects your other batteries as "dud". Perhaps the inbuilt battery tester in the camera doesn't like re-chargeable batteries ?
Ordinary (non-rechargeable) batteries are a nominal 1.5 volts, but re-chargeables are a nominal 1.2 volts, perhaps the tester is a bit critical. Good luck.

RussWWFC

No camera is fine, when I put in SOME rechargeables they work and when I put in Duracells they work fine. Maybe the batteries lose charge over time but then why does the meter show them as full

roddydogs

I have the same problem with my Olympus Camera, and i have the battery tester which also shows "full" trouble is the camera will only work with the top 5% of battey power, when this drops off, within a week even if the camera is not used, the camera wont work. even thou if you put them in torch, or something else they work fine for ages. 2AAs are not really good enough for some makes of camera. All you can do is have say, 3 sets of fully charged batts, ready when you need them they must be "fresh" you cant charge them up in advance as they will lose power faily quickly

bookduck

It is probably a voltage thing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_battery_sizes

The difference between Alkaline and NiMH is .3v per cell. So if your camera has 2 cells then it is 0.6v. So a 4 cell alkaline battery camera needs 5 NiMH for the same voltage.

Secondly when consuming current this voltage drops and if you google i'm sure you will find graphs for these batteries. Hence in the old days, your radio got quieter as the batteries were running down, then suddenly just stopped working as the batteries could no longer power the electronics.

Historically most batteries are for flashlights, radios and kids toys. These do not need precise voltages, so a cheap good/bad battery tester as above will suffice. Unfortunately they are no good for you. you will need a load resistor and a digital multimeter to get accurate measurements.

Stephen_Leak

amonra wrote: »

There is no foolproof way of checking batteries, just make sure you take a fully charged standby set of batteries with you when you go.

Thats what I do.