Digital Calipers that don't eat batteries

slow-poke said:
I want to mount a digital caliper to the tail stock of my lathe to make it easy to zero and measure depth when drilling. So I would like to purchase an economical digital caliper, Mitutoyo seems overkill, but I absolutely don't want one that requires a new battery all the time (the battery in my Mitutoyo's seems to last forever) and all the cheapo calipers I have are basically useless because the battery is dead every other time you go to use them.

Suggestions?
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My homemade caliper/DRO used the cheap chinese calipers. I just went on line and bought some double AAA battery holders, and wired that up to the battery pins in the caliper. Lasted for years, probably closer to a decade without having to change the batteries...
 
dkemppai said:
My homemade caliper/DRO used the cheap chinese calipers. I just went on line and bought some double AAA battery holders, and wired that up to the battery pins in the caliper. Lasted for years, probably closer to a decade without having to change the batteries...
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I love this idea!!!
 
what happens I think the cheap ones like h f there is a draw on the battery even its is off the good ones. have very little draw when the unit is off
look around on the net and that's what you will fine .I have a igaging. two years on the same battery
 
Tonym said:
what happens I think the cheap ones like h f there is a draw on the battery even its is off the good ones. have very little draw when the unit is off
look around on the net and that's what you will fine .I have a igaging. two years on the same battery
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I leave my HF calipers on all the time - never turn them off.
 
SLK001 said:
I leave my HF calipers on all the time - never turn them off.
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The current draw should be almost zero on or off. Those batteries have very little capacity, and the design needs to be done correctly. Most of the electronics are probably always on in those. The LCD doesn't really draw any power to speak of.

I have an igaging digital angle/protractor, it sucks. I can't leave batteries in it. They will be dead the next time I use it. I literally pull the battery out every time I'm done with it. And that sucks, because the battery is hard to remove.

I have import 6" and 12" digital calipers, they last about 6 months.

I think my mitutoyo calipers go a decade with the same battery.

The mitutoyo digital micrometer eats batteries pretty fast. Maybe it's counterfeit... kinds doubt that. It's was long enough ago the chinese clones weren't that good yet.

Not sure about the old mitutoyo micrometer heads on the measuring microscope. Although, I'd guess they're going to last a long time...

Import stuff is getting better. Import calipers from a decade ago ate batteries pretty quick. I got mad and put a pair of AAAs on them old ones. I stopped buying import calipers. Got sick of always looking for batteries.

Don't even get me started about my auto darkening welding helmet!
 
dkemppai said:
The current draw should be almost zero on or off. Those batteries have very little capacity, and the design needs to be done correctly. Most of the electronics are probably always on in those. The LCD doesn't really draw any power to speak of.
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I thought this, too. A while back, someone did a current draw test on various LCD calipers and found that ON did consume considerable more current than OFF (don't ask me where I saw this, but it was on one of my machinary forums). But I still leave my calipers on and I still get about a year, even with the higher current draw.

dkemppai said:
Don't even get me started about my auto darkening welding helmet!
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Okay, I'll start! I have the cheapest HF ADWH that I picked up around 1998 (or so). It had a SOLAR panel, so I assumed that it was SOLAR (or light) powered. After about 10 years of use, it started to "not" auto darken. Since it was solar powered (I thought), all I had to do was go outside to do the welding. It STILL wouldn't auto dark. WTF?? I had to retrieve my old flip shield helmet to do the welding. Once you have gone with a ADWH, going back to an "old school" helmet is difficult to adjust to.

I decided to tear into my AD HF helmet to see what was the problem. Guess what? It had two BATTERIES in it powering the electronics. There were two CR2032 cells that used an unobtainable mounting bracket on the batteries. Since I couldn't get the proper replacement batteries, I just removed the old and soldered in wires, which I attached to the batteries with tape. Today, the helmet is still going strong (but I imagine it is getting close to needing a new set of batteries).
 
Mitutoyos are absolutely the best. Someone said they left theirs on for few days. I left mine for few months, in winter, in an unheated garage (-15C temps). Now a year later it is still on its first battery.

I have two (real) Mitutoyos, a 200mm solar one and a shorter battery operated one despite not spending a lot on my hobby. Good deals are still available on NOS or slightly used Mitutoyos. The key when looking for them is to buy locally (nationally?) from local people's ads (Craigslist etc) rather than on ebay or amazon. I would not buy a cheap Mitutoyos from ebay unless the seller was available on the phone and said something I could believe. I managed to "score" those calipers and a couple of test and dial indicators by answering an local ad placed by a small bankruptcy sales business.

Now to the point. I love my solar Mitutoyos, but sometimes I need to check some dimensions where there is little light. The solar calipers need a fair bit of light to switch on. I can still read a battery operated ones fine in semi-dark environment while the solar is dead. So depending on how much light you have you may choose not to go to te solar route.
 
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