• snooggums@lemmy.world
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    7 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.

    • Brokkr@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

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

      • snooggums@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Neat!

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

    • MirthfulAlembic@lemmy.world
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      7 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.

  • vxx@lemmy.world
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    7 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.

  • silentdon@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

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

  • Asifall@lemmy.world
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    7 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.

    • Thebeardedsinglemalt@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      I ended up buying a couple testers from Walmart for like $5 and they’ve been super useful! Definitely worth having in every household

  • irotsoma@lemmy.world
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    7 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.

    • interrobang@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      7 months ago

      Everytime i test a battery like this, my wife just shakes her head and reminds me that I’m definitely from Kentucky lol

    • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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      7 months ago

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