Do chips have a finite life?

[PenguinLust]

Oh and I took a closer look at the voltage on that old battery. It was 2.93V+/-0.02V at no load, and that was after I accidentally ran it through my ammeter. You might want to adjust any guides that deal w/this issue.

 

[PeterBJ]

The no load voltage of the battery is not a very accarate indicator of the battery condition. It is the voltage under load that determines if your resetter, remote control etc is still functional. My experience is that CR2032s I have changed in resetters and a remote control showed a no load voltage of 2.8-3.0 V.

For test purposes I connected a voltmeter across the battery in a PGI-520/CLI-521 original REdSETTER so I could monitor both the no load voltage and the voltage under load. A still good battery showing a no load voltage of 3.20 V dropped to 3.12 V while doing a reset. Doing several resets caused the no load voltage to drop, but when the resetter was not in use the no load voltage slowly recovered.

Different batteries might have different properties regarding no load voltage vs wear, and different resetters might need different voltages and currents under load, so my suggestion to a rule of thumb is: "When the no load voltage is more than 3 V the battery is still OK for service in the resetter." If you need a better rule of thumb you could do some testing, by measuring the no load voltage of the run down batteries. You could also monitor both the no load and loaded voltage like this:

But isn't the easiest solution to have some spare batteries in store and change the battery when the resetter fails?

 

[Smile]

As you know I modded my redsetter to have external AA battery pack, since then no failed resets ever.

 

[PeterBJ]

I have also made that modification maybe inspired by you and the AA cells will last several years in this application. So you get the reliability of the USB powered resetter without the inconvenience of a cable.