These testers do indeed put a load in the cells. They vary from supplier to supplier. The lightest load is the ANENG BT-168 PRO, a couple mA which is safe enough for coin cells. The heaviest is the BT-168D, which is 26 mA at 1.5V, 12 mA at 3V, 9 mA at 4.2V, and 15 mA at 9V. This is too much for coin cells. Like another poster, I have added resistors where appropriate in order to increase the load, I did this to the 168Max to suit larger cells, which I would not use on coin cells either.
Excellent video, sir! Everyone should have at least one of these simple battery testers. Great to see them examined in detail. Keep up the good work! Cheers!
Such features exist in all sorts of measurement tools. Sometimes there's a hold function to enable it such as in multimeters. No idea why one would ever need that. The most stupid latch functionality is in my bathroom scale. A second measurement within half a minute or so and of a weight similar to the previous one will display the previous weight again. Advertised on the package as "stable measurement" or something like that.
@@ralfbaechle The "Hold" function is an example of "one man's bloat is another man's needed feature". I think I've used it once when I needed to stick the probe deep down inside something and couldn't see the meter at the same time. Some people find it handy to keep the reading if they need to write it down or show someone. Not entirely useless, just useless to most of us most of the time.
@@j.f.christ8421 I thought about exactly these two uses before posting. I just couldn't convince that in practice they were worth the button's value in plastic.
@@ralfbaechle Well, I'm glad that after "careful thought" you've decided something that is useless to you is useless to everyone else as well. Well done. You sound like the dude I once met who complained about money being wasted to install ramps when there aren't that many cripples around, I'm do find DMM auto-hold useful on occasions.
Hacking mass produced products has its pitfalls, but it is very luxurious to have a live voltage display on each cell. So, thanks for sharing this quirk.
I have an older BT-168D, with no latch, no blue strip. Looks like your latching model but the words "BATTERY TESTER" is less bold. Inside, a blob chip on a board marked BT168D-110702. I modified mine with a pushbutton and load resistor, 19 ohms.
Sometimes you get a much lower voltage reading on the 9V prongs if you mistakenly have the slider terminals in the closed position. Depends what version you have.
This is a case of using the right tool for the job. With a battery tester, most people would use them to measure just one battery. There are plenty of cheap panel volt meters around to measure voltage in circuits that would be as accurate, maybe more so, as the battery testers which are basically just designed to let someone know if a battery is good or dead.
Great video. But is it possible to put the links where you bought these tester. I have found that some ANENG BT-168 PRO are not reading the right voltage. Thank you.
Maybe the latching could be disabled by changing the state of one of the ic pin ??? Without any datasheet will be needed some reverse engineering and some brain muscle.
It can be anything from a custom ASIC to an otp microcontroller... If it is an ASIC and actually does have the option for disabling latching it can be fun to try and reverse engineer it. Otherwise i bet its a microcontroller and the firmware is probably programmed with latch enabled
That latching function is really absurd tbh, part of the point of a tester is to induce a load current, some cells can give off an extra burst of dissipation towards the start before the chemistry drops like a rock, so it's just going to get tricked into reading out the wrong voltage every time.. A switch for latch/live would be smart, as well as options for load-currents. A cheap meter that also tells you the cells ESR could also be really nice.
Agreed, I use the 189 style for triage. Great form factor for skimming through a lot of nice lithium cells at the recycler and discarding the dead, then bring the ones that test good home for a rinse and a check with the analog meter.
Sure you could ad some kind of 555 deriving a power supply from the source and use that ot refresh the display. if the latch is all you can get a hold of
Problem with multimeters is they don't put a load on the battery, so they will show the "float" voltage and fool you into thinking a battery is good. If you put your meter on your car battery it'll show around 13v, when you first start the car the load will cause it to drop to 10v-11v or so. But a bad battery will also show 13v, but when trying to start will drop far more, maybe down to 7v-8v. Your meter can lie to you.
I think what you really want is these LED voltmeters get them in four digits and I'll have three wires on them a power negative and detect or signal and they could go up to like 30 volts or something easily That's what you want it's basically just the seven segment LED display
The LED voltmeters draw a fair bit of current. What I like about these battery testers is the very low current draw, and that they work from a very low voltage.
It's quite easy to put a low value (say 10 Ohms) resistor in series with the battery to put a small load on it. I found this works well with the BT-168D (Assuming you have one of the non-latching ones). I know that's not what you're using them for, but just a comment on your remark at the beginning.
These testers do indeed put a load in the cells. They vary from supplier to supplier. The lightest load is the ANENG BT-168 PRO, a couple mA which is safe enough for coin cells. The heaviest is the BT-168D, which is 26 mA at 1.5V, 12 mA at 3V, 9 mA at 4.2V, and 15 mA at 9V. This is too much for coin cells. Like another poster, I have added resistors where appropriate in order to increase the load, I did this to the 168Max to suit larger cells, which I would not use on coin cells either.
Quickly dashes off to check his battery charger, finds he has the Aneng non-latching version. But also discovers a drawer full of dead NiMH cells.
I have two BT168D I've added resistors to, both of which have had the positive wire eventually fail
Oddly, mine do not latch
Resolder and then use hot glue strain relief up the wire a little. While you’re at it lube the tracks a little bit.
@@pault6533 Team latching here, I cleaned up the slider when I resoldered my red wire as well. Works nice now.
Excellent video, sir! Everyone should have at least one of these simple battery testers. Great to see them examined in detail. Keep up the good work! Cheers!
That latching function is stupid.
Such features exist in all sorts of measurement tools. Sometimes there's a hold function to enable it such as in multimeters. No idea why one would ever need that. The most stupid latch functionality is in my bathroom scale. A second measurement within half a minute or so and of a weight similar to the previous one will display the previous weight again. Advertised on the package as "stable measurement" or something like that.
@@ralfbaechle The "Hold" function is an example of "one man's bloat is another man's needed feature".
I think I've used it once when I needed to stick the probe deep down inside something and couldn't see the meter at the same time. Some people find it handy to keep the reading if they need to write it down or show someone.
Not entirely useless, just useless to most of us most of the time.
@@j.f.christ8421 I thought about exactly these two uses before posting. I just couldn't convince that in practice they were worth the button's value in plastic.
@@ralfbaechle Well, I'm glad that after "careful thought" you've decided something that is useless to you is useless to everyone else as well. Well done. You sound like the dude I once met who complained about money being wasted to install ramps when there aren't that many cripples around,
I'm do find DMM auto-hold useful on occasions.
Hacking mass produced products has its pitfalls, but it is very luxurious to have a live voltage display on each cell. So, thanks for sharing this quirk.
I have an older BT-168D, with no latch, no blue strip. Looks like your latching model but the words "BATTERY TESTER" is less bold. Inside, a blob chip on a board marked BT168D-110702.
I modified mine with a pushbutton and load resistor, 19 ohms.
Sometimes you get a much lower voltage reading on the 9V prongs if you mistakenly have the slider terminals in the closed position. Depends what version you have.
This is a case of using the right tool for the job. With a battery tester, most people would use them to measure just one battery. There are plenty of cheap panel volt meters around to measure voltage in circuits that would be as accurate, maybe more so, as the battery testers which are basically just designed to let someone know if a battery is good or dead.
11:30 Why does the 9V+ wire lead to a 1.5V+ label on the board?
Why indeed ;)
Great video. But is it possible to put the links where you bought these tester. I have found that some ANENG BT-168 PRO are not reading the right voltage. Thank you.
Maybe the latching could be disabled by changing the state of one of the ic pin ??? Without any datasheet will be needed some reverse engineering and some brain muscle.
It can be anything from a custom ASIC to an otp microcontroller... If it is an ASIC and actually does have the option for disabling latching it can be fun to try and reverse engineer it. Otherwise i bet its a microcontroller and the firmware is probably programmed with latch enabled
That latching function is really absurd tbh, part of the point of a tester is to induce a load current, some cells can give off an extra burst of dissipation towards the start before the chemistry drops like a rock, so it's just going to get tricked into reading out the wrong voltage every time.. A switch for latch/live would be smart, as well as options for load-currents. A cheap meter that also tells you the cells ESR could also be really nice.
Agreed, I use the 189 style for triage. Great form factor for skimming through a lot of nice lithium cells at the recycler and discarding the dead, then bring the ones that test good home for a rinse and a check with the analog meter.
Sure you could ad some kind of 555 deriving a power supply from the source and use that ot refresh the display. if the latch is all you can get a hold of
How many volts can be pumped into the 9v + until the smoke escapes?
I bought several different ones. They are very imprecise. ~10% and non-linearly. Like 1,57V shows 1,69V. 1.2v shows 1.1v etc. Nonusable.
These battery testers are confusing products. These type of devices are what led me to buy a multi meter.
Problem with multimeters is they don't put a load on the battery, so they will show the "float" voltage and fool you into thinking a battery is good.
If you put your meter on your car battery it'll show around 13v, when you first start the car the load will cause it to drop to 10v-11v or so. But a bad battery will also show 13v, but when trying to start will drop far more, maybe down to 7v-8v.
Your meter can lie to you.
The problem is, the seller won't know wether it has a 16 or a 14 pin IC.
(100th like. 👍)
I think what you really want is these LED voltmeters get them in four digits and I'll have three wires on them a power negative and detect or signal and they could go up to like 30 volts or something easily That's what you want it's basically just the seven segment LED display
The LED voltmeters draw a fair bit of current. What I like about these battery testers is the very low current draw, and that they work from a very low voltage.
Hi, Julian!! 😃🤩
all that yapping instead of connecting to power supply and checking how it behaves
Why buy meters that you have to butcher ?
You can buy four '0.28 Inch Mini Digital Voltmeters' for the same price as the 168 (according to amazon)
Power drain, the LCD ones draw practically nothing. Also the LED ones need 4v (IIRC) to work, the LCD will fire up at 0.5v..
It's quite easy to put a low value (say 10 Ohms) resistor in series with the battery to put a small load on it. I found this works well with the BT-168D (Assuming you have one of the non-latching ones). I know that's not what you're using them for, but just a comment on your remark at the beginning.