Battery Eliminators

Hardware
1

Hello, I have some sensors that use CR123A or CR2 batteries.

Becuase of bugs in their firmware they will drain battery very often.

I found a solution in https://batteryeliminatorstore.com

But each eliminator is $60 per sensor. More expensive than the sensor itself.

I don’t have time to uninstall, update firmware and reinstall or skills to solder anything.
And I have 15 sensors that need a fix.

Are there other solutions out there?

What happens if I simply feed the sensors 5v instead of 3v?

Thanks,

Oscar

2

A soldering iron and a 5VDC supply

It’ll work twice as good :blush:

I’m sure they have circuit to regulate incoming power so 5v will be OK

3

A soldering Iron and a 3V supply. Most should be 3.3V tolerant but 5V may be pushing it.

4

I’m not so sure. Then it might be a sensor eliminator :slight_smile: But you can also add something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/AMS1117-3-3V-Voltage-Regulator-4-5-7V-Output/dp/B074FDLCLB

1 Like
5

This will require soldering directly into the sensor. Which is something I don’t feel confortable doing myself.
I wonder if I can get a dummy CR2 battery somewhere and just cram the cables with the dummy inside the sensot

1 Like
6

if you’re going to try to “cram the cables in” you still need to somehow really affix the cables… which means soldering.

unless you have shaky hands, why not give soldering a try? it’s really not hard. i’ve taught 12 year olds to do it. the main issue is really if you have a condition where you cannot hold your hands relatively still.

a 3volt adapter should cost about $5. i wouldn’t do the 3v regulator just to then put a 5 volt charge on it… at that point, just get the 3v adapter…

7

one other thought… if you have a 3d printer it wouldn’t be hard to 3d print a "coin with holes that you could thread the + and - wires through… you could avoid soldering that way…

8

I like this idea, I think I can design in such a way that the dc step down conveeter is inside the 3d dummy battery.