Batteries not fitting

[Mansfield Marauder]

Has anyone come across this before. I decided tonight after I got home that the light in my Cateye Opticube was a bit dim so I fitted four new AA duracel batteries it would not work, no matter how I arranged the batteries it would not work, works fine when I put the memorex ones back in. Anyone knows what is happening?

[thirdcrank]

Can I have one on sport?

Stating only the obvious: either, for some reason you are mistaken about the way you are fitting them or, at least one of the replacement cells is dicky.

[Mick F]

I bought some Duracell AA rechargeables the other day, and tried to fit them into my Maglite. They are too thick! Not by much, but just slightly thicker and won't go down inside. They fit ok in our wireless mouse and wireless keyboard, and a couple of other things, but not the Maglite. I've yet to try them in my Bike Cateyes.

Your problem sounds like a defective cell. Try mixing the Memorex and Duracell, then by Process of Elimination you should get some evidence.

[james01]

Over the years I've had the occasional lamp that doesn't like certain brands of battery. It's usually down to the length of the positive terminal projection on the battery being too short to reach the pickup point in the lamp. A bit of fettling, or some silver foil as a filler, usually cured it.

[bikegeek]

+ 1 for what james01 says. AAA batteries have rather small contact areas and the terminals in cateye lamps can 'bend' away from the battery. Try your Duracells in another device to make sure they're ok. They are charged, right?

[Mansfield Marauder]

Couple of points A. they are not rechargeable, B. they are AA not AAA they were brand new straight out of the packaging I suspect that it is to do with the fact the Duracells seem a little fatter than the Memorex ones and as the space in the end of the light is a bit tight I suspect they are not making proper contact or they are interfering with the switch which is also in the back of the light.

[bikegeek]

My mistake on the size, sorry.
It must be down to the slightly larger diameter causing some mis-alignment with the contacts then. How strange.. you'd expect all batteries to be the same. Hmm, I won't be buying duracells in a hurry! I expect neither will MickF..
Which Cateye have you got?

P.

[GrahamNR17]

Lemme tell you something about Duracell batteries (which I hope is old information and inaccurate nowadays)...

Way back when, I worked in a camera shop and we sold tons of Duracell batteries. When a customer bought a four pack, we would routinely open thm and test each battery with a little Tandy tester. More often than not (I can't remember the exact statistics now) one of the batteries was dead flat. Each month we'd return upwards of fifty batteries to the wholesaler.

I'm hoping this isn't the case these days, but I still can't bring myself to buy Duracells

[JEJV]

This is completely normal.

These are a common problems.

The equipment, not the batteries is defective.

A lot of folks apparently design stuff by asking round the office for some AA cells and then measuring them with plastic vernier calipers.

Bleh.

There are standards docs thats say what the allowable sizes for AA ( ANSI) or LR6 (IEC) are. The standards agree with each other.

So it's misdescription. But trading standards won't give a ****.

My attitude is to send it back. Wouldn't bother with a discussion - they'll say well it works with our batteries. W******.

The most common failure is compartment not wide enough - like Tesco 3W AA torch.

Another problem is compartment doesn't allow for short +ve contact. Sounds like you have that too. I've had that.

Yet another is +ve contact assumed very wide (Tesco C torch, 1W or 3W).

Want to desing a battery compartment ? And get it right ? Well, huh, it's tough. Get a PhD first.


Or just read the Duracell website: http://www.duracell.com/procell/design/cavity.asp


See also (PDF) page 26 of http://www.hekta.org/~hpee0705/ansi%20c181mpart1.pdf

Please note: that is a primary cell standard - so you could get Alkaline batteries that don't fit.

Rechargables are often bigger than alkaline - but still within spec.

No doubt Cat*** can afford standards docs & read websites. Maybe they they outsouce design to Uzbek YOPs now.
Or maybe there's some funky business reason. I don't care.

You're not the only people with this kind of problem with their product.

[Cunobelin]

A small end!

I have had this problem, look at the small silver anode and it sometimes does not protrude far enough, and does not make the contact.

I have one set of lights that will not work with Uniross rechargeables, yet works fine with Energizers - this is the reason why.