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TIL the hard way not to cheap out on backup batteries for wireless sensors
I bought a batch of no-name 3V lithium cells off Amazon for like $12 for a 10-pack. Fast forward 3 months, half my motion detectors started throwing low-battery trouble signals at 2 AM on a Tuesday. Had to drive out to a commercial site 45 minutes away and swap them all out, cost me more in gas and time than if I just got the genuine Energizer ones from the start. Anyone else get burned by knockoff batteries frying their sensor boards?
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blake_martinez11d agoMost Upvoted
Man I read this thing from a guy who tested those no-name lithiums and found they don't have the same voltage regulation as the brand name ones. So instead of a steady 3V they slowly drop and mess with the sensor's voltage detector. He said he saw one brand that started at 2.8V right out of the pack. That's garbage for something that needs to run stable for a year. You got lucky it was just a battery swap and not the whole board fried.
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parker_foster5311d ago
Didn't @blake_martinez basically confirm what most of us already suspected about those cheap batteries? I read a similar breakdown that said the voltage sag causes false alarms way before they actually die.
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