I hate this scale, it says low battery and shuts off after just 3 months of sitting in the drawer. It infuriates me that there’s still a lot of energy in the battery, I can use that in remote controls with no issues

If there’s enough battery to say “low battery”, then there’s enough battery to show the measurements!

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    18
    ·
    17 days ago

    Normal AA or AAA battery, or a CR<something> button? If it is a button cell, try wiping it with alcohol before you insert it. Many modern button cells have a coating that tastes horrible to prevent people (children) from taking them into the mouth. I’ve noticed that on some brands, this coating measurably increases the resistance of the cell, not only reducing the the power it can deliver, but als making it appear “emptier” than they are ofor the measuring circuits. Wiping off the coating with alcohol (90% isopropanol) expanded the cells’ life (in a kitchen scale to boot!) significantly.

    • azertyfun@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      17 days ago

      My cheap scale will not work with my freshly recharged amazon basics AAAs. Apparently those do not hold up well enough under load. And of course any set of batteries that does work, discharges over a few months.

      So I just bought a cheap mechanical scale (not from Amazon) and I eyeball it for weights under 50g. Good enough and dead reliable.

      • TheOakTree@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        17 days ago

        This may or may not help, but a nickel is very close to 5 grams. You may be able to slap something silly together with a bunch of nickels taped together :P