15 volt Multimeter battery

[pinnerite]

I did something today that I cannot ever remember doing before. Shortened the mains lead to my printer and fitted a new plug. Plugged into combination of intelligent power strips switched on and blew an RCD.

When I started to trace back from rewired lead I found the batteries had "gone" in both my meters.

The analogue TMK 500 takes two batteries a regular 1.5v AA and a 15v job. The marking on the latter is UCAR (Union Carbide) Super 15V. They do not appear to be available any longer.

It has a sort of rounded square cross section. It is 34mm long by 15mm across.

Any battery experts out there?

TIA

Alan

[alan_m]

Would something like a 15V Avo type battery fit

15v BATTERY BLR154/504 Mallory M504

15mm diameter, 37mm long (which probably includes the terminal height)

[alan_m]

Other description of BLR154 say Height: 34mm. Diam: 15mm

or maybe

15v BATTERY BLR 121 which isn't square but rectangular 36 x 15 x 26mm

Again sold as an Avo type battery but possibly used by other manufactures in similar type multimeters.

[alan_m]

The battery was Eveready 504 so search for alternatives

Wedge pieces of cardboard to keep a round battery alternative in position.

[Animal]

stack some cheap coin cells in

[pinnerite]

Thank you and everyone else that took the trouble. I chose a BLR 154 as that looked the most likely fit.

Regards, Alan

[Harry Bloomfield Esq]

You can make up the 15v, using cheap coin cells in series.

[Brian Gaff]

My meter used to have one branded Exide, though I'd imagine that is brand engineering. Sadly I cannot use meters any more, It would be nice to have had a talking meter. Brian

[Paul]

You might still be able to swing it.

My multimeter has an RS232 interface and sends out a reading on it once a second. The interface is optically isolated, so you can be measuring a 500V circuit, without risking your PC.

If you had a speaking box, with RS232 input, you would just connect the two together. But on my meter, this was a pretty basic setup, and on a range change, there was no notation in the log as to what was selected. For this to work well, it needs to log all interface changes. And it was deficient in that regard.

As for the choice of batteries in multimeters, the choices seem to be an odd lot. A perfectly good design is possible with a 9V battery. Yet, outfits like Radio Shack, used to make multimeters with an expensive 12V power source in them. Versus the cheaper

9V solution. The choice seems to be rather arbitrary. If the battery is half the price of the meter, the design is pretty silly.

Paul