6 x AA Battery Holder w/Cover

Started by KK0G, May 04, 2014, 05:50:45 PM

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KK0G

6 x AA battery holders with a cover can be somewhat of a pain to locate so I thought I'd post a link here.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/281110847906
http://www.ebay.com/itm/310883690164

I bought one of each style. My plan is to mount one directly to the bottom of my Weber MTR so  I have one less separate component to deal with, lose, forget, etc. for portable work. They're both similar but I couldn't decide which one would work best so I bought them both since they're so cheap. I'll use the other one for a spare battery pack.

Now I need to figure out a way to integrate paddles to the MTR, after that the only separate external accessories I'll need to carry will be my SOTA tuner and ear buds.


"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety" - Benjamin Franklin

KK0G

gil

You won't believe this, but I just ordered the same one, but for eight batteries today before I saw your post!

Gil.

KK0G

Quote from: gil on May 04, 2014, 05:59:20 PM
You won't believe this, but I just ordered the same one, but for eight batteries today before I saw your post!
Great minds think alike I guess. ;D

I went with the 6 cell instead of 8 cell for the simple fact they'll fit my MTR almost perfectly. Six cells gives me a nominal 9 volts which it runs on just fine and it just happens to match my KX1 as well. I want to mount it directly to the back cover and hard wire it. I also ordered some 5.5mm x 2.1 mm coaxial connectors with a built in switch so that the built in battery pack will be cut off when an external pack is plugged in.
"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety" - Benjamin Franklin

KK0G

NWARadio

How does that work? (Keep in mind I'm still learning a lot) I like the idea of the internal battery being disconnected if something external is hooked up, but I don't know how that would be wired up.
So long, and thanks for all the fish

KK0G

Quote from: NWARadio on May 04, 2014, 08:29:39 PM
How does that work? (Keep in mind I'm still learning a lot) I like the idea of the internal battery being disconnected if something external is hooked up, but I don't know how that would be wired up.
This is one of those situations where a picture is worth a thousand words but I'll try my best to explain.

No doubt you've experienced how the internal speaker in a radio is cut off as soon as you plug in a set of headphones, this is accomplished with a switch in the jack. The body of the plug itself simply lifts a contact inside the jack creating an open in the speaker circuit thus muting it. Most audio jacks have this feature in addition to some coaxial power jacks such as the one I'm installing which operates exactly the same way. Sounds complicated but it's actually extremely simple (back to that picture worth a thousand words ;D ).
"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety" - Benjamin Franklin

KK0G

NWARadio

I'll wait for the pic lol

So long and thanks for all the fish.

So long, and thanks for all the fish

KC3AOL

I actually got two 4x boxes for the MTR. Remember that rechargeables will only put out 1.2V instead of the 1.5V that alkalines will do. So 8 rechargeable will give me 9.6V and alkalines will give me 12V.

Sent from my Venue 8 Pro 5830 using Tapatalk

KK0G

Quote from: KC3AOL on May 04, 2014, 09:19:50 PM
I actually got two 4x boxes for the MTR. Remember that rechargeables will only put out 1.2V instead of the 1.5V that alkalines will do. So 8 rechargeable will give me 9.6V and alkalines will give me 12V.

Sent from my Venue 8 Pro 5830 using Tapatalk
I seldom use rechargeable batteries when portable, usually alkalines or if I'm feeling rich, Energizer Ultimate Lithiums. With the extremely low current draw, a set of 6 AA alkalines will easily outlast my weekend camping trips although I take an extra set just in case. They're also dirt cheap in bulk from Costco.
"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety" - Benjamin Franklin

KK0G

KK0G

The first battery box arrived today and it's a near perfect fit to the MTR. There's an ear that extends past one end by about 0.5", unfortunately it's required for the battery cover to latch into although I can trim a big share of it away at the expense of the strength of the latch. I'll see how the other style fits when it arrives.
"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety" - Benjamin Franklin

KK0G

NWARadio

That doubles the thickness, doesn't it?

So long and thanks for all the fish.

So long, and thanks for all the fish

KK0G

Quote from: NWARadio on May 07, 2014, 09:13:10 PM
That doubles the thickness, doesn't it?
Not quite, but pretty close to double. The MTR is roughly 0.9" tall and the battery box is roughly 0.7" tall.
"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety" - Benjamin Franklin

KK0G

KK0G

I got the battery box all mounted and wired in today. I trimmed the tab on the latch end as far as I dared without weakening it significantly.

The 5x2.1mm coaxial jacks I ordered also arrived today but unfortunately they're way to large to fit in the MTR. That's OK, they were cheap, I'll toss them in the junk box for some future project. As it's wired now if I plugged in an external battery with batteries already in the box, they'd both be hot in parallel. I'll continue my search for a smaller switched coaxial jack but in the mean time the simplest solution of course is to just remove at least one battery from the box when an external battery is plugged in.
"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety" - Benjamin Franklin

KK0G