Beacon Picking Up Weird Signal

[stuckathuntermtn]

adrenalated is correct. It is voltage drop.

Here’s a nice chart courtesy of Eveready

Attachment 309033

Uhhhh, that chart shows the current drop if I'm not mistaken.
Well, watts divided by volts over time.

[Ted Striker]

Here are the curves:

Lithium AAA pretty flat, the a nosedive to dead.

Attachment 309034

Alkaline AAA

Attachment 309035

[Ted Striker]

Uhhhh, that chart shows the current drop if I'm not mistaken.
Well, watts divided by volts over time.

All three charts show the differences between battery chemistry and battery life.

If your position is that the power meter is measuring current draw, I'll bet you $37 that it's actually measuring battery voltage. Just like a multi-meter. Except it probably goes one step further and measures the Vbattery open circuit and compares it to the voltage drop across a known resistance.

[MTT]

There are so many people wearing beacons, I test mine on the lift line. Multiple signals when in search mode.

Just to be sure

[t-the-east]

I have a tracker 2 as well. Are you ever gonna take it away from the house and figure out what the phantom signal is? Or should we just debate battery life more?

[stuckathuntermtn]

All three charts show the differences between battery chemistry and battery life.

If your position is that the power meter is measuring current draw, I'll bet you $37 that it's actually measuring battery voltage. Just like a multi-meter. Except it probably goes one step further and measures the Vbattery open circuit and compares it to the voltage drop across a known resistance.

Sure.
But a simple AAA, AA, C, or D will show 1.5v until it doesn't. And it will show that 1.5v on a simple tester past where it would still power a TV remote, most likely. There has to be some kind of load to give you current left in the thing.
Or just use some more big words I don't understand lol.

Just saying, when you turn on your Tracker and it says 99, that is current, for a large part. Not voltage. If it wasn't getting about the full voltage requirement, it wouldn't even turn on.

Or so I understand things.

[wstdeep]

Sure.
But a simple AAA, AA, C, or D will show 1.5v until it doesn't. And it will show that 1.5v on a simple tester past where it would still power a TV remote, most likely. There has to be some kind of load to give you current left in the thing.
Or just use some more big words I don't understand lol.

Just saying, when you turn on your Tracker and it says 99, that is current, for a large part. Not voltage. If it wasn't getting about the full voltage requirement, it wouldn't even turn on.

Or so I understand things.

The man has a point (I think) but most importantly the T2 is still a pretty decent tool for finding someone as long as there is not a TV on in the room.

[Ted Striker]

No, he's wrong

when you turn on your Tracker and it says 99, that is current, for a large part. Not voltage. If it wasn't getting about the full voltage requirement, it wouldn't even turn on.

Here is the voltage measurement of a battery that I pulled from a headlamp that was getting dim:



And all three batteries were that low.

1.1 volts under no load is well under the battery's nominal voltage of 1.5V, and pretty close to being dead.
Yet when I put those batteries in my tracker 2 it not only powered up, but had no problem finding my barryvox (until I put my phone up to it to take the pic)



@ stuck, I get what you're saying, but think of it this way...

An alkaline battery makes electricity through a chemical reaction where the cathode wants electrons from the anode, so they get pulled through the device's circuit to get there, and power the device in the process.

And there's no way for battery companies to know how much resistance/impedance someone might design into their circuit, so they publish a chart that shows voltage drop with a constant current draw over time.

V=IR, so circuit designers can extrapolate, but since a brand new battery has very little internal resistance compared to when it's depleted, at some point the battery's increasing internal resistance will compete with the device's circuit and the battery will drop voltage across itself instead of across the device's circuit.

Which is why voltage is a good measurement of remaining battery life.

[detrusor]

^^^^

Well said


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

[nickinbc]

Wonder how much temperature affects battery discharge curves? If a particular type of battery has a very flat discharge curve it wouldn't take much temperature variability to completely screw up the estimation of life remaining.

[summit]

Wonder how much temperature affects battery discharge curves? If a particular type of battery has a very flat discharge curve it wouldn't take much temperature variability to completely screw up the estimation of life remaining.

Lithium battery chemistry is much more temperature independent than alkaline or nimh. Arguably better than nicd.

[stuckathuntermtn]

Thanks.
I was just trying to point out that someone seemed to get voltage and current confused. I'm surprised you get 65% there, but of course you've got way more than 65% original voltage, so that is not what it's measuring. That's all.

[Ted Striker]

I'm surprised you get 65% there, but of course you've got way more than 65% original voltage, so that is not what it's measuring.

The battery was below 20% at that point (the transmit light wasn't flashing in send mode). The pic shows the beacon in search mode, and the 6.5 m is the other beacon.

And the math doesn't work that way, i.e. 50% on the battery indication doesn't mean half of the "original" or nominal voltage. It can't, because .75v is essentially a dead battery.

[cydwhit]

My Tracker 3 consistently led me to the fridge when I used it indoors. The fridge had beer in it, so I couldn't complain.

[stuckathuntermtn]

The battery was below 20% at that point (the transmit light wasn't flashing in send mode). The pic shows the beacon in search mode, and the 6.5 m is the other beacon.

And the math doesn't work that way, i.e. 50% on the battery indication doesn't mean half of the "original" or nominal voltage. It can't, because .75v is essentially a dead battery.

Oh, haha, duh.