D-Cell Battery Blank

[Noggin]

My wife purchased something that eats through D-Cell batteries. I want to tie in a power supply to replace the batteries by clipping alligator clips onto the terminals. The positive terminal is very... unclippable. I imagine the best thing to do would be to replace the final D-cell battery with a blank and clip on the negative terminal on that battery blank. So, the question is, does anyone know of any D-cell battery blanks? The best thing I can come up with is cut a fat dowel rod down to size, put a nail/screw with washer though it, and shove that in there.

 

[kchriste]

Why don't you install a DC jack into the "something that eats through D-Cell batteries when your wife uses it" instead of going the fake D-cell route? You won't be able to close the battery door because the wire to the power supply will be in the way. A jack would be much neater. Or just pay more attention to your wife!

 

[Noggin]

I don't feel like opening the thing up. Electrically, it looks very simple, but mechanically its annoying. I'm probably going to go with a nail through a piece of wood. And the battery door shouldn't be an issue, I'll either leave it off or cut a notch into it.

 

[microtexan]

How about a piece of wooden dowel (broom handle, shovel handle etc.) with thumb tacks and a wire jumper in place of the battery?

 

[Leftyretro]

And of course you could buy some recharable ni-cad D size cells and a charger.
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If just dummy cells are what you need maybe these would work:

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Lefty

 

[0x00x0]

Why not just solder the wires from the supply on the terminals??

 

[Noggin]

How about a piece of wooden dowel (broom handle, shovel handle etc.) with thumb tacks and a wire jumper in place of the battery?

Thats similar to what I was thinking, but use a long nail instead of two tacks and a jumper wire. Tacks my be easier though, than trying to keep the nail strait.

And of course you could buy some recharable ni-cad D size cells and a charger.
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That was my first thought, but she said she'd rather buy batteries. Besides, I'm not sure I've ever seen D-size ni-cad/nimh batteries. I have see the 4-AA to D cell holders like you posted below, but as a rule, I don't put batteries in parallel. Even rechargables. One of those AA's goes and then you end up with that one bad one draining the other 3 in the holder, and then the current from the other batteries will drive all of those into a negative charge state and you wipe out a large chunk of batteries.

If just dummy cells are what you need maybe these would work:

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Thought of those too, but I don't know what the inside of those looks like. I might still have problems getting onto the positive terminal.

Why not just solder the wires from the supply on the terminals??

The positive terminal is a little difficult to get to, and its basically a huge heat sink. It would be difficult to solder.

I think the best suggestion so far is to use a dowel rod with thumb tacks and a jumper wire. Thanks everyone.

 

[ericgibbs]

hi.
A piece of gaffer tape stuck to the postive battery terminal of an old battery would do just fine.
Solder a square piece of thin tin [ off an old can] onto the incoming end of your external psu lead and insert it between the gaffer tape and battery case terminal.

 

[Noggin]

hi.
A piece of gaffer tape stuck to the postive battery terminal of an old battery would do just fine.
Solder a square piece of thin tin [ off an old can] onto the incoming end of your external psu lead and insert it between the gaffer tape and battery case terminal.

Hmm... interesting, simple, effective. Only drawback is possible battery leakage/corrosion over time. I do like it though. I think this will be what I do. Thanks!

 

[Ubergeek63]

**broken link removed** I recently picked up the big coscto pack and am thrilled. a pair in our camera and we have not had to switch them yet.

It is interesting to note that NiMH Ds are the same 2500mAHr that the AAs are making it much more affordable to buy these, even at $30-$40 for the big pack, than it is to buy NiMH Ds at $10 a pair.

Dan

 

[ericgibbs]

**broken link removed** I recently picked up the big coscto pack and am thrilled. a pair in our camera and we have not had to switch them yet.

It is interesting to note that NiMH Ds are the same 2500mAHr that the AAs are making it much more affordable to buy these, even at $30-$40 for the big pack, than it is to buy NiMH Ds at $10 a pair.

Dan

hi Dan,
Saw a dummy 'D' style battery, with a 'AA' hole into which to pop an 'AA'.
In the holder the 'AA' battery had the same outer dimensions as a 'D'.

As you say, AA's are cheaper than 'D's.

 

[audioguru]

I have never seen a women's toy that uses huge and heavy D-cells. It must be very powerful.

Energizer sells C and D Ni-MH rechargeable cells that have a little AA cell inside.

 

[picbits]

I have never seen a women's toy that uses huge and heavy D-cells. It must be very powerful.

I was going to say something along the same lines

maybe make something out of Polymorph ? It would be a 20 minute job to do.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I have never seen a women's toy that uses huge and heavy D-cells. It must be very powerful.

Funny you should mention that!

Years ago in my local pub the landlord was a large scottish guy called Kenny, he was 6 foot 8 inches - if I remember correctly.

Anyway, there used to be a girl who came in called 'Big Jacky', named for the overly impressive size of her chest (48 DD if you're interested)

So we were sat at the bar, about 6 men, and Jacky normally came in a little later on - so Kenny pulled this large 'ladies appliance' from under the bar, and said "wait till Jacky comes in" (and it was large enough for D cells!).

So Jacky comes in, and Kenny pulls the vibrator from under the bar, and says "you left this here last night Jacky" - obviously we all started to laugh, but Jacky just says "that's not mine", reaching itto her handbag and pulls one out three times the size and announces "THIS IS MINE". The place was in complete uproar, and Kenny's joke completely backfired on him.

Unfortunately the pub isn't just closed now, they knocked it down, ground it to dust, and built flats where it was - now full of Polish workers.

 

[Ubergeek63]

It would not be good for low drain apps but at high drain alkalines only get 4AHrs and NiMH get 2-2.5AHrs.

Dan

 

[Ubergeek63]

I have never seen a women's toy that uses huge and heavy D-cells. It must be very powerful.

Energizer sells C and D Ni-MH rechargeable cells that have a little AA cell inside.

And for top dollar too!

 

[picbits]

Funny you should mention that!

So Jacky comes in, and Kenny pulls the vibrator from under the bar, and says "you left this here last night Jacky" - obviously we all started to laugh, but Jacky just says "that's not mine", reaching itto her handbag and pulls one out three times the size and announces "THIS IS MINE". The place was in complete uproar, and Kenny's joke completely backfired on him.

Unfortunately the pub isn't just closed now, they knocked it down, ground it to dust, and built flats where it was - now full of Polish workers.

Funny you should mention that as well ...........

Many years ago when I worked in Tandy, I had a customer come up to the till and bold as brass slapped down a rather large "womans appliance" on the till and asked if I was able to convert it to mains for her as she was spending a fortune on batteries.

I ended up selling her two sets of rechargables and a fast charger so she'd never be lacking those vital few Ah

 

[Andy1845c]

Funny you should mention that as well ...........

Many years ago when I worked in Tandy, I had a customer come up to the till and bold as brass slapped down a rather large "womans appliance" on the till and asked if I was able to convert it to mains for her as she was spending a fortune on batteries.

lmao, a mains powered vibrater is even funnier then the mains powered electric toothbush I saw on a 1950's "homes of the future" vidoe a while back..... and you UK folks have 240v mains too! Yikes!!!

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

lmao, a mains powered vibrater is even funnier then the mains powered electric toothbush I saw on a 1950's "homes of the future" vidoe a while back..... and you UK folks have 240v mains too! Yikes!!!

It's 'officially' 230V now

All of the EU standardised on 230V a number of years ago now, the UK was 240, and the rest was 220V - both of which fall within tolerance of 230V.

In practice nothing changed, just that appliances are now designed on 230V, and work on either 220 or 240.

 

[Hero999]

As long as it's totally sealed and thermally protected it's pretty safe.

You can get 9Ah NiMH D cells but they're pretty expensive.
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