Wixey Dual Display Fractional Digital Caliper -Battery Woes

[Bob Borzelleri]

I bought one of these things last year at Woodcraft for a sale price of $29 or so. It came with a note stating that they were including a spare battery because the batteries that were installed at the factory usually died somewhere between being packaged and eventual sell date. I thought that was big of Wixley until I began to realize that there might be another reason for including a spare battery.

Sure enough, the original battery was totally dead. I put in the new one and it fired up and I turned it off and put the caliper in a drawer. A month or so later, I needed to convert a OD measurement to metric so I dug the caliper out and turned it on. The battery was dead. :mad:

I have now run 5 batteries through the Wixley and there is no apparent relief in sight. Anybody else have one of these things who isn't having battery problems?

[Rob Wright]

+1
My Harbor Freight digital caliper (not fractional :( ) one is going on 2-years and I never turn it off:mad:

[John Terefenko]

I noticed the same thing and it is the Wixey angle finder and not a digital caliper

[Mike Nolan]

I had the same problem. I now remove the battery between uses. I don't use it all that often.

[Neil Brooks]

Any of the stuff made in China ... IME ... should be presumed to have a battery that's dead on arrival.

I keep a fair number of batteries on hand, purchased from a reputable local supplier of batteries. The brand name stuff that I've bought from them has a lifespan that's probably 10X that of the OEM batts.

[Michael Prisbylla]

I've had the same problem with the Wixey angle gauge. In fact I need to buy a battery for it.

[Vijay Kumar]

I bought one of these things last year at Woodcraft for a sale price of $29 or so. It came with a note stating that they were including a spare battery because the batteries that were installed at the factory usually died somewhere between being packaged and eventual sell date. I thought that was big of Wixley until I began to realize that there might be another reason for including a spare battery.

Sure enough, the original battery was totally dead. I put in the new one and it fired up and I turned it off and put the caliper in a drawer. A month or so later, I needed to convert a OD measurement to metric so I dug the caliper out and turned it on. The battery was dead. :mad:

I have now run 5 batteries through the Wixley and there is no apparent relief in sight. Anybody else have one of these things who isn't having battery problems?

I had the same issue with the Lee Valley unit. Went through a bunch of batteries. The cheap batteries with limited life are the LR 44. The ones with the long life are the SR 44 (silver oxide). I just put one in my Lee Valley so far after one month is still good. You can buy these batteries by the 10 pack or 20 pack from Internet dealers. I bought a 10 pack. (I could be persuaded to sell one or two at my cost.)

Vijay

[Ellen Lewis]

If I might make a suggestion.... (I had the same problem)
As soon as it is moved from the position the battery was turned off at, the darn thing turns itself on. I have the angle gauge. I tighten it down before turning it off and I am careful not to change the angle when I put it into the plastic case. I think that is the way to go... they really are so sensitive to movement that any movement triggers the "on" function.

[Chip Lindley]

I had an excellent Starrett digital caliper that ate batteries. It was not cheap batteries, but the caliper itself, at fault, that drained batteries as fast as I could change them. That was back when Starrett had a lifetime replacement guarantee, no questions asked. Today they only give *some* credit toward the purchase of a current model.

[John McClanahan]

I have one that I bought off of ebay that uses the small battery (don't remember the number). It eats batteries, and turns itself on while in the case. I even cut the foam out around the buttons, but that didn't help. I now remove the battery when I'm done using it. What a pain! So, I picked up one of the Harbor Freight units when they were on sale. It uses a CR2032 battery, and I haven't had to replace one yet.

John

[Mr. Jeff Smith]

Wow, I was set to buy a Wixey this weekend, perhaps I'll hold off. It's a "would be nice" kind of thing for me, but its not worth having to replace batteries every time or trying to be super careful to prevent it from tripping on. Is there a way to disable the auto turn on feature?

[glenn bradley]

I had the first couple batteries die in what seemed like a short period. I have not had an issue since I started using Duracell or Energizer batteries. My DRO is going on nearly a year. I have yet to change the one I put in the fence I-don't-remember-when and the tilt box I replaced back in June (I only remember because it was during a birthday get together). Get good batteries and get happy.

[Greg Wittler]

In 6 years I have changed the battery twice in the Mitituyo calipers I use at work and I am always leaving it on.

Greg

[Peter Aeschliman]

same problems for me.

I have the angle gauge and the table saw digital read out. I went trhough all of the supplied batteries within one or two uses.

I just bought new batteries for them, so hopefully they hold up. Otherwise I guess I'll have to remove the batteries each time as well. weak!

[Ted Calver]

I think Ellen might have the answer. I ran through batteries in my digital calipers and angle gauges and started locking them down for storage. No problems so far.

[Bob Falk]

I had a problem with my Wixey router guage....wouldn't shut off....realized I wasn't holding the OFF/ON button long enough to totally shut it down....When I finally read the instructions, I realized I needed to depress the button least 6 seconds with this unit...may or may not be the same for other units.

[Bruce Wrenn]

All digital devices are always on (this is how memory works), only the display is off. My first set of HF digital calipers ate batteries. A couple years later I bought a second set, which didn't eat batteries. Mentioned it to HF store manager, and he said "Bring the old ones back." I reminded him that they were a couple years old. He said"You have a receipt for the exact same model that you just bought." Replacement ones didn't eat batteries. My Wixey , and Wixey potractor don't go through excessive batteries. I get my batteries from Dollar Tree, both AG-13, and CR-2032. AG-13, eight for a buck, CR-2032, three for a buck.

[Paul Ryan]

I have 2 sets of cheap digital calipers that don't eat batteries. But I have 2 wixey devices, and a digital miter guage. All 3 of those eat batteries for breakfest, lunch, and dinner. It is terrible. I do like other take the batteries out when they are not in use. I have been using panasonic batteries that were slightly used (long story). So that might have something to do with it. I just bought 10 maxell batteries off amazon for $4 so I will see how well those last.

[Mr. Jeff Smith]

All digital devices are always on (this is how memory works), only the display is off.

That is not correct. Earlier devices could use things like EEPROM's to store information, and today affordable Flash memory options enable the storing of information in a non-powered manner.

[Jerome Hanby]

That's not exactly true. There are several types of memory. In general, the non-volatile types will have a some life cycle in terms of data being written to memory, but it's usually high enough that it can be ignored. In devices that need to save their state, this type of memory can be used in the same fashion as a hard drive to store the required information. The memory that holds the actual code to operate the device is typically "burned" into a memory chip (ROM) or into memory that is actually part of the CPU (masked).

As for what these particular devices are doing, that's anyone's guess. If I were designing something as simple as a caliper, I'd use a masked CPU that had non-volatile on-board storage. Granted the amount of non-volatile memory on these devices is pretty limited, but what are you going to store? The last reading and the current scale (mm, decimal inches, fractional inches).

Thanks for the Dollar Tree tip. Never thought to look there. They are a little pricey at Batteries Plus. Cheaper at HF, but my HF is a little out of the way.


All digital devices are always on (this is how memory works), only the display is off. My first set of HF digital calipers ate batteries. A couple years later I bought a second set, which didn't eat batteries. Mentioned it to HF store manager, and he said "Bring the old ones back." I reminded him that they were a couple years old. He said"You have a receipt for the exact same model that you just bought." Replacement ones didn't eat batteries. My Wixey , and Wixey potractor don't go through excessive batteries. I get my batteries from Dollar Tree, both AG-13, and CR-2032. AG-13, eight for a buck, CR-2032, three for a buck.