Dec 05, 2022 Pageview:793
You must have heard about the coin cell batteries and you probably left in curiosity that what are coin cells? Don’t you think the word coin itself defines that we are talking about a cell or battery which is in the shape of a coin. To end your curiosity and put a full stop on it, we have gathered enough information regarding the coin cells that you will end up knowing almost everything about coin cell batteries.
Today in this article we will be providing you with the detailed information about coin cells, their battery voltage and their testing process. Follow the thread to know about the whole topic with authentic information. To start with we should know the answers to the following questions. The answer to these questions will help you in getting a clear picture about coin cell batteries. The questions are shortlisted with the help of a survey and the answers are written down under the guidance of experts. Stick with us till the end and learn about coin cell batteries.
What is a coin cell?
Coin cells batteries are one of the smallest batteries in the shape of a coin. These batteries are used for very small and low power projects. The batteries are cheap and very much affordable. You can easily buy them in bulk at once for your excessive use. These coin cells are best for testing LEDs. You will find these batteries in many equipment or gadgets like remote controls, electronic tea lights, fairy light controllers and in a lot more small devices. These cells are not rechargeable and thrown after use. There are a few coin cells available in the market which are either made from alkaline elements or lithium. The ones made with alkaline have a normal voltage of 1.5 V whereas lithium coin cells have a normal voltage of 3 V.
The coin cell batteries come in various sizes which are specially coded with different names to indicate their size and chemistry. The Alkaline cells have a prefix L whereas a Lithium cell has a prefix C. For example CR2032 is a lithium cell and LR1254 is an Alkaline cell. The coin cells are most effective for powering small microcontrollers or LEDs.
Coin Cell Battery Voltage Range
We have mentioned above that the voltage range of the coin cell battery varies with the type of element used in the production of the battery. Generally, a coin cell battery is made of two types of elements Alkaline and Lithium. The coin cells made from Alkaline element have a normal voltage range of 1.5V whereas, coin cells made from Lithium element have a nominal voltage range of 3 V. You can easily identify these cells by looking for the prefixes used to denote an alkaline or lithium battery. The alkaline cell has a prefix L and the lithium cell has a prefix C. You can easily identify the cell with the prefix written on them.
At what voltage is a coin battery dead?
Lithium batteries maintain a constant voltage during their work life and batteries like NiCd are the same. The most observant characteristics of these constant voltage batteries is that if they start to fall in the beginning then they eventually go down very fast. The moment the voltage drops off, the coin cell is dead. So in a Lithium coin cell at 2.8V, the battery is dead.
Whereas in Alkaline batteries, they start with 1.5 volts of energy and eventually the voltage of the battery goes down if the batteries are used very much. The moment the battery goes to 1.35 volts, the battery appears to be dead despite having left with a lot of juice in it. So you probably get to know the reason behind the battery discharge due to a specific voltage range.
How do you test a coin cell battery?
There are a few steps which can help you in testing a coin cell battery without even putting any effort. By following these easy steps you can easily test a coin cell.
Step 1: The moment you find that the device is not working properly or there are some interruptions caused then you just need to remove the battery from the device. Try to introspect to determine the battery voltage. There will be a voltage mentioned on the battery itself. The coin cell batteries are found to be in between 1.35 to 3 volts of voltages.
Step 2: Now keep a multimeter handy and set it. By setting it means checking whether its DCV scale is displaying voltage on it or not. Once done with the setting of the multimeter move for the next step.
Step 3: Now it’s time to determine the signs of the battery. The one end marked with ‘+’ is the positive side and the other end marked with ‘-’ sign is the negative end. Touch the red colour positive probe of the multimeter anywhere on the positive end of the battery.
Step 4: Now touch the negative probe which black in colour of the multimeter on the negative end of the battery which is opposite to the positive side of the battery.
Step 5: Note down the voltage displayed on the multimeter. If the voltage appeared on the multimeter is 10 percent less than the marked voltage on the battery, immediately replace the battery. The example for this is a 1.5 volt battery shows voltage of at least 1.35 volts and a 3 volt battery shows a voltage of at least 2.7 volts.
Conclusion
We are so sure that you would have found this article worthy and now you can easily test the coin cell. We have tried providing you with the best of the information and we have succeeded in it. Hope this article is of good help to you. Now you can easily differentiate between the types of coin cell batteries available in the market.
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