On Monday 31 October 2016 07:28:23 andy pugh wrote: > My little digital caliper is playing up. It could just be a low > battery, it has been flashing the LCD for at least a year. > (As an aside, why do they run normally for about a week then flash the > display for about a year?) > Anyway, moving the slider very slowly it goes from 0.3995" straight to > 1.200", then acts a bit random until it switches from 1,499 to a > (correct) 0.800" > Which surprised me, I had assumed that the basic units of the scale > were metric.
Digital calipers have been historically one of these things that does not turn off, only killing the display which is half the battery drain. In your case I would try a fresh battery, but if that doesn't help, its toast. I have had several that single bars of the display would get dim, and if you are into watchmaking you can occasionally figure out how to increase the pressure on the little looks like silicon rubber strip that connects the display to the pcb. And while I have done that to 2 or 3 of them, its generally a short term fix. That rubber has microscopic silver wires in it for a top to bottom connection without any sideways shorts, and it gradually collapses until the connection weakens & that bar fades from view. Engineering wise, the pcb's are so thin they need 8 to 12 screws to hold then properly, and I've yet to find one that had more than 4, one in each corner. I have found little lifetime difference between the $12 ones and the $80 ones, and have gotten to the point that they are a throwaway tool if the 2nd battery that comes with most of them does not restore it to 100%. My most recent purchase however does turn completely off and auto zero's itself where ever its at when turned on, or again if its closed. Nice crisp display, but I have become used to swiping the faces with a finger, and closing it before turning on in order to establish a clean face contact & a good zero. I think I've got 14 USD in it. Maybe 6 weeks back. So far my only squawk is that the stainless its made of is ferrous and magnetized, so its a bear to keep clean, and the auto turn off is way too fast, about a minute, so I am dependant on the auto zero when doing comparative readings a minute apart because by the time I have adjusted whatever I am measuring and ready to take a fresh measurement, I pick it up to recheck the measurement and its timed out and shut off. I'd be happier with about a 4x longer timeout. Sadly, they have become throwaway tools in the last 5 years. Cheers Andy, Gene Heskett -- "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author) Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Command Line: Reinvented for Modern Developers Did the resurgence of CLI tooling catch you by surprise? Reconnect with the command line and become more productive. Learn the new .NET and ASP.NET CLI. Get your free copy! http://sdm.link/telerik _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
