Lithium CR2032 - 3V Energizer

[Harvard]

My garage door opener uses ONE Lithium CR2032 3V coin sized cell.

It is obvious that the opener is a "smart" device but it has, of late, been intermittent. I measured the cell to be 3.08V which I thought would be OK...

BUT

A fresh cell measures 3.24V.

So, the question, how much capacity might a Lithium 3.08V have remaining when compared to the fresh cell at 3.24V ?

[NinerBikes]

those jpg files are a little skimpy in size on here to see what's going on at what frequency.

[SCVJeff]

I try.. 🙂 I have none in the garage. Don't remember if you were in the house but these are in the back room of the house and literally killed everything RF. My garage is 25+' away and it killed the opener Rx completely as well as the neighbors.

Each light now has 2 ferrite chokes on them and its knocked probably 30db off the RFI

Here is a shot of the fan remotes I use, and the garage door opener. This was captured with both remotes on top of the analyzer, inches from the antenna. Note that this is centered at 348MHz and 150MHz wide


Here is the same analyzer sitting on the coffee table, 8+' from the closest lamp.


Pretty obvious why nothing works. Ive seen worse in RV's

Now back to the battery...

[NinerBikes]

SCVJeff wrote:

MrWizard wrote:
Jeff
You should know
Fcc regs are all about commercial communication interference
Not about home remote control low power receivers
Which are intentionally less sensitive and short range (so almost any kind of rf can block them)

Cree certifies it won't internet with your tv or your cellphone

The claim they are Part.15 compliant. But regardless, they did what they did so I took the analyzer home and ran a bunch of tests from the coffee table, and another group of the same tests siting on the curb out front of the house, and you know how far that is..

I sent these pix to CREE and they ended up calling me with their engineering team as well as some folks in legal. They tried to run the call claiming they are 100% compliant and I must have other issues, until I mentioned sending those pix to my new field enforcement buddy at the FCC just to get his take on it all. The room got very quiet. In the end they sent me twice the number of lamps I originally bought that were just as bad, I sent the pix to the FCC, and took a trip to ALL for a bag of Ferrite coils.

Any of us here messing with LEDS are quite aware of the issues they can cause. I was just shocked that these commercially produced lamps were as sloppy as they were.

BTW- I'll see if I can find those again. You wont like what you see

Dude, you are a major sh*t stirrer. I haven't had problems with my Cree's yet, and they are all over the house, but I haven't installed one yet in my garage door opener. Maybe I should try a Phillips in there instead.

It will be very interesting watching this with FCC and how this plays out. I'm going to make a big batch of popcorn now, and subscribe to this thread. Your curiosity is killing you, Jeff.

Are you running the ferrite beads on the cords of all the appliances that are acting like antenna's of fussy rf devices? If so, are the ferrite beads working, stopping the rf interference? Model or size or specs of the ferrite beads?

What size, wattage and color are your "bad" lamps? You can text me instead, if you like.

[time2roll]

Lithium voltage does drop off a cliff when discharged.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

" the 3.24 and 3.08 you measured were with likely with virtually no load on the cell, since modern meters usually have a 10megohm input resistance. It is likely the 3.08 cell voltage is dropping noticeably under any load. the battery is close to dead most likely by 3.v"


Ooooooo KTMRFS took the letters right out of my fingers 🙂

[Harvard]

coolmom42 wrote:

Harvard wrote:
My garage door opener uses ONE Lithium CR2032 3V coin sized cell.

It is obvious that the opener is a "smart" device but it has, of late, been intermittent. I measured the cell to be 3.08V which I thought would be OK...

BUT

A fresh cell measures 3.24V.

So, the question, how much capacity might a Lithium 3.08V have remaining when compared to the fresh cell at 3.24V ?

The answer is... not enough to run your door remote. Just change it. Which you could already have done in the time you made this post.

I did change it BUT it is going to take a month of trouble free operation before I will know for sure. The thing is only used 2-3 times per week and it would go as long as a month between failures.

This unit has an activity LED that indicates when it is sending the RF signal. When it fails there is no activity.

[ktmrfs]

smkettner wrote:
I would replace the battery.
BTW if you changed the bulb in the opener to LED there is a good chance it interferes with the radio signal.

I have cree lamps in the opener along with around 40 cree lights in the house. I haven't seen any interference with any rf remotes.

Now they, along with even neighborhood devices with switching supplies does create RF interference in the AM and shortwave radio bands on my radios.

but then most of the RF transmitters are a much higher frequency than these.

[ktmrfs]

Harvard wrote:
My garage door opener uses ONE Lithium CR2032 3V coin sized cell.

It is obvious that the opener is a "smart" device but it has, of late, been intermittent. I measured the cell to be 3.08V which I thought would be OK...

BUT

A fresh cell measures 3.24V.

So, the question, how much capacity might a Lithium 3.08V have remaining when compared to the fresh cell at 3.24V ?

the 3.24 and 3.08 you measured were with likely with virtually no load on the cell, since modern meters usually have a 10megohm input resistance. It is likely the 3.08 cell voltage is dropping noticeably under any load. the battery is close to dead most likely by 3.v

[SCVJeff]

MrWizard wrote:
Jeff
You should know
Fcc regs are all about commercial communication interference
Not about home remote control low power receivers
Which are intentionally less sensitive and short range (so almost any kind of rf can block them)

Cree certifies it won't internet with your tv or your cellphone

The claim they are Part.15 compliant. But regardless, they did what they did so I took the analyzer home and ran a bunch of tests from the coffee table, and another group of the same tests siting on the curb out front of the house, and you know how far that is..

I sent these pix to CREE and they ended up calling me with their engineering team as well as some folks in legal. They tried to run the call claiming they are 100% compliant and I must have other issues, until I mentioned sending those pix to my new field enforcement buddy at the FCC just to get his take on it all. The room got very quiet. In the end they sent me twice the number of lamps I originally bought that were just as bad, I sent the pix to the FCC, and took a trip to ALL for a bag of Ferrite coils.

Any of us here messing with LEDS are quite aware of the issues they can cause. I was just shocked that these commercially produced lamps were as sloppy as they were.

BTW- I'll see if I can find those again. You wont like what you see

[coolmom42]

Harvard wrote:
My garage door opener uses ONE Lithium CR2032 3V coin sized cell.

It is obvious that the opener is a "smart" device but it has, of late, been intermittent. I measured the cell to be 3.08V which I thought would be OK...

BUT

A fresh cell measures 3.24V.

So, the question, how much capacity might a Lithium 3.08V have remaining when compared to the fresh cell at 3.24V ?

The answer is... not enough to run your door remote. Just change it. Which you could already have done in the time you made this post.

[time2roll]

http://www.geniecompany.com/garage-door-openers/accessories/led-light-bulb.aspx

[GordonThree]

Jeff did those bulbs bear the UL symbol, or some hack lab like Intertek?

[westend]

Your discharged cell may have enough capacity to recharge. Be cautious!

[MrWizard]

Jeff
You should know
Fcc regs are all about commercial communication interference
Not about home remote control low power receivers
Which are intentionally less sensitive and short range (so almost any kind of rf can block them)

Cree certifies it won't internet with your tv or your cellphone