Hello everyone,
I’m not sure why I’m struggling so hard with this. I need a way to make or buy a 2s2p aa battery pack holder. similar to what everyone sees in toys, tools, etc. Ideally it’d have a 6 in wire length presenting the 3V output. I’m not against making one ourselves within our custom enclosure, but I can’t even find the longer piece to bridge all 4 batteries [ m, m, f, f ].
Additional detail is that the batteries all need to be the same height i.e. not the 2x2 configurations, it needs to be the 4x1 configuration where all of the batteries are aligned according to their diameter rather than their length.
How do I go about searching digikey for this or where can I purchase this? We’ll need to be making these in bulk ( usually 10,000 at a time )
Hi @swym_staff ,
Thanks for your inquiry. Unfortunately, I’m not sure any battery holder offers parallel battery configurations. All the ones I’ve seen are a series connection. If an application needs more capacity, then either the cell size would increase, use of a different chemistry battery such as lithium, or something custom would most likely have to be built. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to locate any long battery connection tabs or busbars either for use in a custom assembly. Someone else may comment on this post with further information.
Please let us know if you have any further questions.
Regards,
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Thanks Ryan,
I was seeing the same as you with everything being in series. I think it’s just cheaper to manufacture like that. I think I’m going to get stuck making a PCB that has the individual connectors in the correct configuration or by joining 2 2s battery packs together in parallel
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Actually it’s for a couple of historical reasons.
The first was practical, other than the last decade, almost no circuits would operate efficiently with less than 3 volts power.
The other is that some battery chemistries, especially older zinc carbon types, would overheat and leak badly due to the higher voltage battery attempting to charge the lower voltage battery.
These reasons are also why the industry standardized on a range of lettered sizes (AAA, AA, C, D) to choose from for the amount of current your circuit needs a very long time ago. So the traditional design flow was choose the size based on current requirement, choose the number of cells based on the voltage desired.
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Hi swym_staff,
We do have the capability of making custom battery packs, so we might be able to produce what you need. Please take a look at the following link for how to inquire further about this:
Custom Battery Packs - Power / Battery Products - Electronic Component and Engineering Solution Forum - TechForum │ Digi-Key (digikey.com)
One other possibility: we do sell some battery holders from Keystone Electronics which have isolated solder tabs for each cell, which allows one to wire in any fashion they choose. Here are a couple of options:
36-182-ND
36-2182-ND 
Additionally, they also have the capability to make customized holders. Perhaps they could work with you for a solution.
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