This week's EYE ON NPI is for those who need easy-to-maintain battery power for quick field maintenance - it's Bulgin's Battery Holders for Diverse Applications (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/b/bulgin/battery-holders-for-diverse-applications) a variety of battery enclosures and fixtures that will give your customers easy access to replace batteries no matter what size and configuration!

If your product is going to be portable, or if you want battery back-up for timekeeping/configuration/sleep-modes, then you're going to need primary or secondary battery cells built into the design. Secondary cells (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/filter/batteries-rechargeable-secondary/91) are fairly popular these days: those are rechargeable batteries like Li-Poly packs. These are lightweight and high energy-density, which is why you see them everywhere from EV cars (https://www.digikey.com/en/blog/safety-first-approach-to-ev-and-battery-storage) to your Bluetooth earbuds.

But they are not very user-friendly to replace, and if damaged can cause fires. They're also more challenging to ship by air due to restrictions on declarations and packaging of bare and with-equipment lithium cells. (https://www.ups.com/us/en/support/shipping-support/shipping-special-care-regulated-items/hazardous-materials-guide/how-to-ship-batteries) and for some field-use devices that may be used for long periods without being near a power outlet, being able to carry extra cells, for quick replacement, is a boon.

For those reasons, there's still lots of products that run on your standard-issue primary batteries (https://digikey.com/en/products/filter/batteries-non-rechargeable-primary/90) a.k.a. 1.5V AAA, AA, C, D and 9V batteries. Of course, these days lots of people also use rechargeable NiMH in the same package: they are lower voltage, only 1.3V instead of 1.5V nominal, and have about 30% less energy but can be recharged safely/externally very easily. You can buy them at any corner store anywhere in the world for a few dollars and they have low self-discharge rates so they can be stored for many years.

If you decide to go with standard-size batteries, you'll also need a way to hold them securely inside an enclosure. We like the look of these Bulgin battery holders (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/b/bulgin/battery-holders-for-diverse-applications) particularly the ones that mount to an enclosure wall and allow replacement without requiring a battery door that is custom molded. There's even options for IP67 hand-removable/replaceable covers for excellent waterproof-ness even in harsh environments while not sacrificing user-friendliness. On the inside of the enclosure you have solder lugs for easy attachment to your PCB by solder or spade connects. For many of the battery holders, a simple round drilled or punched hole is all that is needed.

For your next battery-powered designs, take a look at Bulgin battery holders (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/b/bulgin/battery-holders-for-diverse-applications) - DigiKey has dozens of options in stock for immediate shipment. Order today and you'll get any of the Bulgin varieties shipped immediately so you can power your prototype by tomorrow afternoon!