Standard Battery Cell Sizes

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Stan Disbrow
Posts: 601
Joined: Fri May 20, 2005 7:33 pm
Location: Raleigh, NC USA

Standard Battery Cell Sizes

Post by Stan Disbrow »

Hi,

Every so often we get to talking about cell sizes for battery packs. I figured I would post a link to a battery size chart:

http://www.powerstream.com/Size.htm

There are a lot of sizes. Generally, they start at AAAA and go to J. We all know the AAA, AA, C, & D sizes. Some might recall N as they were used in camera meters quite often. Almost no one knows the A cell, yet that size is *so* common inside battery packs. Most commonly the 2/3A.

You'll note that the letters go in order of the cell diameter. There is a standard length for each base letter, then they start sticking fractions in front of the letter as they wind up shorter or longer than the standard. ;)

Sometimes, there is a letter at the end that indicates the style. Like 'F' for Flat Top. As in a 2/3A cell with a flat top (not the usual dome top) would be called out as a 2/3AF. Other common suffix letters would be W for a weld-tab or S for a solder tab, etc.

You will see listings for 'prismatic' cells. Those are rectangular, not cylindrical. They make for a denser pack, but never seem to live as long as the others due to the corners.....

I got to thinking about this due to a query for what was in the Kodak NC2000E in the Kodak forum I saw today. I think that series used 5/4AA. By now y'all know that's a slightly longer variant of the AA. I can't recall if I ever posted this before, so here's a shiny new thread for it. :P

Enjoy!

Stan
Amateur Photographer
Professional Electronics Development Engineer
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