MetalworkingFun Forum

if your digital electronic calipers flicker, you bought the wrong (cheap) ones. I also have two of the Mitutoyo 500 196 series Digimatic Absolute, and they are the best I've used. I also have Starrett digital electronic tools, but they are battery hogs. Worse, it seems every other time I use them and replace the batteries, they then need repair and Starrett says they're "obsolete" and no longer has any parts for them. This includes a like-new 6" No.121 caliper, a 6" No.754 depth gauge, a 9" No.123 caliper and a No.734 0-1" micrometer. All now expensive paperweights. Meanwhile, the batteries in my Mitutoyo tools are all over 5 years old and still work fine. That includes the two 6" calipers, a 0-1" 293-344 and a 1-2" 293-331 micrometers.

Mitutoyo has earned all my business for digital electronic tools.

I just decided to find a cheap supplier of LR44 batteries but you have to be sure that they have a good throughput or else the batteries will be DOA when you open them.
I buy 5 at a time from "Toolstation" here in the UK they are about 77p each and after using thirty plus I've not had a bad one so the through put must be OK.
Regards
Rick