I'm thinking of using a coin cell battery retainer on an upcoming project. The target application will be in a medium-to-high vibration environment with around 1-2 years between battery changes. Unit will be in a dust-tight enclosure.
The retainer in question is MPD BK-5033. I'm concerned with maintaining good battery contact, as it powers a uC storing values in RAM. The application is very, very low power, and there are some capacitors to prevent millisecond length glitches. What bothers me is the idea of creating a pad on the PCB that has to maintain contact with the battery terminal.
If anyone has experience with this type of battery holder, I would love to hear any pointers.
Best Answer
For environments where vibration is a concern, it is better to use through-hole coin-cell retainers rather than surface-mount. The surface-mount retainers tend to produce dry solder issues over time when subjected to constant vibration.
We had used one retainer for a similar application few years back. The part number was 1025-7 from Keystone Electronics. It would be better to top it off with a thin layer of RTV just to ensure that it doesn't fall off during vibration.