Caliper Battery Saver

I do a lot of 3d designing and modeling. That being said, my pair of calipers have been one of my most essential tools. I use it daily, and one day, about a month into using a fresh battery, it died, so that left me wondering.

I did some research and found out that most digital calipers drain the button cell battery even when it is powered off.

Since then, I've taken out the battery and put it in only when I needed to use it, and this became really inconvenient. I started losing the battery or the cover to the battery in my messy work area, which was frustrating to find. I decided I needed to do something about it.

I stared at my calipers for weeks trying to find a solution, but they would all involve soldering irons, hot knives, etc. I wanted other people to be able to easily do it too, so those were out of the question.

It wasn't until I looked over the top and removed the smaller port (data output port) and saw that it had a direct hollow passageway to the battery itself. If I printed a sheet of plastic thin enough to get between the contact and the battery, it would completely disconnect the battery from any contact points.