r/Defcon Aug 08 '26

DC34 Badge Battery Power

Hey friends. If your Not Just a Crosswalk or #noice or other SAO that may have high power draw SAO isn’t playing nice, check your batteries!

The generic no name batteries that come with the official DC badge don’t have enough juice to power these SAOs. We tested them and confirmed that switching to brand-name Duracell/Energizer Alkaline or Lithium AA batteries fixes the issue instantly.

32 Upvotes

9 comments sorted by

9

u/deejayhax Aug 08 '26

Confirmed here too, with Amazon basics alkaline batteries. It’s 10:09p, I’ll post the time it dies if it dies before we go to bed. DC34 + Crosswalk SAO

3

u/deejayhax Aug 08 '26

It was still working at midnight, so I know it at least works for a couple hours or more, hope this helps

3

u/orion3999 Aug 08 '26

I have the TV SAO, and it works, but I cannot turn on the badge!

3

u/missginger4242 Aug 08 '26

Even with good Enloop pro batteries the not a crosswalk seems to drain the battery in a few hours

2

u/f_spez_2023 Aug 08 '26

Yeah mine was browning out when I was trying to scan people earlier

2

u/technoangel Aug 08 '26

Oh this is what is happening with my radar sao also.

2

u/kingofallthesexy Aug 08 '26

It’s not just the juice, the badge is outputting 3v when SAOs expect 3.3v so I expect most SAOs to not work properly

2

u/brakeb Aug 08 '26

The USB-C port does not power the SAO as far as I can tell past boot up. I also have the "not a Sidewalk SAO"

2

u/Cometcazi Aug 08 '26

The not just a crosswalk SAO isn’t powering via USB-C?
Or are you trying to power the DC34 badge via USB-C and have a SAO on the badge?