Buying older crank based power meters?

I know very little of the inner workings of these roCkeT sCiencE gadgets. A roadie pal is looking at a couple of different older crank based PM’s on eBay and one locally. The local could be a good 5-6 year old wired SRM.

Is it just a matter of battery swaps and they go indefinitely? What should he be leery of, aware of and the like?

Thanks ST