General > General Technical Chat
33 years old AA battery, still in good health
tooki:
Black blobs are unrelated to the IC technology and are still routinely used in remote controls and calculators.
AndyBeez:
The arrival of the LCD display was a quantum leap in power consumption. My first Texas calculator with its miniature red LED bubble display, needed new batteries every month; it was converted to 'power brick' operation just to save money. Then, my first LCD Casio needed new AAs when the display had faded out - which was once in whenever.
I have a battery&solar calculator c1987 that never did have the button cell replaced. A moot point as under artifical light, the postage stamp sized solar panel provides enough micro-watts to power the logic and display. I eventually removed the slightly tarnished cell after 30 years and it works perfectly in the light off the computer monitor. I suspect these calculators were only meant to last three years, before you bought a new one.
Given how few micro-watts - or less? - an LCD calculator consumes, having an AA cell still functioning decades later is no real surprise. The only surprise is the electrolyte played nice for that long. Your friend's calculator sure has its place in Silicon Heaven.
mcinque:
--- Quote ---Why did you peel off the battery?
--- End quote ---
I did it to see how the cell was sealed
--- Quote ---I've noticed many electronics from back then, when the remote controls and pocket calculators used to be a PCB black blob instead of a chip with soldered terminals, they tend to preserve very well the batteries.
--- End quote ---
chip on board it's done only because it's cheaper. the reason the battery last years is probably just that those devices draw few microamps.
--- Quote ---I wonder if such PCB-blob chips somehow acts as an energy harvester from the surrounding EM fields (unintended, only as a side effect of that technology), so they recharge the battery.
--- End quote ---
definitely not, you can exclude it.
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