General > General Technical Chat
silly design, keyboard without power switch caused battery acid leakage
DiTBho:
Only this morning I realized the disaster that was silently happening under my nose, things you only realize when it's too late, and my keyboard is dead.
I forgot it in a corner of the lab, inside my locker, they batteries died, the acid leaked, electronic and plastic got corroded.
Easy story, my fault, just ...
... how can a portable AA3-battery-powered device be designed without a power on/off switch?!? how?!?
See, Texas Instruments made a serial - "full size keys for easy touch-typing keyboard, compatible with all variants of TI-83, TI-84, TI-89, TI-92 and Voyage 200 graphing calculators", but then there is no power on/off switch, so there is nothing to prevent acid-leakage with a not-rechargeable battery when not used for long time.
Lesson learned: *YOU* have to remove the batteries, always remove batteries!
Don't forget it. Never forget it. Acid is unforgiving :o :o :o
DiTBho:
madires:
Yep! If you use something rarely better remove the batteries. An alternative is to switch to NiMH cells.
tooki:
--- Quote from: DiTBho on April 20, 2022, 10:55:38 am ---Lesson learned: *YOU* have to remove the batteries, always remove batteries!
Don't forget it. Never forget it. Acid is unforgiving :o :o :o
--- End quote ---
Of course, the vast majority of AA batteries use no acids at all: they’re alkaline batteries, whose electrolyte is, well, alkaline. ;)
No less corrosive, of course, but requires exactly the opposite chemistry to neutralize when cleaning the corrosion.
Peabody:
Do we know that discharging an alkaline battery makes it more likely to leak? I've certainly had alkalines that leaked even though they were switched off. Is it being discharged, or is it just age? Isn't Dave in the middle of a muti-year experiment on this?
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