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Tricks of the Trade - knowledge for every day life
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Kasper:
Hi Everyone, thought it'd be fun to share some tricks of the trade.  What random things have you learned about electronics that help in every day life?

I'll get it started with one about batteries.  I've only tested this with LTC (lithium thionyl chloride) and alkaline: if you agitate dead ones, you can get a bit more life out of them.  Found this by investigating funny results caused by moving batteries during a battery drain test on a home automation product. 

In every day life, I use this to test the TV remote when it stops working.  If tapping it 'fixes it' then it is time to change the batteries.  I also use this trick to delay changing the batteries.  If it stops working while eating dinner or being lazy then a few taps 'fixes it'.  I wonder how often this is the cause of electronics being 'fixed' (and eventually broken) by physical abuse.
fcb:
I heard that the BBC repair department had a category for repairs called CBI - stood for Cured By Impact.
Cerebus:
On the subject of batteries - temperature. Batteries hate the cold.

Some primary cells will seem to have run out completely in the cold even though they are relatively new, let them warm up and they still have all their life remaining. Although I knew this in theory I first discovered it in practice years ago trying to take astrophotographs on a cold, clear winters night. I left camera and lens to cool down to ambient to avoid heat haze appearing in the photographs from warm air coming off the lens. My [film] camera died completely despite having a set of batteries in it that were probably good for another year of almost daily use, just because the silver oxide battery got freezing cold.

Secondary cells - don't try to charge them when they are cold. They will accept much less charge when cold than when at room temperature. If you're using a cordless drill or similar out in the cold and the battery dies don't take it indoors and immediately charge it. Let it get up to room temperature first, then charge it. Especially applies to battery packs with a permanent low capacity lockout - like Makita ones, where if the battery fails to accept 'sufficient' charge three times the battery management chip permanently marks the battery 'bad' and disables it.
Kasper:

--- Quote from: fcb on October 28, 2020, 04:11:42 pm ---I heard that the BBC repair department had a category for repairs called CBI - stood for Cured By Impact.

--- End quote ---

'cured' seems like an exaggeration.  Maybe TIBI would be better: temporarily improved by impact. 
Kasper:

--- Quote from: Cerebus on October 28, 2020, 04:31:32 pm ---On the subject of batteries - temperature. Batteries hate the cold.

Some primary cells will seem to have run out completely in the cold even though they are relatively new, let them warm up and they still have all their life remaining. Although I knew this in theory I first discovered it in practice years ago trying to take astrophotographs on a cold, clear winters night. I left camera and lens to cool down to ambient to avoid heat haze appearing in the photographs from warm air coming off the lens. My [film] camera died completely despite having a set of batteries in it that were probably good for another year of almost daily use, just because the silver oxide battery got freezing cold.

Secondary cells - don't try to charge them when they are cold. They will accept much less charge when cold than when at room temperature. If you're using a cordless drill or similar out in the cold and the battery dies don't take it indoors and immediately charge it. Let it get up to room temperature first, then charge it. Especially applies to battery packs with a permanent low capacity lockout - like Makita ones, where if the battery fails to accept 'sufficient' charge three times the battery management chip permanently marks the battery 'bad' and disables it.

--- End quote ---

Nice tip about charging, I wonder if any of them consider the temperature before applying the lockout.

My last star-gazing attempt was for Perseid meteor shower this August.  First year in a while it wasn't smokey in August so we actually had a chance to see them.  Forecast said clear skies so we went camping.  It got cloudy at dusk and rained on us.
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