EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
Products => Test Equipment => Topic started by: Jwalling on June 30, 2021, 10:04:44 am
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Came to me from a customer for repair. No hope at all to repair this unit! The corrosion appears to have eaten through the PCB and the bottom sheet metal! Even the front panel is affected. This is the absolute worst case of Lithium battery leakage I've ever seen.
Got to love the name of the battery Crompton Eternal. :-DD
If you have one, it would be a very good idea to do some preventative maintenance ASAP.
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Wow! truly revolting. Do you have any idea how long that battery was left in that unit (may it rest in pieces) ?
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Lithium thionyl chloride cells cause serious corrosion because the electrolyte acts as a chloride ion donor (similar to hydrochloric acid). It is also toxic.
Mean time to destruction is about 20 years, although it can be worse in humid environments. One brand (Tadiran) has very few failures: they use a more robust construction.
Surprisingly, many devices damaged by these exploding cells have been recovered. The outer layer traces may be completely eaten but inner layer damage is less common.
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Do you know the presence of similar battery inside a Voltech PM100 ?
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Wow! truly revolting. Do you have any idea how long that battery was left in that unit (may it rest in pieces) ?
It is quite horrifying. When I first opened the unit and the battery fell out onto my bench, I jumped a bit as I didn't know what the hell it was!
I don't have any idea how old it is, but suspect it was the original battery from when it shipped. I see a date code of 9036 on one of the chips.
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Do you know the presence of similar battery inside a Voltech PM100 ?
I don't. But I'd check if I had one!
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Yes I totally understand that. In the first picture you posted that "thing" looked almost organic, like a caterpillar or some other weird creepy crawly. I would have jumped too. 30 years is a long time, probably the last 10 years in storage with no external power, so completely draining the battery. No wonder it looks like that.
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Do you know the presence of similar battery inside a Voltech PM100 ?
I don't. But I'd check if I had one!
Just opened my PM100 to check visually, please see attached picture of its PCB one face. No trace of any battery neither on its bottom which I've checked visually.
Albert
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Put that on eBay in "unknown condition" :-DD
Heck, I'd give it a try to fix it if you're anyway going to chuck it :)