Just to follow up, inspired by your suggestion I flattened the battery
and charged for 18hrs. It works fine now. Thanks for your help.

On Sun, 30 Apr 2006 06:44:59 GMT, ray lunder wrote:

On Fri, 28 Apr 2006 10:51:03 +0000 (UTC), (Geoffrey
S. Mendelson) wrote:

ray lunder wrote:

(works for a few seconds and stops)

Right, but I get the same result from running it on a bench supply.

Where? The DC in jack may be only for a charger. In order to pass
saftey regulations, the current may be limited on the DC in jack.

I removed the battery and hooked jumpers from the supply to the
battery contacts so there's no battery involved for the test.

This would prevent the radio from "blowing up" if water got into the
DC in jack and the batteries discharged through the radio very quickly.

For example, I once discussed the subject with the product manager of
a handheld GPS unit. I suggested that they make sure the battery charging
contacts where current limited so that shorting them would not cause damage
to the user or the battery. He had never heard of such things.

I was involved with the design of a handheld gaming device. We had
specificly designed it so that if the battery on the unit or a spare
in your pocket got wet or contacted keys or loose change, nothing bad
would happen.
Good idea.

I think it is safe to assume that while not everyone does this, some
companies do.

Geoff.
Thanks.