"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
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Steve wrote:
"Graham." wrote in message
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"Steve" wrote in message
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We have a solar powered alarm clock which automatically synchronises
with the terrestrial time signal. The clock is marked 'PRECISION',
'SOLAR POWER' and 'RADIO CONTROLLED'.

The display became faint and eventually it stopped working. I took a
look inside. There was an unmarked AA size battery (leaking blue liquid
which I cleaned up). I measured the battery's voltage which was 1.6V,
well above that of a normal rechargeable (1.2V?).

I presume the battery is the source of the problem. I tried replacing
the battery with both rechargeable and non-reachargeable AA ones, but
the unit still didn't work.

I suspect that the original battery was much more than 1.6V - maybe 3V?
But I can't find any references to
rechargeable AA-sized 3V batteries. Can anyone suggest where to get a
replacement battery (or other ideas)?

Cheers.
Any sign of damage to the PCB from the leaking electrolyte?

I think you are reading too much into the 1.5 terminal voltage with no
load.

--
Graham.

%Profound_observation%

Thanks for replying Graham. There's no damage to the PCB. Also, I've
never seen a rechargeable with 1.5V (even under no load); the battery (I
should say 'cell' really) is the most likely cause of the problem. I may
risk conecting a couple of 'normal' AAs in series and see what happens.

Cheers
plenty of batteries of the non rechargeable sort have 3v voltage..LIPO are
about 3.7 in the rechargeable arena, and LiFePo are about 3.3.

But I don't think any 3.3v rechargeables come in AAA format.

More likely the whole unit is a con, and its a non rechargeable battery
that is actually being slightly recharged by the solar power.

However I am puzzled: for reasons of cmapitbility, most AAA cells are of
similar voltage.

Triple A? Would you care to borrow my glasses?
--
Tinkerer