In article o.uk,
"Dave Liquorice" writes:
On Thu, 12 Jun 2014 23:49:52 +0000 (UTC), Andrew Gabriel wrote:

I must rescue it from the garage and "get at it". B-)

ISTR the circuit was embedded in a lump of silicone, or some such.

Wouldn't be surprised but just bunging in a schotty diode to stop the
leakage would be an improvement. I doubt it'll ever generate enough
umpf, even in direct sunlight, to damage a wet lead acid battery.

Don't know about current technology wet batteries, but charging them
really slowly use to cause the generation of large crystals on the
plates, which were much more prone to fall off (losing their storage
capacity), and build up a sediment at the bottom of the cell, where
they eventually short the plates out.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]