The issue is common and is why some batteries die. When batteries go down,
some will discharge faster than others. This means that in effect if the
device is capable of running on a lower voltage. all the current supplied by
the still good batteries will go through the discharged ones, backwards, in
effect reverse charging them. Depending on the technology of the battery, it
will either ruin them, or just hasten their final demise. Sadly I've never
found an answer to this series battery dilemma and I tend to try to batch
test them and move all the ones that discharge first into some device with
low current needs, and try to pair up matching ones. Its a pain but part of
life these days.
This is also why I hate chargers that charge batteries in series as well,
since this cooks some batteries while the others are still charging. Many
portable phones etc, do this for cheapness and I'm always finding them
clapped out and hot.
Brian
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This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...
Blind user, so no pictures please
Note this Signature is meaningless.!
"Andrew" wrote in message
...
Turned on the ancient Sony FM portable this AM and noticed
that the red tuning LED was not coming on even though the
signal seemed ok.
It runs on 4 rechargeables, currently a set of 2008 Eneloops
which were recharged about a week ago, but have only been in
use in the radio for couple of months (normally used in a Ricoh
Caplio camera)
Out of interest I took them out and measured the volts.
Out of the 4 batteries, two (inline) measured 1.29 volts
while the other two measured MINUS 0.094 volts !!??.
What's going on ?.
I put them back in the 7-day-shop intelligent charger and
they registered as empty on the LCD screen but after only
a minute they were reading 1.29 volts and after 15
minutes 1.34 volts by which time the lcd screen suggested
they were half charged.
What's going on ?. Is the charger at fault, or is the
radio causing this ?.
For some time I have noticed a strange, faint drum-beating
sound from the radio even when it is switched off.
Andrew