I have a electronic safe and the low battery light flashed so I bought 4
Duracell AAs for it.

I accidentally put all 4 in the same way instead of one row in one dirction
and the other opposite ( The originals had gold bands at both ends and I
was working in the gloom with my varifocals at a bad angle)

Within about half a minute when it appeared dead I realised my mistake.

Will I have seriously shortened the life of the batteries with this
mistake? If so, I will change them again.

DerbyBorn wrote:
I have a electronic safe and the low battery light flashed so I bought 4
Duracell AAs for it.

I accidentally put all 4 in the same way instead of one row in one dirction
and the other opposite ( The originals had gold bands at both ends and I
was working in the gloom with my varifocals at a bad angle)

Within about half a minute when it appeared dead I realised my mistake.

Will I have seriously shortened the life of the batteries with this
mistake? If so, I will change them again.

I doubt if you've done any harm at all. I'd *guess* that the four
batteries should be in series to provide 6 volts or so. Putting all
four in the same way will have produced zero volts, no current flows
so no harm done.

I am a *little* confused by you saying "one row in one dirction and
the other opposite" though. How are the batteries arranged? Is it
'two and two' so what you have called 'one row' is a pair of cells?


--
Chris Green
·

In article 2,
DerbyBorn writes:
I have a electronic safe and the low battery light flashed so I bought 4
Duracell AAs for it.

I accidentally put all 4 in the same way instead of one row in one dirction
and the other opposite ( The originals had gold bands at both ends and I
was working in the gloom with my varifocals at a bad angle)

Within about half a minute when it appeared dead I realised my mistake.

Will I have seriously shortened the life of the batteries with this
mistake? If so, I will change them again.

No - their voltages will have canceled out and no current flowed.

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

On Wed, 31 Aug 2016 15:46:33 +0100, Chris Green wrote:

DerbyBorn wrote:
I have a electronic safe and the low battery light flashed so I bought 4
Duracell AAs for it.

I accidentally put all 4 in the same way instead of one row in one dirction
and the other opposite ( The originals had gold bands at both ends and I
was working in the gloom with my varifocals at a bad angle)

Within about half a minute when it appeared dead I realised my mistake.

Will I have seriously shortened the life of the batteries with this
mistake? If so, I will change them again.

I doubt if you've done any harm at all. I'd *guess* that the four
batteries should be in series to provide 6 volts or so. Putting all
four in the same way will have produced zero volts, no current flows
so no harm done.

Agreed. Only all of them backwards might cause problems, but often the contacts only work on positive sticky out ends anyway.

I am a *little* confused by you saying "one row in one dirction and
the other opposite" though. How are the batteries arranged? Is it
'two and two' so what you have called 'one row' is a pair of cells?

I assume it's 4 in series, folded round in half. A common system, one end is just a connection between the two battery ends, the other ends lead to the load.

--
If trains stop at train stations, what happens at workstations?

I assume it's 4 in series, folded round in half. A common system, one
end is just a connection between the two battery ends, the other ends
lead to the load.


Yes - that is how I now understand it.

On Wednesday, August 31, 2016 at 3:30:54 PM UTC+1, DerbyBorn wrote:
I have a electronic safe and the low battery light flashed so I bought 4
Duracell AAs for it.

I accidentally put all 4 in the same way instead of one row in one dirction
n.

On 31/08/2016 15:30, DerbyBorn wrote:
I have a electronic safe and the low battery light flashed so I bought 4
Duracell AAs for it.

I accidentally put all 4 in the same way instead of one row in one dirction
and the other opposite ( The originals had gold bands at both ends and I
was working in the gloom with my varifocals at a bad angle)

Within about half a minute when it appeared dead I realised my mistake.

Will I have seriously shortened the life of the batteries with this
mistake?

No.

Normally all four would be connected in series to provide a 6V supply.
by reversing 2, you create a circuit where close to zero current will
flow, and so you will draw little or no energy from the cells.

If so, I will change them again.




--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

Probably not, it really depends on how equal they were in the first place
I'd imagine. Strange battery holder that allows batteries to connect in the
opposite way aroundnd at all, There is normally a small soulder on the plus
end of the compartment to keep the negative end from contacting the contact
itself.
Brian
Brian Gaff -

Blind user, so no pictures please!

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----- Original Message -----
From: "DerbyBorn"
Newsgroups: uk.d-i-y
Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2016 3:30 PM
Subject: Battery polarity mistake


I have a electronic safe and the low battery light flashed so I bought 4
Duracell AAs for it.

I accidentally put all 4 in the same way instead of one row in one
dirction
and the other opposite ( The originals had gold bands at both ends and I
was working in the gloom with my varifocals at a bad angle)

Within about half a minute when it appeared dead I realised my mistake.

Will I have seriously shortened the life of the batteries with this
mistake? If so, I will change them again.



--
----- -
This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...

Blind user, so no pictures please!
"DerbyBorn" wrote in message
.222...


I assume it's 4 in series, folded round in half. A common system, one
end is just a connection between the two battery ends, the other ends
lead to the load.


Yes - that is how I now understand it.

Brian - It was difficult to fit them! I realise now that there was a spring
at the end where I had pushed a positive. It was due to me working in the
gloom of the bottom of my wardrobe and making wrong assumptions about the
gold band on the old batteries.

On reflection, I can't believe I did it wrong as I thought it was a bit
unusual to have all 4 facing the same way. Two pairs in series.

all okay now though - thanks.