This is totally weird. Another AAC user and I have been corresponding on a different subject. Meanwhile I mentioned that I had a few coin batteries (2032) that I can't use in my remote garage door opener buttons. Wanting to toss them into a bucket along with other useless batteries I decided I wanted to fully deplete them (kill them) before tossing them into a bucket. The potential for shorts and fire were my concerns.
I took a couple white super bright LED's (3.2 forward volt) and simply slipped them over the batteries. That was Wednesday, November 23rd. I didn't think it through because I didn't expect them to last this long. At this very moment they are still lit. One has grown visibly dimmer than the rest, and only recently did I start checking the voltage of the batteries.
Lets call them BL1, BL2 & BL3. Yesterday I measured and recorded the voltage for the first time (recording the numbers). BL1 had a voltage of 2.564, BL2 had a voltage of 2.611 & BL3 had a voltage of 2.614. These voltages were measured WITH the LED's connected and glowing. A week ago I tested the batteries to see what would happen if I connected a motor in parallel (small DVD spin motor) and all three tests spun the motor but only BL1 went almost completely out. It continued to glow but barely, hardly discernible. 2 & 3 ran the motor with little dimming. At present there isn't enough power in any of the BL's to spin the motor, so the batteries ARE draining.
What I am most curious about is why are these batteries NOT burning up my LED's? They've been operating for a week and a half at present. Continuous, non-stop luminous output. Keep in mind I do not have any current limiting resistance on the batteries at all. If I were to connect an LED to a double A battery I would expect to burn out the LED, so the coin batteries must not be capable of delivering very much current.
If you have ANY insight as to why these batteries are able to drive an LED for this long even after their useful life has been spent, please share. I'm almost tempted to take a new coin battery and do a full charting of the voltage and current and track them over time just to see how long the LED will continue to burn. However, I don't think I want to perform an experiment that may take months to complete.
FYI, for Halloween I took a gourd that looked like a snake and put two tiny red LED's in it for eyes. Stuffed a 9V battery and a current limiting resistor on each to make sure not to blow them out. Come evening time I turned it on. By the end of the evening the LED's were still glowing but barely. I suppose I may have used a weak battery to begin with, but given the size of the battery and the test that is under way on my work bench, I would have expected the 9V battery to have lived much longer. Now I'm thinking that next year I'll use coin batteries and set the gourd out there all week - day and night. If weak, near death batteries can last this long then why not sitting in a pumpkin or other gourd for days on end?!
Your thoughts?
RECAP:
……..Yesterday….Today
BL1….2.564v…...2.556v (V drop 0.008)
BL2….2.611v…...2.602v (V drop 0.009)
BL3….2.614v…...2.615v (V increase 0.001) ? ? ? ? ?
I took a couple white super bright LED's (3.2 forward volt) and simply slipped them over the batteries. That was Wednesday, November 23rd. I didn't think it through because I didn't expect them to last this long. At this very moment they are still lit. One has grown visibly dimmer than the rest, and only recently did I start checking the voltage of the batteries.
Lets call them BL1, BL2 & BL3. Yesterday I measured and recorded the voltage for the first time (recording the numbers). BL1 had a voltage of 2.564, BL2 had a voltage of 2.611 & BL3 had a voltage of 2.614. These voltages were measured WITH the LED's connected and glowing. A week ago I tested the batteries to see what would happen if I connected a motor in parallel (small DVD spin motor) and all three tests spun the motor but only BL1 went almost completely out. It continued to glow but barely, hardly discernible. 2 & 3 ran the motor with little dimming. At present there isn't enough power in any of the BL's to spin the motor, so the batteries ARE draining.
What I am most curious about is why are these batteries NOT burning up my LED's? They've been operating for a week and a half at present. Continuous, non-stop luminous output. Keep in mind I do not have any current limiting resistance on the batteries at all. If I were to connect an LED to a double A battery I would expect to burn out the LED, so the coin batteries must not be capable of delivering very much current.
If you have ANY insight as to why these batteries are able to drive an LED for this long even after their useful life has been spent, please share. I'm almost tempted to take a new coin battery and do a full charting of the voltage and current and track them over time just to see how long the LED will continue to burn. However, I don't think I want to perform an experiment that may take months to complete.
FYI, for Halloween I took a gourd that looked like a snake and put two tiny red LED's in it for eyes. Stuffed a 9V battery and a current limiting resistor on each to make sure not to blow them out. Come evening time I turned it on. By the end of the evening the LED's were still glowing but barely. I suppose I may have used a weak battery to begin with, but given the size of the battery and the test that is under way on my work bench, I would have expected the 9V battery to have lived much longer. Now I'm thinking that next year I'll use coin batteries and set the gourd out there all week - day and night. If weak, near death batteries can last this long then why not sitting in a pumpkin or other gourd for days on end?!
Your thoughts?
RECAP:
……..Yesterday….Today
BL1….2.564v…...2.556v (V drop 0.008)
BL2….2.611v…...2.602v (V drop 0.009)
BL3….2.614v…...2.615v (V increase 0.001) ? ? ? ? ?
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