Hello all,

I'd like to hear from you some suggestions on what could be causing this behavior in my multimeter. As a background, its battery (standard 9V one) leaked inside it and this required me to cleanup the board with isopropyl alcohol. When I assembled it back, it appeared to be working properly, but in a minute I could notice that, when measuring voltages, it was slowly converging to a steady measured voltage (almost a minute) instead of reaching it in a few seconds.
A friend of mine told me this might be due to existent residue of the battery chemicals still on the board. He told me that this residue might be acting as a capacitor thus causing the symptom I described. It was also suggested that I should try cleaning up the board using those ultrasound cleaners.

Does this make sense? I tried searching for this on the web, but my keywords choices always end up giving a bunch of unrelated results. Can you suggest any link or paper on this?

I really appreciate any input. Thanks in advance.

Andrei

 

How good is your current battery? I associate slowness with a dying battery.

 

It is a brand new one.

 

It is a brand new one.

Well, that might mean it's good, but it's not a sure thing.

I'm not buying the self-made capacitor theory. Residual crud, yes maybe.

 

You say you cleaned circuit board. Did you clean the battery contacts with an eraser?

 

It is a brand new one.

Wouldn't be the first time someone bought a brand new dead battery.....................

 

Well, that might mean it's good, but it's not a sure thing.

I'm not buying the self-made capacitor theory. Residual crud, yes maybe.

I'd buy some kind of electro chemical effect if there's residual electrolyte contamination on the PCB.

There's no way capacitance could account for a lag of a few minutes.

 

Battery is ok.
Battery contacts cleaned.

I'll try the ultrasound cleaner and see what happens. Will let you know once I have any result.

Thanks.