Unexplained phenomenon? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Connecteur
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 15, 2019, 04:51:15 am
content: Back in the 80s, I had an electronic phone book with a tone-dialer. It had the size and appearance of a small calculator ( I believe it had that function as well). One day much to my chagrin, I discovered I had put it through the wash. I turned it on, and it worked exactly once. It was never to turn on again. I tried a variety of things, including soaking it in alcohol, but nothing worked. It was dead for all time.I owned one of the first Sony Discman CD players to enter the market back in '87. It had a lead-acid gel-cell battery pack, and after a dew years, I discovered that the battery had gone completely dead. I put it on the charger for a long time, and eventually it took a charge, and I ran it on the battery to give it a test. It ran for a surprisingly long time, several hours, and more than the hour or two it originally had when it was new. But that was it. It never worked again on the battery, no matter what I tried to rejuvenate it.An electronic module on my Ford Tempo failed once when I was on the road. I stopped, and disconnected the power, hooked it up again, and it worked one time, allowing me to get home. It never worked again.It's a recurring pattern; whenever something electronic fails, I can usually get it to work one time, before it goes dead for all time. Has anyone else noticed this strange phenomenon?

author: helius
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 15, 2019, 05:05:45 am
content: Not surprising for anything with battery leakage. The leaking electrolyte at first is not concentrated to totally eat away traces, but when energy is applied by turning on the device, eats through the rest of the way.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 15, 2019, 05:07:18 am
content: Quote from: Connecteur on July 15, 2019, 04:51:15 amI've had the same experience with batteries (of all different chemistries), mainly with phone and video camera battery packs. Exactly as you stated, after being in storage for many years, they appear to start working again, only to fail completely after a charge/discharge cycle or two.

author: GlennSprigg
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 15, 2019, 12:28:49 pm
content: 'I' always had problems years ago, playing with various 'CMOS' vs 'TTL' circuitry devices.As you would/may know, 'CMOS", (Composite Metal Oxide Semiconductor) technology is 'newer', but has It'sdraw-backs & positives. They USUALLY work between say 3v to 15/18v, draw 'very' little current, but are 'very'susceptible to damage by 'spikes'. The old 'TTL' (Transistor Transistor Logic) technology, was basically limitedto around 5-V, and drew a 'fair' amount of current, but was pretty much 'impervious' to Spikes !!!With TTL, you had better have a good power supply, and that was often the failing!!You need to delve deeper into WHAT had finally 'failed'.You may be surprised !!

author: NiHaoMike
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 15, 2019, 10:05:57 pm
content: I used to have a cryptocurrency mining cluster built from cheap smartphones, as in those $5-10 Best Buy specials. They would generally last 6 months to one year in such service (plenty long for them to pay for themselves, at least back then) and the usual failure mode is the device going flaky. In many cases, doing a factory reset will allow it to work again for a few more months, but once it fails again, it is unrecoverable. The main exception to the pattern were the $20 Moto Es - they have mined Rewardable/Squirrelcoin close to 24/7 for about 2.5 years before I retired them due to the difficulty rising high enough to make them not worth running.

author: Cubdriver
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 16, 2019, 07:41:05 am
content: Quote from: GlennSprigg on July 15, 2019, 12:28:49 pmApologies for being pedantic, but to hopefully prevent confusion CMOS isComplementaryMetal Oxide Semiconductor, meaning the device uses both P and N type transistors, as opposed to the earlier PMOS and NMOS technologies which only used one or the other.-Pat

author: GlennSprigg
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 17, 2019, 10:58:39 am
content: Quote from: Cubdriver on July 16, 2019, 07:41:05 amOOPS!! You are perfectly correct!!I'm aware of that now that you mention it, & I have no idea why I said 'Composite' ?I might have had in the back of my mind..."Metal oxide composite electrode materials for electrochemical capacitors" I read once...Still need to watch those old TTL power-supplies... Just .5v can make a difference !!