I was tinkering with a cheap universal remote control. Before spending a lot of time trying to program it I decided to test if the code memory was non-volatile.
Thinking that the four AAA cells would be connected in series, I pulled one of them out and waited. And waited... but the display (LCD) stayed on with the clock running. I found that the whole thing, including the LED back lighting was still working just fine.
A bit of investigation reveals that two of the AAAs are connected in series, and the other two AAAs are also connected in series, then the two sets of series connected cells are connected in parallel. Net result is that the remote can work with only two of the cells in place.
Opinion about parallel connected cells seems to range from "don't do it" to "no worries as long as the cells are matched". I tend to go along with the latter.
I have encountered devices where cells were not all in series, but this is the first thing I have seen with parallel connected cells. What I am wondering is, how common is it to use cells in this way? Andy Wood snipped-for-privacy@trap.ozemail.com.au