OT: Unexpected, but maybe should have expected

Unexpected, but maybe should have expected...

Wife brings a digital kitchen timer into my office... "it stopped working".

Changed battery... nada.

On a lark, don't know why I thought of it, removed battery from holder, took a clip-lead and shorted battery holder.

Re-inserted battery... voila, it's back working. ...Jim Thompson

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| James E.Thompson                                 |    mens     | 
| Analog Innovations                               |     et      | 
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Reply to
Jim Thompson
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You won't see this post, but devices with small lithium cells (CRxxxx) often have enough capacitance on the board to allow you to change batteries without losing settings or presets in NVRAM. Putting the cell in backwards will short the DC bus and allow a device that has crashed to reboot.

Reply to
Ralph Barone

...does that mean i have to UNWIND the spring on my timer first?

Reply to
Robert Baer

I remember a couple of things related to that.

One is when the data seem to be scrambled in something and you unplug it an d remove any backup batteries it might have, try to turn it on. That should assure a discharge and a real hard reset.

Also on a programmable remote, I mean the kind that learns from the origina l, when you change the batteries DO NOT hit any of the buttons or it loses all its data.

Another tie it applies is with some cars, if you disconnect the battery to reset the computer, turn on the headlights. They won't light up but they wi ll definitely discharge every capacitor in there.

Lately at work I have had to be reflashing a bunch of EEPROMs. Know what ? Those units have a mechanical power switch and I think people are turning t hem off at the wrong time. Like changing user setting and not waiting long enough for the write cycle to end. But there's no accounting for brains aro und the general populace, some have trouble changing the toilet paper roll, let alone a car tire. However, over the millenia it seems the have learned to discern one from the other, at least most of them.

Reply to
jurb6006

I think your spring is already unwound >:-} ...Jim Thompson

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| James E.Thompson                                 |    mens     | 
| Analog Innovations                               |     et      | 
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Reply to
Jim Thompson

You disabled Windows updates & missed downloading critical security patch Timer24.01.27a. That, or it got a virus (other than Windows updates). That's why we need the IoT.

(Be glad you didn't get the BSOD.)

Cheers, James Arthur

Reply to
dagmargoodboat

It's the bypass cap.

This ("it stopped working") is one of the many reasons why the timers I use are generally very simple. Ideally of the wind-up type, sometimes a simple analog clock. Some fancy electronic timer going blinky-blink during a brew session can mess up the whole hop schedule and in consequence could spoil a batch you already have an hour and money invested into.

My wife wanted an electronic timer for the kitchen which does need TLC once in a while and has a rather dim LCD. So I inherited her old timer and that never needs service. It simply works:

formatting link

Tic-toc-tic-toc ... BRRRRRRRRINGGGGG

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http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg

Bwahahahahaha! ROTFLMAO >:-} ...Jim Thompson

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| James E.Thompson                                 |    mens     | 
| Analog Innovations                               |     et      | 
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Reply to
Jim Thompson

CMOS can hold internal states down to amazingly low voltages. I had fun once investigating a 74HC161 design, it would consistently hold the count value down to Vdd of 40-50mV and even lower if the count value was terminal count.

piglet

Reply to
piglet

Yumpin' yimminy...a yoke, son.

Reply to
Robert Baer

once investigating a 74HC161 design, it would consistently hold >the count value down to Vdd of 40-50mV and even lower if the count >value was termina l count. "

After coming out of the air force as a RADAR specialist, my Uncle became a tech specialist at Big Blue. He told me that they had developed a self powe red IC. This was well over three decades ago.

That's almost scary, something you can't turn off. Like that one Star Trek episode, or the Terminator movies.

Now we have EPROMs and EEPROMS and such, code embedded into ROM in micropro cessors. With some thought you might be able to wreak some havoc with shit like that. And what about IBM's Watson. We have to eat, it has to charge, b ut fit it with a few weapons or something and you might have a problem on y our hands.

This shit might really get out of hand. Just hope it is not within our life times. Look how much scifi has already come true. Today's smart phones are better than anything Star Trek ever imagined. Cars are starting to drive th emselves. They have the storage to collect every phone call and email in th e world, and I mean the world, Merkel bitched about it but they shut her up . Anybody but Clinton, yeah right, even though those emails went over the i nternet they don't have them at the NSA. BULLSHIT.

I am glad to be old.

Reply to
jurb6006

???

just open the door, the dome light has lower resistance than the headlight relay.

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Reply to
Jasen Betts

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