Hi Dean,
A follow up question.
On this Vodavi DHS system there was a recent loss of power and the system did some
dumb stuff afterwards. I replaced the AA batteries in the Dispatch AA/VM since they were old, old, old.
Looking at the DHS I see there is a VARTA 3.6V 70mAH NiMH battery soldered to the board.
No big deal, so I went to the local Battery store and picked up a replacement battery.
Scheduled the time last week and made the trip to the site.
Removed the new battery from the plastic bag and notices some white dust on one end. Hmmmmm
I got my meter and it reads 1.845vdc. For a new battery that is to be 3.6vdc it would seem to me
that I have a purchased a dead battery.
Today I returned to the Battery store and express my frustration. The guy checks other batteries in the drawer.
They all read about the same 1.8vdc. Then he says "Did you try and charge it??" to which I say. "How do I do that??"
I am certainly not going disassemble the phone system to de-solder and battery to solder in a potential dead
battery just to see if it charges. Then he says that Federal Law mandates that batteries are required not to be
fully charged during shipping.
I had originally picked up a 3 pin but they had some two pins as well so I decided to swap for a two pin since
that is what is on the board.
Before I totally lost it, I just walked out.
I was thinking that just to see if it is a charging issue or not, that maybe if I took a couple of AA Duracell batteries
and connect in series and bump shock the NiMH that maybe it would make me feel more comfortable.
So I returned to my office with that in mind. So before I set up my jumper cables and actually zap this thing
I checked the voltage of this battery and it is reading 3.54vdc. WHAT?? Again I did not check the voltage of
this one before I walked out. But, the guy had checked all those that he took out of the drawer ( I thought) and
they were all at the 1.8vdc level.
Honestly, I rarely work with NiMH batteries. So I can't say what would be the correct voltage of a "new battery"
I would expect that not fully charged (which means amp capacity) not voltage, But at 3.54vdc makes more sense
than 1.8vdc.
Do you or anyone have any words of wisdom on this that you would like to share??
Thanks in advance.
Les