14 Aug
2006
14 Aug
'06
10:44 p.m.
I have always
HATED the idea of a battery where one wasn't absolutely
needed. They have a nasty tendency to go south when you can least afford
it--and they can leak or explode.
That's why using a *regular* battery/cell instead of something
"designed for battery backup" (e.g., Li coin cells, etc.). Unless you can make a battery application last A VERY
LONG TIME
(not just a LONG time since those are the cases where you get
screwed because you have forgotten about the battery that
you replaced 1 or 2 years ago... *but*, if you replaced it
*10* years ago you don't mind -- as much -- when it dies
after that long of a service life) it will frustrate users.
Er, I don't think it's the longevity of the battery _power_ which is at
issue here; it's the physical longevity of the battery itself.
I have mini-Maglites in my toolkit - three of 'em, and they all get use; I
work in the dark a great deal, but that's another story * - and recently
had the unpleasant surprise of having one of the "regular" batteries
corrode and die (and the batteries had been replaced less than a month
earlier). This did an _astonishingly_ effective job of destroying the
interior of the Maglite as well, the acids eating away the Maglite's
shell in a way I literally didn't think was possible. Defective battery?
Some other problem? We may never know.
Whatever the cause, I'd hate to even _contemplate_ the idea of that
possibly happening right next to a DEC backplane.
-O.-
* - http://flyingmoose.org/stage/