wittenauer polara

[smokefrog]

my daily led watch (wittnauer polara with a hughes module) is showing signs of trouble, one of the digits is dim compared to the others, WTF?



does anyone have a tip / trick or is it dying?

thanks

gus

[LEDluvr]

Hi smokefrog,
basic question here - how old are the batteries? I've been horrified seveal times when one of my LED watches has started to act funny;
timekeeping suddenly off, some digits are very faint, etc. Just to find out that it was only the batteries draining down.
If you are using alkaline batts the intensity of the digits will dim down over time, giving you an indication that the battery is draining (cuz it is!).
But with silver oxides the display usually stays very bright, right up to the end and any 'anomolies' due to a low battery can seem to appear suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere.

[smokefrog]

thanks for the reply,

When i got the polara it had old Union Carbide batteries, which was a red flag, but when i installed new batteries it worked fine until i changed the batteries again many months later, I will admit that i have been using no name Chinese alkaline batteries.

later

gus

[LEDluvr]

I will admit that i have been using no name Chinese alkaline batteries.

That could very well be the culprit. Those no-namers don't last nearly as long as brand name battery, plus they can leak. I know cuz I've used some myself and caught the leak while it was early thus peventing a *disaster*.

Not sure where you live Gus, but I've noticed that Home Depot, Lowe's and Walmart sell Energizers and/or Maxell's in the LR44 aka 357 size in a 3 pack for $5.99. That breaks down to $2 each, not bad. And no S&H to pay like on the internet.

[smokefrog]

hello

I should have known to stay away from Chinese batteries, i will start to rotate name brand batteries into my growing collection, some times you cant resist when you can 20+ batteries for 5 bucks on the bay. I will give the module a cleaning for possible battery leakage.

Thanks for the reply

Gus from Shelby Twp. Mi (20 miles north of Detroit)