Re: What type of Cells should I use in my zoomer?

William W. Turner (wturner@path.org)
Thu, 11 Jan 1996 09:09:10 -0800

At 08:36 AM 1/11/96 -0700, you wrote:
>I haven't had my zoomer very long and I just got my first power warning
>and I would like to know what should I replace the used cells with?
>Currently it has 3 duracell brand alkaline cells in it and I would like
>to know if it can use rechargeable cells or if i can just pop these in my
>alkaline cell recharger and use that without problems(leakage,explosion)
>or could I use Nicad cells or some of the others, What works best?
>
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>
I don't recommend rechargable batteries. Professional camera stores warn of
their use in cameras and I would apply that to many ELECTRONIC (not electric
like a tape player). The reason is that a AA cell is 1.5v while a
rechargeable is about 1.25, to compensate the device will draw more current.
This could damage your Zoomer over a period of time. Normally, you should
have about 90hours of use with a set of alkalines (longer if you use the
high energy lithium, radio shack has these and it's lasted from last August
for me and I use it at work everyday.)

The question is:
1) Did the batteries come in the unit, or did you install them?
The Zoomer will drain batteries even when not in use to keep
memory contents.
2) Do you have any PCMCIA cards installed that drawn large amounts
of current?
Flash Cards use large amounts of current for write
operations. Use SRAM for everyday use and FLASH cards for
backup. FLASH cards are basically a large flash EEPROM.
SRAM is static memory with a battery (replaceable) for
higher speed and low current use.

Try a new set of batteries, if they drain fast then also try changing the
CR3032 memory backup batteries (If these die, the Zoomer will drain the
others at an accelerated rate).

William W. Turner
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