…CONTINUED

After that, reassembly was fine, it charged in an hour or so, and it worked better than ever the first couple of times I’ve used. Seriously better- I think the old batteries must have been so bad that even for the short time that they worked, the whole thing was under powered.

Yes this was tricky, but I’ve done stuff like this a bit, and so it was very satisfying to stick it to the man.

And yes, I believe manufacturers should pay a hefty fee for all the trash/pollution they create with such obsolescence. Pollution and natural resources are not priced correctly in our economic system, IMHO.

I tested some ordinary disposable AAA batteries that I had in hand and they fit, so I ordered the highest capacity, highest rated NiMH rechargeable AAA I could find on Amazon- “Synergy Digital Battery 1.2 Volt, 1000 mAh”. Everything worked just fine.

The trick, is the soldering, I think- all of these connections need to be as flat as possible to ensure that the battery pack will fit back in the enclosure. The battery is a big heat sink, so you need a fairly powerful soldering iron, but it’s electronics, so temperature control is important. Definitely use flux on both the battery faces and the wire leads, and pre-tin everything. Beyond that, use vices and 3^rd hand clips to hold everything in place, and use a spudger or small dental pick tool type thing to hold the lead in place and tight to the battery face while the solder sets.

CONTINUED…