At Xmas, I had more than a dozen of the Blue Blinkies under the eaves. Last year a guy at work gave me a bag full of used AA cells, more than 5 pounds, must’ve been well over a hundred. Some measured 1.3V, some measured less than a volt, and some leaked juice and I had to dispose of them. Using magnets, I stuck a dozen of the working AA cells on to JTs that use germanium transistors, so they’ll work at less than a half volt. They just sit there and glow, and when they wear down, usually on the weekends, I take off the really dead AAs and put on some more cells. So far I’ve got about half of them finally used up, as in really dead, and I’ll probably get done in another month or so. I could put them on the Blue Blinkies, but when I built the first Blue Blinky, I put it on a partly used AA cell, and it was dim but still blinking 21 months later. I figure that even if I put a dozen AA cells simultaneously on the Blue Blinkies, it’ll take me more than a dozen years to use up all those AA cells. So let’s get it over with somewhat quicker and just drain them dry with the germanium Joule Thiefs.
2013-01-22 Using Up Used Up AA Cells
