@Paul Kallus posted:...
Stan: I can try to check the voltage and amperage...if I understand right when in the "off" position the reading should be < 1 uamp? Would there be an expected voltage when in the "off" position?
I do want reiterate that it appears the batteries are not being drained per se, but that they need to be brand new (>=1.5 volts DC) in order for the remote to power up.
If practical, can you measure the 4x battery voltage of the remote when OFF and when ON?
Example above shows the 4x batteries reading 6.0V.
For the SAME 4 batteries in two different remotes (the 'bad' one and a known-good one). What is the voltage measurement when the remote is "OFF" and when the remote has been turned "ON"?
Obviously the "OFF" measurements should be the same for same set of 4 batteries placed in either remote.
I only suggest this because I figure it only takes a few minutes to try. Ideally, I'd want to measure the current of the different remotes but cobbling together a current measuring widget as I described earlier can take more than a few minutes.
My suspicion is the 'bad' remote is drawing an unusually large amount of current though not clear under what circumstances it does so. And to be clear, when you refer to measured battery voltage is this with connected to a generic multimeter...or a multimeter with a Battery-Test mode that puts a LOAD on the battery when measuring voltage?
Addendum: by way of example, in above remote with power OFF the battery voltage measured 6.0V. Turning on the remote and waiting a few seconds for the screen to display version number, scan for TIU's, etc. and reach a "stable" screen the voltage dropped to 5.9V. Turning on the back light (B/L button) further dropped the voltage to 5.3V.
