button batteries

[motwnbro]

we have around our house many cheap little toys that contain button batteries. they are not worth the price of new batteries. how would i go about adapting an aa or aaa battery? i have noticed the buttons can be 1.5 volts. the current in the buttons must be fractional compared to the aa,aaa.
thank you, martin.

[Chris Smith]

Just attach the leads the same. The current is like a bigger gas tank, it just lasts longer. <p>The exception is lithium batteries which are 3 volts. <p>Never solder leads to button batteries, they tend to explode! <p>Just solder leads to the AA batteries, and then to the toy. <p>Install a "plug" or "jack" to replace the batteries, keeping the solder jobs on the toy to only once.

[motwnbro]

thanks 4 responding. when i went home, i experimented on an old calculator that had one cell. as it turned out, i had 2 use 2 aa batteries 2 get it up and running. on a side note using 2 d cells over powered it and all the digits lit up. hence no no.s could b entered.<p>thanks again,<p>martin

[Chris Smith]

It sounds like the two small batteries were weak, low on voltage?

[jollyrgr]

On a side note; you can get a couple solar cells and run many items that normally take button cells. Most of the time ambient room light will supply enough power to run most button cell items such as hand held games, calculators, watches, mini clocks, etc. Although I would not power a clock with these as it would be reset when the lights are turned out. (There is at least one model clock that blanks the display in darkness. The solar cells charge a capacitor (battery???) to keep the time when the solar cells are not lit.)<p>If you want to "experiment" you can power many things listed above (including web servers) with potatoes, oranges, soda pop, or even ordinary plant soil. Take something like a potato and cut it in half. Take two iron nails (shined with iron wool, sand paper, or a file etc.) and shove one into each half of the potato. Leave about half an inch of the nail sticking out. Use a piece of stiff copper wire (solid #14 house wire is a good example) as a copper "nail" in each half of the potato. You should now have two potato halves with a copper wire and an iron nail in each half. Use hookup wire to connect the nail from one potato to the copper wire of the other to form a "series" of two batteries. Do not let the hookup wire at the iron nail side contact the potato, just the part of the nail sticking out of the potato. Connect your device to the remaining nail and copper wire. Use a volt meter (if you have one) to determine polarity. You can make digital clocks, calculators, and other microamp devices run off of a potato. The potato can be replaced with an orange, two small pots of flowers, two glasses of pop, etc.<p>Instead of copper wire and nails, you could use aluminum foil and older pennies. Slice the potato and place the flat part on a piece of aluminum foil with the end of the potator sticking up. In the other end of the potato, stick a penny. Use aligator (crocodile for those down under) clip leads to connect everything up. If two potato parts are not enough, keep adding them in series to you get the right voltage. Some clocks work just fine on two pieces, others need three or more.<p>And yes, I did say you could power a web server with potatoes. Go Here:
http://d116.com/spud/<p>This project is now over but it was a web server powered by potatoes!<p>[ September 12, 2002: Message edited by: Jolly Roger ]</p>

[Chris Smith]

Sounds like a place I worked at.... PP& E?<p>Potato Power and Electric company?