Re: HP 41CV - battery usage Message #5 Posted by Tony Duell (UK) on 3 Oct 2001, 6:19 p.m., in response to message #1 by Joe Ferguson
Well, either you're doing something with the HP41 that consumes a lot of power, or there's an electrical leak in the machine.
For the former category, the card reader is known for eating batteries (so if you've been reading a lot of cards, expect a short battery life), and the wand takes a fair amount of current. Also, some modules (Time, Card Reader, IR Printer?) can draw a lot of current when first plugged in. It's best to turn the machine on and off again after inserting any plug-in
device -- firstly to make sure it's working properly and secondly to 'initialise' it so that it's turned off in the low power state, etc.
In the latter category, the leak could be in one of the memory chips (which are powered up all the time the batteries are connected, of course), but more likely it's one of the electrolytic capacitors. That's good because the capacitors are standard parts, the RAMs are HP custom. Open up the HP41 and check the capacitors for electrical leakage (or just replace them). In the older version with the separate logic board
the capacitors are on that board, and are the only aluminium electrolytics there. In the halfnut models, they're on the main PCB roughtly behind the 'alpha' key.
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