OK, so this isn't an arcade voltage question but I'm not sure there is a section for a question like this.
I have a battery powered fan. It takes 8 D cell batteries.
Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn't. I've tested all of the batteries before I put them in the fan and they were all right around 1.57v -- they are old batteries but had never been used.
At first I thought it was a battery seating issue but taking them out and reseating them fixed it once and didn't other times. When I probed the "ends" of the line of batteries when the fan was running I'd get the voltage I'd expect for it to work.
I was probing 3 of them in a line and it was showing ~4.5v as expected when it was running when suddenly the fan stopped w/o me having done or touched anything. And the DMM was showing -7v! Then it was showing -11v. Maybe 10 seconds later the fan started again and the -11v became the expected 4.5v. At no point had the fan or probes been touched.
If it's showing -11v (and the fan not running), if I remove a battery later in the circuit then the -11v immediately disappears and is replaced with ~4.5v again.
Any idea of what's going on here? What would cause the voltage to swing from ~12v overall to a negative voltage where the fan isn't running?
Is this a FAN electrical issue doing this to the batteries or a battery issue doing this to the fan?
I have a battery powered fan. It takes 8 D cell batteries.
Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn't. I've tested all of the batteries before I put them in the fan and they were all right around 1.57v -- they are old batteries but had never been used.
At first I thought it was a battery seating issue but taking them out and reseating them fixed it once and didn't other times. When I probed the "ends" of the line of batteries when the fan was running I'd get the voltage I'd expect for it to work.
I was probing 3 of them in a line and it was showing ~4.5v as expected when it was running when suddenly the fan stopped w/o me having done or touched anything. And the DMM was showing -7v! Then it was showing -11v. Maybe 10 seconds later the fan started again and the -11v became the expected 4.5v. At no point had the fan or probes been touched.
If it's showing -11v (and the fan not running), if I remove a battery later in the circuit then the -11v immediately disappears and is replaced with ~4.5v again.
Any idea of what's going on here? What would cause the voltage to swing from ~12v overall to a negative voltage where the fan isn't running?
Is this a FAN electrical issue doing this to the batteries or a battery issue doing this to the fan?
