Putting in batteries the wrong way.

[oicdn]

A buddy of mine (yes really, not me, seriously) said he took apart a CV3 lithium battery and tried to put it in his device. He said he'd give it a shot, because the digital camera he has, takes AA batteries, but a CV3 works as well (are basically two AA batteries taped together). It didn't work, so he figured he may have put them in in the wrong direction, and tried the other way since they don't have nipples on the positive end). It still didn't work.

So when he went to go put back in the alkaline AA batteries, and nothing happened when he tried to turn it on. When nothing happened, he said he checked the batteries and realized he put them in backwards (the device doesn't have the typical springs on one side and plate on the other, so I can probably see how he put them in backwards). He said a couple hours ago, the batteries had some juice left, but when he went to go put them back into the device correctly, it didn't turn on. He wants to know if he friend anything.

I told I really have no idea, and my best guess since it DOESN'T have a recharge circuit (no protection), it may have, but I'll ask here to find out for sure. He's off to buy some batteries after work (where's he's at and eMailed me), so he has a while till he can try out fresh batteries. I told him Id post up here and possibly get an answer for him before he gets off work.

FWIW, it's an old headphone amplifier if that matters. I dunno what brand or anything, but it utilizes two AA batteries. It has just a jack for a wallwart or you can use batteries, but no recharge circuit.

[cwell2112]

Some devices have reverse-polarity protection circuits and some don't. It's not a function of whether it has a charging circuit or not. Depends on the device and whether the designer bothered to include one. For example some expensive devices don't include such protection circuits, yet the AAA flashlight I have on my keychain does have one...