Battery Fail and Pop?

[K9WG]

I was sitting at my work bench yesterday when I heard a very loud pop (my wife even heard it in the other room). It very much sounded like a capacitor or IC had gone critical. However I only had my oscilloscope and laptop running at he time. I could not smell or see any smoke and everything seemed to be OK. This morning I noticed my wireless mouse was not working (it had been working yesterday) and when I went to change the battery (a standard AAA battery) I noticed it had leaked. Have you ever had a battery other than a lithium go critical like that? This is the only explanation I have for the pop I heard.

 

[dave9]

No, the most I've seen a primary or NiMH cell do is once when I had one on a charger that was faulty, it grossly overcharged and made a tiny pop-hiss sound as it vented. I'd never have noticed if it weren't sitting 2 feet away.

I am wondering if what you observed is just coincidence, that you had a battery leaking but that wasn't what made the noise. A very loud noise, I would assume would be from a force that caused more destruction.

I'd wonder if it was a solid decoupling capacitor in the laptop or scope or (? whatever other gear you have), maybe it shorted, blew, but was a bit redundant so the device still works.

 

[K9WG]

It could very well be. I really thought a cap blew in the O-scope but I have not observed any change. Also thought I would have smelled something. Really strange.

 

[K9WG]

Mystery solved... Well maybe...

So I noticed my garage door has been a little louder than normal. I figured it just needed some preventive maintenance. Finally called the garage door people and found out I had a broken spring. Since my work area is right above the door it was probably the spring breaking I heard. At least that is the theory for now.