Shutupa the ansaphone

[dave]

I have rather an old ansaphone (works fine though) that prefaces each message played back with "Batteries low - please replace batteries". The reason is there are no batteries in there - because they only last a few months so I don't bother.

It'd be nice if I could get rid of that irritating message. What are the grps thoughts on how to do this? I thought maybe soldering a resisitor of appropriate value (say a few 10's of ohms) across the battery input terminals - to pretend to be the internal resistance of the batteries if they were there. 2nd idea was to jumper the +/- from the powers supply brick (9vdc) to the battery connector.

I'd like some feedback on these ideas before I try it :-) Thanks

[PoP]

I can't fix that problem, but having got really fed up with my answerphone cutting out before the caller leaves their phone number I've just signed up for NTL's voicemail service. Cost is £1 per month on the NTL phone bill, and I can grab the calls from anywhere else if I need to.

If you are on NTL it might be worth looking into. I think BT do a similar service too. For the cost it just wasn't worth the hassle of losing customers.

PoP

[BillR]

Won't work it will be looking for voltage not resistance..

Might work if batteries added up to approx 9V. You probably want a diode and resistor in series not a short..

Depending on how many batteries you could do this, I have. Replace batteries with nicads fit a diode and resistor from 9vdc power supply so the cells are trickle charged at a very low rate

[Colin M]

The logic that is calling for the extra message is probably the lack of a high enough voltage at the battery terminal. There would be very little current drawn by this logic so I reckon a 1k resistor strapped across the incoming adaptor supply and the battery feed should do it. No need to bother about the -ve terminal as I'd guess it's all commoned on the circuit board.

The 1k resistance would help prevent any damage if the idea doesn't work!

Colin M

[Lawrence]

Lawrence

usenet at lklyne dt co dt uk

[Peter Parry]

I presume you are talking about rechargeable batteries in this thing? If so the simplest solution is to put a 1k resistor in series with one of the battery connections inside the machine and replace the rechargeable batteries. Many of the devices with rechargeable batteries overcharge them horribly (If the batteries are always warm they are getting cooked). With a low charge rate they will last for about 2-3 years but as the terminal voltage is correct it will almost certainly fool the backup battery sensor.