Repairing electronic mole scarer

Have they ever worked? If so, how do you know?

How do you know they don't work now?

Yes, they are quite simple. There is a timer circuit which turns them on for a few seconds every half hour or so and an electric motor with an offset weight on it's shaft. When powered the motor vibrates, the theory being the moles don't like the low frequencies.

Main fault is the usual corroded battery terminals and loose wires.

No specific knowledge of solar mole scarers, however the small solar garden lights often fail over winter due to the small NiCd cell pack being left uncharged. They can often be revived by passing a highish current through them briefly in the charging direction. A brief flash from a 12v car battery usually does it - literally a flash - less than a second. (The plates grow whiskers of fine nickle one to the other shorting the cell, and the brief flash burns them off)

AWEM

Thanks for all your replies. The scarer emits a high pitched tone every 30 sec. It doesn't vibrate - I've got two of those as well and they still work. I'll try flashing the NiCad. |P

They use a single AA NiCd, so should be stored with this removed.

You might be able to charge it (although I doubt it), you'll probably have to replace it, you might have leakage and corrosion to clean up too.