Batteries dying on Investigations and Ghost Hunting Equipment options

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Batteries dying on Investigations and Ghost Hunting Equipment options

Most Haunted Castle
Published by Steve Graham in Ghost Tour Experiences · 4 March 2014
Tags: InvestigationEquipment

This is a blog about batteries dying on paranormal investigations. I was writing this after I watched a paranormal show that got my blood boiling.

Battery technology has come a long way -
but not too far.

If you've ever bought a new rechargeable battery powered tool or camera -
whatever - has anybody ever actually read the directions that come with them?

No? (Laughing like crazy here) well I actually have!

It clearly states (on the ones that I've read) Do not let Battery temperature
fall below a certain degree or rise above a certain degree Fahrenheit (temperature variance depending on the manufacturer).

What the
directions don't say: "If you do you're &*^%$£ ,throw the battery in the bin and get a new one as it'll never "hold" a FULL charge again. Especially if you use it in the cold again".

T
he instructions don't say, "If you do let the battery freeze or heat..you can charge that battery till doomsday and it will drain in minutes."

Now the science gets heavy
and I could bore the hell out of you all - but I'll take mercy. Let's just say even a car battery goes dead in the extreme cold. But car batteries aren't Lithium or nickel cadnium so they bounce back.

That being said and here comes
fact number two and this is something everyone should know and if they don't, you do now: Nickel cadnium and/or Lithium batteries develop what is called a "Memory" as they age.

A
film develops and builds up in the battery preventing the battery from charging up to full capacity.

You can charge that battery until the cows come home, it'll drain in minutes. It'll measure that it's fully charged because technically it is fully charged but as it's a capacitance type charge, it drains right out.

Tip: You can sometimes break down that film if you let the battery TOTALLY drain out and then repeat the draining process. But only for a short time. You'll still be buying a new battery sooner than you think.

I've seen it time and time again during ghost tours and investigations at Craig Y Nos Castle where batteries have drained and the individual has clearly pointed out that it was only charged up that day. I ask them
when was the last time they used the camera? And where is the camera stored?

On "A paranormal show which I won'
t name" I watched as the two lead guys hold a Gauss meter up to an old iron tricycle from the 1800's and were totally amazed it was giving off a large magnetic field. I was screaming at the TV and wanted to beat the £&%" out of those baffoons. Thank Gawd they didn't say it was 'possessed' or I might have smashed the tele.

Throughout the ages
in the 1700/1800's items were "hand" made. Our grandparents also used iron that isn't as pure as ours is today. As the iron was being fashioned it was rolled, hammered and "worked". All this manipulation inadvertantly magnetized the iron to a degree. With today's modern technology, we have devices that are very sensitive and will measure this magnetism - such as the Gauss Meter.

FLIR Cameras.

Forward Looking Infra-red cameras are a wonderful and amazing piece of equipment and certainly have their place in the toolkit of any professional paranormal investigator. However just like everything else unless YOU HAVE READ THE INSTRUCTIONS AND FULLY UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE DOING, inexperienced people can see all kinds of stuff with them if they don't know how to use them. AS A VERY SIMPLE example they can see their own heat reflection in a shiny surface.

I actually was watching another show a while back
where a COLLEGE PROFESSOR went down into a basement/ cellar of the McPike mansion and proclaimed it was paranormal because she felt it was cooler/colder and there was magical dust everywhere. A 'fog' as she called it.

!!!
SLAPPPP. is she real!!! Of course it's cooler in a basement below ground. Most basements and old root cellars are. They're also dusty.

J
ust for your information myself and Lord Gover have visited the mcpike mansion a number of years ago whilst we were in America - we flew over from the UK as I was giving a talk at the American ghost society conference.

OK rant over..

Just remember.
"Read the directions" before you use a new gadget. And maybe read up on the internet before you. Dont go into a cellar and say it's cold, so it must be haunted!

Why not take a moment to visit our main website http://www.theparanormalworld.com
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