And here is some seriously sad news:
You might remember THIS item:
The wondrous little signal tracer, which made it finally to me thanks to <Worsthorse>, has arrived my desk...
and the the battery fungus got in before me.
I wondered all the time how and where the battery is. It turned out that you have to release the two tiny screws and pull out the back cap. That I saw a loose wire there right when opening it did not come as a surprise, because every battery change is going to put strain onto the AWG30 wires going to the phones jack on the rear cap.
BTW, it is smaller than I thought. The metal part is 110mm long and the hollow profile has outside dimensions slightly under 20mm.
Inside I can see a cell holder for a single AAA battery. And I could see how much damage a single AAA cell can do. It is definitely too colourful in there.
Very bright blue deposits on the interior walls. And crystal growth on the rear end of the PCB.
And here I stopped. I have to figure out how to access the interior. Those fiends have used tiny rivets to hold the front cap in place, and there is nothing to get a grip on them. Maybe I can remove the deformed heads with a riffler file and then push the remainder inside through the plastic cap retaining ears. Not before I have done that can I even assess the extent of the damage.
And single battery operation probably means Ge transistors. And with no documentation, I can only hope that I can still make out most components. If not, as announced, it will have to be a rebuild. But to use all those accessories (gain), get output to the dynamic earphone and have some battery life, something other than one AAA might be in order. Maybe I could place 2 or 3 button cells opposite the pot/switch towards the rear, if I find little holders with a metallic cap for them. That would make that tearing of the wires unneccessary. But that would mean having a PCB, and getting someone to layout it for me, and soon it will become forbidding in terms or time AND cost.
But given my workload, this is far away. Today I hate my fogging karma. It could have been almost as pristine on the inside as on the exterior, ONCE rewarding me for caring about my tools and gear.
ORCFUCKBLOODSHITMURDERFROG!