How to run an electro mechanical quartz clock on a 3 cell damp salt battery ?br br I have seen various LCD clocks and calculators but not the humble 1.5 Volts quartz clock being run from a home made battery.br br I tried the lemon battery cell as well, but it required about 6 lemons and the clock stopped running after about 20 seconds.br For the salt battery I only need 3 cells.br How does it work ?br The trick here is to connect a capacitor in parrallel with the battery and clock to make it work.br br It appears that the clock needs a buffered supply. When the second hand moves the stepper motor in the clock creates a small power surge which the capacitor provides. br These home made batteries have only small current carrying capacity of about 1 milli Ampère. The clock motor briefly needs more, even the multimeter doesn't show it and shows a 0.4 mA value.br br Materials needed:br br Three old 35 mm film containersbr Kitchen saltbr Three strands of 2.5 mm² wirebr Three galvanised woodscrewsbr A bit of small gauge wire to connect the cells, or use some alligator clips and leadsbr A quartz clock with no batterybr br At the moment I am doing a duration test and will keep you posted with the results.br Start 28 June 2009 at about 20:30 hrs.br br UPDATE ! 01 July 09 well the cklock ran for 12 hours and stopped at 0900 hrs the next morning.br The galv. screw had corroded and by wiggleing it a bit the clock started again. and stopped a few minutes later.br br Findings: as experiment to prove it works fine.br For accurate time keeping, just get a normal one dollar 1.5 Volts battery, which will at least last 1 year.