I modified the remote control for my office light & fan so that it takes a 9 volt battery instead of the “23A 12V” battery it is designed to take. Although, this is an ugly solution it works great and is still a good fit in my hand. The purpose of this project was partly to avoid buying an unusual battery type, but also (mostly) just for the heck of it.
Voltage Check
Even though the original battery supplies 12 volts, I found that the remote works fine with just 9 volts.
Replacement Battery Insert
A piece of small glue stick fit nicely into the battery spot leaving wiggle room on the sides. I cut it down to size just shorter than the battery.
The extra wiggle room was needed to leave space for the copper wire to wrap around the sizes and, most importantly, the ends of the glue stick. It only took a little bit of trial and error to the insert to fit nicely and make contact with the battery terminals.
Of course it is also important to make sure that the copper wire on either end of the insert do not touch and short out the positive and negative power terminals.
I left the copper wire long enough to wrap around the underside and outside of the 9 volt battery in order to hold the battery in place. Then I soldered a 9 volt battery clip to the copper wires attached to the insert.
Final Touch
The final touch was to wrap some electrical tape around the battery to hold it in place. I wrapped the tape first with the sticky side out, then with the sticky side in. The tape is only actually stuck to the copper wires, and not to the remote itself. This way the battery can slide in and out easily for replacement. Also, the entire insert can be removed if I ever decide to buy “23A 12V” battery instead.
