Re: Discharging a wireless USB keyboard for long-term storage

On Sat, 6/27/2026 6:07 AM, Mr. Man-wai Chang wrote:
> On 6/27/2026 6:01 PM, Paul wrote:
>> On Sat, 6/27/2026 12:21 AM, Mr. Man-wai Chang wrote:
>>>
>>> What's the fastest way to discharge the internal rechargeable battery in a wireless USB keyboard?
>>
>> The 3.7V single cell battery in your keyboard, 
>> loses charge with time, as others have> pointed out, and eventually it will drop to zero.
>>
> 
> Can I do it without extracting that stupid hidden
> rechargeable battery? Say, via the exposed USB
> Type-C port.
> 
> I know how to play with 1.5V dry, non-rechargeables
> AA battery! The spark is fun! :)
> 
>> Don't worry about it.
>>
> I am not worrying but fire risk as a result of
> self ignition and spontaneous combusion.
> 
>> If it bothers you, take it to an electronics recycler,
>> they know what to do.
> 
> I don't wanna trust others, nor spending money.
> 

The recyclers here, are free. The "fee" for recycling is
charged to the customer as an up-front fee, when the item is purchased
(they add maybe $0.50 to the price of a hard drive for this).
This removes the incentive to "avoid" the recycler, and
the recycler charges nothing, and they get their money
from a fund set up for the purpose.

I took a large (85lb) Trinitron CRT monitor to the recycler,
the charge was $0. It would be the same for small
items, such as electric motors filled with copper wire.
The recycler makes good money from the scrap value
of the copper on motors. You can also take the electric
motor to the scrap merchant, and he will give a token
sum for the copper wire component of it.

Even throwing an extension cord in the trash, someone
makes money off that.

The up-front recycling fee for some items, can be
as high as $1000. And yes, the people involved, complain
bitterly about that fee. Whereas other items are only $0.50 .

If you have an electronics store where you bought that
keyboard, call them up and have a chat, and see if they
can recommend a $0 recycler for the job. For example, in
Japan, they are accepting and re-selling old computers,
due to the shortages of components now. No, your Core2Duo,
they won't be reselling that one :-)

   Paul