why does a dying battery slow down or distort sound-emitting electronics?

Question

Specifically I’m wondering about electronics that play back short noises or songs, like baby toys. Why would the sounds slow down or get distorted when the batteries get low?

In: 14

Answer 1

The electronics will be driven by a frequency produced by an oscillator on a chip somewhere. The frequency of this will be dependent on the voltage it gets. The chip will insulate the oscillator from voltage drop somewhat, but can’t do that infinitely: once the voltage drops below the value the chip can protect against, the voltage across the oscillator will drop and so the frequency of the whole of the electronics will slow down directly proportional to this voltage.