Battery Blew Up!

[adele]

HI, waaa?
Sorry, but I hope you mean a duracell, 9V with stud terminals like the picture posted like Grumpy_Mike posted.
Was it rechargeable.

Or was it a group of cells in series or parallel.
You see the problem I have is that you should have at least some damage to the protoboard, the leads and the switch if you cooked a battery, that is a lot of energy.

Did you make up a pack of cells, if so can you post a picture of a circuit diagram, hand drawn will do.
Sorry for the questions, but I fix electronic stuff, you see "its my job".

Tom.......

It was a 9V battery. The only thing I have remaining of the circuit is in the pictures I posted earlier. I have taken it apart.

The breadboard and the components are fine; however, I have not tested the switch since it happened. Afterword the battery was really hot. I couldn't even touch it to remove it from the connector. I had to use some ESD gloves. After it cooled I threw it in the recycle dumpster outside.

I don't know how to draw a schematic yet, but you should be able to see all the connections in the pictures I posted, if you would like to try and draw one yourself.

I don't know if it was rechargeable. It was an old battery. I got a picture from Google, if you really need it.

[MAS3]

Rechargeable batteries should have a relieve valve, to prevent it from actually blowing up.
Overheating will generate gasses, which will come out one way or the other.
A relieve valve will offer a way out, but of course the battery will be damaged after that.
If there isn't a way out available, an alternative will be forcefully created.
A standard battery doesn't have a valve (too expensive to create).
The release of the gasses doesn't need to be a speedy process.
With a lesser current (but still too high) it might take a while before the battery blows.
Any component has some resistance.
That of the battery will be the highest, compared to wires, breadboards and switches.
So it isn't impossible for other parts of the circuit to come out relatively undamaged compared to that battery, they should be inspected though.
I'm not sure whether the heating up of that battery will create a higher or a lower resistance.
If it goes down, an avalanche effect will occur and the destruction will be speedy.
If it goes up, the battery will live it's (by then miserable) life a bit longer.

The reason for rechargeable batteries to have this valve, is the charging process.
A too high charging current will also create gasses.

Some rapid charge methods also incorporate discharging too.
It will rapid-charge for a while, in such way that small gas bubbles are formed.
After a set time, a very short but high discharge pulse will be created, which is supposed to revert the gasses.
I remember some Elektor project (about 20 years ago) where this was explained, and played around a bit with this ICS1700N based project.
That process is explained in datasheets for that chip that can be found online.

[mrburnette]

I knew that you couldn't short a battery out, but sometimes when I start hooking up the wires, I lose track of what is going on.
<...>

One of the great fascinations with Arduino is that every project is an experiment... You will look back on this a one of your fond memories.  With over 50 years of electronic experience, I still manage to smoke a project from time to time     In my growing up days, I had a year where I was fascinated by high voltage experiments: Jacob ladders and Tesla coils.  When these experiments go wrong, bad things happen!  My pilot friend says that any landing that everyone can walk away from is a "good" landing.

Ray