When designing an electronics device you want to make sure that it won't go in smoke under unexpected circumstances. You never know what may go wrong during life time of device especially if it is powered from mains. Jon Chandler made a great overview of common and pretty simple power protection circuits that may help to avoid lots of trouble. Small circuit between your battery and device may protect it from mistakes like reverse power polarity.
His lists starts with simple series diode which is cheap but may help protect from reverse polarity. Like any other it has a downside – voltage drop (0.7V) that may be a pain for low voltage devices.
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