DCE Blizzard accelerators and clock batteries

[x56h34]

As many of you already know, DCE continued manufacturing Blizzard accelerator cards for Amiga 1200 after acquiring rights from Phase 5.

In the case of DCE Blizzard 1230, 1240, and 1260 lines, the on-board battery has been changed from the standard VL2020 Panasonic rechargeable lithium battery, to the regular CR2032 Varta Lithium battery (non-rechargeable).

Now, the standard Phase 5 used VL2020 is a special type of rechargeable lithium battery and while your Amiga is on, it recharges through the accelerator. The regular CR2032 could potentially explode if tried to be recharged.

Recently, I've desoldered the CR2032 battery from my DCE Blizzard 1260 accelerator and replaced it with a brand new VL2020. To my surprise, VL2020 started to receive charge and it was recharging normally as it does on Phase 5 made Blizzards.

Could it be that Blizzards auto sense which type of battery is used and according to type recharge or not recharge it?

This would be good to know, as there could be a lot of DCE made Blizzards out there with dangerous regular non-rechargeable CR2032 lithium batteries on them which could explode by receiving charge.

Anyway, just wondering if anyone knew an answer to this puzzle. :-)

[x56h34]

@PG:

I am not trying to put down DCE in any way. I am just trying to get educated on the topic, that's all.

I've replaced the battery since the VL2020 usually works rock solid for 10+ years (I've never had a P5 card with a VL2020 that needed to be replaced yet due to being dead) unlike the regular CR2032 which on my 1260 card was around 5 or 6 years old already, and I simply wanted to swap it. :-)

[x56h34]

What confuses me is that a VL2020 works fine and keeps recharging on a DCE B1260 card, after removing the original CR2032 from it.

I guess it could be that either type can be used with Blizzards, but DCE simply wanted to save money on production and did not include the more expensive VL2020. Just a guess. :-?

[x56h34]

I didn't use any equipment to measure if the VL2020 is receiving charge when installed on the B1260, however this particular battery has been sitting new and unused in my storage for a few years and during that time it would be pretty much safe to assume that the battery has been discharged due to lack of usage, so as soon as I've installed it and let it recharge for a few hours, powered off and powered back on my A1200, the time was correct, so it would be safe to assume that it is recharging.

In any case, I've spoken to a friend of mine who used to be an Amiga repairman back in the day, and he says that Blizzards most probably have an RTC clock chip on-board which is autosensing the battery type. This could be proven by reading the chip's model # and looking up the specs through Google, but unfortunatelly the chip itself is covered by the battery, and I don't want to desolder it just to be able to read the chip's model number. :-)

Anyway, I guess I'll see how the card behaves in regards to keeping the time correctly for the next few months and in case it completely loses time at some point, I'll assume that the VL2020 is recharging.

[x56h34]

Hehe, it's a tough call to make without proper equipment to prove facts. :-)

By looking at the pictures of Phase 5 B1260 rev II and DCE B1260 cards, they look identical, other than the battery.

I guess I could always install a socketed CR2032, should my VL2020 turn out to not recharge. :-D

I'm just wondering in case you are right about the clock chip not being auto-sensing of the type of battery, then which component is responsible for not letting the battery receive charge (in case of DCE B1260)? You can take a look at the picture of DCE B1260 found on the Big Book of Amiga Hardware site, and check here for a picture of Phase 5 rev II card.

[x56h34]

PG wrote:

Yes, if you look closely at the picture you will find that the DCE card has a diode instead of the 330 ohm resistor that the Phase5 version has.
Look below the battery, to the left.
There might be other changes to, so please dont just change the diode to a resistor on your card.
If you do so, you take the risk of damaging your card.

Yes I see it. There's also some components that are missing on the DCE card just above the simm socket (blank solder pads) and I've just noticed that my own DCE card is also missing a capacitor (at least I think it's a capacitor :-)) just underneath the battery at the very edge of the card. Weird. :-?

I hope those are all effects of design changes (depending of production batches at DCE) and not actual missing parts. :-)