MTEC Viper 1230 RTC Battery Replacement

[brownb2]

I have a Viper 1230 (photo) and the real time clock appears to be going (all I have in workbench is the correct year and month which I guess it could be storing somewhere other than an RTC?). Note it does not have this extra RTC board (on left edge).

The problem as you can see from the photos and this closeup is that the button cell appears to be soldered onto a flimsy piece of metal. I have no idea what the piece of wire going across the board is for btw - I have that on mine

The cell appears to be a CR2032 (unconfirmed as I cannot get access to the number inscription).

Can someone tell me if...

a) Whether the Amiga holding the time within a few days of what I set is the RTC working properly or a software bug (which I hope is more likely)?
b) There is some software I can use to test the RTC (other than just switch it off for a few minutes )?
c) The battery is replaceable (I have a soldering iron although I'm not too good at it and don't want to explode the battery ) and whether a standard CR2032 is suitable or I need to find a rechargeable variant?

The RTC jumper is already set, the battery has not leaked.

Thanks,

Benjamin

[EDIT] Bizarrely I can use my PCMCIA port without problems and have an 8MB SIMM installed so I think the docs on the first link are wrong. Before I covered the 68030 with a heatsink I noticed it mentioned it was a 33mhz chip - chip id ended in 33) which is overclocked to 42Mhz. This might explain why I get regular yellow screens after reboots after it has warmed up (not a problem - I've always had them, resets solve it - I bought the board for £25 as a student in 2000).

[EDIT 2] Ha... "but the poorer thermal characteristics of the QFP package limited it to 33 MHz and below;". That definitely explains the yellow screens.

[brownb2]

@ brownb2

Email Amigakit and ask them if they can change the battery.

clint

I'd rather not send this away to get repaired especially when it could just be a software issue and if it is a dead battery then I'd more than likely not have the work done unless it was leaking - I was just looking for feedback on the difficultly level and whether anyone else has come across the same problem. IMHO this accelerator is like gold dust

[brownb2]

Just dug out my old Viper030 board, and am looking at it now. Its just a standard CR2032 battery & it's not soldered, just a spring clip holding it in place, just replace the battery with a new one and see if it works, theres a pic of it somewhere in my profile section.

Hmm... strange but the one I have looks different to the one in your pic, dunno if mines is an older model...

Thanks I had a look at your profile and it looks quite different. I guess your viper had a socketed battery? Although this is not my accelerator it better shows what the (soldered/spring?) clip looks like holding the battery.

I don't want to risk switching the CR2032 if its a rechargeable type. Unfortunately the German docs available on the Amiga hardware website I've read mention nothing about replacing it.

[brownb2]

i have the same card and replaced that metal piece with proper socket.
yes, its standard cr2032.

So I took this advice... in eagerness I went to Maplin and purchased a CR2032 holder and new battery. I pulled off the old CR2032, big chunks of the pinched against button cell metal, and soldered the holder on. That was a major pain in the bum as after I'd done it, it came off the first time (and my hands were shaking all over the shop putting on the solder). Finally I got it in place and went to test it.

When I tested it I found it wasn't working and as I pulled my accelerator out a second time I snagged the thin piece of wire (see earlier photo link) on the back of the accelerator (the one I had no idea what was for) and it killed the accelerator completely (red screen warning defective expansion board) and swore quite profusely some words that I don't think my neighbours have ever heard me say. Bust clock, bust accelerator now.

Fortunately I didn't give up I shakily soldered the two ends of the snagged wire back together and stuck electrical tape over the  length of it so I wouldn't do it again. I then took some bag tie wire(!!) and attached it to the RTC contact points on the board to better fit the distance between the CR2032 holder contact points. The holder at this point is balancing on two metal contacts which were then soldered, but can easily get knocked off/tipped, so I glue gunned underneath the holder to pad it - and now the accelerator works perfectly, and is quite solid!

Talk about a near death experience...

[brownb2]

er, i'm definitely not gonna consider replacing batt. on my bppc..

Well it's a bit late to tell me you wouldn't do that on your pride and joy... I just broke and repaired mine because I thought it was easy