Reminder: Check your battery!! Your Amiga may be dying!!!

[aardvark]

A triple AA holder would work, if you then used NiCd or preferably NiMH rechargables.  Anyone know if lithium batteries are rechargable and if they are 1.2 or 1.5V per cell? :-?

[Lo]

@KennyR

I hear this a lot - that keeping your machine on recharges the battery

 Probably because its true?  After all it is a RECHARGEABLE battery!

All that keeping the computer on does is keeps a potential across the battery and stops the electrolyte eating the casing and getting out all over your motherboard.

The reason for keeping a potential across the battery is to keep it CHARGED!
If a Nicad is unused for a long period, it will leak sooner.   So there :-D

[KapitanKlystron]

Lithiums are 2.7-3.6V per cell.

[Rigger]

For those that missed this one in a previous discussion on leaking batteries here are some batteries that will work in your Amiga. One or all is probably stocked at your local electronics store.

Manufacturer -- Part/Model#
Daytona Industries, Inc. -- COMP-16-3P
AT&T -- 6300, 6300+
COMPUTERLAND -- BC88, 286
HYUNDAI -- SUPER 16TE

[Framiga]

by amigamad on 2003/9/17 20:50:22

@DoomMaster

The idea is good but without a diode fitted to positive lead the amiga will be trying to charge batterys that might not be rechargable .

For the first time i agree with DoomMaster :-)

The idea of the two wires and a battery placed on the bottom of a tower case (rechargeable with its socket), is the best way.

By the way, amigamad, DM said to use rechargeable batteries . . . so . . .please!

Ciao

[CU_AMiGA]

That Amiga 601 Ram Expansion Card for the Amiga 600 died on me as well, due to battery failure.

Isn't there a battery on the Blizzard PPC? Is there any chance of that leaking? Should i remove it? I dont want to go through the same fiasco again.

DoomMaster wrote:
Hi fellow Amiga fans,

You do not have to buy a new battery from redrumloa, just do the following mod:

First, carefully de-solder the original battery from the mother board.  Then solder a red wire and a black wire to the motherboard, where the battery use to be. Drill a hole in one of the rear slot covers for a mono sub-mini jack. Then mount the jack onto that cover. Next solder the other ends of the red and black wires to the jack. Get a 2-AA battery holder and solder on a mono sub-mini plug to the wires coming out of the battery holder. Install rechargeable batteries and plug it in. The batteries should last about one year. The battery holder sits behide your Amiga 2000, so it is not seen. This is how I have mine set up. It works great and you do not have to worry about battery-acid leakage because the 2 AA batteries sit outside your Amiga. I got the idea from my Atari Mega ST4 computer. It takes 2 AA batteries for it's clock.  IMPORTANT: When you solder the red wire to the positive pad on the motherboard, make sure that the temperature of your iron is NOT hotter then 650F and that you do NOT leave the iron on that solder-pad for more then 4 seconds. The positive solder-pad for the battery is very small and is easily burned off if you are not careful. When you solder the black wire to the ground-plain on the motherboard, you may have to increase the temperature of the iron to 800F to 1000F in order to get the solder to flow properly. Do not leave the iron on the ground-plain for more then 10 seconds. If you do, the ground plain may bubble or discolor.  This is a very simple mod and it works great.  You never again have to worry about battery acid corroding your motherboard.  Enjoy!     :-D

Yeah i have heard about this as well. Isn't it possible to do this on a Blizzard PPC card? I recall some ebay seller was selling a BlizzPPC and it has a battery holder and that connected to where the normal battery would have been on the card.

[Colin_Camper]

Well, Ni-cads actually don't do so well in constantly charged scenarios. Unlike lead-acid they do better if they are fully cycled (last about 1000-2000 cycles) or if they are being stored, fully discharged.
This is why car batteries are supplied charged and cell phone batteries are supplied DISCHARGED.

Nowadays, with the availability of super capacitors in small factor sizes, these are the best option for cmos backup. They never leak, they don't self discharge, they are not damaged by constant charging and they cycle millions of times.

Having said this I paid Analogic £100 last year to replace my A4K battery! 8-)

[that_punk_guy]

Colin_Camper wrote:

Having said this I paid Analogic £100 last year to replace my A4K battery! 8-)

 :-o

[Framiga]

by Colin_Camper on 2003/9/18 14:17:05

........Having said this I paid Analogic £100 last year to replace my A4K battery!

WHAT!!! Only to replace the battery, or . . .some damaged component arount it?

No words to define them.

Ciao

[Lo]

@Colin_Camper

Well, Ni-cads actually don't do so well in constantly charged scenarios. Unlike lead-acid they do better if they are fully cycled (last about 1000-2000 cycles) or if they are being stored, fully discharged.

I Agree, perhaps were one to store some Amiga MB's they should discharge the batteries with a 1 ohm or so wire beforehand. I am not sure though if a Ni-Cad would "come back to life" if stored with a dead short.  (probably not, but beats the alternative?)

Having said this I paid Analogic £100 last year to replace my A4K battery!

A little steep, perhaps, but its a risky custom "operation".  I would charge at least $75! 8-)