Re: ROM 01 IIgs battery - cheap hack

[mjmahon@aol.com (Michael J. Mahon)]

Simon Williams wrote:

>A while back, someone mentioned that the battery in a ROM 01 IIgs could
>be replaced with 2 AAs, and being rather cheap I had to give it a try...
>I picked up a fully enclosed battery holder at Radio Sack for about $3
>(Canadian). Clipping the old battery and replacing it with the holder
>was a piece of cake (and I'm far from skilled with the soldering iron!).
>Luckily, the leads on the battery holder were long enough to allow me to
>tuck the thing under the power supply (which I removed before I started
>soldering). 
>I used a pair of Pure Energy AA rechargeables, because they're cheap and
>seem to last for ever. Well, at least it's gone for about three weeks
>without failing :)
>I'm sure I'll be changing batteries on a regular basis, but it still
>beats having to reset the contol panel everytime I start the thing ;-)

Glad to hear that it's working for you.

The battery should supply 3.6v nominally, but the CMOS and clock
are probably functional down to 2.8v or so.

Fresh alkalines are about 1.5v, so two will usually work.  It would last
longer to use three cells, (as long as the total voltage doesn't go over
5v) and should last for essentially the shelf life of the cells.

Rechargeables, in general, have higher self-discharge current, and
so shorter "shelf" lives, but I'm not familiar with the Pure Energy
cell chemistry--maybe they're more like ordinary alkalines.

A 3.6v lithium cell is preferred, because its shelf life is ten years
or more--the longest of all cell chemistries.

-michael

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