Re: ROM 01 IIgs battery - cheap hack

[Roger Johnstone <roger@ihug.invalid>]

In <20040126000451.11350.00000700@mb-m05.aol.com> Michael J. Mahon wrote:
> 
> 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

My IIgs has just completed a 15-year test of a battery which proves that 
point too :o)

I have a Woz IIgs which I bought back in 1993. The lithium cell had 
already been replaced when I got it. I finally had to replace it again 
just a few weeks ago and found the date code on the old one was 1988! So 
it lasted at least ten years in the computer, and another five on the 
shelf.

-- 
Roger Johnstone, Invercargill, New Zealand
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~rojaws/
________________________________________________________________________
  No Silicon Heaven? Preposterous! Where would all the calculators go?

              Kryten, from the Red Dwarf episode "The Last Day"