CD 32 and SX32 battery question

[Gordon]

What kind of battery does the CD32 have? What about Sx32? DO they suffer from battery leakage? Shall I get them removed?

[rkauer]

CD32 does not have a battery.

About the SX32: it uses the same rechargeable battery as Blizzard accelerators, and they don't leak, but can fail.

[Gordon]

Thank you for the information.

[Paul_s]

They do suffer from C= cost cutting with crap capacitors though so get those changed (especially those on the power circuit... and earlier versions have one of the caps facing the wrong way)

[Retro-Nerd]

Originally Posted by rkauer

CD32 does not have a battery.

About the SX32: it uses the same rechargeable battery as Blizzard accelerators, and they don't leak, but can fail.

They can leak too, but i've never seen it until today. Here's a pic.


http://wpedia.goo.ne.jp/enwiki/Button_cell

[rkauer]

The Blizzard battery is a rechargeable button cell unit (VL2020), and I never heard of one leaking.

[Gordon]

I need help identifiying something please. One the following pic i want to know what 1 is. Is it a battery? I marked "2" as well becuase this is one of those cr202 batteries.

What is the thing i have marked "1" ?

thanks

[AmigaFun]

Originally Posted by Gordon

I need help identifiying something please. One the following pic i want to know what 1 is. Is it a battery? I marked "2" as well becuase this is one of those cr202 batteries.

What is the thing i have marked "1" ?

thanks

Hi

1) Is a capacitor
<2> The battery, on my SX32(PRO) it had one covered in blue cap. It did leak and now has been removed.

[Gordon]

Ah thank you amigafun.

How did you remove it? Did the battery come out by picking it out ? Or did you have to take the whole thing off?

Do those capacitors leak? Worth taking out?

[AmigaFun]

Originally Posted by Gordon

Ah thank you amigafun.

How did you remove it? Did the battery come out by picking it out ? Or did you have to take the whole thing off?

Do those capacitors leak? Worth taking out?

Your welcome.

With my battery I just snipped it off, not great way of doing it, but my own experiance has shown that me, trying to remove such items from multilayer boards leads to too much damage to the PCB (iron non-adjustable, so too hot). Anyway, yea, I cut it out and cleaned the area around the battery.

As for the capacitor like you pointed out, not generally I don't think. Just check it out to see if there is any evidence of leaking or bulging to the top of the capacitor (top being the silver part and may have a cross shape indentation, that I think is a vent should the cap experiance excessive voltage or reverse polarity). If you are having no issues, then don't touch the capacitor just leave it, if it's leaking or bulged then replace with same rating. Capacitors do dry out over time though, and can lead to power supply problems amongst other things....so I guess thats going to manifist itself with random crashes and lockups.

The worst offenders for capacitor leakage are the small SMT types in the silver cans, as some one has already said, C= installed many the wrong way round, so yes, as a matter of course, the CD32 motherboard will need checking. The audio section on both my CD32's sufferd badly with leaking caps and caused crackling sound. I know for a fact that mine also had two power supply capacitor's installed the wrong way round and had bulged out and I have replaced that now (located at the expansion slot)

[wiz12]

Sorry to resurrect this old thread but the battery is starting to leak in my sx32 so I'm wondering whats the best way to handle it?

[Daedalus]

Remove it immediately! If you have and can use a soldering iron, desoldering it is the best bet. If you don't, you can very carefully snip the legs off. Any corrosion that's made it onto the PCB should be cleaned with an acid (e.g. table vinegar or lemon juice) until it stops fizzing, then rinsed away with 99% IPA (not the beer).

What part of Ireland are you in? If you don't have the tools yourself, there might be someone on here near you who would be willing to help you out.

As regards the previous posts, it looks like some SX32s at least have a NiCd cell in a small plastic capsule that could be mistaken for a lithium cell in a holder. I've removed these from a couple of A1200 RAM cards in the past as they've started leaking...

[wiz12]

Originally Posted by Daedalus

Remove it immediately! If you have and can use a soldering iron, desoldering it is the best bet. If you don't, you can very carefully snip the legs off. Any corrosion that's made it onto the PCB should be cleaned with an acid (e.g. table vinegar or lemon juice) until it stops fizzing, then rinsed away with 99% IPA (not the beer).

What part of Ireland are you in? If you don't have the tools yourself, there might be someone on here near you who would be willing to help you out.

As regards the previous posts, it looks like some SX32s at least have a NiCd cell in a small plastic capsule that could be mistaken for a lithium cell in a holder. I've removed these from a couple of A1200 RAM cards in the past as they've started leaking...

The battery I have is the same white plastic one that's in the photo a few posts above which is probably the NiCd cell you describe. Can the white plastic top be removed to access the battery itself or is it one complete unit?

I'm fairly handy with a soldering iron having re-capped three Amigas thus far. If I were to snip the legs off could this white cell battery be bought new?

[Daedalus]

I don't know if they can be easily opened - the ones I've seen didn't have any obvious clips so may have been heat sealed or glued. I didn't investigate too deeply though; they went straight in the recycling after a brief glance.

It should be pretty easy to remove the battery and replace it too if you wished. I would recommend replacing it with a lithium cell + suitable adaptor to prevent charging as it shouldn't leak in the future - for example this from AmigaKit or construct your own. I haven't seen that type of battery on sale in a long time, but space permitting, any 3.6V NiCd or NiMH battery would be a drop-in replacement.

[wiz12]

That battery kit seems to be the best option as it doesn't look like it will be easy to remove the white plastic cap without causing damage.

[kolla]

Apparently I removed the battery on my SX32 pro at some point, and now I'd like to install a new one, but I cannot see where the battery is supposed to connect to the board. Anyone got a tip or a pic?

[indigolemon]

Is the one in post 8 in this thread the same?

[Daedalus]

Originally Posted by kolla

Apparently I removed the battery on my SX32 pro at some point, and now I'd like to install a new one, but I cannot see where the battery is supposed to connect to the board. Anyone got a tip or a pic?

I haven't worked on them myself, but this photo might be helpful.