Did I not remove the right battery on my Q*Bert ?

GunSmoke Guy

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
2,827
Reaction score
138
Location
New York, New York
I'm slightly confused, so I bought a Q*Bert recently and read that the battery leaks etc.. My game was intermittently saving... So I took it upon myself to remove the battery from my PCB. I don't really need the game to have a save feature. Any ways after desoldering, I turned on my game and noticed my High Score remained. Is that because once it saves to NVRAM? Will it will be there permanently until another high score is achieved ? Did I remove the correct problematic battery in question so that acid damage shouldn't occur in the future? I heard about some rechargeable house phone batteries as a replacement but again I'm not sure I even necessarily need to / want to even replace it as I don't really need a high score save feature.





I saw this : http://www.interstatebatteries.com/...+Type|101|1|&Title=3.6V+180mAh+NIMH+4+PC+PINS

Not sure if it's compatible etc.. was the GE battery I removed the original one that came from Gottlieb ? Or did a prior owner replace it at some point. I understand the convience of using a battery holder as opposed to keep having to solder / desolder new 4 pin batteries but I don't mind either way.
 
Last edited:
You removed the right one. If it's still saving it might have one of those new-fangled ram chips that saves it too.

That board looks cleannnnnnn you got it off of there in time.
 
You have three choices:

1) replace the existing Nicad with another - do not do this - you still have the threat of battery leakage.

2) use two NVRAMS:

Here is the link from Jrok's site:

http://www.jrok.com/sohs/qb-upg.html

3) Use a lithium coin cell holder mod - you will also need a diode to block the charging circuit. I don't see link for that mod.

The easiest mod is #2 but it is also the most expensive one.

#3 requires some circuit knowledge and a little work but is less expensive to implement (CR2032 coin cell holder plus diode).

In addition, change the power on reset cap to at least 470uF as noted in #2.

I've done both #2 and #3 and they work - I do a lot more of #3.

Bill
 
You have three choices:

1) replace the existing Nicad with another - do not do this - you still have the threat of battery leakage.

2) use two NVRAMS:

Here is the link from Jrok's site:

http://www.jrok.com/sohs/qb-upg.html

3) Use a lithium coin cell holder mod - you will also need a diode to block the charging circuit. I don't see link for that mod.

The easiest mod is #2 but it is also the most expensive one.

#3 requires some circuit knowledge and a little work but is less expensive to implement (CR2032 coin cell holder plus diode).

In addition, change the power on reset cap to at least 470uF as noted in #2.

I've done both #2 and #3 and they work - I do a lot more of #3.

Bill

out of all of the options; I like 3 the best myself.
 
Back
Top Bottom