TECH: How to replace the battery holder on a Williams System 11 CPU board

blkdog7

New member

Donor 2011
Joined
Feb 10, 2008
Messages
12,197
Reaction score
90
Location
Massachusetts
TECH: How to replace the battery holder on a Williams System 11 CPU board

I recently had to replace the faulty battery holder on my Whirlwind and went searching for Clay's article on this topic which as we know is LONG GONE. So, I made my own here:

http://johnsarcade.com

Here's the article with the photos:

My Whirlwind recently started acting up. I would get a "Factory Settings" message every time I turned the game on. This is actually quite common, it typically means the batteries are bad or there is an issue with the battery holder, etc. When the game is powered off, three AA batteries keep your settings, free play/coin settings, high-scores, etc. If the batteries are dead, or if there is a connection issue with the battery holder, you get this error and your settings are lost. The game resets itself back to factory defaults.

It's common for the batteries to leak and/or for the original cheap battery holder to be corroded. The original holder is not very good. If your batteries have leaked in this area it is CRITICAL that you clean up the acid properly or it could spread all over your CPU board. Acid loves eating up and following traces. I suggest googling how to do this, but you should do it! This posting is not going to cover acid clean-up, we are only going to focus on the battery holder.

Anyways, I pulled my Whirlwind's System 11B CPU board out of the game and removed the original battery holder by de-soldering it with my soldering iron and a solder sucker. When I removed the battery holder, I noticed that one of the terminals on the battery holder basically fell off from corrosion. So, this is why I wasn't getting voltage from the battery holder!



Ok, now that we have the old battery holder out, let's replace it with a new one and remote mount it.

I went to Radio Shack and picked-up a four cell AA battery holder, a 1N4004 diode, and some quick connectors. You'll also need some wire which I already had on hand.

The System 11 board wants three AA batteries, not four. You can use a four cell AA battery holder since they are cheap and easy to find. Simply place and solder the diode in the fourth cell slot with the band side connecting to the red wire side. See photos. This diode simply protects the batteries from being charged by the CPU board. The System 11 boards DO NOT charge the batteries by default but this is just an extra safety measure and you need to fill up that fourth battery slot anyways! This also lowers the voltage slightly of the battery pack so the game will alert you to change your batteries sooner than later (FACTORY SETTINGS) which is also good additional safety.

After installing the diode I made a "twisted pair" with my cordless drill and two wires. Basically, insert your red and black wires into the drills chuck and then twist them together with the drill. This makes for a very clean mini-wiring harness. I didn't have red and black wire on hand so I used green and black. I used green for positive.

Ok, after that I installed my quick disconnects to make it easy to unplug the battery holder if I ever need to down the road.

Then, after that, you just need to solder the negative wire (black) to the top right battery holder solder pad on the PCB and the positive wire (typically red, I used green since this is what I had on hand!) to bottom left solder pad on the PCB. And, that's it! You're done.

You can screw the battery holder somewhere in the head or on the light door, I just placed the battery holder in the bottom of the head. If you do that, just be sure to unplug the battery holder before moving your game if you fold the head down.

That's it! All fixed!

This is the BAD battery holder I pulled out:

battery_holder.JPG


Here's some photos of the new battery holder:

close_up_1.jpg


not_so_close_1.jpg
 
Not bad at all.

Personally, I would have keep the same coloring all the way to the board if you're able to reverse the quick disconnect.

With a Williams board, no need for the extra blocking diode, I use 3 battery holders. The diode doesn't hurt anything, but it's not a requirement if you're replacing an AA battery holder. They are needed if you're doing the nicad's on a bally/stern or a gottleib board though.

-Hans
 
Not bad at all.

Personally, I would have keep the same coloring all the way to the board if you're able to reverse the quick disconnect.

With a Williams board, no need for the extra blocking diode, I use 3 battery holders. The diode doesn't hurt anything, but it's not a requirement if you're replacing an AA battery holder. They are needed if you're doing the nicad's on a bally/stern or a gottleib board though.

-Hans

I was out of red wire as I mentioned in the article. The quick disconnect cannot be reversed. I know the System 11 games don't charge the batteries but I know it certainly doesn't hurt to use a diode and it helps easily fill the fourth cell slot in the holder.
 
Don't know why anyone would want to dick around with batteries anymore.
Just plug one of these in & be done with it FOREVER.

http://bigdaddy-enterprises.com/ProductPages/pinforge.html


Because some machines require you to pull the CPU board out, unsolder a chip, and then solder in a socket to use it. And then you lose all your settings and high scores.

For most of my games I have those flash rams, but some I just dont want to mess with right now and lose the scores or settings.

:)
 
Because some machines require you to pull the CPU board out, unsolder a chip, and then solder in a socket to use it. And then you lose all your settings and high scores.

For most of my games I have those flash rams, but some I just dont want to mess with right now and lose the scores or settings.

:)


How do you keep power to the ram chip while removing the battery holder?


I installed nvram in my WW, F14, Hook, and TFTC.... Data East was nice enough to have a socket. F14, WW required 15 mins of more work ea.
 
Good pics, thanks. On my to do list. I have the remote battery holder and wire, just need to remove original holder.
My Earthshaker always displays "Factory Settings" when powering on, very annoying!
Hopefully this will fix it.
 
I really don't mind the AA batteries. It's a nice quick way of doing things using easily found parts.
 
Don't know why anyone would want to dick around with batteries anymore.
Just plug one of these in & be done with it FOREVER.

http://bigdaddy-enterprises.com/ProductPages/pinforge.html

+1 lindsey's mod is definitely the way to go, or i'm sure a watch battery cell would be much cleaner/just as good and easier/cheaper to install (i like pulling them off old dead PC motherboards).


personally i've never liked the cheap hanging battery holder on any machine.
 
If I am not mistaken, a system 11 already has a socket installed for the RAM

I've done a few of these, and I've never seen a System 11 that had that RAM socketed.

And for games that take an 8K SRAM, there's no need to waste your money on that $27 "6264/2064 RAM Adapter", as you can still buy 8K Simtek NVRAMs (STK12C68) for under $8 each.
 
I've done a few of these, and I've never seen a System 11 that had that RAM socketed.

Yes... I wanted to do this on my Pinbot and it involved soldering in a socket. My battery holder was fine, my concern was them leaking so I just got a relocator kit that uses dummy batteries on the board and moves the actual AA's to a remote spot like the blkdg posted.
 
How do you keep power to the ram chip while removing the battery holder?


http://www.ebay.com/itm/150930745487 - Cheesy, there are better ones, but it works.

I made my own to use. So easy!

I would prefer to use the flash rams myself, but some games I've had before they were made and I dont want to lose the high scores/settings. :)
 
Last edited:
And for games that take an 8K SRAM, there's no need to waste your money on that $27 "6264/2064 RAM Adapter", as you can still buy 8K Simtek NVRAMs (STK12C68) for under $8 each.

You should share your source for the STK12C68 in a DIP package at that price. I'm sure lots of people would love to buy some.
 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/150930745487 - Cheesy, there are better ones, but it works.

I made my own to use. So easy!

I would prefer to use the flash rams myself, but some games I've had before they were made and I dont want to lose the high scores/settings. :)

That would not work if your removing the broken/bad batt holder per the OPs post...

I do use something like those in the games that keep time tho... as the nvram will not keep the clock going.

-Mike
 
+1 lindsey's mod is definitely the way to go, or i'm sure a watch battery cell would be much cleaner/just as good and easier/cheaper to install (i like pulling them off old dead PC motherboards).


personally i've never liked the cheap hanging battery holder on any machine.

+1

Why not a CR2032 lithium battery right on the board?
$2 and your done! :D
 
Back
Top Bottom