Tron lithium battery kit question... Is there a Plan B?

Madaracs

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Tron lithium battery kit question... Is there a Plan B?

Is there a reason why my Tron lithium battery kit wouldn't keep scores for more than a year?

It seems like the lithium batteries are going dead awfully fast.

Is there a better solution to game saves on a Tron?
 
Is there a reason why my Tron lithium battery kit wouldn't keep scores for more than a year?

It seems like the lithium batteries are going dead awfully fast.

Is there a better solution to game saves on a Tron?

Mine has one and has never saves high scores.
 
I tried the lithum battery mod and it didn't save scores (made sure I had the diode in there right, double-checked my work)...ended up removing the lithium button battery and then replacing the 6116 RAM on the PCB stack with a Dallas 1220Y (no other changes needed - just a drop-in replacement)
 
I tried the lithum battery mod and it didn't save scores (made sure I had the diode in there right, double-checked my work)...ended up removing the lithium button battery and then replacing the 6116 RAM on the PCB stack with a Dallas 1220Y (no other changes needed - just a drop-in replacement)

Is that a soldered or socket RAM?

Edit: Looks like it's probably soldered socketed. And that replacement part looks like the same battery RAM that Philips used in their CD-I back in the early 90s.
 
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I also have the free play chip installed. For some reason, I thought I had installed a HSS save ram chip as well. My Satan's Hollow has the same set up and it saves high scores.
 
The lithium battery mod was the first mod I ever did on my Tron--or rather it was the first time I ever soldered something on an arcade game. I initially put it in backwards though and that was a problem. But once I figured it out it worked great. For I'd say 6 months then the batter was kaput. I'd put in a new battery and I was off to the races.

This Dallas RAM thing seems like a viable option--can you tell me how long the battery has lasted for you dfrance?
 
I've had mine in there for at least two years now. Actually bought a small lot of them off eBay - a couple were duds, but have had several work. They're old (based on date stamp) - so I may eventually replace it with a new one - but initially wanted to see if this mod worked before investing in a new one (the "lot" I got was cheaper than a sinlge new one at the time). If/when I decide to replace it I may try reading it with my GQ-4X programmer and writing the scores to the new one.
 
I've had mine in there for at least two years now. Actually bought a small lot of them off eBay - a couple were duds, but have had several work. They're old (based on date stamp) - so I may eventually replace it with a new one - but initially wanted to see if this mod worked before investing in a new one (the "lot" I got was cheaper than a sinlge new one at the time). If/when I decide to replace it I may try reading it with my GQ-4X programmer and writing the scores to the new one.

Well two years is better than 6 months. ;) Right?

I'm gonna give it a shot. Just ordered 5.
 
The lithium battery mod was the first mod I ever did on my Tron--or rather it was the first time I ever soldered something on an arcade game. I initially put it in backwards though and that was a problem. But once I figured it out it worked great. For I'd say 6 months then the batter was kaput. I'd put in a new battery and I was off to the races.

This Dallas RAM thing seems like a viable option--can you tell me how long the battery has lasted for you dfrance?

What kind of Lithium battery are you using? A CR2032 with a holder? The load might just be too much for a button cell lithium to last long. You might want to try a 1/2 AA lithium, it should last years instead of months:

Battery:
http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/29-5477

Holder:
http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/item/BH-13/1/2-AA-CELL-BATTERY-HOLDER/1.html

Keep in mind that this is a 3.6v battery not 1.5v, but if you have a lithium battery you already are using 3v.

Edit:
It is probably even easier to get a 3.6v Lithium AA which will last even longer, and you can buy a single cell AA holder at Radio Shack:

http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/29-5472
 
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I used the battery from the kit off Bob Roberts' page - don't know if I did something wrong during the install, or there's another problem...it just didn't work (and the battery wasn't dead)...so I said screw it, and went with a Dallas 1220Y after a little reseach on here. Had a friend whose used a couple of them from my "lot" on other machines with success also.

I also did the attract-mode sound mod...just removed the resistor. I'm thinking of wiring that up to one of the unused DIP switches next time I pull the board so I can toggle that if I ever get tired of hearing it (note the one in TRON: Legacy had attract mode sounds)
 
To Madaracs: Two things could be going on.....besides output voltage, batteries are rated in mAh. The higher the mAh, the longer a battery should last. If the ones you purchased have a very low mAh, they'll tap out pretty quickly. The other thing, you could have something up with the battery circuit causing a parasitic drain. Instead of the battery powering the RAM when the power is off.....it could be trying to power the RAM at all times....it could also be trying to power the entire 5VDC line.

To Phet: I bet the battery voltage isn't getting to the RAM.....initial guess is bad connectors/headers.

Edward
 
I also did the attract-mode sound mod...just removed the resistor. I'm thinking of wiring that up to one of the unused DIP switches next time I pull the board so I can toggle that if I ever get tired of hearing it (note the one in TRON: Legacy had attract mode sounds)

That sounds cool. I'd want to be able to toggle it for sure. For me Legacy has no influence on whether or not I'd want the mod, though. ;)
 
Brand new battery installed on the MCR board and it has never saved high scores.

As someone else mentioned, you probably have a bad connection from the power supply to the main CPU PCB in the stack. I once had a similar problem on my Spy Hunter machine, and traced the voltage all the way to the CPU board, and found that someone had cut a jumper on the board that allows the voltage to reach the RAM.
-Mark
 
To Madaracs: Two things could be going on.....besides output voltage, batteries are rated in mAh. The higher the mAh, the longer a battery should last. If the ones you purchased have a very low mAh, they'll tap out pretty quickly. The other thing, you could have something up with the battery circuit causing a parasitic drain. Instead of the battery powering the RAM when the power is off.....it could be trying to power the RAM at all times....it could also be trying to power the entire 5VDC line.

To Phet: I bet the battery voltage isn't getting to the RAM.....initial guess is bad connectors/headers.

Edward

Thanks, that's great info. I'm going to check out the mAh tonight. I suspect that it's the latter though... some sort of parasitic drain--though I wouldn't know what to check. I can't remember if there was a trace I was supposed to cut for the mod? Maybe I didn't do it right. In any case, it's worth a second (or third or fourth or sixteenth) look.
 
I have the attract mode 'mod' on both my Satan's Hollow and my TRON. I think it rocks, though if the shield sound gets frozen from one attract mode to the next on Satan's Hollow, it can get pretty annoying. With TRON, when you fire it up, you immediately hear that old teletype/typewriter sound which is purely awesome.
 
I have the attract mode 'mod' on both my Satan's Hollow and my TRON. I think it rocks, though if the shield sound gets frozen from one attract mode to the next on Satan's Hollow, it can get pretty annoying. With TRON, when you fire it up, you immediately hear that old teletype/typewriter sound which is purely awesome.

At least on Tron, I think it would be OK to have the sounds on all the time because you get a break during scene changes and presumably there is no sound on the scoring and instructional pages, right?
 
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