New Life Games Tech Forums

Realizing I'm going to have my Gamemaker with me a long time I decided to use a remote battery holder when replacing the dead battery on the board.  Figured next time I go to change the battery I won't have to whip out the solder station and screwdriver.  Maybe it's overkill for something that will probably only be done once every 5 years, and perhaps a bit cheesy, but satisfied my urge to do some sort of useful mod!

Good idea, did you use velcro for the battery holder? The reason I ask is that those two game eproms by the tray front are sometimes hard to get in, let alone with that battery holder now possibly in the way too.

 Dan (tacman)

REMOVED

Good mod BenF!! :3- :3-
It's always god to see how everybody
tries different ways to solve this problem!  :89-

I also do this mod to all my S6000's
AA battery holder is a whopping 99 cents from Rat Shack
they even have the battery for $16. I know digi key is cheaper for the battery
but 1 trip to Rat Shack for under $20 is a deal.


Tim

I was reviewing this topic. I have done the mods with the battery holder using the 3 or 4 AA holder from radio shack that has the 9 volt connecter. That way i can disconnect and replace the batteries. Is there a 3.6 volt AA battery available that fits in a single holder?  Also, are there any consequences to the mainboard/game for having the voltage over 3.6v. Thanks as always.


Golf

It very normal for anyone to put anything over the
required voltage to expect a smoking machine. :98-
Go ahead and stick a 12 volt battery in a car that normally
uses a 6Volt battery and see what happens... :72-

You're allowed to have more battery capacity but not more DC voltage.
In other words - you can put a larger battery but it must still be equal to 3.6 volts total.

Hmmm... Ok am still learning here. but if the battery is just used to supply backup when the power is down to retain settings, and not recharged by the machine then this would still have a negative impact on the board? I would think with these "complicated mainboards" that they  would have put a resister or fuse in line to prevent an over charging. Just thoughts.. I'll have to redo/rethink my back uip  battery additiuons if this is the case..

thanks for the info Bunker

The battery that you see pictured at the top of the thread is a AA sized 3.6V Saft battery. The barrel batteries that we use in S+ and Bally slots are 1/2AA batteries. The difference (aside from size) is the mAh rating of the batteries.

What you can (and should) do is to mount the battery holder on the outside front of the MPU frame instead of inside. That way, you can change the battery with the board plugged in and with power on. If you do this when the battery is just getting low (before the Saferam is corrupted), you will be able to save all of your setup information without having to perform a clear/setup.

On the other hand, Gamemakers aren't noted for having dead battery issues like the Bally Proslots, which seem to eat batteries like candy, so installing a battery holder in a GM is probably overkill.

In addition, when it comes to the Gamemaker, I find myself performing clears all the time because I frequently swap out games and haven't yet found a second board and tray at a price that I want to pay. If you also tend to swap games, then there is no need to put the battery outside the box. However, it's still the method of choice for Bally Proslots.

Thanks Stat.. When I did my proslot battery holder I used the 3 slot battery holder from Radio Shack. The total on all batteries added up to 3.6v so that conversion should be fine and not corrupt the mainboard if I understand this right. My universal conversion might be a problem as I used 4 batteries and that would be 4.8 v and might have screwed the board up. However I still get the ram error. I'll leave the proslot for now as I just did the battery conversion and it should be good for hmmm 6 months..lol  those things do eat batteries for sure.  The AA 3.6v battery is called a "saft" battery? Want to make sure I am looking for the right kind.  thanks again

I have a few of those SAFT batteries if you want golflover!
PM me with your address and I'll send you a couple of brand new ones for now!
They're good for many different boards too on other machines.

Saft is the brand name of those purple batteries that we see in almost all of our slot machines, but there are other brands. As long as it's a 3.6v lithium.

Regarding the 4-pack battery conversion, if you are referring to the mod of using three regular alkaline AA batteries and a diode in the fourth position, there was another tech who disagreed with that method because it could cause problems. I've tried searching for the thread, but I can't find it. If another member knows where it is -- the thread disagreeing with this method, not the thread that documents it -- please post.

I have to jump in here since Stat made a general comment about "Proslots" eating batteries. Using the term Proslot is vague since it covers more than one platform, the system 5500 (S5500) and the System 6000 (S6000) are both Proslots, however the S6000 doesn't have the battery issue.  I would say that the Gamemaker has the greater appetite and reccomend using the C cell 3.6 volt replacement which lasts much longer.  For reference, I service machines and have machines that come in for battery changes.  Lately I have changed out some 1998 batteries in 1998 S6000 machines that only just died.  This would match the lifetime of the S-Plus machines that I change from the same period, albeit their battery was a 1/2 AA and the S6000 is a full AA which a S6000 or a Gamemaker would come with. The S5500 did use a 1/2 AA.

One more thing.  Don't expect old Ebay batteries to have the same life as a 2010 dated battery, I bought 2 trays of "New" Ebay batteries that were dated 2004 and regretted the purchase.  I don't know what enviroment they were stored in but their life was short in any platform.  I pay more for batteries now but they are dated very recent (last bunch May 2010).

Thanks,
Wayne

Tadiran are the purple ones, Saft are green and white...

I generally buy my batteries at the batteries Plus that is local. I didn;t know that radio shack sold the 3.6 saft batteries and will have to try those. I am hoping since I didn't do the diode conversion that I didn't fry my universal board with putting in the 4 AA battereis (insert Bunker's fried resistor here ) will have to redo that mod and check it out. I have 2 other boards so will have to chck them also. I am pretty sure that they have the orginal batteries on them so they would be dead for sure.. Boards are circa 1984 and just been sitting on a shelf as I picked them up from various sources. But with the gamemaker coming it might be time to retire the Universal as parts and expetise to fix these machines are becoming scarce. 

You're right. My bad.  :30-

I know you know this so I was thinking you may have been enjoying some refreshments yourself today...  :96-

W