Battery replacement question on a Talking Poker Game

[Taco]

I have a Talking Poker Game with an older style battery as seen in the photo. Can this battery be upgraded to the newer style battery such as the piggy back watch cell nicads at 3.6v ?




Thanks...

[channelmaniac]

Ouch.

That is a NiCD rechargeable battery.

The first question is this: Does the game die if the battery dies? If it does then you don't want to pull it without the board being powered up.

You CAN replace it with a watch battery *if* you do your homework.

1. Find the voltage of the battery. Coin cells are 3 to 3.2v nominal. Some NiCD batteries for memory backup are 3.6 (which the coin will work as a replacement for) but some are 4.5v and the coin cell might not work for replacing it. See #3.
2. If the battery is a suicide battery then don't.
3. Look up the datasheet for the RAM it keeps powered. Look at the standby power requirements. If too high for the coin cell battery then you'll have VERY short battery life. You might be able to replace the IC with a lower power version.
4. Neuter the charging circuit. There are diodes to block power flows to the wrong part of the board and typically a resistor somewhere to trickle voltage to the battery when the power is on to keep it charged.

RJ

[Neonkiss]

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=ds3sd+battery&view=detail&id=55321A7E23C6F3D48D9F9B0CDA72A4CA97C30E48&first=0&FORM=IDFRIR

See above for a direct replacement.