2 replies to this topic

[Spectrum]

So my Yamaha AN1x synth's back-up battery finally gives up gives up the ghost (with a 'low battery warning' on the LCD when booted up) after a good 13 years of service.

For those not familiar of why gear would have these back-up batteries: in the days before cheap reliable gigabytes of FLASH ROM where data can be rewritten over and over on memory chips that would retain their information even when no power is connected, the equipment would typically employ a small lithium watch-type battery, mounted somewhere on the internal circuit boards, to maintain continuous power to the memory chips that were used for system set-up preferences, and perhaps more importantly, the user saved sound patch bank memories.




33 screws out of the back panel (thank goodness, they were all the same size, and literally only on the back panel itself), a $3.99 replacement battery from the Electronic Dick (www.dicksmith.com.au) and we were away again. Be sure to back-up first, 'cause once the battery is disconnected, the patch memories become corrupted in a matter of seconds, if not instantly.

Rather than re-invent the wheel, I thought I'd link you to a most excellent resource page on another production forum...
http://www.gearslutz...ource-page.html

I can't imagine any gear still relying on batteries these days, but there's plenty of stuff from a decade or more ago in use, so people may run into this issue still from time to time.

[Jester_Fu]

I'm pretty sure if you actually power it up before removing the battery and leave it powered while removing the battery it will retain memory. That's what i did with mine and seemed OK afterwards. Or maybe i just got lucky?

[Spectrum]

Yeah, you're probably totally right, and the the 'disconnect mains power before removing any panels' blanket warning is flashing in my head, but hey, it's just a wall wart so not exactly gonna fry anyone. Hmm, in retrospect I'd probably do it exactly the way you suggested, especially as once the metal exterior base comes away, the battery is so accessible.