Replace the Battery in your Game Cartridge! **56k warning**

[Master Kirby]

If you can find a battery that has tabs it will save you a lot of trouble in attatching your own. You can buy them online (part number P223-ND at digikey.com) if you want to pay a lot for shipping.

You can also find battery holder clips that you can solder to the cartridge and then just put the battery in it. These clips are the kind of thing you may see holding the CMOS battery on a computer motherboard. You would just have to make sure it is thin enough to fit in the cartridge.

If you don't want to spend a load of extra money buying batteries with tabs, you can build an spot welding device. This will work much better in attaching tabs to your new battery than trying to solder it.



If you have a disposable camera (or any kind with a flash that you won't mind taking apart), you can open it up and make your own welder.

• Find the capacitor inside that stores the charge to power the flash.
• Attach a wire to each lead of the capacitor.
• Use an insulated tool such as pliers to hold the tab in place. If it isn't held down, the spark may make it fly off the battery.
• Once the capacitor is charged up, place one wire touching the edge where the tab meets the top of the battery.
• Touch the second wire to another point where the tab touches the battery.
• Remove both wires.

When the second wire makes contact, a spark jumps between both wires, melting the spots where each wire touched the metal. This allows you to fuse the tab to the battery. If you practice this, you can get it to work. Sometimes you get a stronger hold than others, so make sure you fuse multiple areas where the tab touches the battery.




I covered the tabs with epoxy to add extra strength.

Now your battery should be ready to solder back onto the circuit board.

Here is a short video clip I took to show the spark I was making to weld the tabs onto the battery. [broken link]

Update:
I have finished soldering the battery, with its finished tabs, back onto the circuit board. I have tested that it successfully supplies 3 volts, and I have played it for a while to verify that the saves are sustained.



The most important thing to remember when replacing your battery:
Make sure that there is a firm connection between the battery and the board at all times.

My first replacement battery was ruined by trying to solder tabs onto it. If your battery does not have tabs already connected, find a strong method of connection such as welding the tabs on or using a battery clip made to hold the CR2025 or CR2032.

Good luck to anyone else who tries to replace their battery. If something doesn't work, keep trying. You will eventually find a solution.

[def_K]

You can buy them online (part number P223-ND at digikey.com) if you want to pay a lot for shipping.

So i checked the link out but it comes up with a BR 2032 battery instead of a CR 2032...
judging by the picture on the site, it looks like it would still work but im not sure.
I searched for the part P245-ND instead and it looks just like the battery in the red version cart in the picture master kirby posted at the beginning of this thread, but the tabs are in the wrong positions. Could the tabs somehow rotate?

[Amani2]

So i checked the link out but it comes up with a BR 2032 battery instead of a CR 2032...
judging by the picture on the site, it looks like it would still work but im not sure.
I searched for the part P245-ND instead and it looks just like the battery in the red version cart in the picture master kirby posted at the beginning of this thread, but the tabs are in the wrong positions. Could the tabs somehow rotate?

Yep, it is a BR battery. Not sure about the position of the tabs, but as far as I know, CR and BR are both fine, they are just designed for slightly different kinds of circuits. Either should work in this case. A CR battery's voltage drops uniformly over time whereas BR maintains a pretty steady voltage over its life, but then drops suddenly at the end of its life. Check out the very bottom of this page: http://www.swcomputingservices.com/batteryorder.html.

I used the BR2032 from digikey and my games seem to be working fine so far.

[Mr. Brightside]

I would like to thank you as well for your detailed guide as it is the only one that is actually useful on the internet. I started the process but i'm having a hard time finding a battery with tabs, so i guess i'll buy one from Digi-Key.