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Zippy Zapp
CA, USA

Posted Mon Jun 03, 2019 2:42 pm

I've thought about super capacitors as my PC engine duo uses one for memory saves and it is still going strong.

What model do you use for the Amiga?
Are there any negatives?

User avatar
Christian

Posted Wed Jun 05, 2019 12:55 pm

Only negative is that the clock is not backed up for more than 4-6 weeks on the A2000. A bit shorter on the A3000.
Advantage is that you never have to replace a battery and you can leave the charging circuitry as it is.

I used the Panasonic Gold Caps (5.5V 1.0F) on one A3000 and the NEC/Tokin FYD Capacitors (5.5V 1.4F) on the A2000s.
I will replace the Panasonic Gold Cap on the A3000 with a low profile NEC/Tokin FYD version.

The Panasonic Gold Cap has lasted 24 years (1995) without any issue, but there have been some reports of seal failure. Panasonic has discontinued those. I have not heard anything bad about the NEC/Tokin ones and I think that they have a lower self discharge rate than the Panasonic ones -> longer clock run time. Just don't use NEC/Tokin FYS capacitors - they are good, but have high self-discharge and are really for higher power (i.e. UPS, memory backup, etc) uses.

User avatar
Zippy Zapp
CA, USA

Posted Thu Jun 06, 2019 7:39 am

Well that is cool. I guess if you are not storing your A2000 for too long and use it regularly that's not too bad. I have two A2000's and sometimes because of space, I have to stick them in the closet in between uses. I have been using these cordless phone batteries.

The Amiga can charge them after some time. They last a very long time in storage, months. You can also buy the mating connector on eBay for a few cents but I just cut the connector and solder some jumper connecters on wire pigtails and then solder pins to the battery holes on the motherboard. This way I can easily unplug the battery and the wires are long enough to velcro or zip tie the battery to the front of the chassis, out of the way of the motherboard just in case.

Of course it is probably easier to just use a CR2032 and a holder with a diode and be done with it, I like to complicate things. ;)

User avatar
obitus1990
USA

Posted Thu Jun 06, 2019 8:46 am

Zippy Zapp wrote:Well that is cool. I guess if you are not storing your A2000 for too long and use it regularly that's not too bad. I have two A2000's and sometimes because of space, I have to stick them in the closet in between uses. I have been using these cordless phone batteries.

The Amiga can charge them after some time. They last a very long time in storage, months. You can also buy the mating connector on eBay for a few cents but I just cut the connector and solder some jumper connecters on wire pigtails and then solder pins to the battery holes on the motherboard. This way I can easily unplug the battery and the wires are long enough to velcro or zip tie the battery to the front of the chassis, out of the way of the motherboard just in case.

Of course it is probably easier to just use a CR2032 and a holder with a diode and be done with it, I like to complicate things. ;)

That's a pretty neat solution. Just out of curiosity, does anyone else have less than ideal life from the CR2032 cells? I find that when I install brand new, Duracell branded ones (in the diode protected holder), that the Amiga still loses significant amounts of time (like months) if I put it into storage for a while.

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Thu Jun 06, 2019 10:49 am

I've noticed that my Amiga clocks - really all of them - aren't amazing time keepers in general. They all seem to slowly lose time over the months. As it turns out I have some very old digital watches, and they do the same thing albeit at a less obvious rate.

Personally I chalked it up to the clock chips themselves as just being really old and possibly their timings, slowly losing their grasp on our space time continuum.

I will update the time on the machines I'm using to be second-accurate about once a year. I like my machines to have working dates/times. It's an annoying obsession...

User avatar
obitus1990
USA

Posted Thu Jun 06, 2019 12:06 pm

Either that, or, the oscillator crystal associated with the clock chip and mounted nearby it is deteriorating, if that is possible.

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Zippy Zapp
CA, USA

Posted Thu Jun 06, 2019 12:54 pm

I think they are not very accurate and I also think that the voltage of the batteries can cause it to slow too.

In my A1200 it seems ok. But I remember even back in the day, having to adjust the clock as it was not always perfect. I made quite a few calls to POP-CORN. lol





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