Hacking FAQ: The G6 battery and charging

[outphase]

The G6 battery is rechargable, but its lifetime is currently indeterminant. As of now, there is no reason to go out of your way to charge the battery via USB dock as normal use is sufficient for charging. Then again, the battery should have enough life on its own to not require charging for an extended period of time (whether extended means 1+ yrs is hard to say).

Also, the G6 Touchpod menu battery display is not of the internal G6 battery, but rather the DS's battery.

I hope this clears up a few things.

edit: new evidence, my crackpot theory was originally incorrect.

 

[Elkano]

Obvious (and probably expected) question:

Any idea how long it lasts?

 

[Rykar]

Bullshit.

 

[outphase]

Bullshit.

I'd expect a better counter-argument than that.

 

[Rykar]

Bullshit.

I'd expect a better counter-argument than that.

I'd expect a better argument than "It is so there!" How do you know that it is not rechargeable?
I'm sick of the misconceptions that this board creates.

 

[ds6220]

Well.......What proof do we have that the battery IS rechargeable. As Outphase correctly stated, the battery indicator is for the DS battery and some have reported having a dead one...

Let's just say I wish and hope that outphase is half wrong because changing these damn things are hard.

 

[outphase]

I see your lack of proof as a counter argument attempt, so allow me to revise my previous position then, thus I pose a question to you. Does the battery need to be charged? People talk about needing to charge the battery in ways such as leaving it in the USB dongle. This isn't as vital as people are led to believe. Personally, I have never left the G6 in the USB dongle for longer than needed to add games onto the card. Any saves lost? Nope. The only other time that any current is going through the G6 is when I'm playing the DS. Is the G6 charging while there's gameplay? Probably but unlikely.

I hope that next time you can provide some real information (which judging by some of your previous posts, there really isn't any) instead of attacking my attempt to clear things up.

 

[GeneralLeoFF]

If someone was brave enough to risk destroying a G6 and removed the battery we would know. You can't see the label because the battery is mounted upside down.

I'm not so concerned if it is rechargeable or not myself cuz I took mine apart just now to look at the battery and already two contact pins are worn out and starting to corrode. The things not even two weeks old yet and at this rate my G6 will proly be dead long before it's battery dies.

 

[Ferrian]

I'm not sure about the G6 lite but my regular G6 started having problems keeping saves till I replaced the battery with a regular watch one. Haven't had any save problems since. Keep in mind this happened last November, before the V3 software which changed the save system.

 

[ds6220]

Does the battery need to be charged?

That is a great point. I know that with early flash cards like my 128M Flash Advance card, if the battery went (and it did a few times since I purchased mine) the card was useless. No saves, some games would not even load. I use the G6lite, but I don't really understand it all that well (the inner workings and all that)....so a great question is how important is the battery. Like I said before, changing out those things really suck for someone like me that is no good at soldering.

 

[outphase]

The battery is important to saving. Your game saves are stored in on-board SRAM while you're playing and when the system is off. Once turned back on, the save data in the SRAM is placed in the .0 file on your card.

 

[GeneralLeoFF]

The battery is important to saving. Your game saves are stored in on-board SRAM while you're playing and when the system is off. Once turned back on, the save data in the SRAM is placed in the .0 file on your card.

This is why I turn my DS off then back on and then off again every time I stop playing. Even if the battery dies the SRAM should be powered while you play and if it works like the SRAM in old NES or SNES carts it will remain powered up to several minutes after you power off leaving you plenty of time to restart the DS and transfer the save.

 

[TM_Sephiroth]

3 QUESTIONS

1 - My "G6 Touchpod menu battery display" don't change a bit! (The 4 "blocks" always is the same o.õ) . What could be ???

2 - After saving, the Saves are stored at SRAM, then I turn the power off , then power on...
Do I need to do something else ??? (Like, pressing "Select" do do the "Save Backup"...)

3 - What's the difference between "1>Default" and "Default>1" ???

 

[outphase]

3 QUESTIONS

1 - My "G6 Touchpod menu battery display" don't change a bit! (The 4 "blocks" always is the same o.õ) . What could be ???

2 - After saving, the Saves are stored at SRAM, then I turn the power off , then power on...
Do I need to do something else ??? (Like, pressing "Select" do do the "Save Backup"...)

3 - What's the difference between "1>Default" and "Default>1" ???

1. It's the equivalent of your DS's LED for power information. It's either good or bad
2. Nope, nothing else
3. one copies from .1 -> .0 save files, the other does .0 -> .1

 

[TM_Sephiroth]

3 QUESTIONS

1 - My "G6 Touchpod menu battery display" don't change a bit! (The 4 "blocks" always is the same o.õ) . What could be ???

2 - After saving, the Saves are stored at SRAM, then I turn the power off , then power on...
Do I need to do something else ??? (Like, pressing "Select" do do the "Save Backup"...)

3 - What's the difference between "1>Default" and "Default>1" ???


1. It's the equivalent of your DS's LED for power information. It's either good or bad
2. Nope, nothing else
3. one copies from .1 -> .0 save files, the other does .0 -> .1

1 - Yeah! I do that ^^ (When the lights go red...it's time to recharge =D)
2/3 - So...When I save in-game...then I backup (by reseting only)...the save is the ".0" one right?

(Thanks ^^")

 

[Azimuth]

about a month ago i was trying to fit the g6 lite into the regular ds lite dust cover, as clumsy as i am i broke the solder that was holding the battery in place, even though my battery on my g6 lite isnt connected to the main circuit board all my saves work fine....i thought the battery was only used for gba game patching and games with a real time clock

 

[tama_mog]

3 QUESTIONS

1 - My "G6 Touchpod menu battery display" don't change a bit! (The 4 "blocks" always is the same o.õ) . What could be ???

2 - After saving, the Saves are stored at SRAM, then I turn the power off , then power on...
Do I need to do something else ??? (Like, pressing "Select" do do the "Save Backup"...)

3 - What's the difference between "1>Default" and "Default>1" ???


1. It's the equivalent of your DS's LED for power information. It's either good or bad
2. Nope, nothing else
3. one copies from .1 -> .0 save files, the other does .0 -> .1

1 - Yeah! I do that ^^ (When the lights go red...it's time to recharge =D)
2/3 - So...When I save in-game...then I backup (by reseting only)...the save is the ".0" one right?

(Thanks ^^")

That is correct, .0 = default.

 

[tama_mog]

about a month ago i was trying to fit the g6 lite into the regular ds lite dust cover, as clumsy as i am i broke the solder that was holding the battery in place, even though my battery on my g6 lite isnt connected to the main circuit board all my saves work fine....i thought the battery was only used for gba game patching and games with a real time clock

I find this one hard to believe. The only way this will work is if you 1) soft reset back to main menu to process the save or 2) you turn it off and on again quickly to make sure the information on the sram is preserved. Otherwise after perhaps couple minutes @ most (perhaps even a few seconds, who exactly knows the time sram is preserved without a battery). Try playing some game and then save and then turn off your ds and go back to the game after 1 hr without a battery, I can assure you it's gone.

 

[Azimuth]

i assure u its still there, i left the battery in the g6 lite but the soldering is gone, ive been using the thing for a month with no problems

 

[tama_mog]

granted I have not looked closely @ the g6 pc board to see exactly where this solder pt is that you're talking about, I got the sense from your post that you're claiming that your battery is disconnected because the solder came off. Now if this solder pt has nothing to do with the battery powering the sram, then yes you would have no problems granted your battery is not dead. however, if you claim that the battery can be disconnected and still operate normally keeping saves for hours/days, then your g6 unit is magical and your sram battery is air element powered.