Hacking Internal Battery of flash carts

[yorke]

Hey,
I have an m3 mini sd and a ez4L, and I was just wondering how long it would take for the internal battery in these carts to run dry(or stop functioning if they are rechargable). Lithium ion batteries usually start to lose their effectiveness after 500+ charges or a few years of use, so in a few years time if my ds lite still happens to be working would the internal batteries of these carts still be working?

If they have run dry, is the sram used to store the save data able to keep its power long enough for me to quick power cycle the ds and save the data to the sd/minisd card?

Thanks.

 

[Vincent Vega]

I don´t know exactly, but I think the battery is rechargeable. The recharges occurs when you simply use the device.
On EZ-Flash I & II, the battery is recharged when you put the cart on the writer. On other flash carts (M3, SC, eWin, etc.) I don´t know.

 

[Mchart]

Hey,
I have an m3 mini sd and a ez4L, and I was just wondering how long it would take for the internal battery in these carts to run dry(or stop functioning if they are rechargable). Lithium ion batteries usually start to lose their effectiveness after 500+ charges or a few years of use, so in a few years time if my ds lite still happens to be working would the internal batteries of these carts still be working?

If they have run dry, is the sram used to store the save data able to keep its power long enough for me to quick power cycle the ds and save the data to the sd/minisd card?

Thanks.

SRAM Looses whatever is on it the moment it stops getting power.

 

[outphase]

Hey,
I have an m3 mini sd and a ez4L, and I was just wondering how long it would take for the internal battery in these carts to run dry(or stop functioning if they are rechargable). Lithium ion batteries usually start to lose their effectiveness after 500+ charges or a few years of use, so in a few years time if my ds lite still happens to be working would the internal batteries of these carts still be working?

If they have run dry, is the sram used to store the save data able to keep its power long enough for me to quick power cycle the ds and save the data to the sd/minisd card?

Thanks.


SRAM Looses whatever is on it the moment it stops getting power.

Not completely true, it does lose the data, but not for a few seconds. This is the time it takes for the capacitor to wind down.

 

[falco123]

I too am wondering the life of an M3 Slim...

 

[FAST6191]

Assuming you did not treat your battery badly (big temperature fluctuations is a bad idea) I would be willing to wager a lifetime of about 5 years: more than enough time to learn how to solder badly (maximum of 4 solder joints here and even then they are big not that hard to do).
If you want another comparisson the batteries used in flash carts are the same sort as used in motherboards (at least since the last 486 boards): how many of these have you had to replace batteries on?

As for the power cycle question, SRAM does lose storage when the power goes although you do normally have a few seconds to do something.
Coming off my comment above on 5 years time I expect soft reset (and possibly instant save/save states) will be nigh on flawless anyhow meaning it will not have to lose power.

@falco123 nice avatar

 

[KidIce]

I don´t know exactly, but I think the battery is rechargeable. The recharges occurs when you simply use the device.
On EZ-Flash I & II, the battery is recharged when you put the cart on the writer. On other flash carts (M3, SC, eWin, etc.) I don´t know.

All EZ flash carts recharge while in use and for those that use linkers charge when in them.

As for battery life, I've had my EZ2 for probably around 4 years and have never had a problem w/ it. It's not really something I think one should concern oneself w/, by the time the battery tanks for good I'll probably have moved on to something else... Like my EZ3 and 4, or maybe one of the new slot 1 carts.

Besides, it would only take the most basic soldering skills to replace the battery yourself.

 

[yuyuyup]

had a battery die on my flash2advance 128 few years ago