Gallery - http://imgur.com/a/r0iei
So my Crystal battery died and as many of you know the stock battery is soldered on with tabs.
When battery dies or is removed the save file lingers for anywhere between 10 to 30 seconds, then its gone forever. This inspired me to figure out a way to do a battery holder mod so that the battery can be swapped within a few seconds.
Crystal (and Gold/Silver) have crystal oscillator which keeps the real time clock going and also consumes power 24/7 even when the cartridge is sitting on the shelf. These types of oscillators typically use 0.01 to 0.1 miliAmps of power, with 230mAh capacity this makes CR2032 last around 10-15 years.
There is a picture in the gallery of my original replacement method, simple solder on of the battery.
Mods like these have been done many times; however due to size of the gameboy cartridge people have been typically using smaller batteries, which means they would die much sooner, even CR2025 has about 25% less capacity and it is only half a millimeter thinner. So I wanted the CR2032 to fit.
Ive tried several higher quality holders; however those were too tall, so I had to use a clip, which adds less than 1mm to the thickness of the battery. (Most holders add 2 to 3mm).
The only problem with these is that they only provide positive contact, they rely on PCB having the negative, Pokemon Crystal PCB does not, so you have to wire your own. This honestly is the hardest part.
I demonstrate 2 different mounting strategies, diagonal and horizontal. I prefer the horizontal due to positive and negative contacts being much further from each other. But both work fine. ive also used two different thicknesses of wire, both work fine.
So yes, it is possible to fit CR2032 with a holder into Pokemon Crystal.
Hope this helps people.
So my Crystal battery died and as many of you know the stock battery is soldered on with tabs.
When battery dies or is removed the save file lingers for anywhere between 10 to 30 seconds, then its gone forever. This inspired me to figure out a way to do a battery holder mod so that the battery can be swapped within a few seconds.
Crystal (and Gold/Silver) have crystal oscillator which keeps the real time clock going and also consumes power 24/7 even when the cartridge is sitting on the shelf. These types of oscillators typically use 0.01 to 0.1 miliAmps of power, with 230mAh capacity this makes CR2032 last around 10-15 years.
There is a picture in the gallery of my original replacement method, simple solder on of the battery.
Mods like these have been done many times; however due to size of the gameboy cartridge people have been typically using smaller batteries, which means they would die much sooner, even CR2025 has about 25% less capacity and it is only half a millimeter thinner. So I wanted the CR2032 to fit.
Ive tried several higher quality holders; however those were too tall, so I had to use a clip, which adds less than 1mm to the thickness of the battery. (Most holders add 2 to 3mm).
The only problem with these is that they only provide positive contact, they rely on PCB having the negative, Pokemon Crystal PCB does not, so you have to wire your own. This honestly is the hardest part.
I demonstrate 2 different mounting strategies, diagonal and horizontal. I prefer the horizontal due to positive and negative contacts being much further from each other. But both work fine. ive also used two different thicknesses of wire, both work fine.
So yes, it is possible to fit CR2032 with a holder into Pokemon Crystal.
Hope this helps people.
