X68000 Compact S-Ram coin cell battery holder, and more

[kamiboy]

While I had the guts of my Compact spilled I thought I'd look at an issue which I suspected was battery related.

When I refurbished it I pulled out its old dead battery and tried to find a battery holder that woukd fit the motherboard online.

I failed at that task as the holder I bought had legs placed too far apart for the holes in the motherboard.

I managed to make the holder fit somehow, but it seems it didnt quite work since the replacement battery I bought is dead. Maybe I soldered the holder with the wrong polarity? We will never know because I yanked it out. Now I want to do this thing right.

Anyone know where I can buy a proper fitting holder? Or failing in that where I can get a replacement battery with legs that fit the holes?

Other than that there is still the issue of my midi interface board seemingly not working. I'd like to give this midi thing a try, so I want to fix the problem if possible.

I would like to test whether the board itself is bad or confirm that there something wrong with my compact. Anyone have any good ideas as to how I should go about that?

[SuperDeadite]

Personally, I just cut out the old battery leaving the original soldered points intact.  Then I just solder wires to the legs and use the battery holder of my choice, which then I just tape in an easy to reach area for when the battery goes.

[caius]

Like SuperDeadite, I use common CR2032 holder like this:

http://www.ventor.co.in/index.php?main_page=popup_image&pID=71&zenid=0dfb51a0a3a18dca3fa29848366ba747

and then I solder wires to its legs and put hot glue to hold it in place.

[kamiboy]

When it comes to repairs of my personal machines I always want things to be extra neat. Remember we are talking here about a guy who measures all the capacitors on the Compact so I could buy replacements of the same size and type, SMD or can.

I want to get the right holder, or just plain replacement battery. I've seen pictures of them somewhere so they exist.

I bet BlueBMW knows.

[kamiboy]

Actually since I still had that old battery around I googled its part number Panasonic VL1220 and wouldnt you know it is being sold everywhere.

Kicker is that it turns out that battery I pulled out is actually rechargeable, so maybe if I had left it in and turned the Compact on it would have worked out. We'll never know since I ripped its legs off for no real good reason at all.

That brings us to the next order of business, that damn midi interface card not working right.

I saw som threads back that you guys used 68032 schematics to test chip input/output legs. Could anyone walk me through the same but for the parts relevant to the expansion slots?

[BlueBMW]

Which MIDI board are you using?  I have heard that some of them have some incompatibility issues... Not sure which ones though.

[kamiboy]

Sharp CZ-6BM1A

It is by Sharp which I assume makes it official and should make compatibility issues the least likely scenario. I mean its part number even follows the X68000 part number formula.

[kamiboy]

Any one tried the board that I mentioned in a Compact, or heard of someone using it sans issues?

I strongly suspect the problem is with the Compact though, and not the midi board. The leaky Caps have corroded many a solder joint here and there. Other than the midi problem my Compact seems to be working fine, but you never know, some traces might still be bad.

I've no idea where to begin though.

[BlueBMW]

Come to think of it, Ive had issues with midi on compacts before...  let me do some more investigating.

[kamiboy]

Thanks Blue, I sure would like to settle this. If there is general issue with Compacts then maybe I should sell my board and buy another type from Yahoo.

Either that or I could just buy one of those sleek X68000 Tower models and get my hands on some original games. Very tempting.

[BlueBMW]

A friend of mine has a compact and he was having some issues running a midi board in his.... Though his seemed to at least detect the midi board just didnt seem to want to send any data out.  I've got a few compacts (in pieces at the moment) here but I'll get one together and see what I come up with.

You know you want a full size machine...

[kamiboy]

Oh, I do want a full sized machine and bad. I got outbid on a boxed one about a week back. I'll bide my time until there is another one and then I'll se about getting a good X68000 game collection going.

Of course if a boxed X68000 monitor should ever show up
On Yahoo it will take priority.

[SuperDeadite]

If you are really gonna import a monitor, I'd recommend an NEC PC-TV over a Sharp.  They are simply better, plus have more uses if you get one of the later models like the 455.  All you lose is the auto-shut off via the TV Control cable.  FM Towns monitors are beautiful too being Sony made.  I love my Sharp monitor, but the colors only look right when I use the optional Sharp made CRT filter too (basically like a bezel on an arcade cab).  Without it, everything looks a bit bleached out, and this is normal from what I've been told by many.

[kamiboy]

The NEC one is too ugly to be a good match forbthe sheer sex factor of the X68000. The Black Marty monitors fare a bit better in that department.

But I think I'll stick to the a original X68000 monitor for the sake of completeness and of course raw sex appeal. It is good to know about that filter, I remember seeing one on Yahoo once.