Unix on old-ish machines - advice sought

[C Fernandez]

Ethan,

Good idea!  I wanted to do something like that, but I was thinking of a 
small plug.  I didn't see any small plugs at Radio Shack, though.  What 
I did do was use some of the wires that I taken from PC's.... wire that 
may have an LED at the end, or a reset switch.  I cut it long enough so 
I could run the wire under the nvram and still have a length of wire 
left over.  I soldered the battery to the wire, put a dab of dielectric 
grease on the battery and covered it with heat shrink tubing.  The 
exposed wire was also covered in heat shrink tubing.  The battery and 
wire is laid between the case and a plug on the motherboard.  It looks 
pretty good, won't short anything, and since the wire runs under the 
nvram the wires shouldn't break off the the chip.  I think I super glued 
the wires to the bottom of the nvram, too.  I was going to anchor the 
battery to the side of the case, but found it wasn't necessary on the IPX.

Chad Fernandez
Michigan, USA

Ethan Dicks wrote:
> I gave my battery replacement a little twist... when I broke the
> connections between the battery and the underlying chip, I attached a
> 9V battery lead to the chip in place of the factory battery.  I then
> soldered on a PC-mount 3V Li cell (3032?) onto a former 9V battery
> top.  I did it that way so I could replace the battery again later
> without having to solder at the chip a second time.
> 
> I did a similar trick when I was faced with a dead Dallas DS1287
> clock/SRAM.  Used the same Li cell, too, for the test.
> 
> -ethan
> 
>