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CDi 450: Timekeeper battery tip

Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2007 9:33 pm
by alfantastic
Just replaced the Timekeeper battery in my 450.
Timekeeper is marked MK 48TO8B-15.
I discovered this method after wrongly thinking that the cover of the chip could be removed to reveal the crystal and battery. The crystal and battery are actually in a separate casing attached on top of the main chip. They are totally encased inside the casing and cannot be removed from this.
The battery is housed at one end of the top casing and the crystal the other.
Removing the whole top would indeed gain access to the battery wires but also removes the crystal, which is needed for correct function of the machine.
Battery end is to the right side of the writing if read the right way up (hope that makes sense!!). The top casing is secured with some kind of sealing glue at each end, so slowly and carefully i scraped this off using a scapel blade. ONLY WORK ON BATTERY END. It took a while as i didn't want to damage the chip underneath. Once i thought i had scraped enough, i used a very thin and small, flatheaded screwdriver to gently prise the lid up. AGAIN ONLY BATTERY END.
In effect this exposed the two battery wires that i needed to solder a new battery to. I used a 3v coin cell and battery holder (for future replacement). I then spread some thick sealing glue over top of chip for protection.
As the crystal end didn't need to be prised upwards, it remained connected to the main chip and therefore the machine still functioned.
Hope this has helped anyone who is intending to replace the battery themselves. Not easy but possible!!!

Posted: Tue Mar 17, 2009 8:01 pm
by nrg78
Soon I'll try this delicate "surgery" myself, and when I do, I will take and post some pics about it! ;)

Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 7:53 am
by Bas
yes, please! I hope you can make it a little more clear (the ones we saw are still a little vague and difficult!)

Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 4:42 pm
by nrg78
Just when I thought everything had went pretty well, nice pics taken on the surgery, and I even ended up cutting myself on the metal plate..

"Memory Full, please delete some titles.." and some weird "noisy" lines at the screen bottom..

now what?... Now I'm f%*$ยง~............ :(

Dan

Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 7:32 pm
by nrg78
http://pt.farnell.com/jsp/displayProduc ... CMP=e-b1ef

30eur plus 18eur for P&P......

I guess this will be my only chance to get it back alive... replace the whole god'am thing....

why, why didn't I just stay put? Because I coudn't store any FTS or high scores, that's why... but at least it DID ACTUALLY WORK, and now.....................

what a humoungus, insane, really stupid idea it is or was, to keep a lithium batt inside a chip!!!.... And what's worse? What a silly ideia of Philips guys to go along with this stupid chip! It seems like they didn't believed the system was going to last more than 8to10years, as it is stated on the time-f#%"$%ing-keeper specs sheet....

so, excuse me for my language but I am pissed of with all this ridiculous situation that infortunately I'm now in....

Dan

Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 8:22 pm
by nrg78
breath in... hold... breath out... wait....

http://minhoto.fotopic.net/c1619908.html

Starting on the last pic on the right, 2nd line..

here's the description on the surgery:

opening, looking for the IC...

inicial cut with a sharp blade, then started peeling...

second layer, not hard as a normal IC would be, so started scrapping...

batt shows up, when I've managed to get the MINUS plate away from the old batt, I decided to try and solder the PLUS wire directly on the batt, but the solder won't stay, so kept on scrapping until i've managed to pop the batt out, revealing the PLUS connect plate...

the solder aderes just fine on the plate, so I thought THAT'S IT!... Closing....

and booooom, the error and the weird white lines below....

back to the OR, kept on scrapping until reveall the elsewhere so called "wires", and soldered my wires there.

No answer, this pacient is a flat-line now, no response...

time of death: around 15:20, cause what probably happened was some static on the solder iron, frying up the IC... I've seen it before....

I had eletronics classes since 7th grade till 12th, I know my way around wires and solders and stuff..... so...... I guess sheer Bad Luck, that's waht I had...

There's an old saying: "don't try to fix something that it working" and I guess it just fits in this case just like a glove......

I'm going out now, dinner and a movie, to try and "erase" this from my memory.... right, Like if that was possible...

Dan

Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 12:15 pm
by nrg78
Hello there.. I've found a Dallas DS1643-100, equivalent to the ST chip, in a specialized store at Porto, i'll pick it up next Saturday, saving money on postages...

I'll also buy a socket for it to avoid soldering and heating the chip.. And we'll see how it goes..

Any comment about the fotos? And about the whole situation?...

Dan

Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2009 9:13 pm
by nrg78
Well.. No comment whatsoever, I wonder why... :(

News update: old timekeeper out, socket in, new Dallas timekeeper in... And the same situation..

This time I even bought an antistatic wrist strap, but I Guess I should've used in the first place... I'll post some extra pics later on.. This is why the note I added to the other post at Interactive Dreams is really necessary, cause now i have a broken player and a 30eur worth TimeKeeper chip...

So, if anyone has a 450 with, say, only a broke down cd tray or laser lenses...... I guess I'll buy it...

timekeeper fault

Posted: Sat May 16, 2009 8:25 pm
by rockclimber
Hi,
I have just looked at your pics and they are good.
That is pretty much what I did to mine, although mine is now working.
The memory full please delete files usually indicates a flat batttery so I would recheck all your soldering for a bad joint and that your replacement battery is at 3.3 volt The only other comment is that I would have used as short a wire as possible and perhaps mount the battery on top of the timekeeper chip. You don't want the wire running around the board like that near to the ic's. It is possible for the battery wire to generate a magnetic field which could interfere with the graphics chips timing signals.
good luck with it,
Paul.

Posted: Sun May 17, 2009 6:00 am
by nrg78
thanks mate.. it's funny how after all this time, the one and only help or "support" message comes from a "new stranger" around here... I went thru all this mess by myself, "advised" by what I saw around here on this forum, and in the end I didn't even got a single "better luck next time" or something like that... It seems the only thing I was "useful" around here was to take some pics of 450's guts... I got truly disappointed, I guess I was expecting more from this forum on this matter ...

about your tips, thanks again, but I just decided to give up on it, I just went and looked around for another 450...

I still believe something went very wrong, statics-wise maybe... and I might have fried up some other chip nearby... Cause I even tried to turn it on with the timekeeper OFF the socket, and still the same message..

So now I have a broke down 450, a brand new 30eur timekeeper chip, used (or at least tried to be used) for a couple minutes, and a "new" 450 that came in all the way from The Netherlands to PT, with a TKeeper that amazingly still holds time after all this time! Maybe it had been plug in to the wall socket like all-the-time, although I think just this might not be enough to do the trick, cause last week I realised that my Dad's 450 is also loosing all data now, just by turning it OFF and ON again, using just the console switch, so........

DN

Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2009 6:03 am
by BloodShed
Hey nrg78, thanks for the pictures. I haven't tried this with my chip yet (still trying find a way to confirm the problem first), but ultimately, everyone will have to do this.

Sorry about your loss. That does suck. I've installed modchips in a dozen PS2 systems and one time I fried the BIOS and hosed the whole board. ...so I know your pain.
nrg78 wrote:I still believe something went very wrong, statics-wise maybe... and I might have fried up some other chip nearby... Cause I even tried to turn it on with the timekeeper OFF the socket, and still the same message..
Today is the first time I've seen your pictures. Sorry, I'm so late. I just wanted to comment about something I noticed.

When looking at your image here:
Image
You have red on "top" and black on "bottom". Assuming that you used red as positive and black as negative...

...I then saw these:
Image
Image

Did you wire the positive and negative backwards perhaps?

Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2009 2:17 pm
by nrg78
BloodShed wrote:Hey nrg78, thanks for the pictures. I haven't tried this with my chip yet (still trying find a way to confirm the problem first), but ultimately, everyone will have to do this.
hello there, and thanks for your reply and consideration shown. It really sucks, all the hassle and expectation over the arriving mail, and in the end, all ruined for trying to get back a rather useless clock and a few high score tables..

But I have to disagree when you say that "everyone will have to do this", because:

* my first console was working fine until I tried this,

* my second one still had the clock running a few months ago, and now it is not, but it still works fine,

* and my Dad's console is also working fine, no memory but no problems whatsoever..

So, considering the high risk of loosing the unit, I STRONGLY Advise NOT TO DO THIS Surgery..
BloodShed wrote:Did you wire the positive and negative backwards perhaps?
You made me think for a while now.. But if you check http://minhoto.fotopic.net/p57061572.html and the picture that comes next, you can see that the batterie was top side up, so negative on top, positive bottom.

Also you can see the connecting plates and were they lead on to, and there's the reason why I did it has I did.. Hopefully I was clear enough, and you agree with me.. ;)

Dan

Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2009 3:39 pm
by BloodShed
nrg78 wrote:I have to disagree when you say that "everyone will have to do this"
Oh, true. I guess it still depends if you consider saves a necessity and how bad the problem is affecting the system. I suppose what I mean is simply that the chip is bound to fail eventually. Right now my system doesn't seem to load any games anymore anyway; only VCD and CD audio work. I'm not sure if this is the problem though.
nrg78 wrote:Hopefully I was clear enough, and you agree with me.. ;)
You're right. It looks like, in the picture you linked, that the negative plate (being on top of an upside-down battery) is positioned lower. Then, the positive plate under the battery is positioned higher.

It's hard to see those French repair guide pictures because they're so small but it's easy to assume what "positif" and "negatif" means. Yet, looking again, the double batteries in his picture actually look to be facing with the bottom/negative side to the left! :lol: It seems like he may have labeled it backwards!

I'm curious though, if the primary scene resource for this repair is labeled incorrectly... how did anyone report success? Did they all simply reference their original battery without using the guide (as you did)? I certainly don't expect some of these chips to have reversed the pinout.