Replacing NES/SNES Batteries With A Socket

[BadChad]

Heres a little tutorial for replacing batteries in your NES/SNES carts with a socket for easy battery replacing in the future. I did this tutorial using my double copy of Zelda.

Heres a list of items youll need:

- Game Bit Screwdriver
- CR2030 Battery (I bought 100 for $10 on eBay)
- CR2030 Sockets (These are the ones I bought)
- Soldering Iron W/ 60/40 Tin Lead Solder
- Desoldering Pump
- Small Flathead Scredriver
- Exacto Knife
- Small Cutters and Pliers


Start by cutting out the old battery with cutters and then desolder the pins from the board using the soldering iron and pliers.

Now unfortunetly most of the clips available online dont fit properly onto the board since the pins are a little to far appart or their too big and the cart wont close. Ive asked around online a bit and no one has been able to find an online store that sells clips that fit perfectly. If you have the same clips as me, your in luck.

Start by cutting these little tabs off the bottom and the plastic around the pin with your exacto to make the clip sit flush with the board. The pin will also pop out much easier once the plastic around it has been removed.


As you can see here all the plastic stopping the clip from sitting flush has been removed.


Then you going to take your exacto knife and make a small cut in the plastic right next to the existing hole by pushing down. Stick your small flathead screwdriver in the new hole you just cut and work it around a bit to open up the hole a bit more. As you can see in the picture I know have a new hole a little closer to the middle right next to the existing hole giving me enough room for my pins to line up perfectly.


Pop you pin into the new hole and solder you clip to the board. You may need to trim that pin so its fits in the smaller hole on the board but be careful as I broke a few pins doing this. Or  Solder the clip to the board and pop in a fresh battery. Close up your cart and your done. Make youself a save file on your game. Turn it off for a few minutes and try it out again to make sure it worked.


Cool thing is there was an existing file on the cart before I removed the battery, after I finished soldering on the clip with a new battery I tested the cart to find the file was still saved on the cart!!! Im guessing it takes a few minutes for the energy from the battery to completely drain from the cart after its been removed because I have no other ideas as to why els the save wouldnt have erased.

I have yet to try this on an NES cart but it should be the same process and there shouldnt be any problems.

[Xandecs]

Good, but I find 2032 batteries better.

And I did it with these clips, which you don't have to cut of or anything.

Product: Part# BH-2032-CH7410LF: Lithium 2032 Battery Holder: Horizontal Clip Mount***ROHS COMPLIANT***.
Price Shipping: $2.95
Link: http://shopping.microbattery.com/s.nl;jsessionid=0a010c471f43e886fb4ebe5b471d9725f4932766cb2c.e3eSch4MaN4Re34Pa38Ta38Rb3r0?it=A&id=6774

Price:
Quantity      Price
1 – 9           $1.95
10 – 49        $0.90
50 – 99        $0.76
100 – 499    $0.71
500 – 999    $0.60
1000 – 2499  $0.51
2500 +          $0.48

Ow yeah, and the batteries are for sale at DealExtreme:

Product: 2032 x 20 pcs Cell Batteries
Price Shipping: Free
Link: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.751

Price:
Quantity      Price
1 – 2           $3.47
3 – 4           $2.85
5 – 9           $2.75
10 +            $2.65

[BadChad]

I am using 2032 batteries. Its cool that you know of a site with clips that require no modding. Only thing is your paying more for your supplies. I got 100 batteries for $10 and 150 clips for $30. That means Im good to fix 100 games for just $40. You couldnt even get 100 clips for that price. Looks like your paying much more than you need to. So if you dont mind doing a few simple modifications and have a large ammount of games to replace (as I do) this is a much ceaper solution.

[Xandecs]

I am using 2032 batteries. Its cool that you know of a site with clips that require no modding. Only thing is your paying more for your supplies. I got 100 batteries for $10 and 150 clips for $30. That means Im good to fix 100 games for just $40. You couldnt even get 100 clips for that price. Looks like your paying much more than you need to. So if you dont mind doing a few simple modifications and have a large ammount of games to replace (as I do) this is a much ceaper solution.

Haha touché.

Anyway, I only needed 20 clips and batteries, so this was a quick solution for me.

[Jonesat]

awesome tutorial dude, pics rock and all, nicely done!!

[tiktektak]

What I find strange is that of all my SNES/NES/MD games which have a battery backed up ram none has gone dead up to now.

[BadChad]

I dont have a single dead game yet either but I do know that time is comming in the near future so Ill be prepared when they do start dying out. Ill probably change a few here and there if Im about to start something that might take me a while to finish but for the most part Ill just wait till they die out.

[tiktektak]

Actually I find it pretty weird that none of the batteries are dead by now. Maybe I should check again (haven't for some months) or at least before I play one of those games for a longer period.

[ShoothimNow]

I understand that this is an old thread, but BadChad, would you be willing to improve this tutorial?  I am thinking of doing this to my games, however I don't want to fudge it up.  Either add some more pictures, or a video?

Peas and carrots

also, I cannot seem to find your clip's?  I mean, any that are identical.  I would hate to buy something like these only to learn they do not work (soldering locations are different?)


Would these work?