AFAIK the best way to restore those battery backups is a small Li-po and an in-cartridge battery charger module, which allows the save battery to be charged while the game is being played.
The battery charger module have to be built using the smallest possible chips and components on a 0.8mm PCB, so it would fit inside the cartridge. I would also like to add a lot battery indicator LED so when the cartridge is powered on the LED can tell you if it need to be charged.
Not sure if my game is just screwed but I tried replacing the battery this way but with some electric tape and it still gives the clock error. I've tried to use both 2025 (which where kind of bulky) and 2016.
I did not even know that GBA games used batteries! The first time i experienced that was when the game warioland 4 stoped saving. Then i saw that it was a fake copy of it. The worst about that was that i bought it on GameStop!!
It's funny these batteries died but I have my childhood Super Mario Land 2 and Super Mario Land 3 that still save. I've had them ever since they came out and obviously never changed the battery to either game.
GBA games used the much smaller capacity cr1616 batteries I believe while gb and gbc games have cr2032s which have an order of magnitude higher capacity. I've replaced many gba batteries, not many gb and gbc batteries, and barely any snes games.
It's pretty tough, I use a blunt pocket knife (emphasis on blunt so I didn't risk slicing my fingers) to get between the battery and tab strips and torque the strip so it pulls up, but any flat strong metal like a screw driver ought to work. Just be super careful so you don't slip and hurt your self. If you have a soldering iron and a source of replacement tabbed batteries in the end that would be the easier and more reliable method.
Just get a soldering iron, a Hako Fx-901 is like 25 dollars and you'll get to do a lot more things once you learn how to use it. Replacing batteries is a great way to learn how to solder, if you use batteries with tabs it is actually easier, faster and safer than this method.
I have multiple mid-range irons and solder professionally for my day job in R&D, I just wanted to show that it is possible to replace batteries without soldering and spending 5x as much just on a tabbed battery. I do eventually plan on building a contact welder so I can make my own tabbed batteries though.
@@sjm4306 I stumbled upon this video as I'm researching how to do a holder that is aesthetically pleasing and mechanically safe but only adds ~0.3mm of height to the profile so it fits inside the case (and ideally uses the case itself to hold the battery in place). That way, once that is done, you can change batteries manually, easily, and without a soldering iron. The problem with your method is that the PCB is really really thin, and thus it bends a little, and the rom mask may detach just enough for it to lose contact on some pins, and that just can't be fixed without reflowing, and to fix that you'll need a soldering iron, defeating the purpose of the technique :p My original comment was aimed at someone watching your channel not directly at you, tho I understand that this is not meant as a permanent solution.
Thanks again. I wish this can done on Dreamcast VMUs- btw a remote tv controller's battery when not in use lasts months, how come Dreamcast VMUs batteries last a week and it's not used. Is there a hack that'll make it last as TV remotes when on standby? God bless, Process, Proverbs 31
A remote doesnt have to do anything when not in use but a vmu has to hold the game saves and on top of that has an internal real time clock that is always running.
I see, thanks again. That explains it. It's interesting it uses so much power tor time and game saves (isn't it's RAM programmable static RAM, like those chips that has a small window and you can reprogram it but it doesn't need power to retain the data? Or it's just like our computer's RAM- it's volatile?). There's no hack to make it be more battery saving (change some capacitor or resistor, something like that) while on standly/not used mode? VMUs are still cool looking with the Dreamcast and Dreamcast controller (it's like the popular: Mazinger Z now Mazinkaiser with the pilder on:-)
Yes, pretty sure the vmu uses sram (which is volatile, the same type of memory that gameboy/nes/snes games use to save progress). The chips with small windows are actually non-volatile EPROM memory (that can be erased with UV light, hence the window). The sram in the vmu honestly probably barely consumes power, it is the clock function that sucks. If you look at pokemon red/blue (only sram) and compare to pokemon gold/silver (sram and rtc, real time clock) the batteries in red/blue last around 10+ years while in gold/silver you are lucky to get mayber 4-5 years. A fix would be to disable the vmu's rtc so that only sram consumes power when the vmu if "off".
That's interesting. I wish SEGA's VMU maker copied the rtc, real time clock of the red/blue Pokemon, at least it'll last 4-5 years:D not 1 week or 2 weeks.
Sorry if I wasn't clear, red/blue has no rtc chip at all, only sram (hence why the battery lasts a lot longer). The reason sram is more efficient is that it only sips power every once and awhile to keep replenishing electrons in the gates of the transistors that store the data (the electrons "slowly" leak if there is no power). An rtc on the other hand is a clock which always has to keep counting at 32,268 times a second and keep track of time and date so it is not surprising that it consumes more current.
Oh believe me I know how to solder (I do it professionally as part of my day job, just take a look at a few of my soldering intensive project videos). The problem is tabbed coin cells tend to be disproportionately expensive for what they are, and soldering wires manually to an untabbed cell is generally a bad idea. I kind of want to build a contact welder to make my own tabbed cells for cheap.
