Rhodes Chroma Polaris group photo

Yahoo Groups archive

Rhodes Chroma Polaris

Index last updated: 2026-04-28 23:17 UTC

Thread

Battery change

Battery change

2012-03-08 by sacateca2001

Hi all,
in the course of changing the panel i want
to change the real old batteries too.

the manual says:

Although the capacitor on the battery holder retains its charge for a minute or more, to ensure no interruption of power to the memory chips the batteries should be changed with the power on. Alkaline "D" cells should be used. Refer to figure 4-1 for location of batteries. 


Is it possible to change the batteries even
when the power is off in the timeline of a minute?
Does alkaline plus D with 1,5V do the job and is there
anything to watch out?

cheers&thanks
harald

RE: [chromapolaris] Battery change

2012-03-08 by Ryan Freer

Harald,

Yes, you can change the batteries with the power switched off. I've done this on several occasions. But in any event, you should still have all your programs backed up...just to be on the safe side.


~Ryan

To: chromapolaris@yahoogroups.com
From: harama@...
Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2012 11:52:41 +0000
Subject: [chromapolaris] Battery change

Hi all,
in the course of changing the panel i want
to change the real old batteries too.

the manual says:

Although the capacitor on the battery holder retains its charge for a minute or more, to ensure no interruption of power to the memory chips the batteries should be changed with the power on. Alkaline "D" cells should be used. Refer to figure 4-1 for location of batteries.

Is it possible to change the batteries even
when the power is off in the timeline of a minute?
Does alkaline plus D with 1,5V do the job and is there
anything to watch out?

cheers&thanks
harald


RE: [chromapolaris] Battery change

2012-03-08 by Paul D. DeRocco

> From: harama@...
>   
> in the course of changing the panel i want
> to change the real old batteries too.
> 
> the manual says:
> 
> Although the capacitor on the battery holder retains its 
> charge for a minute or more, to ensure no interruption of 
> power to the memory chips the batteries should be changed 
> with the power on. Alkaline "D" cells should be used. Refer 
> to figure 4-1 for location of batteries. 
> 
> Is it possible to change the batteries even
> when the power is off in the timeline of a minute?
> Does alkaline plus D with 1,5V do the job and is there
> anything to watch out?

Yes, you can do that, but I don't know why you would want to. It's safer to
change them with the power on, as long as you don't poke your fingers in the
back where the AC line voltage is.

The memory chips only require 2V to retain their contents (and probably do
so well below that in real life), so there's plenty of room for the battery
to run down part way before you lose your memory.

-- 

Ciao,               Paul D. DeRocco
Paul                mailto:pderocco@...

Re: Battery change

2012-03-09 by synthparts

Yeah why take the risk? Just change them with the power on. That said I am still using the original D cells in all 4 of my Polarii. It's pretty amazing how long those big batts last when just used for memory backup. Just make sure they aren't showing signs of leakage. 

Paul, do you know why such ridiculously sized batteries were used in these? Most synths of the era used tiny lithium coin cells...

Doug 
synthparts.com
--- In chromapolaris@yahoogroups.com, "Paul D. DeRocco" <pderocco@...> wrote:
Show quoted textHide quoted text
>
> > From: harama@...
> >   
> > in the course of changing the panel i want
> > to change the real old batteries too.
> > 
> > the manual says:
> > 
> > Although the capacitor on the battery holder retains its 
> > charge for a minute or more, to ensure no interruption of 
> > power to the memory chips the batteries should be changed 
> > with the power on. Alkaline "D" cells should be used. Refer 
> > to figure 4-1 for location of batteries. 
> > 
> > Is it possible to change the batteries even
> > when the power is off in the timeline of a minute?
> > Does alkaline plus D with 1,5V do the job and is there
> > anything to watch out?
> 
> Yes, you can do that, but I don't know why you would want to. It's safer to
> change them with the power on, as long as you don't poke your fingers in the
> back where the AC line voltage is.
> 
> The memory chips only require 2V to retain their contents (and probably do
> so well below that in real life), so there's plenty of room for the battery
> to run down part way before you lose your memory.
> 
> -- 
> 
> Ciao,               Paul D. DeRocco
> Paul                mailto:pderocco@...
>

RE: [chromapolaris] Re: Battery change

2012-03-09 by Paul D. DeRocco

> From: synthparts
> 
> Paul, do you know why such ridiculously sized batteries were 
> used in these? Most synths of the era used tiny lithium coin cells...

So that they would still work after thirty years. ;-)

And so you could buy replacements at the 7-11, instead of having to find a
Radio Shack.

-- 

Ciao,               Paul D. DeRocco
Paul                mailto:pderocco@...

Re: Battery change

2012-03-20 by sacateca2001

thanks for the battery help.
its an interesting mechanic to get them out&
it looks like the old ~26 year old japanese batteries 
are still in there and working, possible? hm
i received the panel, big thanks to paul! i tear off the old panel; they're beautiful, i will make lampshades out of them first, 
then i'll do the rest..

--- In chromapolaris@yahoogroups.com, "Paul D. DeRocco" <pderocco@...> wrote:
Show quoted textHide quoted text
>
> > From: synthparts
> > 
> > Paul, do you know why such ridiculously sized batteries were 
> > used in these? Most synths of the era used tiny lithium coin cells...
> 
> So that they would still work after thirty years. ;-)
> 
> And so you could buy replacements at the 7-11, instead of having to find a
> Radio Shack.
> 
> -- 
> 
> Ciao,               Paul D. DeRocco
> Paul                mailto:pderocco@...
>

Move to quarantaine

This moves the raw source file on disk only. The archive index is not changed automatically, so you still need to run a manual refresh afterward.