OBERHEIM SYNTH

How hard is it to solder in a battery holder in its place and then just switch out batteries every quarter of a century or so?

> -----Original Message-----
> From: oberheim@yahoogroups.com [mailto:oberheim@yahoogroups.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2014 4:47 PM
> To: oberheim@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [oberheim] Re: Lost ram patches after calibration
> 
> 
> 
> Hi Joël, I think that the loss of memory has nothing to do with the new
> EPROM - it sounds like the buffer battery has given in. The Matrix-1000
> was built long before EEPROMs became affordable, so the memory is kept
> by a buffer battery in the lower left corner of the PCB, a standard
> CR2032 battery that has been soldered in.
> 
> To everyone's surprise, these batteries still work - 20-odd years after
> the last M1000 has left the factory. I've just replaced the battery in
> my Matrix; after 25 years of service, it still produced 2.95 volts.
> Yet, at some point in time, the battery can no longer keep the RAM
> alive.
> 
> My guess is that the battery in your M1000 is very close to dying, and
> somehow in the process of exchanging all the chips, the RAM hold
> failed. Try writing a ROM preset to one of the RAM banks and see if
> it's kept while switched off - and solder in a new battery sometime
> soon.
> 
>