How to attach leads straight to battery?

Paul wrote:
wrote:

There are a LOT of sources for the lithium button cells with wires
attached - with the wrong plug ends on them - in most major centers.
Most electronics supply shops or pattery specialists will have one you
can cobble the correct wire end onto

But I don't buy stuff just anywhere :-)

I bought coin cells at the mall, from a "battery store",
and they were flat in a matter of days. I'm a little
more careful now, where I get stuff. I need to know a
shop has a good "turnover of stock", so I won't get
screwed again.

If some computer store here carried a pigtailed CR2032,
chances are it's been sitting in the shop window
for the last twenty years.

The same thing could happen with mail order, unless
the seller is big enough that their stock is fresh.

Hmmm. Too bad this is a "web only" item. I guess
it would hurt them, to have this in a retail store.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...ductId=3307341

Paul

Hi,
eBay is a friend some times. I get all the button batteries from eBay.
I just make sure they are brand names.

micky wrote:

It seems my IBM Thinkpad's CMOS battery has died, and it's know that
it won't boot wihtout it.

I don't have time to wait for a new one by mail, plus I have some
CR2032's in my fridge. The flat things that look like litttle
frisbees.

The current one has the wires connected to metal tabs stuck (welded?)
to the battery on both sides. Is there a way I can do this without
exploding or otherwise ruining the battery???????

I see that Radio Shack has a clip that holds such a battery but I
think it's too thick to fit.

You'll want to check if the IBM's lithium cell is rechargeable or not
because you definitely do not want to install a regular lithium cell
if the original is rechargeable.

Don't store those lithium cells in the refrigerator because it doesn't
help, and it's possible that dew will slowly drain them. The same
goes for alkaline cells.

I'd solder a flat strip of springy metal (brass, bronze, steel, but
not pure copper) to each wire lead and curve each strip slightly so it
will act as a leaf spring. Then attach them to the sides of the cell
and wrap the whole thing in heatshrink so those leaf springs will
maintain pressure against the cell.

If you decide to solder wires directly to the cell, and I wouldn't try
without practicing on something else, like 1" squares cut from a tin
can. First tin the wires and the sides of the cell separately. Sand
the sides of the cell, wipe with alcohol, apply flux (rosin), and then
quickly melt on some 60/40 or 63/37 tin/lead solder to it. Do all
this so the solder sticks really well and quickly. Use a 30-40W iron
because anything with less power may actually do more heat damage to
the cell by not melting the solder as quickly. Then quickly solder
the wires to those solder pads. Cover everything with heatshrink.

micky wrote:
It seems my IBM Thinkpad's CMOS battery has died, and it's know that
it won't boot wihtout it.

I don't have time to wait for a new one by mail, plus I have some
CR2032's in my fridge. The flat things that look like litttle
frisbees.

The current one has the wires connected to metal tabs stuck (welded?)
to the battery on both sides. Is there a way I can do this without
exploding or otherwise ruining the battery???????

I see that Radio Shack has a clip that holds such a battery but I
think it's too thick to fit. I just tore apart a 16 year old
computetr to get it's battery holder, but it was defintiely too thick
(Does anyone want a kit to make a 16 year-old computer?)

Thanks.
First VERIFY that the battery is bad.
Don't solder on it.
Rip the tabs of the existing battery.
place them against the new battery, being careful not
to short the two sides. Use tape to keep the - from
shorting to the plus.
Tape the tabs against the battery.
Wedge it into the laptop with some foam to keep pressure.
Order a proper replacement and install it when you get time.

On Sun, 24 Jul 2011 16:36:23 +0200, Jawade
wrote:

The BIOS settings are controlled by the battery, I think with an empty
battry, he use the defaults.

Modern BIOSs have auto detect - no real need to fuss with the
settings, unless they are special.

On Sat, 23 Jul 2011 18:34:37 -0400, aemeijers
wrote:

On 7/23/2011 6:27 PM, Oren wrote:
On Sat, 23 Jul 2011 23:48:18 +0200,
wrote:

schreef op Sat, 23 Jul 2011 14:46:14 -0700 in :
On Sat, 23 Jul 2011 16:34:10 -0500,
wrote:
micky wrote:
It seems my IBM Thinkpad's CMOS battery has died, and it's know that
it won't boot wihtout it.

The battery is not involved in the boot process.

Except to maintain date and time. The machine will run with the wrong
date and time.

Lacking a battery, one can enter the date / time or hit the enter key
to skip it.

POST is coming from the EPROM - battery not needed.

And for the boot sequence?


Um, bootstrapping?

Some machines will not boot with a dead battery in place, but will, with
the battery removed. Not familiar with Thinkpads, so not sure if that
applies in OP's case.

I should have tried it with the battery out -- sort of too late now
(I should have read this post Saturrday instead of Sunday at
midnight)-- , but I found webpages describing the 161 and 163 error
numbers on a Thinkpad, at least some of them, and they all agreed it
was the CMOS battery.

In addition, I once had a MAC II, and though they are famous for being
better designed than PC's, the guy at the computer user group I used
to go to told me that they too will not boot without a good cmos
battery. And in the case of that computer, the battery was soldered
in, and almost everyone ended up taking it to repairman to be
serviced, JUST for this battrey. That's two levels worse than most
PCs. Oh, and apparently it was a secret back then that the battery
was the problem. So that's 3 levels worse. What he woudl do is
put in a battery holder for 2 AAA batteries iirc. so customers
wouldn't have to pay him a second time. Or maybe he was just talking
about his own computers and friends'.

On Sat, 23 Jul 2011 23:48:31 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 23 Jul 2011 18:34:37 -0400, aemeijers
wrote:

On 7/23/2011 6:27 PM, Oren wrote:
On Sat, 23 Jul 2011 23:48:18 +0200,
wrote:

schreef op Sat, 23 Jul 2011 14:46:14 -0700 in :
On Sat, 23 Jul 2011 16:34:10 -0500,
wrote:
micky wrote:
It seems my IBM Thinkpad's CMOS battery has died, and it's know that
it won't boot wihtout it.

The battery is not involved in the boot process.

Except to maintain date and time. The machine will run with the wrong
date and time.

Lacking a battery, one can enter the date / time or hit the enter key
to skip it.

POST is coming from the EPROM - battery not needed.

And for the boot sequence?


Um, bootstrapping?

Some machines will not boot with a dead battery in place, but will, with
the battery removed. Not familiar with Thinkpads, so not sure if that
applies in OP's case.
The ones that will not boot with a dead battery won't boot without
one either (we are talking CMOS battery - not main power). Some bad
main power batteries WILL prevent the system from booting - and
removing THEM will allow the system to boot. Common on Toshiba A100s,
among others.

Good to know. And it also means I didn't lose out by not reading the
previous post yesterday.

On Sat, 23 Jul 2011 23:45:54 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 23 Jul 2011 14:46:14 -0700, Oren wrote:

On Sat, 23 Jul 2011 16:34:10 -0500, "HeyBub"
wrote:

micky wrote:
It seems my IBM Thinkpad's CMOS battery has died, and it's know that
it won't boot wihtout it.


The battery is not involved in the boot process.


Except to maintain date and time. The machine will run with the wrong
date and time.

Lacking a battery, one can enter the date / time or hit the enter key
to skip it.

POST is coming from the EPROM - battery not needed.
NOT true on many of the early TPs.. At least one of my old 600s (E
or X,

Ye s, this one is a 600E

cannot remember which) would not boot at all with a dead CMOS
battery, and IIRC the T43 would not either. Had to replace the CMOS
batteries on a few to get them to boot.

It tunrs out that mini torch I was talking about, Archer brand, from
when Radio Shack used the Archer brand, burned butane and micronox,
whatever that is.

And I had never read the manual all the way t through, and it was only
for brazing, it seemed, not soldering, and there were supposed to be
brazing rods, which my friend didn't give me. I have some for bigger
torches but I'm sure brazing the battery would ruin it.

So I tried soldering. When I was little, like 1`953,, I found in a
box in the basement, wiith electrical parts, two D-cells and a
lightbulb wired together. I think it had all been stuffed in a cake,
It might have been for my brother, because I surely don't remember it.
and my parents saved it all even though the batteries were long dead.

But the wires were soldered to the battery, and I thought that was
cool, so yesterday I tried to solder to the CR2032. Yes it seems to
be satainless steel and that certaiinly is harder than a D-cell 60
years ago.

So I used some separate flux to save time and heating, and a WEN
soldering gun, but it just didn't stick.

Also the battery was a lot hotter than I expected after I had tried 3
or 4 times, but it stilll read 3 volts and still says that today too.

So I bought a thinner coin batterry holder at Radio Shack today, for
1.19 but it's still not thin enough. (Maybe John McGraw's side
grabbing one will be thin enough, but i'm not buying anything else
until the rest of the computer works) So I used longer wires, and ran
them through the small crack where the CD drive slides into the bay in
the laptop, then applied heatshrink to the battery holder and battery.

And now it will start. It stil doesn't boot right from the hard
drive but it does start DOS from Hiren's boot CD

I'm learning a lot, and even though it's old equipment, it's as int
eresting as any computer stuff I've done in months.

Thanks all.

On Sun, 24 Jul 2011 10:40:52 +1000, Peter Jason wrote:

On Sat, 23 Jul 2011 14:52:40 -0400, micky
wrote:

It seems my IBM Thinkpad's CMOS battery has died, and it's know that
it won't boot wihtout it.

I don't have time to wait for a new one by mail, plus I have some
CR2032's in my fridge. The flat things that look like litttle
frisbees.

The current one has the wires connected to metal tabs stuck (welded?)
to the battery on both sides. Is there a way I can do this without
exploding or otherwise ruining the battery???????

I see that Radio Shack has a clip that holds such a battery but I
think it's too thick to fit. I just tore apart a 16 year old
computetr to get it's battery holder, but it was defintiely too thick
(Does anyone want a kit to make a 16 year-old computer?)

Thanks.

Perhaps you might cannibalize a suitable socket assembly from an old
discarded motherboard and attach wires to that.

Peter

LOL I did that. I destroyed a whole, probably working computer
yesterday must to get the battery holder. They sell them for 1.19 at
Radio Shack but it was 101 degrees yesterday, Saturday, and I didn't
want to go out. It was from 1995 and only ran at 200 MHz, and I got
it free and was never going to use it. I have an ISA card left over
and 3 of the next generation -- I forget their name. Plus some
other parts I'll probably never use. I don't think the case will fit
new mobos, so I made a little space.

On Sat, 23 Jul 2011 23:13:46 -0400, aemeijers
wrote:

On 7/23/2011 8:40 PM, Peter Jason wrote:
On Sat, 23 Jul 2011 14:52:40 -0400,
wrote:

It seems my IBM Thinkpad's CMOS battery has died, and it's know that
it won't boot wihtout it.

I don't have time to wait for a new one by mail, plus I have some
CR2032's in my fridge. The flat things that look like litttle
frisbees.

The current one has the wires connected to metal tabs stuck (welded?)
to the battery on both sides. Is there a way I can do this without
exploding or otherwise ruining the battery???????

I see that Radio Shack has a clip that holds such a battery but I
think it's too thick to fit. I just tore apart a 16 year old
computetr to get it's battery holder, but it was defintiely too thick
(Does anyone want a kit to make a 16 year-old computer?)

Thanks.

Perhaps you might cannibalize a suitable socket assembly from an old
discarded motherboard and attach wires to that.

Peter

(Googles, to look at a picture)

I'd order the proper battery, but to tide you over till it shows up,
just cut apart the shrink wrap on the old one, and cut the wires as
close as you can to the tabs, or actually cut the ears off the tabs. You
want bare metal showing on the end of each wire. As best you can, tape
them to the new cell from your fridge, making sure to keep polarity
correct. Gently put it all back together, and try not to bang things
around till the new battery shows up. This is not a high-current
application, so as long as it is good metal-to-metal contact, and
nothing shorts out, it should work.

f this would work it would have been a good idea too. Too late now
mayube, but this might have worked becaus ethere is some spring loaded
space between two pieces of metal where the battery goes.

I could have put a drop of sollder on each wire's end, so the wire was
thicker than the insulation.

This is the sort of answer I was looking for, among others, but there
weree so many answers, I didn't take time to read them all!!


Of course, all this only works if you have enough slack in the leads,
otherwise you would need to extend them.

I have done home-brew laptop CMOS batteries like that more than once.
Some ended up being permanent fixes, since the correct part was not
available, or cost more than entire laptop was worth.

Some would say that 9 dollars is more than the laptop is worht.

I spend 23 dollars on the 40 gig HDD, but I figure I can use that in
other laptops in the future.

That is, unless they insist on SATA or something.. I didn't think
of that when I bought it.


(Although just tonightt for the first time, someone on Freecycle is
giving away two laptops. And both are missiing harddrives. He
thinks they may also be broken. I don't know if he's going to give
tghem to me or someone else yet. I may not be the first to reply. )

On 7/23/2011 11:52 AM, micky wrote:
It seems my IBM Thinkpad's CMOS battery has died, and it's know that
it won't boot wihtout it.

I don't have time to wait for a new one by mail, plus I have some
CR2032's in my fridge. The flat things that look like litttle
frisbees.

The current one has the wires connected to metal tabs stuck (welded?)
to the battery on both sides. Is there a way I can do this without
exploding or otherwise ruining the battery???????

Someone else made a good suggestion in using a Rear Window Defogger
Repair Kit which is probably available at an auto parts store in your
area. Tape or heat shrink over the connections. Not very sturdy but
could get you by for while.