Replacing Internal Battery on APEX Classic Brain

[reefiness]

So I recently upgraded my Apex to the new wifi and havent had much luck selling my old one here and I think it may be partly because I've been advertising it as having a dead internal battery which means it needs to be connected to a UPS. Anyway, I decided to open up the brain a few days ago and saw that the battery didnt seem like it would be too hard to replace myself so went ahead and ordered a solder kit and a battery which seemed to be compatible. The solder kit came in today but the battery isnt supposed to arrive until tomorrow. I was too impataient to wait so figured I would at least remove the battery and take the top tab off to make sure i definitely ordered the right battery (I ordered based on dimensions and a partial battery number).

Turned out the battery I ordered was correct, although the tabs are centered on the one I ordered vs slightly off centered on the battery in the unit which I wasn't able to find in my search. The battery I ordered is a ML1220 with solder tabs on opposing sides.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Brand-New-...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

 

[reefiness]

Here's to hoping I didn't fry anything. To be honest, it was much harder than I expected it to be. The + terminal solder pad ended up being much longer than it should have been, so i just bent it over on itself which may have been what caused it to be soo much harder as the solder didn't seem to want to mix with the bent tab. Also manipulating a round object proved to be harder than expected. If it was a square battery probably would have been a whole lot easier.

In the process of testing it now. Had to disconnect one of my EB8s from my other system to use to test it and had to factory reset the apex because it was still set up under my old setup.

EDIT: Seems like everything is working. I was able to set it up on my apex fusion, set the time, then simulate a blackout and when it came back online all programming and time was correct. The only thing I wonder now is whether it was a bad battery or an inability to charge the battery which caused the initial problem. If the issue was the later, then this unit may have what seems to be another dead battery sometime down the line. But for now it's working good as new!

 

[Jamesmost]

Cool.... if u don't have soldering skills, L mk I'll soldier for u,,,

How long is the battery supposed to last?

 

[reefiness]

I have zero solder skills, but it doesn't seem very difficult. I left the pads of solder on the board, planning on just reusing them. Would that work?

 

[Jamesmost]

I have zero solder skills, but it doesn't seem very difficult. I left the pads of solder on the board, planning on just reusing them. Would that work?

It might work,,, or may need a bit more solder, need it hot enuf to be good, but not too hot to damage battery or circuit board.

 

[reefiness]

well I already soldered the old one off. so hopefully no damage was done. As you can see in one of the pictures, I did melt a tiny bit of plastic.... I guess I got too close over there. But I used a tiny little tip on the soldering iron and only did it until the solder turned liquid then immediately took it off. Because of this it actually took me quite a few attempts at taking the battery off before realizing i had to be ready to remove the battery right as it melted before it turned solid again. If I need more solder, I have some to add, but seems like theres a decent bit there already.

 

[reefiness]

Time works!