LC 475 Project - Upgrades - Mods

[dan.dem]

Sorry for the late follow up, but:
What's the point swapping the original 1/2 AAs with much lower capacity button cells?
Have the original spec batteries become so hard to obtain? Some years ago at least here in Europe the french Saft were relatively cheap and about as long lasting and leak-proof as the original purple ones - if not even better. Never saw a leaking Saft.

 

[killvore]

For me it's safety and availability:
- a button cell won't cause the same catastrophic damage if it leaks
- I can buy button cells at the grocery store, getting the 1/2AA size is a huge pain in the ass by comparison

 

[dan.dem]

Thank you for the quick reply.
True, button cells are available literally at my next corner and they hold less electrolyte. OTOH they are cells of unknown quality while the Saft are well tried branded items. So there are pro and cons.
It's a situation typical for all tinkering hobbies: You are in control of your own stuff, that's part of the fun. Therefore do as you like and be happy with it.

(I had been driving and maintaining old cars for some years and have some distinctive opinion about what mods I would want and which I never accept for a specific model I know. And there are many people who would reject my choices and have completely different opinions. And that's perfectly OK.)

 

[nathall]

Yeah, I tend to stick with 1/2 AAs myself. I have one button cell converter (”MacBatt” maybe?) and it doesn’t work (came in a machine I bought).

My original IIsi Maxell bombed itself many years ago with the original Maxell battery, so I’ve been through it before. I’ll remove batteries from machines that are going into storage for extended periods and that seems to work OK for me.

 

[croissantking]

For me it's safety and availability:
- a button cell won't cause the same catastrophic damage if it leaks
- I can buy button cells at the grocery store, getting the 1/2AA size is a huge pain in the ass by comparison

Yes, I agree with this.
Although safety is a bigger reason for me than availability.

 

[cheesestraws]

Yes, there are tradeoffs here. I'm not sure that either answer is wrong but people have started doing it uncritically, in the same way that people put in custom ROMs by default then get surprised when things break. By all means do that swap, but know why you are doing it.

Plenty of computers did come with (and still do come with) coin cell style CMOS batteries; all my Acorns did, and amusingly I've gone the other way and uprated them to full size batteries in an off-board battery holder, because that was the tradeoff that fitted my use case.