[Mike]

Hello All,

The other day when I powered up my PCM 80, I got this message: Replace
Battery Soon (Press any button). I emailed Lexicon to arrange a repair
but was told that they no longer support the PCM 80.

I did a little research and found that it is a 3v lithium 160mAh type
battery that must be soldered in.


Has anyone ever replaced the internal battery on their PCM 80? If so,
was it a difficult soldering job? I'm a decent solderer but I'd hate to
damage or destroy my PCM 80 on a repair job like that.

Cheers,

Mike

[Chris Hornbeck]

On Mon, 15 Oct 2007 18:36:12 -0700, Mike
wrote:

Has anyone ever replaced the internal battery on their PCM 80? If so,
was it a difficult soldering job? I'm a decent solderer but I'd hate to
damage or destroy my PCM 80 on a repair job like that.

Don't have one; never seen one. But the battery sounds
familiar. It sounds like the type of battery used on
computer motherboards up until the mid-1990's.

Replacements were still available a few years ago (at
least), sometimes with some creative terminal bending
needed, but no big deal. And many folks would just
buy a two-cell AA battery holder, glue it to the side
of the case and run some wires down to the board.

In computers, changing the battery meant re-BIOS-ing.
So maybe you'll want to learn how to read your machine's
BIOS and write down settings. The battery is keeping some
kind of settings, fersure.

Hopefully you'll get a more knowledgable response,
but maybe this is a good fallback.

All good fortune,

Chris Hornbeck
"To live outside the law you must be honest.
I know you always say that you agree.
But where are you tonight, sweet Marie?" -RZ

[DC]

Chris Hornbeck wrote:

Don't have one; never seen one. But the battery sounds
familiar. It sounds like the type of battery used on
computer motherboards up until the mid-1990's.


Radio Shack might have it. I've been pleasantly surprised at their
selection of odd batteries.

[Mike]

Any information the battery might have stored appears to have been
lost. Perhaps the same thing will occur when I replace the battery or
maybe gibberish will appear on the screen. When this problem first
occurred, all my custom patches were erased and the machine
automatically initialized itself after I pressed any button following
the message. It is now storing and "remembering" patches I've just
created but the replace battery soon message comes up each time the
unit is powered up.

It's hard to believe the PCM 80 is a now considered a "legacy"
machine. The past ten years have gone by way too fast!


Don't have one; never seen one. But the battery sounds
familiar. It sounds like the type of battery used on
computer motherboards up until the mid-1990's.

Replacements were still available a few years ago (at
least), sometimes with some creative terminal bending
needed, but no big deal. And many folks would just
buy a two-cell AA battery holder, glue it to the side
of the case and run some wires down to the board.

In computers, changing the battery meant re-BIOS-ing.
So maybe you'll want to learn how to read your machine's
BIOS and write down settings. The battery is keeping some
kind of settings, fersure.

Hopefully you'll get a more knowledgable response,
but maybe this is a good fallback.

All good fortune,

Chris Hornbeck
"To live outside the law you must be honest.
I know you always say that you agree.
But where are you tonight, sweet Marie?" -RZ

[Chris Hornbeck]

On Mon, 15 Oct 2007 21:17:30 -0700, Mike
wrote:

Any information the battery might have stored appears to have been
lost. Perhaps the same thing will occur when I replace the battery or
maybe gibberish will appear on the screen. When this problem first
occurred, all my custom patches were erased and the machine
automatically initialized itself after I pressed any button following
the message. It is now storing and "remembering" patches I've just
created but the replace battery soon message comes up each time the
unit is powered up.

This is actually very *good* news. It still operates. Yeah.

Replace the battery and begin again Finnegan. You got nothing
to lose Lautrec.


It's hard to believe the PCM 80 is a now considered a "legacy"
machine. The past ten years have gone by way too fast!

I'm sitting here stunned at my inability to comment. The
mind fairly wobbles at the possibilities, yet none seem
amusing. oh, well.

All the best fortune,

Chris Hornbeck
"To live outside the law you must be honest.
I know you always say that you agree.
But where are you tonight, sweet Marie?" -RZ

[Scott Dorsey]

Mike wrote:

The other day when I powered up my PCM 80, I got this message: Replace
Battery Soon (Press any button). I emailed Lexicon to arrange a repair
but was told that they no longer support the PCM 80.

I did a little research and found that it is a 3v lithium 160mAh type
battery that must be soldered in.


Has anyone ever replaced the internal battery on their PCM 80? If so,
was it a difficult soldering job? I'm a decent solderer but I'd hate to
damage or destroy my PCM 80 on a repair job like that.

It's an easy job, AND you can buy a socket from Digi-Key that will drop
in place of the existing battery so you can put replaceable batteries
available from your corner drugstore in there.

You know the rules... use a solder sucker and a temperature-controlled iron
and you'll be fine.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."