CPS3 battery change guide.

[Dinodoedoe]

Bravo, nice work. I love pictures. The internets needs more walk through with photos.

 

[N80G80]

Ive been swapping cps3 batteries for a while now..i must say i prefer doing them while the game is running....but congrats on your success!!

 

[shaktazuki]

Nevermind.

 

[JazzyNYC]

Just decided to Try my hand at replacing the battery of my New generation cart.

Lo and behold it looks like someone already modded the PCB with a type of holder.

Here's one side....http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t51/ndemus/P1000232.jpg

The other side of the battery...
http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t51/ndemus/P1000233.jpg

And the back with the 'infamous' black wire intact...
http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t51/ndemus/P1000234.jpg

Has anybody seen or done this mod?? I fiddled around with the battery slightly to see if it wiggled or moved around easily but found that it was pretty secure. Even more so with the cart intact due to its design. Whatever the case is, it seems likw whoever modded it knew what they were doing, as the solder points are clean as day.

Best part is, now All I have to do to change the battery is power on, and swap out. No more work required.

 

[metallizer]

?

sure these helper pads aren´t welded on the battery.

cos´ that´s what it looks like.

 

[JazzyNYC]

Holy crap. Your right. Looks like back to the drawing board for me.

 

[shaktazuki]

Hey, any 1/2 AA 3.0-3.6v lithium battery will do, right?

 

[Scott]

Anyone out there working on a fix for this suicide-battery bullshit? I had a freakin battery leak on my 2nd Impact cart. Only 2 years old too.

 

[shaktazuki]

Here's what I did.

My CPS3 system arrived today. I took it to a guy who deals with PCBs for a living. He poked a hole in the security cart a little off the side of the existing backup battery. He soldered a wire to each end of the battery and pushed them through the hole. He then soldered a 3v lithium photo battery to the wires, outside of the security cart, so that there are now two batteries in parallel feeding the circuitry inside.

Seems pretty easy. Now, when I want to change the battery in a few years or whatever, I have only to desolder the battery outside the security cart when the system is running and solder a new battery to the wires.

 

[BanishingFlatsAC]

What are you going to do when the battery inside the cart starts leaking?

 

[shaktazuki]

Will it? Do they always leak, or leak with high probability? It can be safely removed now, I suppose... the problem is it's welded to the steel prongs attached to the security cart. Not so easy to remove.

My battery looked the same as the pics above except there were no wires on the back of my security PCB.

 

[darkgrue]

Just decided to Try my hand at replacing the battery of my New generation cart.

Lo and behold it looks like someone already modded the PCB with a type of holder.

That's not a mod, that's a factory battery. Those tabs on the ends of the battery are welded on by the manufacturer and end in solder pins (which is what's attached to the board).

There are usually about four standard packaging forms for batteries: no terminals at all (like a ordinary flashlight battery, say), solder pins (like the cart uses), 3-pin tabs (one end has a single pin, the other end has two pins slightly apart to indicate polarity), and just plain solder tabs. For this particular application, you want to make sure you order the kind that have solder pins (and not the 3-pin).

Best part is, now All I have to do to change the battery is power on, and swap out. No more work required.

Sorry, that's not the case. Those tabs don't come off, and you won't be able to put them on a new battery (soldering tabs to batteries is... ifffy).

 

[massimiliano]

Will it? Do they always leak, or leak with high probability? It can be safely removed now, I suppose... the problem is it's welded to the steel prongs attached to the security cart. Not so easy to remove.

My battery looked the same as the pics above except there were no wires on the back of my security PCB.

Batteries always leak, it's just matter of "when".
remove a battery whit the helper one in parallel is good, until you have first run security carts.

The "infamous" black wire on late carts is placed just to avoid that, so in case you'll face one of them, you'll need a new approach.

Anyway, the steel prongs you say are just part of the battery, you have to desolder them from the board in order to remove the whole (not meant to be separated from the battery cylinder...never try to solder directly the battery plate, it can explode!)
Fresh batteries looks like the violet ones here:

http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2513453&postcount=25

Edit:

you can find a couple of orange batt of yours removed too.

 

[darkgrue]

Just finished the battery replacement on my Jojo's this afternoon. Fortunately, it was successful.

I had a coworker who is pretty experienced with microprocessor design and electronics repair do it for me as a personal favor, as my hands are not steady enough to do the soldering. The soldering does not require excessive prescision, but it does require good control of heat, and being able to keep the point on-target.

We used the helper battery method, although modified it a bit by connecting the helper battery in line a polarized JST connector that was attached to the solder points on the board. Rather than desolder the helper battery, we merely disconnected it. The connector nestles nicely behind the board and fits in the plastic enclosure without modification.

I can see why people don't like performing this service. It's nervewracking. Having read what little is known about the anti-tamper features of the board, there are too many ways to make a mistake. There are ample opportunities to short the board, or overheat a connection and have the helper battery pop off. Put the batteries in reverse-polarity, static discharge, etc. Any mistake results in a blank board, and your setup is a boat anchor. Sure, you might find another cart, but more likely, you're buying an entirely new set (I've never seen CPS3 software offered apart from a board and drive set - which must mean loose, working carts are pretty uncommon).

The encryption method being broken was beneficial to the MAME scene, but its not much of a breakthrough for CPS3 owners. There's a huge gap between understanding how the software was encrypted on the CD's, and being able to reinitialize the security cart.

It's entirely possible to reverse-engineer it - with considerable effort, and possibly requiring some rather esoteric equipment and specialized knowledge. It's certainly possible that someone who has the ability also has access to logic and bus analyzers. The biggest problem is that even if the person(s) working on this had a working board set or two, chances are they're going to fry MANY.

It'd also be a labor of love. CPS3 owners aren't likely to be able to support actual development costs of a solution. No one's going to pay $2000 a pop to repair a board set maybe worth $200-400. Really, it'd require someone with the necessary equipment and skills to do it for the challenge. If CPS3 owners can't do this for on the order of the cost of parts, I suspect there's no market (I suspect is a significant reason this has never been done).

That being said, as a CPS3 board owner, I sure hope someone does it.

 

[KaPH33n]

Fantastic thread. I have a SF3:3s that I need to change out the battery on. I am thinking about doing a keystone battery holder mod on it so that changing the battery out in the future will be easy to do while powered on. I plan on using a helper battery to install the keystone retainer and then removing it once everything is mounted properly.

I'm a little worried that I won't figure out a good way to mount the thing to the security cartridge. May have to dremel away a hole, which I'd hate to do, but is worth it to me.

 

[yzrider926]

Would this battery be suitable to act as a helper battery? http://www.atbatt.com/product/21208.asp

it has the 3.6v and is a full size AA battery instead of the 1/2AA size on the CPS3 carts.

 

[thegreathopper]

Would this battery be suitable to act as a helper battery? http://www.atbatt.com/product/21208.asp

it has the 3.6v and is a full size AA battery instead of the 1/2AA size on the CPS3 carts.

Yes it would be suitable.

 

[mainman]

Ive been swapping cps3 batteries for a while now..i must say i prefer doing them while the game is running....but congrats on your success!!

Its the only safe way as the cart can detect voltage fluctuations why on battery power and can kill itself.

 

[sonofx51]

Its the only safe way as the cart can detect voltage fluctuations why on battery power and can kill itself.

Are you saying the "safest" way for the battery to be swapped out is when the it is powered up? That sounds a little scary and kinda awkward to do.

 

[mainman]

Are you saying the "safest" way for the battery to be swapped out is when the it is powered up? That sounds a little scary and kinda awkward to do.

No when on mobo power the battery is not connected to the circuit. As far as trying to change a battery on a powered up pcb, if your not comfortable around electronic devices then yes it can be a scary proposition to a novice. When I say safest I am speaking from the point of view of the cart not dying 2 weeks later as a result of its security design not from the physically changing the battery perspective.

But since the CPU on the cart can detect tampering through substantial voltage fluctuations such as a spike when using helper batteries and the slight voltage difference between the old and new battery it has a high 80 percent chance of EVENTUALLY killing itself so the power up method is the best way to go. Basically I am guessing it has a comparator circuit on the battery when the game is off and the battery is in use, so if you change the battery when the game is on and the battery is off your cart stands greater chance of not dying two weeks after you changed the battery.

 

[sonofx51]

No when on mobo power the battery is not connected to the circuit. As far as trying to change a battery on a powered up pcb, if your not comfortable around electronic devices then yes it can be a scary proposition to a novice. When I say safest I am speaking from the point of view of the cart not dying 2 weeks later as a result of its security design not from the physically changing the battery perspective.

But since the CPU on the cart can detect tampering through substantial voltage fluctuations such as a spike when using helper batteries and the slight voltage difference between the old and new battery it has a high 80 percent chance of EVENTUALLY killing itself so the power up method is the best way to go. Basically I am guessing it has a comparator circuit on the battery when the game is off and the battery is in use, so if you change the battery when the game is on and the battery is off your cart stands greater chance of not dying two weeks after you changed the battery.

Wow I never knew that, thank you for the information.

 

[Razoola]

No when on mobo power the battery is not connected to the circuit. As far as trying to change a battery on a powered up pcb, if your not comfortable around electronic devices then yes it can be a scary proposition to a novice. When I say safest I am speaking from the point of view of the cart not dying 2 weeks later as a result of its security design not from the physically changing the battery perspective.

But since the CPU on the cart can detect tampering through substantial voltage fluctuations such as a spike when using helper batteries and the slight voltage difference between the old and new battery it has a high 80 percent chance of EVENTUALLY killing itself so the power up method is the best way to go. Basically I am guessing it has a comparator circuit on the battery when the game is off and the battery is in use, so if you change the battery when the game is on and the battery is off your cart stands greater chance of not dying two weeks after you changed the battery.

Has this been confirmed? I ask because these kind of myths seem to come from nowhere and somehow stay around. Take CPS2 for example, people always said removing the battery will instantly kill the game. It was not until I actually purposely removed a battery to kill a board that the myth was put to bed. I'm not saying your wrong and I understand that removing the battery from CPS3 will kill the cart instantly unlike CPS2. I just question if there is a security circuit to check voltage that will kick in a week or so after the change. For me I would more guess the weak link in CPS3 is while connecting the cart to the mobo, we all know how MVS / AES games can be in this area so can't a improperly inserted CPS3 cart kill it and be a reason instead?

 

[mainman]

Has this been confirmed? I ask because these kind of myths seem to come from nowhere and somehow stay around. Take CPS2 for example, people always said removing the battery will instantly kill the game. It was not until I actually purposely removed a battery to kill a board that the myth was put to bed. I'm not saying your wrong and I understand that removing the battery from CPS3 will kill the cart instantly unlike CPS2. I just question if there is a security circuit to check voltage that will kick in a week or so after the change. For me I would more guess the weak link in CPS3 is while connecting the cart to the mobo, we all know how MVS / AES games can be in this area so can't a improperly inserted CPS3 cart kill it and be a reason instead?

No raz this is from personal experience. Every cps3 battery ( 4 so far ) change I have attempted using the helper battery method has consistently died two weeks after the change like clock work, they worked fine past a week after the change then just died. I know how to solder so it was not a cold solder joint problem. To date the three I have changed with the mobo on are still going

What else could have killed it if it was not meant to self destruct in just such a situation as someone trying to sustain the encryption through unauthorized means. But yes it is a educated guess since I don't have the data sheet of the sh-2 which has to be custom

 

[massimiliano]

????

My 4 CPS3 carts are still kicking today, after the battery swap procedure mentioned...2 year ago already.



Could it be instead a problem of batteries? (I.E. only certain types/brand?)

 

[Dion]

I changed all of mine last year via power-on method. The only one that died was my third strike two weeks later. So it seems the method doesn't really matter though the power-on method is easier for sure.