Battery replacement

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Revision as of 11:38, 11 May 2020 by Unknown user (talk) (That looks and reads better than before, I think)
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Rear view of a Dreamcast controller board; note the battery by default is a soldered-in ML2020, or sometimes a larger ML2430.

The Dreamcast uses a soldered-in, rechargeable battery to store the console's time and date settings. The battery recharges whenever the console is powered on, takes about 2 hours to charge from empty to full, and should hold date and time settings for about 20 days.[1] The batteries on most all Dreamcast consoles should be totally dead by now, so one can desolder the original battery and replace it with a plastic battery holder to allow easy replacement of a compatible battery, such as ML2032, in the future.

It is highly recommended NOT to use the LIR2032 battery type, as the Dreamcast does not output the voltage necessary for it to properly and fully recharge (LIR2032 are 3.6-3.7V batteries, not 3V[2]). Instead, ML2020, ML2032, and ML2430 coin cells are all compatible 3V batteries of differing capacities and physical sizes, where a larger model number indicates a larger capacity and physical size: ML2020 is 45mAh and 20mm x 2mm, ML2032 is 65mAh and 20mm x 3.2mm, and ML2430 is 100mAh and 24.5mm x 3.0mm.[3][4][5] Note that the ML2430 may be too large to fit with an appropriately-sized reusable battery holder, and as such ML2032 is the recommended replacement type.

Recommended Parts

References