I wanted to move some batteries off board. It seems like a simple process and I didn't want to do any soldering to the board (needed for many Williams games if you try and remove the batteries completely) and I didn't want to pay close to $20 for a pre-made holder.
I made my own for around $2 each. I'll admit I think I read about this process years ago, so I'm not taking credit, just sharing.
I order AA battery holders from mouser. They were about $1.40 each.
I purchased some screws and eye-hole connectors
I purchased some heat shrink toobing
I purchased a wood dowel with diameter similar to a AA battery
I already had some wire and solder.
Adding this up, including Mouser shipping, and dividing by 10 (which is how many I'm making), it's about $2.00 each.
And I made my first one in about 15 minutes, so it's pretty simple. I'll improve when I do my 2nd, but this post is showing my first.
Here is the battery holder I got. I even paid a little more to get the snazzy ribbon to help remove the batteries.
Below are the eye-connectors and screws.
Instructions:
1) Cut and strip 2 pieces of wire.
2) Crimp one side of each piece to the eye lug
3) Splice the other side to the wire from the battery holder. Do this for both wires. I simply tinned the wires, bent them into a hook and connected them together. I then used pliers and pushed them together, creating a weak connection. I then added more solder to get a good connection and used heat shrink tubing
4) Use a saw and cut 2 pieces from the dowel where each is equal a AA battery width (make sure you include the screw head when doing this)
5) Pre-drill a hole in each end, place the screw through the eye-hole and screw it in. Do this for each.
You should end up with something like below
Now place the fake batteries into the battery holder. Have the black connection on the bottom left and the red on the upper right (for WPC games at least)
And place the real battery pack somewhere safe, like on the bottom of the head cabinet.
And that's it. Enjoy!
For my 2nd attempt, I'll not change anything significantly... But I probably will
1) Be more careful when cutting the dowel. It splintered a little.
2) Maybe paint the dowel pieces black
3) Use a little screw and attach the actual battery holder to the cabinet. There is a small hole available for this.
... Altan
Battle Creek, MI
Halifax, NS
Sana'a
