I purchased a HUO Family Guy last October and was a little surprised that the 2430 backup battery on the MPU was dead. I replaced it and everything was good until yesterday (about 5 months after the replacement), when all settings were lost as the battery was once again drained (.35 volts). Other than the dead battery, the pin works great with no issues. I checked the blocking diode at D24 and it is functioning properly.

Since NVRAM does not appear to be a reasonable option for this pin, would it work for me to use either a rechargeable battery or a super capacitor (1.5F, 5V) instead of the coin battery? I realize that I would need to jumper the blocking diode at D24, but is there any other reason that either of those wouldn't work?

I put in an Energizer battery when I got the pin, but that is probably a good idea to see if it happens again. Three times would strongly suggest something is wrong. I did check Pinwiki and there was an entry there about "Battery draining quickly" and it was due to a bad clock IC at U43. I input some time settings and I don't have the same symptoms that they reported with their bad clock.

From Pinwiki:

7.3 Battery draining quickly

A SAM CPU board was rapidly draining the battery when the game was powered off. Power was getting from the battery to the clock at U43 and the RAM at U11. In other words, the components on the way to the clock and RAM were good (R211, D24, R212) and the diode at D25 was also good. However, when setting the time under the Utilities menu, gibberish would be output when the last entry was accepted. This indicated a problem with the clock IC at U43. The clock is a SOIC-8 150 mil package. A replacement is DS1302Z+ found at mouser.com. After replacing the clock IC the game kept correct time when powered on and off, and the battery no longer drained quickly.

There really isn't that much downstream besides the clock at U43 and the memory at U11. The pin works and plays fine, except for the dead battery. Also, the "modern" boards have surface mount components. A lot tougher for a hack like me to test and work on them.

I put another button battery in to see if it also dies in a relatively short time. If so, I'll go the super cap route since my machines get turned on and played on a fairly regular basis.

My Family Guy battery is dead again. It appears that 4-5 months is the life span. I am thinking about putting in a remote battery holder with three AA batteries. Would that present any issue to have 4.5 volts instead of the 3.5 volts with the button battery?

Could I jumper the blocking diode at D24 and put in a rechargeable battery or a super capacitor? The game gets played at least monthly in the summer and much more often in the winter.

I have to believe the memory get 5 volts when the pin is turned on.

Losing all of the settings.

I have checked all of the usual suppliers and NVRam is not available for these.

Does anyone know if there is any issue with the super cap or rechargeable options?

.12 volts. Completely dead. The only downstream components are the RAM (U11), the clock (U43) and an oscillator (Y2). There are also some diodes and a resistor that all test good.

The machine works fine with no issues other than the dead battery. I am going to try making an adapter to plug a super cap into the battery holder and then putting a jumper on D24 so the cap charges when the game is turned on.

Family Guy battery issue (resized).JPG

I tested D24, D25 and D26. D24 and D26 read .525 (or so) and D25 read .425 (or so). They are obviously in-circuit so I figured that was OK. Not true? Should I just replace D25 and see what happens?

No voltage at the non-banded side of D25. The battery reads 2.95 vdc and the banded side of D25 is 2.45 vdc, as is the banded side of D24. I checked the non-banded side of D28 and it was just over 1 vdc. Is that because of the super cap at C255?

Drop is only 2.95 vdc to 2.94 vdc. I metered it with no battery in at just under 100 ohms.

Do you mean the DS1302 at U43? Here is an entry from Pinwiki for the SAM system:

7.3 Battery draining quickly
A SAM CPU board was rapidly draining the battery when the game was powered off. Power was getting from the battery to the clock at U43 and the RAM at U11. In other words, the components on the way to the clock and RAM were good (R211, D24, R212) and the diode at D25 was also good. However, when setting the time under the Utilities menu, gibberish would be output when the last entry was accepted. This indicated a problem with the clock IC at U43. The clock is a SOIC-8 150 mil package. A replacement is DS1302Z+ found at mouser.com. After replacing the clock IC the game kept correct time when powered on and off, and the battery no longer drained quickly.

I am able to reset the time and date with no hiccups.

9.8 mV

Wow! At this point I think that I will replace the DS1302 and see what happens. Hopefully that is the issue. I will keep you informed.

Thanks a ton for the help. BTW Ed, I am a big fan and order from you regularly (mostly in the winter!). You are a true asset to the pinball community.

Replaced the DS1302 at U43. My first time removing a surface mount component and it wasn't too difficult (I used low temperature solder to remove it and copper braid to clean the pads). Everything is reset and working fine. I have measured the battery voltage and will check it again in a week to see if it is holding steady.

Is surface mount NVRAM available for this? If I still have an issue with the battery draining (after replacing the DS1302) my next move is to replace the RAM. I might as well do NVRAM if it is available.

I checked the voltage today and it is holding steady at just over 3 vdc. The battery is a 2032 and was put in before replacing the DS1302 and it drained quickly to 3vdc.

I will continue to check the battery but early indications are that the problem was a bad DS1302. Once that is confirmed over the next couple of months, I will put a larger 2430 in and hopefully not have to deal with batteries again for several years.

I am working on the premise that my battery draining issue is resolved (I will continue to monitor this). My goal is to get rid of batteries that require replacement on all of my pins

That being the goal, is there a rechargeable option for the SAM system? It seems that installing a rechargeable battery with 3.5 vdc and putting a jumper on the blocking diode would do the trick. Not true? Bad idea? Has anyone tried this?

Thanks. I'll stick with the 2430. Also, thanks for the Pinwiki entry. That got me headed in the right direction (I hope!).

I checked the voltage once again and it has not moved at all. I am going to declare victory and blame the battery draining issue on a bad clock at U43 (DS1302). I will replace the 2032 cell that is currently in place with the appropriate CR2430.

Thanks to everyone for their input and help in resolving the issue.