We have 3 iLive racks, and I got the 2.4v batteries for them to do a pro-active replacement after seeing a little corrosion on one of the boards and hearing similar issues crop up with other folks around this lifespan of the units. Is there any special procedure before/after desoldering the old battery and soldering the new one on? Any particular tips or tricks? I’ve done the CMOS battery replacement on the surfaces a couple times now, but I don’t see any information on a similar process for the iDR units. Anyone with experience doing this please chime in. Thanks!
No/kind of.
When you replace the Varta battery if you haven’t had one die yet, the symptoms will be that all your current values will go to zero. So you need to reload your show. So even if that battery is completely dead the only impact is upon power down your current state is lost, you can recall a show and use the iDR just fine until next power off.
Also, what we do is extend the leads for those batteries up to the back of the stack PCBs in fixed format mix racks and attach the new battery there. It will save you a lengthy tear down of the unit the next time in 10 years.
Note theres also a Varta 2.4V battery in the surface, as far as I can tell it does nothing but keep the date and time in the surface itself. The bigger issue is they start leaking after a decade and can damage other things around it.
The Varta batteries you should expect 7-10 years from.
The CR2032 on the SBC for the touchscreen we now replace every 3 years max, that battery has the worst symptoms if it fails.
That’s extremely helpful Chris, thanks so much! I’ve already got the PCB-mount batteries, so I’ll probably just do the direct replacement this time, and if I’m still in the same job in 7 years (and if we still have the iLives) then I’ll get the remote batteries and do the swap. The step-by-step walkthrough is exactly what I was looking for.