Battery Backed Up Products

Mike Brown · Post by **Mike Brown** » 12 Dec 2003 3:00 pm

I felt it necessary to caution or advise those of you who purchase and/or trade products that are "battery based" such as the Profex, Profex II, Tubefex, Transtube Fex, Session 2000 and Transtube Fex to be sure that the product is checked by a technician before you purchase it. We have received several of these Peavey products in our Service Department lately that have been in use for years and the battery has leaked causing irreparable damage to the circuit board. Be sure that you obtain repair records before you purchase the product as this could cause problems for you "down the road". In other words, some units cannot be repaired.

Mike Brown
Peavey Consumer Information Services

Roy McKinney · Post by **Roy McKinney** » 13 Dec 2003 5:21 am

Hi Mike,
What is the "expected" service life of the battery for the S2000?

Bob Cox · Post by **Bob Cox** » 13 Dec 2003 8:41 am

Mike,It would be nice if peavey would build units that you could simply drop a new battery in while the adp is backing up.

Mike Brown · Post by **Mike Brown** » 16 Dec 2003 9:07 am

Roy, it's good to visually check the battery every year and replace as necessary.

Bob, the RAM devices are widely used in many manufacturers products. It just happened to be the choice of the industry at the time that the Tubefex was designed and manufactured.

Paddy Long · Post by **Paddy Long** » 16 Dec 2003 2:44 pm

Mike - I haven't changed the battery in my Profex II since I bought it new. 7 years ??
I guess if I change out the battery I will lose my presets ?? , and have to set them all up again ??

Ken Fox · Post by **Ken Fox** » 18 Dec 2003 6:44 pm

Yes, you will loose your presets and will also have to reinitialize. This is not a job for a non-technician. The battery is soldered in place.
I just finished one for a customer tonight. It had leaked, the worst I have I seen yet. It cleaned up perfect with some acetone, toothbrush and Q-tips.
I replaced well over 50 batteries last year in Profex 2, Tubefex, Transtubefex, Midi-Streamer (midi-filer), and Autograph units (RTA and EQ package).
The Transtubefex, Session 2000 and Tubefex can be fitted with a new memory chip that does not need a battery to back it up. This will not work for the Profex 2, Autograph or Midi-Streamer.
This info is from the Tubefex web page:

"There is a non-volatile SRAM chip that can replace both the regular SRAM and battery in the TF, TTF or TFP (even for the Session 2000 pedal steel amp - but NOT for the ProFex, ProFex II, or BassFex). The SRAM is the 28-pin socketed IC - slightly smaller than the EPROM, and with no sticker. It is a volatile RAM, so it needs the battery juice to hold its contents when the TF is powered down.

This new chip will remember its contents at power down via an EEPROM shadow (no battery!), so the big blue (or green) battery can be removed from the board.

NOTE: You have to backup your data before you do this! The RAM chip is where the patches and globals are stored, so when you replace the chip you will have to re-initialize and restore data.
The chip needs a little surface-mount 10K resistor tacked between pins 27 and 28 (to keep it happy at power up), but other than that, you just drop it in and unsolder the battery. (When reading the writing on the chip, pins 27 and 28 are on the top left at the very end.)
NOTE: it doesn't have to be a surface mount resistor, but it is a perfect physical fit. They're probably hard to get as a one-off, so a regular resistor can be tacked on with a higher ugly factor.
Peavey doesn't stock these parts currently - I brought some samples in to check out (my TransTubeFex and PC1600x are now battery-less), but I don't have a current project that needs that much nvRAM, so I doubt if I'll be able to bring them in for service purposes only.
The part is a ZMD U637256DC - 32Kx8 CapStore nvSRAM. E-group list member Tim Batt has volunteered to be the middle man for delivering these parts (see below). He is buying small quantities from All American Distributors and soldering the 10K SMT resistor. So after purchase, you replace the SRAM with the new nvSRAM and remove the battery. Remember, you have to backup your data before you do this! The RAM chip is where the patches and globals are stored, so when you replace the chip you will have to re-initialize and restore data.

To get a ZMD upgrade - Contact Tim Batt via e-mail to make sure he has a part available for you, then send him a money order (no cash or checks, please!) for his requested amount (vicinity of $20) to:

Tim Batt
128 Memory Lane
Harvest, AL 35749"

<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Ken Fox on 18 December 2003 at 06:45 PM.]</p></FONT>