NiCd battery replacement in vintage computers

[Mark J. Blair]

Today I discovered that I hadn't replaced the NiCd battery in time in my Amiga 3000. Pictures:

https://twitter.com/nf6x/status/696042894939979776
https://twitter.com/nf6x/status/696050264306921472
https://twitter.com/nf6x/status/696065578977472512

It's a fairly typical 3.6V 60mAH 3-cell NiCd pack, 16mm diameter x 18mm long, polarized with 2 pins on the positive end and 1 pin on the negative end.

In the past I have usually replaced these sorts of batteries with new ones of the same type. This time, I'm thinking of at least installing a remote holder. Not only to prevent further PCB damage in the future, but also to make the battery easier to replace. Lots of screws need to come out to extract an A3000 motherboard:

https://twitter.com/nf6x/status/696047816938946560

While I begin to figure out how I'd like to perform this repair, I'm curious about what others have decided to do in similar circumstances. Many options come to mind:

* Solder in the same kind of NiCd pack to keep things original.

* Solder in a supercap instead.

* Reconfigure the circuit to use a non-rechargeable lithium coin cell in a holder instead. I don't think I've seen one of those leak before.

* Yet some other remote battery option.


-- 
Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net>
http://www.nf6x.net/