[rescue] %(#*^#(% soldered-down batteries...

[Carl R. Friend]

   On Sun, 25 Jan 2004, Sheldon T. Hall wrote:

> From: Sheldon T. Hall <shel at cmhcsys.com>
> Subject: RE: [rescue] %(#*^#(% soldered-down batteries...
> 
> Carl R. Friend says ...
> >
> >    Does anyone here have any knowledge as to where a Tadrian TL-5186
> > battery can be had?  The one in my SGI Indigo IRIS went flat on me
> > and I need^W would like to resuscitate it.
> >
> >    Making matters worse, the bloody thing is soldered onto the main
> > board (R4k).  Will someone please tell the designer that batteries
> > *DIE* after a while and *need* *to* *be* *replaced*!
> 
> I'd accuse someone of wanting to sell replacement mainboards, but, actually,
> they probably expected those emachines to be so obsolete by now that now one
> would care.

   Happy news from the tundra!  According to all the FAQs on the
matter, the bloody batteries are soldered to the main CPU board,
but in the case of my machine the battery was actually socketed!
(I think I must have a very late one.)

   So, we're back to the original question -- "Where can a
TL-5186 be had?"

> But then, if that's the case, why did they spend so much time
> and energy engineering them to such a high standard?  You don't need all
> that high-zoot engineering and fabrication on something that going to be
> landfill in 8 or 10 years.  Not to mention that the designers never
> envisioned hobbyists taking obsolete machines over and running them, or
> computer museums, or ....

   Well, for some very low-current apps, soldering-in seems to be the
only way to go, and if there's going to be lots of vibration (e.g.
spacecraft) "hard-wiring" is the norm (save that those apps use welds
and wire-wrap).  But office-environment equipment?  Foo!

   Cheers.

+------------------------------------------------+---------------------+
| Carl Richard Friend (UNIX Sysadmin)            | West Boylston       |
| Minicomputer Collector / Enthusiast            | Massachusetts, USA  |
| mailto:crfriend at rcn.com                        +---------------------+
| http://users.rcn.com/crfriend/museum           | ICBM: 42:22N 71:47W |
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