F030 RTC/NVRAM replacement kit

[whiskey]

I was lucky enough to get the last kit Black Cat Hardware had in stock for my 1993 vintage falcone, works nicely.
However, I managed to get hold of another falcon last month. Added 68882, installed IDE2CF, and the last item on the list is the RTC/NVRAM. I wrote to Black Cat but he responded he hasn't got any more of the kits. The question now is, is there a comparable kit on sale somewhere? I checked out exxos but his web says there was an issue of sorts with his kit that required soldering a wire somewhere to the motherboard if I remember correctly and I'd like to avoid such a solution if at all possible.
Any suggestions where to look? Thanks a lot.

[alexh]

They are effectively free. You go to the MAXIM website and register with a non webmail (gmail/hotmail) email address. Then ask for some free samples. They'll send you 2 of each compatible NVRAM batteries. Even international postage is free.

[Edit: That said I don't seem to be able to find the samples option anymore]

They are £8 on RSOnline and you might want to get a low-profile socket so you can change it again in the future. Make sure it is low-profile or you won't be able to add the shielding back.

[alexh]

Exxos has made his own but they are 5x the price

https://www.exxoshost.co.uk/atari/last/storenew/#0089

[czietz]

[Edit: That said I don't seem to be able to find the samples option anymore]

I suppose this is what happens when this system is consistently abused.

[wongck]

Whoa Luckily I got mine couple of years back.
I really wanted a sample to test to see if it works on my Falcon.

It's probably some new Trump policy not permitting high-tech chips being shipped off to some faraway land ( e.g. Nebraska) for National Security sake.

[mikro]

Whoa Luckily I got mine couple of years back.
I really wanted a sample to test to see if it works on my Falcon. :wink:

Actually his RTC kit has one (minor) issue -- if you happen to have the protective foil missing on your keyboard, you risk short-circuiting the RTC pins and Falcon wont even power on. Yup, learned the hard way, so be careful everyone (fortunately nothing got damaged).

[leech]

Whoa Luckily I got mine couple of years back.
I really wanted a sample to test to see if it works on my Falcon.

Actually his RTC kit has one (minor) issue -- if you happen to have the protective foil missing on your keyboard, you risk short-circuiting the RTC pins and Falcon wont even power on. Yup, learned the hard way, so be careful everyone (fortunately nothing got damaged).

The exxos one or the Black Cat one? I could never get the Black Cat one to work, yet it worked with one I ordered online just fine (after I had socketed it), and it worked fine with the one on Exxos' site. So not sure what was up with the other one. Falcon would boot just fine, but it would never save the settings

[mfro]

... I could never get the Black Cat one to work, yet it worked with one I ordered online just fine (after I had socketed it), and it worked fine with the one on Exxos' site. So not sure what was up with the other one. Falcon would boot just fine, but it would never save the settings

When I got my Falcon a years ago (with dead battery, of course), I ordered 10 DS12887 on *ebay* from China and inserted a low-profile socket.

From that said 10 chips only one (the last one in the packet, of course, just to make matters more thrilling) could be made to work. With the others, the Falcon didn't even boot.

Apparently there are bad chips on the market. Unfortunately, you can't tell before you try. And once you tried, the battery lifetime starts to count down (as the initial startup connects the battery). Not much chance to do clean QA testing for vendors.

[alexh]

Buy direct from Maxim and avoid this

[mikro]

The exxos one or the Black Cat one?

Black Cat.

[stormy]

I have both the black cat and Exxos models. The Exxos one was losing its time constantly so I'm using the black cat one without issues.

[kodak80]

I have both the black cat and Exxos models. The Exxos one was losing its time constantly so I'm using the black cat one without issues.

I had the same issue with the Exxos RTC and he took it back and found it was faulty. He sent me a replacement and covered my postage costs. New one works fine. I think he had a bad batch. I would contact him and let him know.

[leech]

... I could never get the Black Cat one to work, yet it worked with one I ordered online just fine (after I had socketed it), and it worked fine with the one on Exxos' site. So not sure what was up with the other one. Falcon would boot just fine, but it would never save the settings

When I got my Falcon a years ago (with dead battery, of course), I ordered 10 DS12887 on *ebay* from China and inserted a low-profile socket.

From that said 10 chips only one (the last one in the packet, of course, just to make matters more thrilling) could be made to work. With the others, the Falcon didn't even boot.

Apparently there are bad chips on the market. Unfortunately, you can't tell before you try. And once you tried, the battery lifetime starts to count down (as the initial startup connects the battery). Not much chance to do clean QA testing for vendors.

I got lucky, mine worked right away. It was the Black Cat adapter board that didn't work, but since I'd already put in the low profile socket when I got the DS12887 it was working fine. I don't know if I paid much attention to if the clock was losing time, I wanted to get ntp set up

[guus.assmann]

Hello,
A short while ago, I replaced the RTC on 4 Falcons. The RTC's came from Mouser and were sure to be new and good.
But on 2 boards they didn't work, the boards would not boot with the new Clock.
When the old IC was put back, it worked just fine again.
However, a solution was found.
The Falcon was booted with the old clock and a diagnostics cartridge.
Then, the RTC was pulled from the socket and a new RTC was inserted, computer still on.
Next, the RTC test from the diagnostics was started. And sure enough, the chip passed the test and the clock was running.
After this procedure, the Falcon boots ok. This was done with 2 diferent computers and 3 clock chips.
BR/
Guus

[leech]

Yikes! By the way 'falcon didn't boot' sometimes is because it is trying in RGB mode, if I recall. Pretty sure someone will correct me on that. But there was a disk image that I saved to floppy that was supposed to clear the nvram so it would have a safe default.

[Rustynutt]

So, with fading eyesight, and having experienced killing one Falcon since 1992, have an alternative, if a bit crude idea, to replace the NVRAM on two of my Falcons that are in Mark X cases.
As clearance won't be an issue, thinking I should be ok to just piggy back solder the new chip atop the old one, clipping the power to the old chip from the MB, and connecting to the replacement chip.

Am I not seeing things clearly?

[alexh]

The height of the RTC/NVRAM part might preclude this

[Rustynutt]

The height of the RTC/NVRAM part might preclude this

The Mark X has quite a bit of headroom.