SF3 2nd Impact - considerations when removing battery?

[Joe]

Hope everyone had a good Christmas and happy new year in advance.

I managed to buy a SF3 2nd Impact kit that had been on the wishlist for a while! From reading other posts it seems it is safe to remove the battery from the cartridge as this game does not have encryption. This is my preference, as it will avoid any battery leak in the future, but are there any specific considerations to doing this; for example:
(1) Does it have an impact on anything else, such as the way the cart behaves (an inadvertent 'secondary impact'. Sorry )?
(2) Is there anything to pay attention to when removing the battery (e.g. are solder pads particularly susceptible to lifting so it is recommended to just snip the battery legs instead)?
(3) Are there any versions of this game that cannot be battery free? (I assume, from what I've read, that there is just one version, but never hurts to ask)?

Perhaps an overly cautious post, but would not be a good start to the new year if I damaged it.

 

[kazuo]

I think Mitsu/DS are probably the most knowledgeable on this, but I am fairly certain the answers are: No, No, and No. If you're extremely paranoid, just snip the legs, but you can safely desolder it without much worry of burning or pulling pads. In any case, it's going to be battery-free forever, so even if you do somehow manage to roast a pad, I am not sure it makes any difference.

Congrats on the pickup!

 

[Denson]

I can’t solder for toffee, so I’ve previously snipped the legs off and had no issues whatsoever

 

[Joe]

Thanks both. Appreciate the quick replies. I shall probably attempt this after the inevitable new year hangover has subsided otherwise my next post could be "how can you glue a CPS3 cart back together after accidentally snipping it in half?"

 

[hatmoose]

Thanks for asking this! I've had a 2nd impact on battery in my "must get round to doing something with this" pile for ages. Now I know what to do

 

[KaPH33n]

While it may not have a "functional" difference you may lose some collector value to the cart if you remove the battery from a working cart. At this time there is no way to put the keys back onto cps3 carts like you can with cps1 and cps2. Maybe in time... I realize that the game works without the battery but there is a slight difference to the hardware working correctly and providing the 0 null key and it behaving in a fail state that happens to also provide a null key.

I have all of my games on battery, but I am a purist.

 

[hatmoose]

I have all of my games on battery, but I am a purist.

This is a worthy goal! My 3rd strike is still on battery and for that ill be printing one of these to allow me to safely change the battery.
https://www.arcade-projects.com/thr...art-housing-and-battery-replacement-jig.1590/

My understanding is that the battery in 2nd impact does absolutely nothing, so I'm tempted to to take it out to reduce the risk of leaks and replace it later if/when the situation demands. Have I understood that correctly?

 

[KaPH33n]

This is a worthy goal! My 3rd strike is still on battery and for that ill be printing one of these to allow me to safely change the battery.
https://www.arcade-projects.com/thr...art-housing-and-battery-replacement-jig.1590/

My understanding is that the battery in 2nd impact does absolutely nothing, so I'm tempted to to take it out to reduce the risk of leaks and replace it later if/when the situation demands. Have I understood that correctly?

it is my understanding that once the battery is removed it cannot be put back? but maybe i'm wrong too? all of this cps3 stuff is really steeped in lore because it's still proprietary secrets. I was told that if you put the battery back in the cart then stops working, and I'd really like a definitive answer to this. basically the "glitch" for 2i is that it depends on the battery not being on the board is how I understood it?

2nd edit: rereading a doc I got back in the day Guide to Battery-free 3rd Strike 9-15-13.pdf inside of it is the directions:

If the cart doesn’t work because the battery is
dead, remove the battery, and it should start working again.

this is what makes me believe that you can't just put the battery back in again. But I also cannot definitively say I've removed a 2i battery myself and verified it working still and then put it back.

edit: and yes the battery replacing jig is perfect for doing swaps. I have done many many swaps with it.

 

[hatmoose]

This is an absolutely epic video! Thank you very much for posting it, really enjoyed that one

 

[kazuo]

I tried using the jig once. Was extremely careful. Used all kinds of stuff to stabilize the cart, cleaned everything 3x... still managed to somehow crash the game while it was running. Dead cart.

I've since switched to the helper battery method, using a mix of things I learned from Geekman & Mitsu's videos... I'm 5 for 5. Not a single cart dead, no crazy prep beforehand, way less stressful. Just have to watch out for that pesky boobytrap wire on the older carts.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnGYQYtjxxw

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxW7zkXEW_A


Of course, do what works for you. I certainly wouldn't suggest anyone try it on a "hot" cartridge though. Way more that can go wrong.

 

[KaPH33n]

I tried using the jig once. Was extremely careful. Used all kinds of stuff to stabilize the cart, cleaned everything 3x... still managed to somehow crash the game while it was running. Dead cart.

I've since switched to the helper battery method, using a mix of things I learned from Geekman & Mitsu's videos... I'm 5 for 5. Not a single cart dead, no crazy prep beforehand, way less stressful. Just have to watch out for that pesky boobytrap wire on the older carts.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnGYQYtjxxw

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxW7zkXEW_A


Of course, do what works for you. I certainly wouldn't suggest anyone try it on a "hot" cartridge though. Way more that can go wrong.

Did you check for continuity between your iron tip and the JAMMA ground? Because in your house the earth ground is tied to your neutral your soldering iron is going to be physically connected to earth ground and then your jamma ground when everything is plugged in and hot. So if you touch the iron to the battery it's the same thing as taking a wire and shorting the positive battery terminal to ground. I use my irons on an isolation transformer so that they're not earth referenced.

 

[kazuo]

Yes, I checked and that wasn't a problem for me. The cart died while I was trying to get the legs for the new battery into the vias. I probably jolted the cart the wrong way in the process.

 

[KaPH33n]

Yes, I checked and that wasn't a problem for me. The cart died while I was trying to get the legs for the new battery into the vias. I probably jolted the cart the wrong way in the process.

i see, that is unfortunate. i do recommend preforming the legs and cutting them down to about 1cm longer than necessary. If you leave them full length and do the folding during the operation it's another place for it to get snagged up. I would probably still do this if I was using the helper battery method, but I like the idea that I'm doing less work overall with "powered on." and always always check the battery voltage even if the batteries are new and sealed. it takes 2 seconds to check with the meter you should already have on the bench.

Powered On Method:
2 desolder joints
2 solder joints
1 battery voltage check

Helper Battery Method::
4 desolder joints
4 solder joints
2 battery voltage checks

like you said do what works for you.