Poly 800/no place for internal battery

[dragonworks]

I recently came across a Korg Poly 800 on the cheap that had no sound. I worked up a voice on it, shut it off, turn it on the voice is gone. I figure okay, internal battery is dead. Open it up, no internal battery, no place for one, never was one. I remember reading about this somewhere and it showed where to place a battery holder in the circuit. I need to know where to insert the battery holder, can anyone be of any help? I have been surfing the web for two days looking.
Thanx
J.D.

[meatballfulton]

The original version of the Poly 800 indeed had no internal battery. Instead, it depends on the four C batteries being present. Yeah, stupid.

Read more here.

[dragonworks]

I did see a remedy at one time, where one would solder a watch batter holder into the circuit to take the C batteries place but now I cannot find it.

[meatballfulton]

I had a Poly 800 that didn't have the internal battery, but it did have an empty spot on the circuit board ready to solder in a battery. Why they didn't actually install the battery is a mystery to me. If yours is one of these, it's easy to locate the empty spot, install a battery holder and pop a CR2032 cell in there. If you can't solder, then take it to a repairman to do the work. You have to to open the synth up to check, here's a video[/url] that explains how...FF to 7:00.



BTW, in 1983 backup batteries were typically soldered to the circuit board (yes, they had pins attached). Manufacturers thought people should bring the synth in for service when the battery dies and let a tech deal with it. Eventually they realized that a battery holder was a better idea, esp. since soldering lithium batteries isn't the safest thing in the world to be doing.

[Weirdofromouterspace]

I did see a remedy at one time, where one would solder a watch batter holder into the circuit to take the C batteries place but now I cannot find it.

This perhaps?
http://boymeetssynth.blogspot.com/2018/ ... r-and.html

[synzoneau]

Apparently there were three versions of the mkI mainboard. There's one with no provision for a CR2032 memory battery on the board, one with solder pads and marking on the silkscreen for where the memory battery should go and finally ones with a CR2032 installed which became standard on the mkII. You can install a CR2032 battery on all of them freeing yourself from the often leaky C cells. In your case where the is nothing you have to do some small modifications to the board and wire up the battery holder and secure it into place. On machines that had the solder pads I put the battery there, on others I just glued to the bottom of the case. It's not overly difficult but you're not good with a soldering iron I would take it to a tech