HR16 and SR16 battery trivia

[soundchaser59]

I opened up my HR16 and my SR16 tonight, thinking since they are 18 and 12 years old, respectively, they could probably use replacement batteries.

DAAAAD GUMMMMM YOU Alesis for putting soldered in batteries in your gear. (That fact alone will stop me from EVER buying another piece of gear with that name on it!) Nothing like a company acting friendly and smiling wide while they take your $120 bucks ($20 for the battery and $100 flat rate repair fee) just to change a 50 cent battery for you because they soldered it in place.

Well, I'm doing an end around on Alesis. I found a place at www.batterystore.com where I am able to buy the

Tadiran TL5101 3.6v lithium 1/2 AA "P" terminal battery for the HR16 (has the wire leads attached on each end so it can be soldered to the PCB)

and the

Panasonic CR2325 3v 3-pin Horizontal mount battery for the SR16 (the solder pins are spot welded to the battery - same as BR2325)

each one for $5 bucks! FIVE BUCKS! I can save over $100 bucks just by doing a google search and a bit of soldering.

Shame on Alesis for making their gear so unfriendly on the inside!

Hope you guys can use this, I know there are at least a handful of people here who own one of these two drum machines. - SC

 

[boingoman]

Nice job finding the batteries, lots of people shell out the bucks before they think of that.

Now that your cherry is popped, realize that Alesis is by no means the only company to do this. Fairly common, actually.

 

[warble]

You'll have to quit buying gear from a lot of companies then.....it is a pretty common practice soldering batteries in place. Why? Not sure. I guess in the case of my old Yamaha DX7, after all the banging around from gigging, etc. the battery is still soldered in place.

I own the Alesis SR16 as well, so I DO appreciate this post!

 

[turnitdown]

Warning!!!!!!!!!!!

I replaced the battery in my SR-16 w/ a standard CR series battery... No problem...

BUT!!!!! BE CAREFUL WHEN SOLDERING THOSE DISC BATTERIES!!!!!!!!! THEY WILL EXPLODE!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND FAST!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, desolder the leads, not the battery....

PS- MY ART SGE unit had the same battery and holder, but was a snap in, not soldered in setup.... go figure....

 

[soundchaser59]

BUT!!!!! BE CAREFUL WHEN SOLDERING THOSE DISC BATTERIES!!!!!!!!! THEY WILL EXPLODE!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND FAST!!!!!!!!!!!!

Should I use a heat sink when I start touching the soldering iron to the pins?? Even if it's a 15 watt iron?

 

[turnitdown]

I'm not sure.....
I used a 40 watt iron, and wes trying to unsolder the lead from the top of the disc. POOF! Good think I was wearing glasses,or I might be blind now.... little black particles went everywhere....

Just wear goggles to play it safe..... yo may be fine though, w/ a heat sink, low wattage iron, and hitting just the leads....

 

[soundchaser59]

I used a 40 watt iron, and wes trying to unsolder the lead from the top of the disc. POOF!

Well, that's probably why it blew up on you.......the clip is not soldered to the battery, it is spot welded. You cannot unsolder it from the battery, you have to pull it apart with pliers. And 40 watt is hot enough to solder speaker wires to speaker terminals.

That's why I posted this link, because I pulled mine apart with pliers and ruined the battery and the clip. I went looking and found that web site that sells that battery with the clip already spot welded to the battery. All you have to do is solder it in place of the old one. Which is what led me to slam Alesis for charging us all $100 bucks to do such a simple fix.

FYI..... and glad you are not blind!