These are some emails I have received from other users who
have installed battery holders in the keyboard. This approach has several
advantages, the main one being that next time the battery dies, it will not
be such a hassle to replace, however, installing the holders requires a little
more skill that putting another battery in. Some of these users did
have some experience working with electronic, so if you have no experience
you may want to reconsider trying to install one by yourself. Who
knows, maybe you can talk a Batteries Plus store into installing a holder
for you...
WARNING! Battery Low
see manual
message on my Ensoniq SQ-2 32 Voice, I did a few things, I checked for information in the manual (page i-7). It suggests saving the sequences/presets to a storage card. One can also use a small freeware program called KSEDITOR ( file name: ksedit02.zip ) for these operations.
Since I don't have a RAM card, I knew that this battery was located inside the keyboard and that Ensoniq wanted me to take it to a service center. I found this web site on the internet about replacing the battery and checked for an authorized Ensoniq repair station. I live in Eastern Ohio and there are no authorized Ensoniq repair stations listed in Ohio or Pennsylvania. So, it looked as if the battery replacement was a possibility for me.
Here's the part where one needs some technical skills to work with printed circuit boards and some equipment. Find the parts first before doing anything or you're wasting your time. Also if you don't know for sure what you're doing then I'm not responsible for your ruined keyboard.
To get to the battery, you need to set the keyboard upside down. I used a bed with an old sheet over it to protect the keys and top surface buttons.
Remove the 23 bottom plate screws. This includes all the screws except the ones that are for the four round rubber foot cushions in the corners. After carefully removing the large bottom plate the battery can be seen located on the large circuit board at the back side between the RCA phone jacks for the Pedal CV and the Ft. SW. Plugs.
The battery is one big flat BR2032 which is about the diameter of a nickel coin. But the odd thing is that it is soldered to the back side of the board with two posts. Why Ensoniq didn't use a battery holder in the first place escapes me.
I removed the one back plate protecting the phone and MIDI jacks for easier work also. This plate is held on by 4 screws and protects all of the plugs on the RH side of the keyboard. You also need to remove the RCA phone plug retaining collars with a pliers or crescent wrench carefully because the plugs are plastic. To remove the plate, you may need to lift up the circuit board a small amount.
To unsolder the battery, you should remove the screws from the circuit board. Be careful that you don't gouge or otherwise damage the board. There are two black screws on each sides (one is underneath the grey ribbon cables and the other one is clearly visible on the opposite side) and one large screw for a support post structure located below the board on the one side near the middle of the keyboard frame and the grey ribbon cables. That screw is the one that's not black but shiny metal.
Once these are removed, you should be aware that there is a nylon support post in the center of the circuit board. I squeezed the post pins together a bit to lift the board up. Remember later that the circuit board also fits into the memory card holder slot and this nylon support post can slide in a slot so it may move while working on the board.
At this point I placed a protective piece of cloth beside the circuit board over the ribbon cables and carefully hinged the circuit board over the ribbon cables being careful to not pull any of the cables. I then unsoldered the two posts for the battery pulling lightly to remove the battery from the circuit board. Do not heat up the battery as it might explode and do not pull hard or you may damage the circuit board.
Replacement:
The battery holder has three contacts. One of the 2 positive (+) contacts needs to be bent out of the way for the holder to sit flush with the board as it's not needed. Looking at the underneath of the battery holder, if you place the single negative (-) contact up, then you will have the two positive (+) contacts at the bottom on each side. You will need to bend the left hand positive(+) contact out to the side with the needle nosed pliers. The other two contacts will fit exactly into the circuit board holes without any further bending. Solder the battery holder into the exact locations where the old battery was removed, being careful to get the positive and negative contacts matched up. The positive and negative connections are indicated on the circuit board as well as the back of the battery holder and it's blister packaging card. If you bent the one positive contact properly the battery holder will be seated slightly towards the edge of the board and slightly offset of the white circle on the top of the circuit board. It will fit in the frame properly this way and not be in contact with any of the circuit chips. Insert the new CR2032 battery and reassemble. Be careful that when hinging the circuit board back into place that you don't pull the wires and that it seats properly on the memory card slot and the small white center post. You may need to slightly lift the circuit board to reassemble the smaller back plate that protects the RCA phone plugs.
Equipment:
One Philips screwdriver.
Small needle nosed pliers.
Crescent wrench or regular pliers.
Parts from Radio Shack:
Rosin core electronic solder ( I didn't need any)
Radio ShackPart # 64-2051 15 watt grounded soldering iron - $7.99
Radio ShackPart # 23-162 Lithium Battery CR2032- $2.99
Radio ShackPart # 270-430 Lithium Battery Holder for use with 20mm diameter coin type lithium batteries. $1.99
These parts are available from other suppliers as they are fairly common electrical parts for computers actually.
Tom Miller
Ohio
to hold batteries on a pc mother board. After carefully prying the old battery off of its conductors,
I soldered about 15" of wire to both of the connectors on the circuit board and then to the new battery
holder. I also used shrink tubing at all the solder joints to insulate them so they don't accidentally short
out. This gave me enough slack to attach the battery anywhere I wanted. It worked like a charm. I would
have taken pictures to send you but the camera is dead. As soon as I get my camera up and running I'll
send you a couple of pics. Thanks again for the info.
Ron Reece
As with all of the information
on the previous page, I am not responsible for any damage that may arise from
trying to install a battery or a battery holder, and the other users who
have kindly provided me with this information also do not take any responsibility
for any damage that may be caused by installing or trying to install a battery
or a battery holder.
Method 1
After receiving the: WARNING! Battery Low
see manual
message on my Ensoniq SQ-2 32 Voice, I did a few things, I checked for information in the manual (page i-7). It suggests saving the sequences/presets to a storage card. One can also use a small freeware program called KSEDITOR ( file name: ksedit02.zip ) for these operations.
Since I don't have a RAM card, I knew that this battery was located inside the keyboard and that Ensoniq wanted me to take it to a service center. I found this web site on the internet about replacing the battery and checked for an authorized Ensoniq repair station. I live in Eastern Ohio and there are no authorized Ensoniq repair stations listed in Ohio or Pennsylvania. So, it looked as if the battery replacement was a possibility for me.
Here's the part where one needs some technical skills to work with printed circuit boards and some equipment. Find the parts first before doing anything or you're wasting your time. Also if you don't know for sure what you're doing then I'm not responsible for your ruined keyboard.
To get to the battery, you need to set the keyboard upside down. I used a bed with an old sheet over it to protect the keys and top surface buttons.
Remove the 23 bottom plate screws. This includes all the screws except the ones that are for the four round rubber foot cushions in the corners. After carefully removing the large bottom plate the battery can be seen located on the large circuit board at the back side between the RCA phone jacks for the Pedal CV and the Ft. SW. Plugs.
The battery is one big flat BR2032 which is about the diameter of a nickel coin. But the odd thing is that it is soldered to the back side of the board with two posts. Why Ensoniq didn't use a battery holder in the first place escapes me.
I removed the one back plate protecting the phone and MIDI jacks for easier work also. This plate is held on by 4 screws and protects all of the plugs on the RH side of the keyboard. You also need to remove the RCA phone plug retaining collars with a pliers or crescent wrench carefully because the plugs are plastic. To remove the plate, you may need to lift up the circuit board a small amount.
To unsolder the battery, you should remove the screws from the circuit board. Be careful that you don't gouge or otherwise damage the board. There are two black screws on each sides (one is underneath the grey ribbon cables and the other one is clearly visible on the opposite side) and one large screw for a support post structure located below the board on the one side near the middle of the keyboard frame and the grey ribbon cables. That screw is the one that's not black but shiny metal.
Once these are removed, you should be aware that there is a nylon support post in the center of the circuit board. I squeezed the post pins together a bit to lift the board up. Remember later that the circuit board also fits into the memory card holder slot and this nylon support post can slide in a slot so it may move while working on the board.
At this point I placed a protective piece of cloth beside the circuit board over the ribbon cables and carefully hinged the circuit board over the ribbon cables being careful to not pull any of the cables. I then unsoldered the two posts for the battery pulling lightly to remove the battery from the circuit board. Do not heat up the battery as it might explode and do not pull hard or you may damage the circuit board.
Replacement:
The battery holder has three contacts. One of the 2 positive (+) contacts needs to be bent out of the way for the holder to sit flush with the board as it's not needed. Looking at the underneath of the battery holder, if you place the single negative (-) contact up, then you will have the two positive (+) contacts at the bottom on each side. You will need to bend the left hand positive(+) contact out to the side with the needle nosed pliers. The other two contacts will fit exactly into the circuit board holes without any further bending. Solder the battery holder into the exact locations where the old battery was removed, being careful to get the positive and negative contacts matched up. The positive and negative connections are indicated on the circuit board as well as the back of the battery holder and it's blister packaging card. If you bent the one positive contact properly the battery holder will be seated slightly towards the edge of the board and slightly offset of the white circle on the top of the circuit board. It will fit in the frame properly this way and not be in contact with any of the circuit chips. Insert the new CR2032 battery and reassemble. Be careful that when hinging the circuit board back into place that you don't pull the wires and that it seats properly on the memory card slot and the small white center post. You may need to slightly lift the circuit board to reassemble the smaller back plate that protects the RCA phone plugs.
Equipment:
One Philips screwdriver.
Small needle nosed pliers.
Crescent wrench or regular pliers.
Parts from Radio Shack:
Rosin core electronic solder ( I didn't need any)
Radio ShackPart # 64-2051 15 watt grounded soldering iron - $7.99
Radio ShackPart # 23-162 Lithium Battery CR2032- $2.99
Radio ShackPart # 270-430 Lithium Battery Holder for use with 20mm diameter coin type lithium batteries. $1.99
These parts are available from other suppliers as they are fairly common electrical parts for computers actually.
Tom Miller
Ohio
Method 2
I'd like to contribute the following procedure for your page if you don't
mind. I went ahead and pulled the battery out by de-soldering the holes
and purchasing a replacement battery holder. I found one at Gateway Electronics
(St. Louis, MO). I searched the web and found this place: http://www.batteryholders.com/BH32T-C.shtml.
This way if I need to replace it again, I don't have to wrestle with spotwelds on a battery.
Thanks Romero!
• Unscrew all the screws on the underside and pull the bottom off.
• Pull all connectors from the board where the battery resides. If you're
worried about which way they need to go back on, use a marker to draw a line
across the connectors to make sure you put it back the same way.
• Pull the PC board on which the battery resides by unscrewing all the
screws that hold it in. It helps if you pull the back plate by unscrewing
the nuts from the quarter inch inputs.
• Flip the board over and heat the solder connectors to pull the battery
making sure that the positive and negative holes are clearly marked.
• Clear the holes of all solder so the battery holder will go in. You
can probably find a battery holder at a Batteries Plus store. If not, I found
one at Gateway Electronics (St. Louis, MO). You can find one on the web
at Memory Protection Devices, Inc. (http://www.batteryholders.com/BH32T-C.shtml).
Buy two in case you screw one up.
• Fit the battery holder into the holes making sure the positive and
negative posts go into their corresponding holes on the board.
• Solder the posts in place. You might want to make sure all surfaces
are perfectly clean and/or use some flux to assure a tight solder joint.
• Put the battery in the holder making sure the positive and negative
sides are correct.
• Put the board back in, attach the connectors, screw everything back
together and your done!!!
Wally Treppler
Method 3
Ok I finally worked up the nerve to change the battery in the SQ2. I used
a battery holder from EPO designedto hold batteries on a pc mother board. After carefully prying the old battery off of its conductors,
I soldered about 15" of wire to both of the connectors on the circuit board and then to the new battery
holder. I also used shrink tubing at all the solder joints to insulate them so they don't accidentally short
out. This gave me enough slack to attach the battery anywhere I wanted. It worked like a charm. I would
have taken pictures to send you but the camera is dead. As soon as I get my camera up and running I'll
send you a couple of pics. Thanks again for the info.
Ron Reece
Method 4
I ended up getting very impatient. I wasn't able to find someone
near by who would solder the battery to the board. So I decided to
just work around the problem. Starting with a small rectangle of
cardboard I made my own case. I took two four or five inch
pieces of wire and striped the ends. I sandwiched the two wires on
theirs sides of the batter by folding the cardboard around the battery.
I taped it tight. I also did some taping of the wires so that they
wouldn't fall out. I soldered the wires to the board leads, and made sure
that the board leads couldn't touch each other. It is a bit rough, but it
works. I'm not planning on taking my sq2 anywhere, I just use it in
our basement studio, so i'm not worried about it getting shaken loose.
Besides I taped it down pretty well.
