Topic: 9V battery on Classic

Can I use a regular 9V battery, or do I use a rechargeable battery?

Re: 9V battery on Classic

Either will do but I don't think the CC can recharge the battery anyway. C1s do recharge their special battery. 9volt batteries will not make the CC portable though. They will not run without being plugged in. Not sure if 9v battery is worth putting into a CC.

Owner of 3 Sony Dash, 2 Info 8.

Re: 9V battery on Classic

I agree with demarks51.   
There is little to nothing to be gained from putting a battery into a Classic.  I've got at least six Classics and I haven't got a battery in any of them. I can't even remember what the battery was supposed to do.
The best outcome you can hope for is that with today's better and more leakproof batteries, you won't actually damage your Chumby when you forget that it has a battery in it.

Re: 9V battery on Classic

What I remember about the 9v batteries was that it may have a carryover effect if there is a short flicker in the power. I am not sure if that is even true. I know 9v would not be power enough to start the chum let alone keep it powered.

Owner of 3 Sony Dash, 2 Info 8.

Re: 9V battery on Classic

The battery was intended to bridge brief power outages - I think we got at most 10-15 minutes of run time on a normal 9V battery.  You could move a running device from one outlet to another, but that's about it - not really enough to be useful in actual practice.

It was intended to do more, though - the CC actually has two processors in it - the main one we all know and love, and a smaller on the daughterboard on the back, called the "crypto processor".  Even when the main device is off, it's still on - in fact, among other things, it manages the "power switch" - which isn't really a power switch, but a GPIO input to the little processor, in other words, a "soft" power switch.

The little processor has timers, and has the ability to power on and off the main processor.  The idea was that in the case of a power loss, the main device could be off, but the little processor could keep track of the next alarm, and power up the device just before the alarm goes off, then shut it down again when the alarm was acknowledged.  This was part of a general plan with regard to alarm reliability.

However, the product management folks considered this a pretty complex scenario to explain to users, and since there was no way to know the condition of the battery (as mentioned, anything other than a full battery would probably not be enough to power up the device), we reluctantly backed off on that plan.

We made a better attempt at the battery in the C1 - rechargeable, and measurable.  For the large models, we didn't consider the device to be portable, or alarms to be the most critical function, so we didn't add them there.  The original Sony dash did not have a battery for the same reason, but they added one in a later model, I don't know how that affected acceptance of the device since there was a management coup at Sony and the dash became a casualty of the regime change.

6 (edited by demarks51 2019-04-25 13:15:46)

Re: 9V battery on Classic

Thanks. I did have a CC (guts) that was put in a small wooden box with an auxiliary battery added. The battery was pretty given-out by the time I had it a short time. I think you plugged in the battery and then plugged the wall wort onto it. That was supposed to keep the battery charged. But you could disconnect the wall wort and carry the unit around on battery power.  I ended up selling it to someone on this forum.
Also remember someone who created a backup battery for a C8 or a I8, that seemed to work. I agree that these units are not meant to be portable

BTW: Wonder why Insignia didn't add the battery backup on the I3.5?

Owner of 3 Sony Dash, 2 Info 8.

Re: 9V battery on Classic

Thanks Duane! Fascinating to hear some of the history of how these things came to be the way they are today. Alas, I fear a complete history will never be published.

Tar, feathers, congress. Some assembly required.

Re: 9V battery on Classic

demarks51 wrote:

I ended up selling it to someone on this forum.

That was me!

This discussion makes me want to try and run the Chumby on a rechargeable lithium battery and see how long it will last.
Still not sure why I would want a "portable" Chumby.

Re: 9V battery on Classic

I am going to try to dig up that old battery backup from that chumby in the box I had. It may be in my extremely unorganized drawers (pl) of wires and whatnots. I don't think it was able to charge up BUT I think I found something on ebay what was the same as I had. I will try to post the item/part number or something. I should have just added it to the box I sent you. Sorry.

Owner of 3 Sony Dash, 2 Info 8.

10 (edited by infocastme 2019-05-01 04:53:45)

Re: 9V battery on Classic

demarks51 wrote:

I should have just added it to the box I sent you. Sorry.

No Widgets for you! ;-)

(Ode to Seinfeld)

Re: 9V battery on Classic

So far, I can't seem to find it. I am trying to clean out some of my not so necessary stuff and donate to the local thrift store. If I come across it I will let you know. But I am pretty sure it was not operating well. I just plugged directly into the wall. I at least could get product name and number. Seems like I found one on ebay but I didn't want to spend the money since I was not really using it much and really didn't see the need for portability.

Owner of 3 Sony Dash, 2 Info 8.