[HECnet] DS1287A replacement

[Gregg Levine]

Hello!
That's the direct replacement for it. The datasheet will confirm it.
The batteries technically have a life of five years. I say
"technically" because that's the same for every system who uses that
method of backing up NVRAM, and I have not had a reason to change it.
Disk drives sure, but not the NVRAM battery.
-----
Gregg C Levine gregg.drwho8 at gmail.com
"This signature fought the Time Wars, time and again."


On Fri, May 2, 2014 at 8:07 AM, Jordi Guillaumes i Pons
<jg at jordi.guillaumes.name> wrote:

Some moths ago we discussed about replacements for the dying DS1287A RTC chips used in some machines, like the VAXStation 4000. At that time I found (and shared) a chinese dealer who had some chips in stock. I ordered a pair of those, and:

- One of them was dead on arrival.
- The other one was working, but it died a month ago (so I guess the chinese stock is made with old chips whose battery cells are dying).

Fortunately, there are good news. There is a snap-in replacement made by MAXIM. The chip is the DS12887A, and can be bought from regular electronics sources. I got mine from Farnell, at 11,13    a piece, and it aparently works flawlesly. This is the datasheet:

http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/22860.pdf

The Farnell part # is 1606597.

(I also have tried to fix one of my dead 1287's, but I'm not very good with the solder iron...)

Jordi Guillaumes i Pons
jg at jordi.guillaumes.name
HECnet: BITXOV::JGUILLAUMES