Replacement battery for Alesis Fusion

[parametric]

All true . . .

When closing it - its important to get the lid correct at the BACK, before closing down the front.

Namely, make sure you can SEE the holes the screws go into . . . .

The end cheeks seem to need to flex a bit to get them to snap in correctly. This always seem to need "jiggling"

Also important is the lid's fit at the REAR of the actual keys. THAT has to be precise, or it can touch them and interfere with their correct movement.

I think THAT is principally responsible for the noisy clacking sound, some people have mentioned . . . .

The first half-dozen take-aparts are the hardest . . . .

parametric

[mstsfreak]

Anyone replaced it's battery yet?

[parametric]

Not so Far . . . .

I don't think the Fusion is old enough yet

Some of the older Yamahas I come across in the YamahaMusicians forum are getting 25 years out of a CR2032/2025

before they go "undervoltage" and start loosing their settings and garbling the display . . . .

I guess boards are different in their power requirements in this respect, so just check the display once in a while

for garbled characters - that's usually a good sign that it's time for a new battery.

IIRC, the Fusion's battery is a coin cell with "legs"?

We mostly advise people to fit a holder at battery-change, THEN you only need to buy a coin cell . . . .

Just make sure you get the correct holder . . . the CR-2025 is 2.5mm thick, the CR-2032 is 3.2mm thick

(PC Motherboard batteries are usually these)

parametric

[2ManyKeys]

I really can't imagine a system so poorly designed that the serial number necessary for booting is located in volatile static ram that is lost when the battery dies. Unless somebody can attest to this actually happening, I'm quite sure the serial number is stored in nonvolatile storage possibly even redundantly.

The tool is just for the factory initialization where the serial number is burned in as a one-time operation.

In not going to lose sleep over it in any case.

[parametric]

Hmm . . ..

That remains an unknown to me, as I've never needed to change the battery yet on either of mine . . . .

I'll try and find out about that . . .

parametric

[2ManyKeys]

I have replaced board mounted and socketed batteries on probably a 15 different pieces of gear and not one of them was affected adversely. I imagine the Fusion was designed well enough to handle a battery dying. The hardware design of the Fusion is pretty impressive and I think the battery is only used for the RTC (real-time clock) which is why we have the, rather unusual, "Clock enable" option of disconnecting the RTC for long term storage. I think this basically disconnects the battery from any significant drain. If it didn't and the battery was still happily discharging into some SRAM storage there would be little point in disconnecting the RTC.

[mstsfreak]

Replacement battery for Fusion: http://www.bustedgear.com/part_batterie ... T2325-3B20

[2ManyKeys]

When I finally have to do this I will remove the board mounted battery and replace it with a 2032 socket so the battery can be easily replaced. I usually attach a pair of wires to the pc board and the socket so I can locate the battery for more convenient replacement. Since the current in these backup circuits is extremely low, the length of the wires to the battery has virtually no effect on the backup voltage.

[moses2]

I may attempt the battery replacement. Does anyone have any pics or steps to change it? I don't have a manual.

[parametric]

Hi <moses2>,

If you have basic soldering skills this is not difficult to do . . . .

The Fusion's Battery is a Panasonic BR 2825, but this refers to the direct REPLACEMENT (with tags) . . . .

I would suggest fitting a 2032 SOCKET . . . . . THEN you just need a standard 2032 coin cell which are freely available.

If you have a discarded PC Motherboard lying around, that will have a suitable socket you can unsolder and use . . .

You may need to get creative with the pin positions, but it's not generally difficult . . . .

In order to SOLDER the holder in, you need to disassemble the PCBs to a degree to do this . . . .

You MAY wish to consider doing the RAM upgrade at the same time?

The required EXM-E3 modules are available very reasonably from Brian Allan at https://www.sector101.co.uk/exm-e3.html

You nee TWO EXM-E3s for a full upgrade . . .

(disassembly will reveal the location of the SECOND E3 chip which is normally hidden)

This is obviously up to you

I've attached the disassembly procedure for the 6HD, which includes the RAM Upgrade and also my document for

the SSD upgrade . . . .

Fusion 6_8HD-S80 E3 UPGRADE.pdf

(1.38 MiB) Downloaded 225 times

Alesis Fusion SSD Install procedure v1.1.pdf

(6.85 MiB) Downloaded 271 times

Hope that helps . . .

parametric

[Jesse]

The battery is on the mainboard and you would need to remove the main board to replace it as it is soldered to the main board.

http://fusioneer.proboards.com/thread/2 ... sis-fusion

[Jokeyman123]

2 years later...I've found nothing definite about the results of removing/replacing the battery-and what effect this may have on the Fusion mainboard. I need hard data from someone who has actually done this-seeing as a new board i ordered is not working correctly and is asking for the serial number initialization procedure and key-which I do not own. I have requested info from the tech I got the mainboard from-MPCStuff online. He promised to get back to me-cannot see how to build one from the service manual-only how to assemble a connector but the Alesis "key" part apparently is essential to code in the serial number. Therefore-I am concerned removing the battery will 'initialize' the board-requiring this serial number input device on my working mainboard, which really don't need to do-but i've also been considering the possibility that errors in my malfunctioning board exist in firmware code that might be deleted if i remove the battery and allow for the board to be initialized-such as is the case with a computer CMOS battery replacement-which initializes all its boot options and sometimes can clear a malfunctioning computer when all else fails. it is definitely possible-especially with all the OS updates that my boards might have been through-there is jumbled code stored in the firmware or RAM chips, that can only be cleared with a complete "cold boot" which can only be achieved with a complete battery removal and re-install. And since much of the Fusion OS is stored in the mainboard-I've booted without the hard drive and it works at least with loading the minimal ROM programs and mixes-I am thinking a malfunctioning board might correct itself with a complete cold boot. I have also contacted "Thesoniq" the technician who services Ensoniq-he is the original guru for these boards in the US-and asked if he is capable of possibly diagnosing our Fusions at any level of diagnostic. Waiting for his reply.

Why am i doing all this? I love these Fusions-a mutt is often a better pet than a "purebred"-and many times lives longer! Remember the Minimoog? I think you do-more bugs than a junkyard dog-and look at what happened there......a prophet is without honor in his own studio.....

[parametric]

Joe,

I have no experience replacing the battery in the 6HD or the 8HD (yet . . ) but would like to suggest that nothing more alarming

might happen other than the default settings would be reinstated . . .

The reason I say this is that it would be UNBELIEVABLY CRASS if the serial number would disappear, requiring a trip to an Alesis

Service facility (With the original Box) - so that the number could be scanned and reinstated . . . .

What seems to be MORE worrying is that MPCStuff were happy to sell a "New" mobo, oblivious to the fact that it NEEDED to be done

in order to use the board . . . .

Like you, I await their reply with interest . . . .

Meantime, I will ask one of the guys who was on the design team if he has any knowledge of the S60/S80 device mentioned

and where it could be borrowed from . . . . .

Chris

[parametric]

Hey Joe . . .

Just got a reply from my contact . . . . .

Hi Chris,

No worries, but I'm not sure how much I can help. I vaguely remember this part of Fusion, but nowhere near enough to have an answer for you. If my own Fusion needed a "key", I would have no idea what to do!

Bob may know, but I might also try repair techs who know Alesis gear. Norick, at Audio Design and Service, used to be an Alesis employee and has serviced their products. You might try reaching out to him to see if he knows a remedy.

https://audiodesign-service.com/new/

Hope that helps, and let me know how it goes...

Perhaps that helps?

Chris

[2ManyKeys]

Something to keep in mind regarding replacing the battery on the Fusion.

While the BR2325 is the original board mounted battery (HUGE DESIGN MISTAKE), there is no need at all to replace with that same part. In fact, there is no need to replace the battery with a board mounted battery.

The battery, when it comes down to it, is just a low-drain 3V lithium cell of a particular form factor and capacity. A CR2032 in a holder has a bit lower capacity but it's FAR more available.

I have replaced board mounted lithium cells in several synths including my TG77 with a CR2032 holder and several feet of wire if necessary to move it into a convenient spot for future access. The TG77 battery is mounted most inconveniently down on the main digital board which requires tearing the whole thing apart practically.

I know what you're thinking. Hey... you can't just chuck several feet of wire in series with the battery, it will drop the voltage!

Well, in any normal current draw situation from mA to A that is generally the case and voltage drop must be accounted for. However, when we are talking about a VERY low drain battery that will be supplying uA to a 3V onboard real-time clock circuit, Ohm's law comes to our rescue. The voltage drop across any wire is going to be the resistance of the wire section multiplied by the current running through the wire. V = IR. So, if I used some really terrible wire, with 5 ohms resistance over 2 feet, to hook up my little 2032 cell to the motherboard and the RTC was drawing 50uA (which would be rather high actually), the voltage drop would be 0.25mV. As you can see, the loss of 0.00025V would have little effect on your 3.3V lithium cell. The RTC wouldn't even notice the difference in that example and any decent wire will have much lower resistance than that.

So, when I finally have to dive in and replace the battery in my Fusion I will no doubt snip the battery off the board. I will then solder a couple decent stranded wires to the remaining battery tab sections, which is much easier and lower risk than removing the motherboard and desoldering the original battery. Then I will twist my wires and run the pair to an accessible spot, add a CR2032 holder with some little plastic insulating package around it and pop in a new CR2032 cell.

In the case of the Fusion I would really try to modify it such that the 2032 cell could be replaced without opening up the Fusion which IMO is not at all fun.

Job done, synth improved.