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William Sommerwerck William Sommerwerck is offline
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Default How long do lithium coin cells last?

I have two JVC hall synthesizers, whose memories are backed up by soldered-in
coin cells. Both are over 25 years old.

Both also have leaky power supply electrolytics. I fixed one a few years ago,
at the same time replacing the coin cell with a coin-cell holder, so I could
install a new cell without having to unsolder anything.

This morning I finally got around to replacing the caps in the other unit. I
was about to replace /its/ cell with a cell holder, but decided to measure the
cell's voltage. It was a little over 3V.

This strikes me as an unusually long service time, especially as this unit is
normally turned off, without the AC power supply "gagging" (so to speak) the
coin cell.

Any thoughts?


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