Blizzard 1230 Mk IV Accelerator Board - Battery Maintenance

The Amiga A1200 was not supplied with a real time clock and did not require battery backup for configuration settings and therefore did not have a battery fitted internally. There were however many 3rd party expansion units that provided a real time clock and battery backup and the Blizzard 1230 Mk IV was one such expansion device.

The Blizzard 1230 MkIV Accelerator board has a rechargeable battery which is soldered directly onto the board and can last for several years if taken care of correctly.

There are several solutions to replacement batteries including fitting non-rechargeable batteries into a coin battery holder with a suitable resistor/diode combination to stop the back charging process.

Personally I prefer to use original parts where possible and I consider that the 1230 Mk IV to be pretty close to perfection in its original form so I continue to replace the battery like for like as they are readily available and I'm not scared of a little bit of soldering.

It's also worth noting that the batteries used by the Blizzard 1230 Mk IV are of a type that almost never leak due to their chemical construction unlike batteries fitted to many other Amiga accessories and the big box Amiga motherboard batteries.

RS Components sell the VL2020 battery here.

Charging and Care of the Battery

The Blizzard 1230 IV manual states that to charge and maintain the battery in perfect condition,

"We recommend to activate the Amiga 1200 for at least four hours after installing the Blizzard 1230-IV, and two hours daily for the following week, to allow full charging of the battery. Please note that leaving the computer switched off for six weeks or longer can lead to full discharge, and consequent shortening of the batteries lifetime."