I recently purchased a used Micrologic ml250 GPS to use as a backup GPS on
my boat. After receiving it, I realized that the internal lithium battery
was dead. I wanted to have it replaced, but Micrologic is out of business.
I've done some reading online and discovered that it's not terribly
difficult to replace them yourself, and that there is a fix out to prevent
the battery from prematurely draining in about a year as compared to 7 years
that Micrologic advertised.

I understand that the fix is pretty simple as well. You just need to
un-solder a connection to one of the chips. Does anyone have the details of
this operation? Which connection needs to be un-soldered?


Thanks!

Robert

"Robert" wrote in
:

there is a fix out to prevent
the battery from prematurely draining in about a year as compared to 7
years that Micrologic advertised.


Ok, first a little reality check/physics lesson....

How long a battery will retain a charge is not based on the marketing
department of any manufacturer. They are all a bunch of liars, by trade.

From its age, I assume you are talking about the internal Lithium memory
backup battery in these old units. These batteries were made for 10 year
lifespans as the old memory chips drew a little leakage current....not
much, but it's there. If it drains in a year, the memory is leaking OR
there is leakage paths across the circuit board caused by WATER
INTRUSION, which is probably more close to the problem. ANY tiny wet
trail across that circuit board will kill the memory battery in short
order.

Memory batteries are usually soldered in. Searching for your ML250
simply results in seeing a thousand other owners begging for a manual and
information. If you can find any kind of number on the battery, go to:
http://www.batteriesplus.com/
and click up the live chat with the batteries plus tech support. If
anyone has them, they will, or can get them if they are still produced.

Personally, my advice is to DUMP IT! A great little handheld GPS with a
LOT FASTER PROCESSOR and LOT BETTER RECEIVER is less than $250. Those
old Micrologics only had like 6 channels, poor resolution and awful
reception. It's time to JUST JUNK IT!

Larry
--
This spammer called my cellphone:
First American Payment
10101 E Arapaho Rd
Richardson, TX 75081
972-301-3766
They were nasty when I politely said I wasn't interested....(c;

I don't need a reality check or physics lesson. No one said anything about
marketing DETERMINING how long a battery will last.

I said "there is a fix out to prevent the battery from prematurely draining
in about a year as compared to 7 years that Micrologic advertised." A fix
implies that there is a problem and apparently, there is. Micrologic
determined that there was a was a connection that needed to be unsoldered
and the batteries would last 7 years instead of 1. It had nothing to do
with water getting in or marketing lying about anything. Not that these
aren't possible culprits, but there is a KNOWN problem that has a simple
fix.

I believe that Micrologic was performing this service for free when you sent
a unit back for battery replacement. Since they are no longer in business
though, I can't have this done.

You're right about one thing though. I'm sure that replacing it is a
simpler fix, but I only paid 20 bucks for the unit and if I can get it
working properly with a simple procedure like unsoldering a single
connection, it's a lot better than 250 bucks. I only use this GPS for a
backup anyway, so I'm not too concerned about processor speed or resolution.
I just want a decent backup that can get me home if my main GPS dies. I'd
rather put that 250 bucks towards something more useful.

By the way, I already checked and the batteries are readily available.




"Larry" wrote in message
...
"Robert" wrote in
:

there is a fix out to prevent
the battery from prematurely draining in about a year as compared to 7
years that Micrologic advertised.


Ok, first a little reality check/physics lesson....

How long a battery will retain a charge is not based on the marketing
department of any manufacturer. They are all a bunch of liars, by trade.

From its age, I assume you are talking about the internal Lithium memory
backup battery in these old units. These batteries were made for 10 year
lifespans as the old memory chips drew a little leakage current....not
much, but it's there. If it drains in a year, the memory is leaking OR
there is leakage paths across the circuit board caused by WATER
INTRUSION, which is probably more close to the problem. ANY tiny wet
trail across that circuit board will kill the memory battery in short
order.

Memory batteries are usually soldered in. Searching for your ML250
simply results in seeing a thousand other owners begging for a manual and
information. If you can find any kind of number on the battery, go to:
http://www.batteriesplus.com/
and click up the live chat with the batteries plus tech support. If
anyone has them, they will, or can get them if they are still produced.

Personally, my advice is to DUMP IT! A great little handheld GPS with a
LOT FASTER PROCESSOR and LOT BETTER RECEIVER is less than $250. Those
old Micrologics only had like 6 channels, poor resolution and awful
reception. It's time to JUST JUNK IT!

Larry
--
This spammer called my cellphone:
First American Payment
10101 E Arapaho Rd
Richardson, TX 75081
972-301-3766
They were nasty when I politely said I wasn't interested....(c;

"Robert" wrote in message
...
I don't need a reality check or physics lesson. No one said anything about
marketing DETERMINING how long a battery will last.

Come on now Robert, If you're going to till the soil you've got to take the
wheat with the chaff. And sometimes no wheat at all ;-)

Shaun

Robert wrote:
I recently purchased a used Micrologic ml250 GPS to use as a backup GPS on
my boat. After receiving it, I realized that the internal lithium battery
was dead. I wanted to have it replaced, but Micrologic is out of business.
I've done some reading online and discovered that it's not terribly
difficult to replace them yourself, and that there is a fix out to prevent
the battery from prematurely draining in about a year as compared to 7 years
that Micrologic advertised.

I understand that the fix is pretty simple as well. You just need to
un-solder a connection to one of the chips. Does anyone have the details of
this operation? Which connection needs to be un-soldered?


Thanks!

Robert


There is a place called Goertz where I sent my Micrologic Mariner when its battery went out. They
had it back quickly and it is up and running. I was able to find this: Frederick Goertz, Ltd
Victoria, BC V8T5A5 Ph: 250-386-8375 .

And this: http://www.frederickgoertz.com/about.php

On a personal note: Don't let people beat you up about your old equipment. A bit of thought (an
endangered commodity of late) would most often reach the conclusion that an older piece of equipment
or software with which the owner is experienced (so that its operation becomes second nature) is
liable to be more valuable when weather or seas get messy.

I'd rather sail with such an owner than one who is distracted by every shiny piece of equipment that
comes down the pike but never quite gets a complete handle on operation, or spends so much time
looking at the gear that the Texas tower in the vessel's path - somehow - escapes notice.

Thanks! I'll check them out.

I know what you mean about the distractions of new equipment. I'm a
professional pilot and have seen that before...more time than once.

I guess I got a little hot under the collar at the guy that originally
responded to my post. I asked a very simple question that has a very simple
answer. If he didn't know it, he didn't need to respond. He didn't need to
come here and start talking down to me as if I was some child that he need
to teach a lesson by starting his reply by saying something about "first a
reality check and a physics lesson". I think I have those covered. I just
asked if anyone knew of a specific procedure to fix a known problem with
this GPS.

I know that it would be easier to replace the GPS than it would to try to
fix it, but it's just a backup. I have a nice new Garmin unit on the boat
that I use 99% of the time. I just have this Micrologic unit up in the
tower and would like to use it as a backup or to mark a spot where a fish
was caught so that I could return to this spot if I happened to be in the
tower when we hooked up. Also, I live 4 hours away from my boat and only
get there every third weekend at best. I don't want to spend a lot of time
re-wiring the boat for a different model GPS. I'd just like to bring the
one that I have home so that I can fix it there, then when I'm back at the
boat, I can plug it back in and be off and running. It's perfectly suitable
for what I use it for. Since the company is no longer in business and I
can't have it repaired there though, I was just hoping that someone knew
what the connection was that needed to be un-soldered to keep the battery
from dying prematurely.

Thanks again to all who responded!

Robert


"Gualtier Malde" wrote in message
...
Robert wrote:
I recently purchased a used Micrologic ml250 GPS to use as a backup GPS
on
my boat. After receiving it, I realized that the internal lithium
battery
was dead. I wanted to have it replaced, but Micrologic is out of
business.
I've done some reading online and discovered that it's not terribly
difficult to replace them yourself, and that there is a fix out to
prevent
the battery from prematurely draining in about a year as compared to 7
years
that Micrologic advertised.

I understand that the fix is pretty simple as well. You just need to
un-solder a connection to one of the chips. Does anyone have the
details of
this operation? Which connection needs to be un-soldered?


Thanks!

Robert


There is a place called Goertz where I sent my Micrologic Mariner when its
battery went out. They
had it back quickly and it is up and running. I was able to find this:
Frederick Goertz, Ltd
Victoria, BC V8T5A5 Ph: 250-386-8375 .

And this: http://www.frederickgoertz.com/about.php

On a personal note: Don't let people beat you up about your old
equipment. A bit of thought (an
endangered commodity of late) would most often reach the conclusion that
an older piece of equipment
or software with which the owner is experienced (so that its operation
becomes second nature) is
liable to be more valuable when weather or seas get messy.

I'd rather sail with such an owner than one who is distracted by every
shiny piece of equipment that
comes down the pike but never quite gets a complete handle on operation,
or spends so much time
looking at the gear that the Texas tower in the vessel's path - somehow -
escapes notice.

Robert wrote:
Thanks! I'll check them out.

I know what you mean about the distractions of new equipment. I'm a
professional pilot and have seen that before...more time than once.

I guess I got a little hot under the collar at the guy that originally
responded to my post. I asked a very simple question that has a very simple
answer. If he didn't know it, he didn't need to respond. He didn't need to
come here and start talking down to me as if I was some child that he need
to teach a lesson by starting his reply by saying something about "first a
reality check and a physics lesson". I think I have those covered. I just
asked if anyone knew of a specific procedure to fix a known problem with
this GPS.

I know that it would be easier to replace the GPS than it would to try to
fix it, but it's just a backup. I have a nice new Garmin unit on the boat
that I use 99% of the time. I just have this Micrologic unit up in the
tower and would like to use it as a backup or to mark a spot where a fish
was caught so that I could return to this spot if I happened to be in the
tower when we hooked up. Also, I live 4 hours away from my boat and only
get there every third weekend at best. I don't want to spend a lot of time
re-wiring the boat for a different model GPS. I'd just like to bring the
one that I have home so that I can fix it there, then when I'm back at the
boat, I can plug it back in and be off and running. It's perfectly suitable
for what I use it for. Since the company is no longer in business and I
can't have it repaired there though, I was just hoping that someone knew
what the connection was that needed to be un-soldered to keep the battery
from dying prematurely.

Thanks again to all who responded!

Robert


"Gualtier Malde" wrote in message
...
Robert wrote:
I recently purchased a used Micrologic ml250 GPS to use as a backup GPS
on
my boat. After receiving it, I realized that the internal lithium
battery
was dead. I wanted to have it replaced, but Micrologic is out of
business.
I've done some reading online and discovered that it's not terribly
difficult to replace them yourself, and that there is a fix out to
prevent
the battery from prematurely draining in about a year as compared to 7
years
that Micrologic advertised.

I understand that the fix is pretty simple as well. You just need to
un-solder a connection to one of the chips. Does anyone have the
details of
this operation? Which connection needs to be un-soldered?


Thanks!

Robert


There is a place called Goertz where I sent my Micrologic Mariner when its
battery went out. They
had it back quickly and it is up and running. I was able to find this:
Frederick Goertz, Ltd
Victoria, BC V8T5A5 Ph: 250-386-8375 .

And this: http://www.frederickgoertz.com/about.php

On a personal note: Don't let people beat you up about your old
equipment. A bit of thought (an
endangered commodity of late) would most often reach the conclusion that
an older piece of equipment
or software with which the owner is experienced (so that its operation
becomes second nature) is
liable to be more valuable when weather or seas get messy.

I'd rather sail with such an owner than one who is distracted by every
shiny piece of equipment that
comes down the pike but never quite gets a complete handle on operation,
or spends so much time
looking at the gear that the Texas tower in the vessel's path - somehow -
escapes notice.


I have done a lot of electronics work but am not equipped, mentally or instrument-wise, to do this
kind of work in my Micrologic. Goertz did a good job and I don't think they charged all that much.
But, as they say, Your mileage may vary.

Fair winds,
Chuck

Robert wrote:

snip
I guess I got a little hot under the collar at the guy that originally
responded to my post. I asked a very simple question that has a very simple
answer. If he didn't know it, he didn't need to respond. snip

That is his style. He is laboring under the misconception that his
knowledge is golden and unique. I've never been able to figure out how
anyone can get that deep into making an ass out of themselves without
realizing how it reads to the rest of the world.

Whatever you do, don't ever mention Raymarine radars here if you can
avoid it. That will bring you another 3,000 work or so rant with his
opinion of those.

I don't know the models on that line. If you can use it for parts or
anything, I have a Micrologic Admiral that you can have for the USPS
shipping cost from 04605. It will weigh two to three pounds packed.

That came to me as is and it is untested. It shows some use and
weathering but no visible damage. It has a serial number that starts
with a 302, not sure if that is the model number or not.

If Robert does not want it, the next first taker can have it.

Jack

--
Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA - jackerbes at adelphia dot net
(also receiving email at jacker at midmaine.com)

"Jack Erbes" wrote in message
...
Whatever you do, don't ever mention Raymarine radars here if you can
avoid it. That will bring you another 3,000 work or so rant with his
opinion of those.

Ahhh Jack, now *you've* done it again...... ;-)
Ok Larry, let's here it!

Meindert