ARC-6120 Replacement Battery

Brainbug

Weaksauce
Joined
Feb 15, 2012
Messages
92
As experienced by gurrag and thekingarthur in the Areca Owner's Thread here, my battery was dying/dead. It always showed as "charging" never reaching "fully charged" status and appeared to be slightly bloated.

The factory battery is a 3.7v/1880mAh "Sanyo F1144" which is a of type 103450.
01-ARC6120Battery-SanyoF1144-Resize.jpg
02-ARC6120BatterySpecs-Resize.jpg
01A-ARC6120Battery-Sanyo-F1144-Closeup-Resize.jpg


I set out to find a suitable, cheap replacement, but didn't know how lucky I'd be. The Duracell Portable battery backup includes a single 103450 battery with 3xWires and was on sale for $5 at Factory Direct.
Link to battery found inside from RedFlagDeals post #25

00-FactoryDirectDuracellBattery.png


- The top & bottom of the powermat is glued/melted together, so it takes a bit of force to break the plastic pins holding the two halves together. I used the backend of a carpet cutting knife, but a regular butter knife would work just as well. The blue guitar pick pictured *did not work*
- Open the top of the powermat battery (side with the embossed "P", not the side with the text) as the main circuitboard is attached close to the bottom. Even though we don't care about ruining the actual circuitboard, we don't want to short something and ruin the precious battery.
- Once open, just disconnect the pin header, free the battery from the double sided tape and walk away with your prize.
My battery was a PSE H103450 at 3.7v/1850mAh, close enough.
03-PowermatBattery-Resize.jpg
04-PowermatBatteryOpen-Resize.jpg
05-PowermatBattery-H103450-Resize.jpg
06-PowermatBattery-H103450-Closeup-Resize.jpg
07-PowermatDisassembleFront-Resize.jpg
08-PowermatDisassembleBack-Resize.jpg


Now that you've got your old and new batteries, time to switch over the leads (The powermat pin header doesn't match Areca's and this is the easiest way)
- Clip & Strip the wires.
- Put the heat shrink tubing on the wires before you solder...I always seem to forget this, and have to recut, restrip & resolder the wires.
09-PrepBattery-Resize.jpg
10-SolderBattery-Resize.jpg


Because the circuitboard is on the top of the replacement battery vs the side on the original, it is a bit snug in the clear plastic enclosure, but still fits.
Plug the battery into JP4 and marvel at your handiwork.
Old bulging battery & newly installed battery.
11-InstallBattery-Resize.jpg


Reinstall the BBU, connect it to the Raid Card (1880ix, in my case) and hope for the best...
SUCCESS
12-BatteryWorks.png


New, working BBU with the same specs as the original, for $5 and less than an hour of work.

Better, and less wasteful, than buying a new $130 BBU which includes the circuitboard.
 
Nice info. I figured the BBU would have a chip that prevents a battery swap without some type of reprogramming...
 
Brainbug, I think you were extremely lucky to find this product on sale, that too just for $5. Since the batteries are of the same type, I doubt you’ll be having trouble replacing one with the other, however, you still have to check the maximum amperage of the battery that you’ve replace, the capacity of the battery doesn’t ensure the maximum power that it could output at any instant. Please check that as well.

board assembly
 
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Brainbug,

Has this solution, to replace the ARC-6120 battery, been a long-term success?

I have two of these battery backups that are now failing. I paid dearly for a replacement only to have the battery go dead within months.

I see that these powercell's can be bought for $7.00 on Ebay. What a bargain if it is viable.

Thanks,
rock2me
 
rock2me: Reporting reliable long-term experience would require using a larger amount of replaced batteries. I am sad, an unlikely find. Maybe I can provide a bit more info and describe what I use as replacement for the Areca T113 [I am afraid, being new in this forum I can't post links to the various specs yet]:

My orig. Areca T113 battery was labeled Sharp UF103450PN. As noted by Brainbug there are various batteries available from other manufacturers with very similar specs. So finding a replacement for the battery seems simple.

The tricky part is the protection circuit and PTC. The orig. PTC used is a LC72AY-1 that cuts-off the battery at a temperature above 72C. The PTC is located at the edge of the battery (see image attachment below). There is only a simple blue isolation below keeping the PTC from being bridged by the battery. So when you move the circuit board using Brainbugs method above, take care that this PTC is isolated but yet closely connected to the battery in order to work reliable as safety.


PTCF.jpg



I couldn't find the manufacturer of the circuit board and thus I have no data on it. Usualy the protection circuit controls the charge/discharge current. Sometimes there is also a NTC 10K that can be connected by a third wire. I did some measurements and it seems the third wire connecting the T113 battery is 10K NTC connected to ground. I also measured the current while loading the battery (0.3A) and while in power failure mode with led/sound alarm (0.15A) with an Areca 1880ix-12 with 2GB RAM in order to get an idea what charging/discharge currents are needed.

So what is a good replacement: Brainbugs Duracell solution didn't work for me as I couldn't get one nor do I want an old battery. I don't want to move the circuit board/PTC for work/safety reasons. Surely, getting an original Sharp UF103450PN battery that allows easy movement/connection of the PTC/protection circuit would be ideal. But I found no source and I hate the idea of connecting the wires directly to the battery on available Sharp batteries for safety reasons.

In the end, I found a battery that has similar specs, a PTC and a circuit board with 10K NTC from BAK: 103450AR2-1S-3M . I bought the batteries from farnell.com (order # 2401857) wich is a good, fast and reliable source, but not necessary very cheap. I guess there are other/cheaper source.

The only drawback I found: The connector is wrong/larger and thus you need to cut off the connector of the old original battery and connect it to the BAK battery. There is no need to unmantle the battery or do other more nasty stuff. So at least the connector part is similar to Brainbugs description. Cutting three/soldering 3 wires really shouldn't take more than 2-3 mins.

Below an image with the battery (bigger connector on the right... and on the left the finished mounted replacement (my ugly white isolation tape arround the wire partly visible).

Total2F.jpg



As far as I can test/measure things, this battery works fine here. Charges normaly and also reaches the "charged" state without problems. Power failure mode worked. Current while charging/discharging matches those of the orginal battery. With a allowed continuous discharge of 900mA (max 1800mA) and a charge of 900mA there is enough safety I think.

But again, if you want to play safe, buy the original part. If you are on a budged, you might consider the above on your own risk.

PS: Operating temperature of these batteries is usualy 40C max, wich is not so easy to reach. Keeping them as cool as possible and as far away from hot Areca controller can strongly improve the lifetime. The lifetime is greatly reduced by higher temperatures!
 
Digging up this zombie thread because it's the first result on Google. After significant research, the battery we are all looking for is a common 10450 battery with a JST PH 3p 2.0 plug (that's a 3pin with 2mm pin separation (aka pitch)). They are almost always available on Ebay for about US$9 out of China. That's about a 95% savings over replacing the Areca module.
 
Thanks Brainbug for this info! It's an old thread but extremely helpful. I recently replaced the battery on my ARC-6120BA-T113 battery backup module (for the ARC-1880 raid controller), using a battery extracted from a Duracell 1850mAh Powermat bought off eBay. It's worked perfectly in production for 9 months now.

I wonder if it would also work for the ARC-6120BA-T121 on my Areca 1882ix controller? (Haven't looked at it in a while and can't recall what kind of battery is in there)
 
Presumably, from what I can tell it's the same battery, but the PCB revision (2.1 vs 1.2, hence the T121 or T112) is what dictates which cards it works with.

Let me know if you have a spare T121, looking for one myself. ;)
 
After 6 years, the original battery gave up the ghost.

Thankfully PowerMats are still available in my area, so once again replaced the battery. Hoping for another 6 years (or until I replace the card)

New battery on the top left, old (swollen) battery on the bottom right.

OldNewBattery.jpg

As an aside, I had an original 1880 without the fan, and replaced it with an Enzotech to help cool it in the summer. Areca 1880ix CPU Heatsink Replacement
 
Confirming my suspicion from March 8. Battery arrived today from China (Covid delay) and worked out of the box without modification in my ARC-6120-T121. us$12 after shipping.
 
Confirming my suspicion from March 8. Battery arrived today from China (Covid delay) and worked out of the box without modification in my ARC-6120-T121. us$12 after shipping.
I bought the batteries from China as you said and it's charging up right now.

Just a reminder for anyone doing it, you have to swap around the pins to make sure the battery lines up (+, -, data) as the one I got it was not in the correct order. I had to open it up and the red (+), black (-), and white (data) are all the correct positions on the battery, I think all the pins on the connector though have to changed, Red is in the middle, black in on the left, and data is on the right when the nub is facing you on the connector.

Also make sure you plug into the connector closest to the speaker/alarm as there is two of them.

Working great and WAY cheaper than buying a whole new board, thanks for this!
 
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