Korg DW-6000 battery replacement recap

The battery of my Korg DW-6000 kept failing to hold enough charge to remember the patches. Instead of continually reloading the patches every time they were forgotten, I finally ponied up and cracked it open to replace the original battery that was soldered to the board. I followed along with this invaluable tutorial video to help me in the process.

Once I cracked it open... Discovering the insides

You have to remove a ton of screws from the underside of the synth's housing to pry it open and once you do, there are about 8-9 different multi-pin-connected wires that must be disconnected to fully open it up. Thankfully they're labeled with numbers. You also need to disconnect the power cable housing which is held in by two screws. When you get it open it's easy to see a specific board has the battery (it also houses nearly all of those 8-9 wires connections from the top to the bottom of the synth). Luckily I was able to remove every screw with the same size screwdriver.

My work table. I did use some flux while cleaning the pins after I ripped them out.

The factory soldering job for the battery was fairly beaded and once I soaked up most of the solder I noticed the pins were bent to the board. I removed the solder using only a solder wick, and had my iron at 350 degrees for that. It wasn't that straightforward as the wick would get stuck to the board and then I had to also like rub it on the solder to really soak up every little piece. I noticed there was a lot of solder still stuck into the pin holes after the surface of the board and the connection elements were fairly clean.

I was able to soak up most of the solder and then I straightened the pins with a razor blade. Still... the old battery was really in there, I'm guessing because of solder that I wasn't able to soak up with the wick that was inside of the pin holes. I didn't see any corrosion. In retrospect I could've probably added some solder as I tried to wiggle it free, but instead I just kept at it with the wick, and also heating up tiny little spots of solder and trying to loosen the original battery's pins.

You can see here the aftermath of ripping out the old battery

Eventually I was able to loosen up the pins by heating the old pins (I bumped up the heat to 400 degrees at one point) and then sort of wedging the battery back and forth like I was pulling teeth, and I was able to remove 2/3 easily. The last pin caused problems and I broke that pin off inside the hole, with only a little bit remaining in there from one side, though a sizeable piece off the top of the board. Luckily it was one of the spare positive (+) connections so it was irrelevant.  

I only needed two of three to connect the new battery. For good measure I used some pliers to pull the final third pin "scrap" up in an attempt to remove it. I made sure to heat up the solder that was stuck in the pin hole as I removed that scrap and it was successful. I kept holding up the board to a light to see if I could see through the pin holes, and I could for 1/3.

2/3 pins to connect the new battery wires

When I connected the new battery wires I applied some flux to the tip of the soldering iron and pressed it into the pin holes for 3-4 seconds, then pushed the wires in. They didn't go fully in at first, but only partly. Then I repeated this process again with some added solder from the other side and only then was I was able to push the wires (for the new battery) more fully into the pin holes, which was good. They more snugly went in and sort of melted into place perfectly. I secured them in there nicely and was happy they weren't just hanging by a thread, or anything.

The battery replacement manufacturer sent me the wrong velcro (two fuzzy sides, no rough side), but luckily I had some rough-sided velcro handy (from my pedal-train) and used that to stick the battery onto the surface of the interior of the synth. I used a damp paper towel to clean the inside before I applied the velcro.

From there I reconnected every single wire (I believe 8-9 of them) with the lid partially shut using a tiny flashlight I propped up. This part wasn't that easy because the synth's housing is made of thick metal so it really weighed down on my fingers and arms as I kept the thing partially propped open. Then I screwed in all the screws and... moment of truth. I plugged it in, reprogrammed the patches and boom, it works again. Magic, really. - Mike.

Btw the total cost was $15.99 for the soldering kit, and $8.95 for the replacement battery.