TEXAS TI-74 BASICALC & 8K RAM Cartridge teardown

[jebem]

Gently lifting the PCB assembly at the connector side and then pulling it out worked nicely (this time without applying brute force).




Unwrapping the shield. The soft glue didn't offer special resistance.




Label printed on the connector:
"Made in Japan. HL61023-15D J 642"

Constant memory is achieved thanks to a Sony CR-2430 3Volt Lithium cell battery that may have last up to 5 years.

This battery was depleted at 0.370Volt after more than 34 years, but at least it didn't leak, so the electronics is intact and fully operational as long as the cartridge is kept inserted into the calculator to keep receiving the 5Volt for RAM retention from the calculator batteries.

The battery cell is soldered to the PCB. It is a 2-tagged horizontal PCB mount type.




Side views.



(to be continued)