The thing I am most afraid of about the MPC 500 is........

I bought my 8 year old son a drum machine/conga toy that takes C batteries about 1 1/2 ago, we have never taken the batteries out of this toy that he doesn't use that often and it still works .....I would think if there where any leaks it would have stopped working. I guess it's like Lovesign said" Modern alkaline cells are sealed much better than they used to be"

Just trying to shed some light on this dark post.

Honestly I can relate to your fears of the batteries being in the 500 for long periods of time unused and the side effects of doing so...us as users just gotta stay on top of taking them out when they are not being used.

I've had cells in my Roland PMA-5 and Mattell Synsonics for months now and not a single leak and the power is still good

I still get bugged out by alkalines.
I had one explode in my wireless mouse a few years ago... and they were new!

Rechargeables seem more safe to me. I use them in all my classic Roland gear and circuit-bent stuff with no problems.

The last thing I'd want is battery damage inside my vintage gear... so I feel much safer this way.

I'd also like to check out the Duracell rechargeables, since they're stronger than the Energizer (2500 mAh) that I use.

Rechargeables are more expensive, but in the long run, you save money as disposables cost more to replace as time goes by.

With that said, I need to cop some C size Duracells for my TR-606 and MC-202.

4000is1monster wrote:The thing i fear most about the MPC 500 is not that it'll get stolen, is not that I'll get robbed for it, is not that I'll drop it and break it........ its that I will have left the batteries inside the machine after not having used it in awhile and the batteries will have burts inside the machine leaving corrision and rust all over the inside of the 500 and that it will be inoperable from there on out.

Anyone else have that fear?

No. WHen I use non-rechargables, I use Duracell batteries.. and those never burst on me ever. And when I use rechargables, I take them out as soon as I get a chance to recharge them.

So what are you saying? Duracell are some kind of super battery? Trust me Duracell can burst just like any other battery can burst. Im sure some of the batteries that burst on me in the past have been duracell alkaline.

And I think everybody takes their batteries out when they have to charge them, So what are you saying exactly?

Im not too worried though, I've been hearing that battery technology has improved alot since the 80's and early 90's. I havent used batteries in anything more expensive then a tv remote controll since then, specifically because I didnt trust them to NOT destroy my sh*t.

and my concern wasnt so much that the acid would leak out onto the 500's exposed PCB, it was that it would cause a white flaky corrosion on the contacts where the batteries make contact with the inside of the machine. That corrosion can make the machine not work also.

Funny thing is that batteries never seem to burst in small things like TV remote controls, things that are low drain and such. And how often do you change your batteries in your remote controls, bet you cant remember the last time, they last for months and months without any problems inside tv remotes? You take the batteries out of your remote controls every night?

I was just looking at my cell phone battery yesterday and its ridiculously thin and its 3.7 volts, 2 of them could run a mpc 500.

think about it, how much more seriously would people take the mpc 500 if it DIDNT run on store bought batteries and had a Lithium Ion battery like damn near every other portable consumer electronic device made in the last 8-10 years.

lovesign wrote:I've had cells in my Roland PMA-5 and Mattell Synsonics for months now and not a single leak and the power is still good

It doesn't take months to leak...it takes years.

Indeed

No, actually I've had battery acid leak and cause corrosion after only being inside a walkman for 2 or 3 months. I dont know what your experiences have been but I know what happened to me, and it was a few months, not years.

if the batteries are defective to begin with it wont take long for their inferiority to be exposed exposed. And no they werent cheap batteries they where name brand and even if they werent name brand most cheap batteries are manufactured by the same company as name brand batteries anyway and often times outperform name brand batteries in tests done by consumer reports.

4000is1monster wrote:I was just looking at my cell phone battery yesterday and its ridiculously thin and its 3.7 volts, 2 of them could run a mpc 500.

think about it, how much more seriously would people take the mpc 500 if it DIDNT run on store bought batteries and had a Lithium Ion battery like damn near every other portable consumer electronic device made in the last 8-10 years.

Yeah, and think of the cost !!!

Lithium Ion Cells are generally used where they are the only source of power, or the source most likely to be used for vast amounts of the time i.e. mobile phones, cameras, camcorders, etc. Where battery power is an option but not the main power supply, regular cells seem to be employed. The main reason is cost.

Now, in a household that has a gadget freak father (me) and two young children, I have many appliances with battery cells in them, and I seriously cannot recall the last time I ever had a leak of any kind, ever.

I find your battery phobia just a little strange

4000is1monster wrote:So what are you saying? Duracell are some kind of super battery?

No. I am saying they never burst on me, and I have been using them for the active electronics in my bass guitars for years. Of course, the chance is never 0, but Duracell are generally very good batteries. Plus, they last immensely long.

Of course, with something as power hungry as an MPC500 you'd better opt for rechargables.

4000is1monster wrote:No, actually I've had battery acid leak and cause corrosion after only being inside a walkman for 2 or 3 months. I dont know what your experiences have been but I know what happened to me, and it was a few months, not years.

if the batteries are defective to begin with it wont take long for their inferiority to be exposed exposed. And no they werent cheap batteries they where name brand and even if they werent name brand most cheap batteries are manufactured by the same company as name brand batteries anyway and often times outperform name brand batteries in tests done by consumer reports.

I wasn't talking about defective batteries... also, where you store it may cause it to happen quicker... but I doubt people will store there MPCs in a bad place.

lovesign wrote:

4000is1monster wrote:Lithium Ion Cells are generally used where they are the only source of power, or the source most likely to be used for vast amounts of the time i.e. mobile phones, cameras, camcorders, etc. Where battery power is an option but not the main power supply, regular cells seem to be employed. The main reason is cost.

I find your battery phobia just a little strange

It does seem a little paranoid.

What happens with your Lithium Ion cells when they run out?

Can't just pop in a new set of batteries fron the store!

You would be stuck at having one charge worth of use before needing to plug into power for a recharge.

Yeah, and think of the cost !!!

What cost? Litium Ion battery packs dont add that much cost to a device. My ENTIRE cell phone cost me $49.99 and it wasnt because I signed a two year contract either, I use T-Mobile Pay as you Go minutes I paid for the phone out right.

Do you Know how much I paid for my Energizer 15 minute charger?... $39.99 plus 2 four packs of 2500 mAh batteries at $9.99 each which comes to a grand total of..... 59.97 not including tax. Ok you say " well you've got a chepo phone" Well a replacement Ipod Litium Ion battery cost you between $29 to $36 dollars. And I had my 3rd generation ipod for 3 years before I had to have the battery replaced, Im sure my engergizer rechargables batteries will have been replaced several times 3 years from now.

The reason I bought 2 packs of 2500mAh batteries is because they only sell AA batteries in packs of 4 and the mpc 500 takes 6 AA's, PLUS... the batteries that came with the 15 minute charger where only 2000mAh and I wanted to use the higher current 2500mAh batteries PLUS... I read that if you use different capacity batteries together in the same device that It could actually damage your device because the lower capacity batteries will run out of juice before the higher capacity ones do and the higher capacity ones end up powering the whole device by themselves and end up trying to "reverse recharge" the already drained lower capacity ones, which may cause them to burst!! (I googled it). So you see why I dont want the responsablity of playing "electrical engineer" with my expensive mpc 500.

Also some devices specifically say " use 1.5 volt akaline batteries" and recharables only come in 1.2 volts would that cause a problem? I dont know Im not an electrical engineer I wish that question was taken care of for me before I find out the hard way.

I wasn't talking about defective batteries

Yoshimi, You wouldnt know if a battery was defective or not untill it had failed on you... would you? And after that its already too late you'd be trying to clean battery acid residue out of the battery compartment of your MPC 500, in my case it was a sony walkman.

I haven't even been brave enough to put in batteries yet. Drivin' back home this comin' weekend and it will be the first time luggin' it around.