How to order a new battery (prices as of 4/1/03): Call Music Industries Corp (1-800-431-6699) and order one directly from them. Tech Support sells the battery for $30.00 plus shipping ($5.00).

How-to advice from Andras Szalay, the brains behind the Axon series: The PCB is through-galvanized; even with a temperature controlled soldering iron it is not trivial to remove the old battery. Even if you do that with success, still the holes remain full of solder; if you want to to insert the replacement battery properly, you have to remove that, which is very tough to do, even with special tools.

I assume you have a PCB with an EMMERICH battery, which is connected to the PCB with three thick wires. I rather recommend to cut the wires of the old battery, and solder the new one on the wire chunks standing out of the PCB. This does not look nice, is not professional, but:

1.) You can be pretty sure that you do not damage the PCB;

2.) You do not have to take out the PCB of the box at all;

3.) Neither a specially good soldering iron nor any other soldering tools are necessary.

Additional how-to installation tips from a Midiguitar@yahoo.com list member:

I figured out a way to crimp it in. After I installed the battery I powered up the unit and made sure the battery was working to preserve the presets and everything seems fine. The crimping job seems to be pretty solid but only time will tell if it comes loose. Right now I'm just happy I didn't have any hot solder near the circuit board.

Here's how I did it:

1. Go to Radio Shack and purchase the following: One Pack of 2 Position PC Board Terminals (PN 276-1388). One Pack of Insulated Telephone Butt Connectors (PN 64-3073).

2. You'll also need a crimping tool, a pair of medium to large wire cutters, and a small flathead screwdriver.

3. The thing to remember regarding the battery is that there are two terminals mounted to the pc board on one side and one terminal mounted on the other. The side with the two terminals is actually redundant and I believe is placed their to ensure that the battery doesn't move. You only need one terminal on each side of the battery connected to the circuit board.

4. Remove the old battery by clipping the wires AS CLOSE TO THE BATTERY AS POSSIBLE. The original battery on my NGC77 has leads that extend away from the battery (much like a resistor). By clipping the leads at the terminal and removing the battery, I had about half an inch of lead extending from the circuit board.

5. Take two of the butt connectors and on each one trim the extended plastic sleeves so that the sleeves are flush with the metal crimp tube inside. Do this on both sides of the butt connector.

6. Take two of the RS PC Board Terminals. You'll only be using one terminal in each dual terminal housing. (You can remove the other terminal by unscrewing it, removing the pc mounting lead and then cutting the housing in half using the wire cutters). Take a butt connector and slide it over the pc mounting lead at the bottom of the terminal. Make sure the end of the butt is flush with the bottom of the terminal and then crimp it tight. Make sure it doesn't jiggle at all. I got mine tight with little effort. Do the same for the second terminal.

7. Now take the other end of the butt connector and slide it over the extended lead rising up from the circuit board on the NGC77. The screw at the top of the terminal should be facing up at this point. Go ahead and slide the other one on the other terminal. Remember that one of the two leads extending from the circuit board on one side will not be used. Position the terminals so that the screw-down receptacles on the side of each terminal are facing the same direction as you'll be inserting the leads from the new battery into the receptacles. Now use the crimper at the base of each butt connector to crimp it to the pcb lead. Again make sure it doesn't jiggle.

8. Take the battery and insert two of the battery terminals into the screw-down receptacles (the single lead on one side and one of the dual leads on the other, making sure to match the wiring of the original battery). The battery will be side ways and the battery leads should correspond with the leads on the pcb. You may have to bend/turn the receptacles a bit to get them to receive the battery terminals. Not too much or you break the leads from the pcb or loosen the crimping job. Once the terminals are in place screw down the receptacle to tighten the minivise onto the battery terminals. Make sure to hold the PC Board terminals in place with one hand while screwing down the mini-vises or again you may loosen the crimp.

That's it you're done. If for some unseen reason you need to change the battery again, just unscrew the terminals. I can't guarantee that the crimping job will hold up but it seems fine to me now. Note that the old battery had leads on it that extended perpendicular to the battery which enabled me to use them to crimp the butt connectors on. Axon may be using newer batteries with flush mounted leads on later models. In that case you'll probably have to solder.