EZ-Flash USA Forum

Hi. I've owed an EZ-Flash IV (normal, phat etc.) for almost 4 years now. I wanted to get some clarification on battery type used because I'm kind of confused. My EZ-Flash IV has a CR2025 battery, the one with yellow plastic/rubber(?) around it, just like the one in this photo. I never had any problems with the battery, never had to change it and I use the EZ-Flash quite often and regularly. The EZ-Flash Wiki (I know it's quite dated now) claims that EZ-Flash IV uses Panasonic VL2020 re-chargeable battery. As far as I know the CR2025 is not a re-chargeable battery... So the questions are:

• What kind of battery is REALLY used in EZ-Flash IV (normal, phat)? Is it Panasonic VL2020 or CR2025? Maybe at first it was the VL2020 then they changed to CR2025?
• Is CR2025 a re-chargeable battery?
• How long can EZ-Flash IV work on the CR2025 before it runs out? (I've been using mine almost 4 years now without a problem)
• Is any soldering/de-soldering required when changing the battery?
• If I would want to change the battery which one will be better: Panasonic VL2020 or CR2025? Should I get one with solder tabs?

Thanks in advance for replies! (FAST6191 ;-])

Go text dump.

Soldering yes, you can buy coin cells with tags on them though.

I just pulled apart my EZ4s
EZ4 original (I got mine about 2 weeks after they came out- 2006.03 on the PCB).
VL??20 (the middle section is covered by the tag)
My callipers say 20mm wide so that is VL2020 (the numbers are width give or take the odd half mm) and height (skipping the decimal point usually)
Pansonic is the maker here (I recall a thread on the old ezflash.cn boards that said these batteries were better in the end stage where others had worse voltage dropoff- make of that what you will).

I was however told recently some of the later revisions (including the ones they currently make) switched to standard batteries as opposed to rechargeable ones. Whether the hardware was changed to remove anything resembling recharge circuitry or not I do not know.
Likewise if you have another preferred chemistry (VL apparently stands for Vanadium Lithium) there is no overcharge circuitry in any EZ carts that I know of (we were specifically warned not to overcharge them at points) and as such you should not have to worry about charge circuits (it varies with chemistry and circuit quality but some use spikes or gradient changes in voltage, feed current, temperature and assorted other means that I am far to lazy to go and research or detail at this point) like you would for rechargers or other things like that (phones and what have you).

EZ4 lite (I got this one as part of a giveaway around here- I think it might even be a later beta model.
I can not seem to see a number on the front. All I can see is the positive symbol and CZYF which is Changzhou Yufeng Electrical Co.,Ltd apparently.

It is about 12.5mm wide and about 2.2 deep
1220 or 1225 I am not sure (odd angles and plastic so it could go either way). 1225 does apparently support higher max current and other things as well as having a higher charge capacity. It did not look to be a tight fit either so go with the bigger if you want.
On the other hand I get hits for CZYF - 1220 which says CR1220 (although apparently they do lithium batteries as well).

I have not got a lite deluxe or lite compact here.

As far as I have seen mine are still going strong, I do not tend to treat mine that well (they are in bags most of the time and fairly cold at that). I do however occasionally stick them in an old EZ2* linker or make sure to use them in a DS even if I am using a DS slot cart.

*for the curious the ez2 appears to use the same VL2020 from panasonic.

Thanks for some explanation.