I'd think a stack of supper capacitors would do it. Dwight
________________________________________ From: cctalk <cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org> on behalf of Paul Koning <paulkon...@comcast.net> Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2016 10:32 AM To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: DEC RK05 Emergency Retract Batteries > On Mar 16, 2016, at 1:24 PM, Jos Dreesen <jos.dree...@bluewin.ch> wrote: > ... > Additionally the NiCd never keep charge, if , like me, the drives are only > fired up once a year... > > I am thinking of just adding some wiring to an external battery. I wonder if it might make sense to replace it by a capacitor. For this kind of application, the total capacity is not an issue at all, but only the available current for a fraction of a second. By that measure, it doesn't take all that large a capacitor to do as well as a battery; the difference is that the battery can sustain that current far longer -- which doesn't matter here. paul