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Would that be the one to remove for VA0 motherboards?

chôkai wrote:Would that be the one to remove for VA0 motherboards?

yes, but on VA0 it can be done easier, remove R2 on the controller board
though removing R612 would work too

To be clear, on va0, if I leave R2 off the controller board without adding the diode, the battery won't charge? If so, that solves 2 things for me, as I was looking for a replacement, but if leaving it off stops charging, I'll leave it out and not worry about a rechargable battery.

MetroidTalon wrote:To be clear, on va0, if I leave R2 off the controller board without adding the diode, the battery won't charge?

That's right, just remove R2 and the battery won't charge. no need to install any diodes

Thanks for this information.

Without the R612 I was expecting to measure 0V on the battery circuit, but I've measured a little bit less than 200mV trying to charge the battery. Is this a problem for non-rechargeable batteries?
After the console stays on for a few minutes without the R612, it seems the 200mV goes down to almost 0V.
I have a VA1 PAL console.

Although I got those measurements, I still continued to make the mod, because maybe the 200mV at the start won't hurt non-rechargeable batteries. If it hurts non-rechargeable batteries, I'll just use rechargeable batteries.
I like to make all my mods reversible, so I removed the R612 and saved it in storage.
I then soldered wires to the pads of the R612, and soldered three 390 Ohms resistors in parallel and a button in series to the wires. I can now turn on/off the recharging of the battery.
I'm mostly going to use two AA or AAA batteries (I've placed them outside the console, it's not pretty but I won't risk leaking them inside the console).