Has anyone made a Nomad battery pack?

[YAGRS]

I just got a Nomad, but it did not include the battery pack (did have an AC adapter, though, and it works perfectly). The prices that people are charging for the battery packs is ridiculous. I was considering creating my own. It would be great to have one that would fit like the original battery pack, but I don't think I'm going to be able to do that without one of the original packs.

 

I thought of getting a battery holder like this, wiring a plug that fits the DC jack on top of the Nomad, and affixing it to the back of the Nomad in a not-too-unattractive way.

 

Has anyone done something like this? It seems like it should be easy.

Edited June 16, 2012 by YAGRS

[HatefulGravey]

I have seen this done with batteries from digital cameras. They are rechargable so it works well. Normally they are put in the original cases for NOMAD batteries though.

[YAGRS]

Yeah, I saw that mod, but that brings me back to needing the Nomad battery pack. I just have issues with paying $30+ for one, considering that there really isn't much to it.

 

I am going to replace my screen with a new LCD, which will decrease the battery drain. I hope that after completing that mod, 6 AA NiMH batteries will be good enough to power the system for an acceptable amount of time.

[YAGRS]

Okay, I had a little bit of functional fixedness going on earlier today. I kept focusing on the fact that the mod, as I have found it on the Web, uses the Nomad's original battery pack. I didn't even consider that I could solder wires directly to where the original battery packs connected on the back and then connect that to a battery.

 

I tried this tonight with a lithium ion battery pack I have for my old Canon GL-1. It worked!

 

I think I'm going to use a makeshift battery holder made from an old cell phone case along with the smallest battery pack I have for my GL-1 (7.2V, 1550 mAh) right now. I plan on doing a case mod on my Nomad, so I'll probably come up with a more permanent solution then.

[Bruce Tomlin]

If possible, I would recommend you use a 7-cell pack if you're going to use NiMH batteries. 6x1.5=9v, but 6x1.25=7.5v, and 7x1.25=8.75v. In my experience, 6 NiMH batteries in the standard battery pack only last about half an hour because of the lower voltage.

[YAGRS]

I didn't even realize that the NiMH AAs weren't 1.5v. I just assumed they were the same as alkaline batteries.

 

I went ahead and ordered a set off eBay that included two 7.2v lithium ion battery packs and a charger (didn't want to solder wires to my GL-1 battery). I think that I will go ahead and use the 6 AA case to house the battery. Alternatively, I thought of attaching both battery packs to the back of the Nomad and installing a switch so that when one starts to run down, I can switch to the other. Or, I may just use the second lithium ion battery for my Game Gear.

[YAGRS]

Okay, I got my batteries and charger today. What was really cool that I didn't realize when I ordered them is that part of the charger slides off, and I was able to affix this directly to the Nomad. Currently, the mod is semi-permanent. I plan on incorporating it fully when I do the case mod. I just need to mod the charger now so that I can continue to use it to charge batteries (the battery connectors are no longer on it, since this piece is now attached to my Nomad.

 

Pics below.

 

The Nomad with part of the battery charger attached. The battery is below the Nomad.

 

Battery attached.

 

Success!

[omp]

Bit late but yes I have done this before. I bought some battery packs (the rechargeable type) as a lot of 4 but the seller sent my 6! Sweet! I also have the batteries and chargers to do this (plenty). One day I plan to get around and put the packs together. My only problem is there are stuff all Nomads in Australia so the interest will be low.....

 

Have you done the SMS mode mod to your Nomad?

Edited June 23, 2012 by omp

[YAGRS]

Yep, that's how I'm able to run Phantasy Star on it. I have a screen ordered for the LCD swap. I was going to do the Mode+Start for reset mod, but all that I can find is a picture without instructions for that, and it's not clear enough to me what needs to be soldered to what in order to get that to work.

[omp]

Oh I can tell you how to do that! Tmee nudgeed me in the general direction for this one, once he did that a bit of multi-meter work had it sussed.

 

I used an 4071 OR gate.

 

On the OR gate-

 

pin1 (input) goes to IC203 pin 1 (which is connected to mode or start, can't remember which) via 24k resistor

pin2 (input) goes to IC203 pin 7 (which is connected to mode or start, can't remember which) via 24k resistor

pin3 (output) goes to ribbon connector point 10 (count both rows) This goes to hard reset on the cart slot.

pin7 is ground

pin14 is +5v

 

I am not sure if the resistors are necessary, I basically implemented the single port master system pause mod, where this is essentially the same thing.

 

Basically it works (as OR gate does) pushing mode and start sends 2 low signals to the OR gate which triggers pin 3 low which activates(?) the reset on the cart slot.

 

If that is not clear I can take a pic for you.

 

I haven't done SMS mode yet as I didn't have Kynar or the like wire. I do now so it is on the list of things to do. Besides, I got a few Game Gears laying around including one with a replacement LCD screen in it.

Edited June 24, 2012 by omp

[YAGRS]

I'll have to compare your instructions with the pic I have of the reset mod to see if I can make sense of it. I'm really a novice at modding.

 

Did you do the LCD replacement on the Game Gear? From what I've read, that's not an easy mod to do, as it requires you to do the TV-out mod to create the correct signal for the LCD screen.

[omp]

Yes I used a replacement lcd. It was a partial failure as I bought an lcd screen (4.5inch from memory) the seller claimed it had zoom function. I planned to use the zoom function as a way around the game gear game (as opposed to master system games) resolution sizing issue. It ended up being selectable between letterbox or widescreen (damn it). There is a post or thread I put up on smspower on how it looks. It looks great with sms games, but not so with gg games. Also the screen uses more power than the original screen. I used a viletim tv out board to achieve this.

[YAGRS]

He makes TV out boards? I didn't realize this (I have one of his FM sound boards in my SMS). I have instructions for doing the TV out, but if I remember correctly, the output ended up being RGB, so I would have to then convert this to use on my TV.

 

I think I saw that thread on SMS Power. What you end up with is a black border around the screen for Game Gear games, right? I guess you could always use that clunky magnifier for the Game Gear.

[omp]

To be honest it doesn't bother me to much, I can use my consolized gg and play it on my tv. I got another gg that uses a ndsi backlight, which still needs to be 100% finished. These 2 consoles are on smspower too. I got the viletim fm sound board as well, recently upgraded to his ver1.1 from ver1 for better compatibility, for wonderboy3. I sent my sms2 to him to figure out a safe language switch, which worked great. Just needed a tad more work for 100% compatibility.

 

Viletims gg tv out board does composite, s-video and rgb.

[the.golden.ax]

Yes I used a replacement lcd. It was a partial failure as I bought an lcd screen (4.5inch from memory) the seller claimed it had zoom function. I planned to use the zoom function as a way around the game gear game (as opposed to master system games) resolution sizing issue. It ended up being selectable between letterbox or widescreen (damn it). There is a post or thread I put up on smspower on how it looks. It looks great with sms games, but not so with gg games. Also the screen uses more power than the original screen. I used a viletim tv out board to achieve this.

 

Yes, this has been a pipe dream for Game Gear modders for a LONG time now. Someone needs to make an upscaler so we can finally have new modern LCD in Game Gear. I don't know how, just the path that needs to be taken. This is very simular to running a classic game console on a modern TV with an XRGB or other upscaler. We need to take the proprietary Game Gear signal and bring that up to the resolution of the small LCDs that are currently available to avoid the ugly boarder.

[omp]

Here is a quick pick of the Nomad reset mod.

 

I have marked on the IC203 where mode and start are in that IC. I ran my connections to the actual switch as it was easier with the wire I was using. I done one up for a mate recently and used Kynar wire and went to the IC for mode and start connections.

 

Really it don't matter a toss as the out come is the same.

 

Again Tmee pushed me in the general direction and I just used my multimeter and the master system mod (Tmee uses a different type of GATE to get the same effect) to work this out. Definately comes in handy especially for those multi-carts where you have to press reset to select the game.

 

[YAGRS]

Considering the wealth of knowledge that some classic gamers have, I'm surprised that no one has made an upscaler for the GG. Is it really that difficult, or is it just a lack of interest?

 

Thanks for the instructions and the pic on the reset mod! Whenever I have my Nomad apart to switch out the LCD, I'll try this.

[chrisballer]

I am curious to know what screen did you get for your Nomad?

[YAGRS]

I used this screen. It's cheap, and it worked.