Issues with a Nomad

[Cholkavich]

Ok so a friend of mine recently picked up a sega Nomad but is having problems with. I wondering if anyone here might be able to help him out some here is what he sent me.

Problem : Sega Nomad will not use batteries, specificly the 6 AA battery-pack. However when the AC adapter is plugged in, the system runs perfect. The power pin is loose and shuts
off intermittently if the plug is moved.



Troubleshooting
So far I have done the following in attempt to find the problem;

Cleaned both sets of terminals, checked for voltage on the battery pack terminals, 9/10+V so the battery pack doesn't have a short or broken terminal.

Resoldered battery terminals on main board so ensure good contact.

Soldered from the battery pack terminals straight to the terminals on the main board to remove ANY chance of connection failures. Verified voltage at the power switch terminals.

I don't see any blatant signs of damage to the board like swollen caps, burned resistors, or busted traces. The low battery light doesn't even come on when the on off switch is toggled.



Any help is appreciated.

[Chibisteven]

Install fresh AA alkliane batteries (1.5 volts each X 6 = about 9 volts)

You can put your tongue on the pack of the battery pack it feel like a nine volt battery just wipe it off to prevent corrision. Or just get a mulitmetter.

Tin foil. You can use this in a stragic way to see if any of the battery termininals inside the pack are faulty. Be careful not to short together two batteries, you will get burned from it heating up quickly or (BOOM! in the worse case senario).

Keep in mind that the metal on the terminals are exposed to elements that can corride them quickly it's made worse if there has ever been a battery leak as that stuff is super corrosive to begin with it show up as rusted terminals and work its way up to the circuit in board in the nomad itself with time. Discard the pack if you see this.

As for the plug, easy fix at best. You could swap the plug from a dead model 2 Genesis motherboard if need be.

The LED could be dead most likely or have a bad connection, again a dead Genny could be used.

[Cholkavich]

ok well it looks like he managed to figure it out. now hes looking to do a Screen mod. Does anyone know what screen works with this mod as i know that it can be hit and miss with different types

[lumclaw]

The tricky part is getting a composite video replacement screen to have color at both 50hz and 60hz. (if you really need to correctly run *all* PAL games)
Original Nomad screen used RGB so that wasn't a problem.

[Cholkavich]

well from what he told me, he found one but the screen scrolls and wouldnt stabilize

[csgx1]

Ok so a friend of mine recently picked up a sega Nomad but is having problems with. I wondering if anyone here might be able to help him out some here is what he sent me.

Problem : Sega Nomad will not use batteries, specificly the 6 AA battery-pack. However when the AC adapter is plugged in, the system runs perfect. The power pin is loose and shuts
off intermittently if the plug is moved.



Troubleshooting
So far I have done the following in attempt to find the problem;

Cleaned both sets of terminals, checked for voltage on the battery pack terminals, 9/10+V so the battery pack doesn't have a short or broken terminal.

Resoldered battery terminals on main board so ensure good contact.

Soldered from the battery pack terminals straight to the terminals on the main board to remove ANY chance of connection failures. Verified voltage at the power switch terminals.

I don't see any blatant signs of damage to the board like swollen caps, burned resistors, or busted traces. The low battery light doesn't even come on when the on off switch is toggled.



Any help is appreciated.

Would you happen to know what exactly was the problem and how your friend solved it? I have a Nomad that had the same problems; battery pack and low battery indicator LED didn't work. For some reason mine had a break in grounding through half of the Nomad even at the power plug. I just ended up putting a ground wire directly to the power plug and the system seems to work.

Also, my low battery LED still doesn't work at all. I was planning on testing and replacing it but never got to it. Did your friend solve the LED problem and if so, was the power and LED problem related?


I did the LCD screen mod about a month ago. I bought one from Amazon that cost about $18 that was used/recommended by a member here...
http://www.sega-16.com/forum/showthr...od-help-needed
Unfortunately, it looks like the specific Amazon seller 'Sain Store' doesn't carry them anymore and I'm not sure if the other sellers have the same exact LCD.

A few things to mention about this particular LCD screen, there's left and right overscan borders that show up and the screen adjustment buttons on the back need to be removed or relocated.

[Cholkavich]

this is what he told me
"I got it fixed actually. The power jack had a broken contact inside so I had to wire 2 points together"

but he is still having issues with a lcd screen. Ill give him the link you showed me. Thanks!

[Theanimal]

I just had a nomad arrive in the mail, pretty cool item to add to the collection though I hope someone here can help me with a small problem I'm having.
To the people who own a nomad how hard is it to remove your batter compartment. I'm pushing towards the top of the cartridge slot and it's like this thing is seized up.. I would like to take it off to just appreciate the unit at all angles and lighten the unit for adapter play, but if everyone else's slides out easily maybe I will just leave it in.... Thanks guys,

[Lync]

I just had a nomad arrive in the mail, pretty cool item to add to the collection though I hope someone here can help me with a small problem I'm having.
To the people who own a nomad how hard is it to remove your batter compartment. I'm pushing towards the top of the cartridge slot and it's like this thing is seized up.. I would like to take it off to just appreciate the unit at all angles and lighten the unit for adapter play, but if everyone else's slides out easily maybe I will just leave it in.... Thanks guys,

In what conditions was this Nomad bought under? The battery pack should easily shift upward and off the unit with very minimal effort. I would look for any signs of corrosion, rust or even modding as with following one universal rule of electronics or carpentry - if you need to force something, there's a problem.