Sega Nomad - not working + replacement parts needed!

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ScoreAddict
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Sega Nomad - not working + replacement parts needed!

Post by ScoreAddict »

Well, I got me TWO Nomads from the US, since we poor Europeans were left out back in the day.

Not wanting to pay too much, I got me two faulty ones:

- Number one had a faulty DC-power jack on arrival which needed replacing badly.

The Sega Nomad's power jack is identical to the PS2's and still available to order, so no worries if you need one! (I even got me one spare just in case.)

- Number one will power on, but there's only a white-grey/black screen and after a while some "crunchy" noises from the audio. Nothing else happens. The screen brightness can be changed as well as the audio level via the wheel potentiometers, but that's it.

Same story if I connect it to a television via AV-port.

Contacts of the cartridge slot have been thorougly cleaned and the cable (which connects the two halves of the Nomad) has been checked - to no avail.

Since my second Nomad mostly works (apart from the "white screen" issues, see below) I switched its second "half" board with number one's and, voila, the Nomad comes alive!

Any idea what's the problem with the board and how to fix it?

- Number two will power up fine and audio will play as it should but the screen is completely white. No wonder, since the wheel of the brightness control is gone! Ripped out, broken out, no idea - it's gone!

The handheld works perfectly (audio and video) if connected to a television via the AV-port.

Alas, the wheel potentiometer (47 kOhm with 4 pins) is a rare(r) type I have not encountered before (most common types are 5 pins and only at 10-20 kOhm).

Any idea where I can get a replacement? It's (supposed) to be identical to the Game Gear's one, but where to get one? The audio control's wheel potentiometer is NOT the same. It's 5 pin and has a lower resistance value at about 20 kOhm.

Note: Yes, I could do a lcd screen-mod which would render the brightness control issue obsolete. But first I want two working machines in original condition before I try that.

Apart from that, any advice is appreciated! Please help! :)

And if you need any pictures of the two handhelds, just say so!

Thank you!
Last edited by ScoreAddict on Fri Jan 03, 2014 2:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Jmustang1968
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Re: Sega Nomad - not working + replacement parts needed!

Post by Jmustang1968 »

The power jack may just be a soldering issue. I have had 2 or 3 that broke a joint that just needed to be re-soldered.
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Re: Sega Nomad - not working + replacement parts needed!

Post by ScoreAddict »

Jmustang1968 wrote:The power jack may just be a soldering issue. I have had 2 or 3 that broke a joint that just needed to be re-soldered.
Thank you for the advice! This has already been fixed! :)

Alas, number one will still not play anything.
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Jmustang1968
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Re: Sega Nomad - not working + replacement parts needed!

Post by Jmustang1968 »

ScoreAddict wrote:
Jmustang1968 wrote:The power jack may just be a soldering issue. I have had 2 or 3 that broke a joint that just needed to be re-soldered.
Thank you for the advice! This has already been fixed! :)

Alas, number one will still not play anything.
the white screen is the brightness setting I am fairly sure.
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Re: Sega Nomad - not working + replacement parts needed!

Post by ScoreAddict »

Jmustang1968 wrote:the white screen is the brightness setting I am fairly sure.
Me too. Maybe somebody knows where I can get a replacement for the wheel potentiometer.
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Jmustang1968
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Re: Sega Nomad - not working + replacement parts needed!

Post by Jmustang1968 »

ScoreAddict wrote:
Jmustang1968 wrote:the white screen is the brightness setting I am fairly sure.
Me too. Maybe somebody knows where I can get a replacement for the wheel potentiometer.
Besides cannibalizing, I would say you would need to devise something on your own.
Last edited by Jmustang1968 on Sun Jan 05, 2014 5:00 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Sega Nomad - not working + replacement parts needed!

Post by ScoreAddict »

Jmustang1968 wrote:Besides cannabalizing, I would say you would need to devise something on your own.
Indeed! I've come across some ideas, but most only SHOW what they have done not HOW they have done it. Oh, well...
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Ziggy
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Re: Sega Nomad - not working + replacement parts needed!

Post by Ziggy »

Did you check DigiKey? http://www.digikey.com/product-search/e ... ers/262240

I don't know what type of pot that would be. If it has 5 pins, I'm guessing it controls TWO voltages (two pins each) and has a common ground (the fifth pin).

Is just the wheel broken off, or is the entire pot ripped from the PCB?
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Re: Sega Nomad - not working + replacement parts needed!

Post by ScoreAddict »

@Ziggy587:

Thanks for the advice! I checked a lot of sites.

Most offered wheel potentiometers of this type come with 5 pins. The only one with four pins seems to be the one used for the Game Gear's and Nomad's Brightness control.

And it's definitely 4 pins! Here's a comparison photo from my two Nomads' to show:

Image

Only the wheel is broken off and lost whereas the lower half is still there, soldered to the board.
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Re: Sega Nomad - not working + replacement parts needed!

Post by Ziggy »

Oh, dude, I think you're good. It looks like that fourth pin goes to nothing, and it's just a standard 3-pin pot. I've never heard of a pot having 4 pins. It's just a dummy pin, probably to better anchor it to the PCB.

The broken one... I don't know if the wiper broke off from the top, or if the wiper is located on the bottom side. If the wiper is on the bottom, did you see if you could spin that shaft? It looks like the shaft is sticking up past the wafer a little, you might be able to grab it with some pliers. Or use something that can bite into the middle of the shaft, like a (hand powered) drill bit (you might need a reverse drill bit depending on which way you need to spin it).

On the one that isn't broken, measure the resistance of it with a multimeter, then you'll know what value to get for the broken one. The pain in the ass part will be finding one that's the correct size and orientation. You'll just have to go to town with a caliper and compare the specs to the datasheets.
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