Got my Nomad Back with the new LCD!!

[Oldskool]

Thanks Jonjandran this thing looks AWESOME!! I expected it to be nice but DAMN. You can actually read the text in Phantasy Star IV, and the fast action in Sonic is no match for this screen! I recommend to ANYone with a Nomad to get this done. I will report back on the battery life as soon as I get a full charge on the AA's and run em' down, I suspect it will be much better than 1.5 hours haha.

Before and after pics of my Nomad (thanks Jon for taking the pics):

http://jonjandran.com/pics/jonjandran/DSC06597.JPg

http://jonjandran.com/pics/jonjandran/DSC06598.JPG

And the pictures don't do it any justice, it looks SOO nice. :hail: jonjandran

[jonjandran]

Glad I could be of service :)

I really wish pics or even video would do this mod justice...but they don't.

Once you've seen the mod however there is no going back. I have Nomads sitting here without the mod and won't even turn them on, but I have found myself playing the Nomad with the screen and battery mod ALL the time now.

And I won't even pick up my Genmobile or RetroGen anymore. The Nomad with screen mod is sooooo much better.

And despite what people may think I am doing this more to help people get back into Genesis gaming on the go then to make money. I make so little per hour for doing this I would be better off working more hours on my job. But when I see the results and hear how happy it makes you guys it's worth it. (cliche and sappy i know :) )

[megasdkirby]

Ah crap, I forgot to send payment! LOL

Let me send it now before I forget. But the screen looks AWESOME!!!!!!!!

[Friend of Sonic]

I would be very interested in this-- how much does it cost?

[joshnickerson]

Wow. That's pretty damn sweet. Great job!

[PentiumMMX]

I wish I had a Nomad to have this mod preformed to; that is awesome

[BetaWolf47]

Sonic looks shorter under a fluorescent light.

[Oldskool]

I would be very interested in this-- how much does it cost?

It cost me $65 for the LCD mod. You pay for the shipping to him, he pays to ship back. PM him for more details. He's very quick to reply.

[Oldskool]

Well I ran it down, and it lasted only 1 hour and 5 minutes?? Not sure what's going on, but that's about how long it lasted before. Maybe my batteries are getting old (plus I've heard that rechargeables never last as long as regular batteries).

It was actually pretty interesting, the battery light was on for 20 minutes, before it would only stay on about 5 before dying. Also, when it died, the Nomad shut down but it was still enough juice for the LCD to be on and bright.. lol. So it appears that the actual mainboard is what takes up a majority of the juice, and maybe not the LCD, but every little bit helps.

I really just need to get the lithium ion battery pack mod. Then I think I would be 100% happy with the Nomad. Also, I think my charger is charging the batteries too fast, they are suppose to be slow charged and the charger does it in like 1.5 hours, when it's supposed to be 4-6 hours. So I wonder if the charger is the culprit. If anyone else gets ONLY the LCD mod done, let me know what kind of battery life you see.

[Icarus Moonsight]

Try timing a set of some fresh alkaline. Rechargeable batt cells degrade somewhat with each charge. I want the screen + the Lith-ion. Going to have to save for it though.

[Oldskool]

Yeah I am gonna time it with some regular alkalines and see what happens. I would imagine I'd get twice the time out of them, I hope.

Problem with rechargeables also, they don't give the system the proper juice it needs. Each AA is 1.25 V instead of 1.5V.

[Icarus Moonsight]

Voltage isn't the big deal as far as longevity... It's the amperage.

Voltage is like mph, amperage is like the gas tank. That's why the volts are slightly reduced, to extend run time on a small tank. At least, that's how I'd analogize it, excluding resistance factors. The analog I was told (including resistance) involved plumbing. I'm no plumber, but I do drive a car. LOL

[raylydiard]

i bined two nomads that had broken lcd sceens now i feel sick
before this person even started the lcd replacement


Voltage isn't the big deal as far as longevity... It's the amperage.

Voltage is like mph, amperage is like the gas tank. That's why the volts are slightly reduced, to extend run time on a small tank. At least, that's how I'd analogize it, excluding resistance factors. The analog I was told (including resistance) involved plumbing. I'm no plumber, but I do drive a car. LOL

[Oldskool]

What was that? Didn't quite understand what you were saying.

Squeezed some more life out of it, I think my batteries may just be on their last legs, I did buy these a good 3 or 4 years ago, and have used them numerous times. I am currently trying to "re-learn" them.

I am now finally getting used to the screen, I don't even want to imagine what it was like before. I think it's about as nice as a DS screen, probably the phat DS, not quite as bright as the DS Lite, but definetely bright enough.

[Icarus Moonsight]

Paraphrased/Translation: They threw away two Nomads with broken LCDs before they knew about screen replacement/improvement. Now they're blowing chow-chow and wish they hadn't.

[Ed Oscuro]

Quick questions:

What's the resolutions of the old / new LCDs? I hadn't thought about it before, but apparently the TurboExpress screen shows fewer pixels than the system has internally (fewer than the PC-LT for instance), so that matters. It makes me wonder if even higher-resolution screens aren't possible for even better display.

There appears to be more playfield visible at the top and right of the screen.

How much did it cost?


i bined two nomads that had broken lcd sceens now i feel sick
before this person even started the lcd replacement
Now maybe you'll hang onto old stuff before trashing it...they don't make these anymore. ;)

In any case, thanks for making mine slightly more valuable!

Besides, didn't the TV output still work? Dumb, dumb.

[raylydiard]

yeh but i did keep some bits and bobs like the buttons and and the mainboard
where the carts go in one did not power on i did try the 7805 reg
i powered up but not for long i am looking now for some faulty on ebay
i did buy 10 consoles once fix about 8 of of the 10 so then i made my money back


Quick questions:

What's the resolutions of the old / new LCDs? I hadn't thought about it before, but apparently the TurboExpress screen shows fewer pixels than the system has internally (fewer than the PC-LT for instance), so that matters. It makes me wonder if even higher-resolution screens aren't possible for even better display.

There appears to be more playfield visible at the top and right of the screen.

How much did it cost?


Now maybe you'll hang onto old stuff before trashing it...they don't make these anymore. ;)

In any case, thanks for making mine slightly more valuable!

Besides, didn't the TV output still work? Dumb, dumb.

[Ed Oscuro]

No comment.

Back on topic: Also, were those screens taken at the very beginning of the game, without touching the control pad? I just noticed that there is actually a bit more space visible on the left of the playfield on the original screen than there is now. Overall it's obviously an improvement.

[jonjandran]

Yes same screenshot control pad not touched.

Well the manufacturer says they are 640x480 but I would bet there are really 320x240.

Anywho it seems to have more pixels top to bottom and slightly less left to right.

The original screen was 160x144.

[megasdkirby]

No wonder it looks much cleaner/clearer.

[Oldskool]

Hmm I never really noticed that, but if you look at the Sonic Icon on the bottom of the screen, where it shows how many lives he's got left - there is a bit more space under it with the new screen. Left to right I don't notice a difference in the pictures. I guess there really is a bit more play field.. cool, another plus for the mod.

I noted in another thread, that I got about 3 hours on those same rechargeable AA's this last round. I think using them (they were in storage for a long time), and learning them has helped a lot.

It's crazy, cause the low battery light was on for an hour and a half - when before the batteries alone would last about that long - TOTAL.

Anyone else getting in on this mod?

[Oldskool]

Quick questions:

What's the resolutions of the old / new LCDs? I hadn't thought about it before, but apparently the TurboExpress screen shows fewer pixels than the system has internally (fewer than the PC-LT for instance), so that matters. It makes me wonder if even higher-resolution screens aren't possible for even better display.

There appears to be more playfield visible at the top and right of the screen.

How much did it cost?


Now maybe you'll hang onto old stuff before trashing it...they don't make these anymore. ;)

In any case, thanks for making mine slightly more valuable!

Besides, didn't the TV output still work? Dumb, dumb.

Now now, be nice. The mod cost $65 dollars, you ship to jonjandran, he ships it back. Quite fast I might add!!

[jetblue]

do you have the old screen by any chance oldskool? i need one for my own transplant of sorts.

[jonjandran]

do you have the old screen by any chance oldskool? i need one for my own transplant of sorts.

Oh really , you can solder the 60 some ribbon wires. this I gotta see. :)

[Oldskool]

do you have the old screen by any chance oldskool? i need one for my own transplant of sorts.

No, I don't actually. I didn't even think to ask for that back.

[jetblue]

yup,been planning to solder one for a while now. i can do very tiny welds. they dont call me the full turbo(duo) alchemist for nothing ;)

[jonjandran]

yup,been planning to solder one for a while now. i can do very tiny welds. they dont call me the full turbo(duo) alchemist for nothing ;)

Yea I can do very tiny soldering also. But around 60 of them? And for this crappy screen ? i don't see the point. But I have a bunch of these if you want them. Pay for the shipping and you can have one.

[jetblue]

Thanks for the nomad screens jandaran. After much analysis i cannot solder onto the board and lcd like i had thought. It is a lcd of the Heat Seal type. Where a conductive epoxy is sandwiched between the motherboard and flex ribbon of the lcd then placed on a special machine that heats it and presses it to the contacts. I cannot duplicate this process and dont have a machine to do it. Soldering will destroy everything.

Process is explained here:
http://www.ownta.com/aoyue-8011-hotbar-soldering-system.html

Thats ends that. Project abandoned.

Guess what im gonna do now? :pimp:

[Ed Oscuro]

Huh, looking at jon's screens again, it looks to me like the new screen has a bit more space on the right side, and no less on the left. Odd.

[wingzrow]

to jonjandran

Do you do any other genesis related mods? I have a v7 model 1 genesis that could REALLY use a crystal clear audio mod. So much static at higher volumes.

[jonjandran]

to jonjandran

Do you do any other genesis related mods? I have a v7 model 1 genesis that could REALLY use a crystal clear audio mod. So much static at higher volumes.

Nope, sorry.

[BetaWolf47]

I was confused when I saw that you charged $65 for the mod. I thought that was kind of high... but then you showed us the monitor you use for it in that other thread. Sorry :P

Too bad there's nothing that'll fit in a GameGear though.

[Oldskool]

Yeah no kidding, the Game Gear screen isn't the greatest. But a lot of that has to do with the weak video capacitors. A video cap replacement usually gets things in order pretty good. I am thinking of doing that to my Game Gear as soon as I get a new Soldering station.

[Oldskool]

It's been months now and I am still playing this Nomad like a mad man. I just can't get over how nice the screen looks now. If anyone is thinking about getting a cloned Genesis handheld, I say DONT - this is WAYYY better.

[The Manimal]

It's been months now and I am still playing this Nomad like a mad man. I just can't get over how nice the screen looks now. If anyone is thinking about getting a cloned Genesis handheld, I say DONT - this is WAYYY better.

I've seen pictures of the mod on another website. I have to agree, replacing the screen on a Nomad is the better option. I've seen those portable Genesis clones (RetroGen, etc) and they always have funky button placement - something I would not even want to bother with. I would take my current Nomad as-is over any of those. The Nomad screen isn't that bad IMO, sure the newer handhelds have much nicer screens but since the first cartridge based handheld I had was the original Game Boy, my standards are lower I guess. I guess my biggest gripe with the original Nomad screen is getting color uniformity. I would like to get the screen mod done, maybe a little in the future. Too cash strapped right now.

[atariboy]

can this screen mod be done for a Turbo Express? I have one with a cracked screen and been looking for a way to get the screen replaced.

[Oldskool]

As far as I know, no one has done it yet. That's not to say that it can't be done.

A Turbo Express with a new screen would be sweet (even though the original screen is not so bad really).

[raylydiard]

i will be bidding on some broken nomads

[jetblue]

After running the process thru my mind for months I finally figured a way to do it without ruining the ribbon. A popsicle stick!
First I used solder paste on the ribons contacts,aligned them to the the motherboard and used the tip of a 30 watt iron to just touch the solder and while using the popsicle stick to hold down the ribbon. First time I did it I got 3 quarters of a screen,after a second touchup full picture.
I am surprised i pulled it thru,I thought for sure I would have a melted mess with bridge solder contacts. The popsicls made the difference as well as a hot 30 watt iron and the tinyist amount of solder on the tip so there wouldnt be flowback and the paste to bind to the ribbon.
Thanks again jandran :)

[Oldskool]

Nice dude, so you are running my old screen in your Nomad now? Long live my Nomad screen! haha..