Nomad Rechargable battery pack problems

[Bighab]

A week ago I bought a brand new Nomad rechargable battery pack on ebay. I get it and I plug it in to charge it up. After the charge cycle(12 hours) I hook it up to my Nomad. I get no juice whatsoever. I contact the seller and this is what they say:
I figured out what the problem with the battery pack is. I e-mailed the manufacturer (From whom I got them) and he says that though they are brand new, the NIMH battery inside (like a watch battery) some times degrades and needs replacement. You can pick one up for 79 cents at a watch store he said. Give that a try. I will have to post that in any future auctions!

Has anyone ever tried this before? I don't even know how I will get the batterypack open since I don't see any screws.

[FABombjoy]

Who manufactured the battery? Is this really a _new_ product, or a NOS Sega peripheral? At any rate, the idea that the fix is 79 cents, and available from a watch store sounds crazy.

The seller has basically admitted fault with the product, and now his is telling you to go buy something to make it work. To me, it sounds like he's giving you the runaround hoping that you'll give up & forget about it.

However, since you haven't posted any details of the product, it is difficult to diagnose what the problem could be.

[Bighab]

Its an official Genesis Nomad battery pack model MK-6102. Its made by Sega themselves. I was able to open it up. I tested the 6 batteries and they were dead. There was no"watch battery" inside whatsoever. A friend told me he could get 6 new NIMH batteries(about same size but 3/4 height of an AA battery) and replace them.

[bargora]

I bet you can replace them, but they'll cost a lot more than 79 cents.

[Bighab]

I was told each battery would cost 3-4 Canadian each.

[omnedon]

You should tell your seller that. have you left feedback? Did the seller indicate that it was "tested" or "working"?

[Bighab]

The auction said they were brand new. I am just waiting for the seller to get back to me. Thank god they already left feedback on me. I haven't left any on them. I wanted to wait and test the pack before I did.

[DogP]

Its an official Genesis Nomad battery pack model MK-6102. Its made by Sega themselves. I was able to open it up. I tested the 6 batteries and they were dead. There was no"watch battery" inside whatsoever. A friend told me he could get 6 new NIMH batteries(about same size but 3/4 height of an AA battery) and replace them.

You should be careful if you decide to put NiMH batteries in there... if they were originally NiCd's the charge rate between the two isn't the same... the NiMH's generally can't take as many amps on the charge as a NiCd can, and if you do, the batteries get very hot and vent... also, NiCd's can handle overcharging a lot better than NiMH's, so make sure you don't leave it plugged in for too long. IMO, if you want NiMH, I'd just get the AA replacements and a NiMH charger and just charge the AA batteries.

DogP

[Bighab]

The seller and I have tried to work out an agreement. They will send me some Genesis games to make up for the defective pack. They acknowledge that the other packs they are selling might well be defective too so I warn anyone to avoid buying from them. Thanx for everyones input

[MrKitt]

the problem is 1 of 2

1. the battery pack is crystalized and therefore dont work.

2. some part in the internal charger is broken.. normaly a fuse.

easyest way to check is to hook up the charger and connect a multimeter to the +/- pins to se if you get any voltage. and if you do connect it in serial with a battery known to be 100% working to see if the load current is there.

[Pantechnicon]

Ba-Da-Bing, Ba-Da-Bump!

I just got a Nomad sans the battery pack. Checked Ebay...lots of them going for cheap, and nearly every dealer selling what appear to be surplus units has a caveat in the item description acknowledging the issue in this thread: that although the battery pack might ever be factory sealed, there's no guarantee that these things will hold a charge unless one replaces the cells.

Okay. I'm not afraid to take crap apart. Ain't no thing to spend $5 or $10 for battery pack casing off of Ebay and I know of a couple surplus electronic stores where I can get the required battery types. But I'd still like to know in advance if anyone has bothered trying this approach yet, and what possible obstacles might I encounter? Thanks.