Sega Nomad Battery Box Mod

Owning a Sega Nomad, you normally have two choices if you want to run the unit from batteries. Either the official Nomad rechargeable battery, or a hollow battery box that takes AA batteries (eats would be a better term than takes really). Well, from the chap who brought us the screen mod, we also have a third option, which thankfully, is a bazillion times better than either option Sega gave us.

The Sony FP-550 rechargeable battery, miraculously fits inside the official Sega rechargeable battery box, once you exhume all of it's innards. The mod itself is so very simple, but really really effective & brings an all new dimension to the Nomad.

The bits n pieces. I also needed new male & female dc connectors, as the existing female dc adaptor was a different size to any male ones I had lying about.



A closer look



The official Nomad battery box opened, ready to be dismembered. The case is tightly clipped together, and as such you need a flat card to open it.



Old circuits & batteries removed, the two wires that go to the output jacks are left in place.



The necessary plastic cut away, the Sony battery fits like a glove.



New wires piggy backed onto existing wires, these will carry the power from the charger to the battery.



Everything neatly placed, next step is the dc coupler.



The femal dc coupler soldered to the new charging wires. The center pin on the coupler should be positive, so naturally gets soldered to the wire running from the positive side of the battery. The outer rim or the coupler is negative, so no prizes for guessing which wire gets soldered to that one.



Everything in place, I hot glued everything down.



Thats the battery end done, clip the top back on.



The new male dc coupler onto one end of the charging wire. Again, center pin positive, outer rim negative.



Closed up



The other end of the charging cable gets hard-wried to the charger. According positive wire to the positive prong on the charger, & negative to negative. Again I hot glued that down for two reasons. It will never come loose, and it's also well insulated so it's very safe to use. Combined with the LCD screen mod (which has a much lower power consumption than the existing back lit one), the battery life is very, very good. The creator of the mod reckons a good 8 hours or so. SO there you have it, the Sega Nomad as it should have been.