Sega Nomad Battery Box Mod

Myrddin

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.

KeRbDoG

Nice, saw this awhile ago but didn't buy a Nomad charging pack to mod it. I only had the standard AA battery pack. Since gave my Nomad to CiDeRmAn

EnterNow, yea think this mod would be doable with a standard battery pack Sega Nomad battery pack?. Are the standard and Sega official rechargeable battery pack the same depth?

Myrddin

KeRbDoG wrote: »

Nice, saw this awhile ago but didn't buy a Nomad charging pack to mod it. I only had the standard AA battery pack. Since gave my Nomad to CiDeRmAn

Looks like this mod should be doable with a standard battery pack. Are the standard and Sega official rechargeable battery pack the same depth?
If so, would just need to get inventive with the DC connector for charging.

That was my exact thinking re the standard box. For this particular battery, the standard box just isn't deep enough, as the rechargeable box is a good 25% deeper. That being said, the creator of the mod states he can mod either type of box so presumeably there's a type of battery out there that fits into it. The rechargeable ones are quite cheap believe it or not, anything that old with Sega written on it normally comes at a price, but about €15/20 should buy it for you.

o1s1n

There's a guy in the Uk on ebay selling them. They cost about €15 delivered. Definitely worth it. I've been sitting here playing my Nomad this evening. Still haven't had to recharge it since getting it back from Enternow about a week or so ago.

Andrew76

Cool pics dude, you make it look very easy.

CiDeRmAn

I have all the parts now to do the battery mod.except the Sega rechargeable battery pak. Gonna try to fiddle the regular pak and see how we get on, the rechargeable pak is costing near 35 now with postage. Any tips?

roast

EnterNow wrote: »

It's so clean! A perfect mod. Definitely going to try this one out myself when(ever) I get a Nomad.

Myrddin

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

I have all the parts now to do the battery mod.except the Sega rechargeable battery pak. Gonna try to fiddle the regular pak and see how we get on, the rechargeable pak is costing near 35 now with postage. Any tips?

The new lithium batteries that myself & o1s1n got wouldn't physically fit into the standard AA box, hence needing the Sega rechargeable pack. Well to my eye they didn't fit, & it would be one tight squeeze!

CiDeRmAn

Have the components now, just have to borrow Kerbdogs soldering iron and hot glue gun, and pay a visit to Maplins!

CiDeRmAn

Bought my own soldering iron and hot glue gun, did the mod and it works beautifully, I can't feel the tips of my thumbs but that's a price I'm willing to pay!