Sega Nomad Woes

[radiokid]

Sega Nomad bought from eBay. DC socket was pretty much screwed, so got rid of it. Soldered in a new one from PSTwo slim. Worked fine for a bit then went on the fritz again (very intermittent connection which would power off if the DC plug was moved in the slightest). Tried numerous times to fix the issue but no luck.

Now, in my attempts to desolder/resolder etc etc I am now left with the below. I believe what is called the "through hole via" for the solder holes for the legs of the DC socket have come away; I remember them coming out with the DC socket at one point, but cant remember exactly which legs. To me it looks like the ground socket is the only one that still has its through hole via intact. I have also managed to lift the trace from the positive input from the socket to TP201 (I've made a bit of a mess of this as you can see ). I have scraped away a bit of the trace from TP202 (Ground) and TP203 (DC plug sense leg I think) in order to somehow fix this mess, but not sure if this will help.

I want to get this back up and running but not sure what to do next. Any help would be appreciated.

Picture one is of the side that the DC socket legs go through, picture two is the side that the actual socket would usually attach.

[Professor Gull]

Could you rewire from the battery pack terminal? I have never tried it but I would wonder if that might work.

[radiokid]

Hmm, I haven't tried that. But I believe if I did that I would need to ensure the the left and right points of the original DC jack holes were grounded (I think), as usually when no DC plug is inserted they become connected which has the effect of grounding the third leg (so that the batteries become part of the circuit). Otherwise when the DC plug is inserted it would introduce DC power into the battery circuit, which isnt good when you are dealing with normal AAs.

 

A lot of this is me trying to figure this all out. But I'm not even sure where the power should go once it enters the board from the DC positive pin. I'm not sure how many layers the PCB is either. I could really do with a schematic but can't find one anywhere.

[+chicgamer]

Not really a solution for your DC socket problem, but I'm wondering if a good battery solution would fit your needs. I modified my Nomad so that it has a newer LCD screen and uses a camcorder battery for power, and I can go a really long time between rechargings.

 

If this would work for you, I can point you to some resources on making these mods. They are actually pretty easy to do.

[Professor Gull]

Not really a solution for your DC socket problem, but I'm wondering if a good battery solution would fit your needs. I modified my Nomad so that it has a newer LCD screen and uses a camcorder battery for power, and I can go a really long time between rechargings.

 

If this would work for you, I can point you to some resources on making these mods. They are actually pretty easy to do.

yeah that's on my list of things to do. But in the case of this Nomad since you already took it apart you have already done a bunch of the steps to take this route. Something to ponder.

[radiokid]

Yeah so I gave up on the DC input; couldn't get it working no matter what.,so on to plan B. I've connected the 3rd pin (input plug detection) to ground which connects the battery terminals into the circuit. This is usually done by the DC socket when no plug is inserted but since this isn't an option any more I've gone for this permanent solution. I then wired up the battery terminals to 9V DC and switched on, hey presto it worked.

Since my overall plan is to power the Nomad by Lithium Ion batteries this solution will do for me. I may even internalise them in the Nomad body and wire in a new DC socket (somewhere else in the case) for charging the batteries. And since I won't be touching the original DC input pins I shouldn't have any more issues.

[Professor Gull]

 

Yeah so I gave up on the DC input; couldn't get it working no matter what.,so on to plan B. I've connected the 3rd pin (input plug detection) to ground which connects the battery terminals into the circuit. This is usually done by the DC socket when no plug is inserted but since this isn't an option any more I've gone for this permanent solution. I then wired up the battery terminals to 9V DC and switched on, hey presto it worked.

 

Good to know this works in a pinch. A working Nomad is better than a non working one for sure.