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Lynx LCD Replacement/VGA-Out by McWill


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I installed my board yesterday, and though I thought I followed the instructions carefully, I only get a screen full of multicolored pixels when I power on. Sigh. Guess I need to pull it apart again to see what I did wrong.

 

I will say that those multicolored pixels were very bright and clear, though. ;)

 

Have you left it for a few seconds longer? I've done the mod and I get a multicoloured screen of pixels when I turn on. Not sure if this is normal, but if you wait a couple of seconds, the game then loads as normal.

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Have you left it for a few seconds longer? I've done the mod and I get a multicoloured screen of pixels when I turn on. Not sure if this is normal, but if you wait a couple of seconds, the game then loads as normal.

 

It was actually a battery issue. D'oh! I tried different batteries, and it works well now!

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Okay... I wasn't really prepared for just how good this new screen is. The only word I can come up for it is "transformative". It feels like an all-new system, not just an all-new Lynx.

 

It took me the better part of a couple of hours to install it, since I'd never gutted a Lynx before, and wanted to be extremely careful. I ended up using wires stripped out of an old Monoprice VGA cable, since it has thin wires all individually colored, and they're easier to work with than scrap Cat6 (which is what I usually use for project wire). I also followed Leonk's suggestions of disconnecting but leaving the brightness pot in place (since I wasn't after VGA out, and I can still add it later), and removing the old LCD connector to make soldering easier. Both great tips!

 

All of the posts here (and the link to how to open the Lynx) were all extremely helpful, and the installation went just fine. That said, I still made a couple of mistakes:

 

1) I took great care to try and get all of the dust off the inside of the plastic Lynx lens before reassembling. I thought I got it all using a microfiber cloth and glasses cleaner, but some dust got in around the bevel anyway, between the clear and solid pieces of the Lynx, so now there's this white dot up there (it's not over the LCD, but it's still annoying). This was due to using compressed air to blast the initial dust away. Lesson learned.

 

2) I had a mostly scratch-free plastic lens on my Lynx through nearly the entire process, until I flipped it over at the very end to put the screws back. The Lynx landed on one of the desoldered components, and now it's scratched. Very annoying. I may try scratch remover to see if that works, before I consider replacing it.

 

Despite now having a slightly marred Lynx case, the mod was absolutely worth doing (just remember - be more careful than you think you have to be ;) ) and am completely thrilled with the end results. Pictures simply do not do it justice.

 

That said... I took some anyway. Quite a few. 68 pics, of 19 games (all that I own), before and after, under (as best as I could manage) the same lighting conditions. Hopefully this will give you an idea just how good this screen looks.

 

 

Here are a few pictures of the installation:

 

post-2641-0-30715700-1426472766_thumb.jpg

VCC, Ground and Backlight wires attached

 

post-2641-0-42877500-1426472768_thumb.jpg

LCD wires attached (original connector was removed)

 

post-2641-0-49654100-1426472770_thumb.jpg

LCD screen connected

 

post-2641-0-82306800-1426472772_thumb.jpg

Ready to button it up. To deal with the extra slack in the wires, I spun the Lynx board around a couple of times to coil them up. Note the capacitor sitting off to the side... ready to gouge the front of my Lynx. Just waiting... waiting...

 

post-2641-0-58275900-1426472774_thumb.jpg

Edge view of the wiring. Plenty of room in there for all of the wires.

 

Thanks to Marco for designing, building and selling such an amazing mod! I wholeheartedly recommend this to anyone with a Lynx II, and here's hoping he can make it work for the original Lynx as well! Worth every penny.

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Okay... I wasn't really prepared for just how good this new screen is. The only word I can come up for it is "transformative". It feels like an all-new system, not just an all-new Lynx.

 

Agree 100% - the Lynx has long been one of my favorites, but this mod has completely reinvigorated my love (and wild active use) of the system. Transformative begins to describe it... :)

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Agree 100% - the Lynx has long been one of my favorites, but this mod has completely reinvigorated my love (and wild active use) of the system. Transformative begins to describe it... :)

No kidding, I loved the Lynx back in the day, but the stock screen is pretty poor. When I have a Lynx II with this new screen installed, I am going to play the hell out of it! I think I'll start with Chip's Challenge and burn through every level. Ohboyohboyohboy! I wonder if something can be done about the battery life. Does this screen use less power? Of course, that's only one aspect of the power draw.

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just a quick word of advice / warning!

if you are installing the rgb monitor connector take care if you are placing it where the brightness dial was, i did mine, like this and now i cannot have the power cable plugged in at the same time as the rgb cable, so i'm going to have to modify a monitor cable so that there is room.

 

as an alternative, there is room for the connector between the comlynx port and screen i suggest this is a viable option rather than the brightness dial position option

 

apart from this inconvenience mine is not installed and working great :)

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Arghhh stop to praise this mod ! I only have lynx Is !!! :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

Don't worry! The solution for the LYNX-I is very close!

I guess this week I have finished all the tests with the LYNX-I. Then you also can upgrade your LYNX-I.

 

 

 

 

 

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just a quick word of advice / warning!

if you are installing the rgb monitor connector take care if you are placing it where the brightness dial was, i did mine, like this and now i cannot have the power cable plugged in at the same time as the rgb cable, so i'm going to have to modify a monitor cable so that there is room.

 

as an alternative, there is room for the connector between the comlynx port and screen i suggest this is a viable option rather than the brightness dial position option

 

apart from this inconvenience mine is not installed and working great :)

Thanks for the heads up about this! I can't wait until April to get this mod done.

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Nathan: scratch remover works, if the scratches are not too deep. I used it on a Lynx screen recently (I used Displex).

Before:

P1040334_zpssdzieyqx.jpg

After:

P1040336_zpsij9bqlzk.jpg

 

2) I had a mostly scratch-free plastic lens on my Lynx through nearly the entire process, until I flipped it over at the very end to put the screws back. The Lynx landed on one of the desoldered components, and now it's scratched. Very annoying. I may try scratch remover to see if that works, before I consider replacing it.
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@McWill: Any chance of selling the kit without the LCD screen? After poking around my Lynx a little bit I'm seriously considering getting another kit and dedicating it to a mini-arcade cabinet.

No problem. You have a PM :-D .

EXCELLENT! I had the same question ;)

 

Also, got a postal slip to pick up the parcel from the post office last Friday. Raced there after work to get to the doors at 2 minutes past 5pm and they were closed but serving inside :mad: I picked up the package today and lo and behold - it was DAMP! Box was dampy, inside newspaper was wetty/damp, and a strong damp smell was emnating from the package. WTF? How the hell did it get we when it was always in the hands of couriers and post office - not left outdoors (or was it...)?! Lucky McWill wrapped the individual screens in plastic bags (THANK YOU), i think it should all be fine. Can't wait to get this into the hands of a good friend to mod my Lynx! All these before & after photos are making me go crazy with an,tici...PATION!

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Emehr, you've sparked my curiousity. Do you have a thread discussing this mini-arcade? Please share when you start working out the details :-)

 

Right now it's mostly just sketches and rough prototyping. I'm exploring the feasibility and if I can even pull it off. I'm confident that I can develop the joystick controls and tie them into the Lynx board. It'd be arcade controls with four action buttons (B, A, Option 1, and Option 2). A pause button will be present somewhere on the front. A dedicated "restart" button would be handy, I think (no pun intended). There will also be a switch that "rotates" the controls for vertical-oriented games. You physically rotate the screen and just flip the switch to toggle the joystick control orientation. The coin-slot area would probably have the "on" and "off" buttons. I still need to lock down a source for the rotating screen hardware and figure out a reasonable case design. I'll start a thread if things get real serious. :)

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Got ours today! The old lady will be home in an hour and half and we'll prolly post pics of the process and some before and after stuff. I heard that it draws less power due to the lack of a backlight.

 

She may offer to help folks by doing this mod for a couple others if she doesn't find it too frustrating. She takes college classes and works, so I can't answer for her on this, but it seems like a pretty easy mod. I've learned a lot about it from YouTube and this topic, so I will be sure to inform her of the in's and out's specified herein. Things like thoroughly avoiding the screen and deciding where to put the VGA mod to allow for adapter usage are things we may not have considered until reading about mishaps here!

 

For the cabinet idea! I may do something like that, too with another one. I wouldn't go so far as to make a screen that spins, but I have considered using a big VGA screen and Happ controls. Setting up the joysticks would be cake on this big pcb.

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Nathan: scratch remover works, if the scratches are not too deep. I used it on a Lynx screen recently (I used Displex).

I've used Novus #2 on Lynx display covers in the past as well, fantastic stuff.

 

 

if you are installing the rgb monitor connector take care if you are placing it where the brightness dial was, i did mine, like this and now i cannot have the power cable plugged in at the same time as the rgb cable, so i'm going to have to modify a monitor cable so that there is room.

 

Yes, that's why I offset the connector to the side a bit even though it meant I'd have to drill through the curved plastic for one of the VGA retainer lugs.

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Yes, that's why I offset the connector to the side a bit even though it meant I'd have to drill through the curved plastic for one of the VGA retainer lugs.

 

yeah i saw this but after looking at it i decided it would make it very weak because there wouldnt be much in it to actually break through the case, which i didn't want to do, oh well ill make a modified cable.....

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Right now it's mostly just sketches and rough prototyping. I'm exploring the feasibility and if I can even pull it off. I'm confident that I can develop the joystick controls and tie them into the Lynx board. It'd be arcade controls with four action buttons (B, A, Option 1, and Option 2). A pause button will be present somewhere on the front. A dedicated "restart" button would be handy, I think (no pun intended). There will also be a switch that "rotates" the controls for vertical-oriented games. You physically rotate the screen and just flip the switch to toggle the joystick control orientation. The coin-slot area would probably have the "on" and "off" buttons. I still need to lock down a source for the rotating screen hardware and figure out a reasonable case design. I'll start a thread if things get real serious. :)

 

Emehr, you've sparked my curiousity. Do you have a thread discussing this mini-arcade? Please share when you start working out the details :-)

 

 

 

Right now it's mostly just sketches and rough prototyping. I'm exploring the feasibility and if I can even pull it off. I'm confident that I can develop the joystick controls and tie them into the Lynx board. It'd be arcade controls with four action buttons (B, A, Option 1, and Option 2). A pause button will be present somewhere on the front. A dedicated "restart" button would be handy, I think (no pun intended). There will also be a switch that "rotates" the controls for vertical-oriented games. You physically rotate the screen and just flip the switch to toggle the joystick control orientation. The coin-slot area would probably have the "on" and "off" buttons. I still need to lock down a source for the rotating screen hardware and figure out a reasonable case design. I'll start a thread if things get real serious. :)

 

I'm also interested. I picked up a few iCade sets from Khol's a few years ago when they were marked down all the way to $7.49 each. I had considered making mini arcade cabs but many of the classic game consoles weren't small. I do have a PCE sitting in pieces (PCE and Coregrafx are both tiny) and easily works with most cheap LCD.

 

Lynx LCD mod would be interesting to try but I'd have to find a very small VGA LCD or one that is RGB and is VGA compatible. Failing that, a VGA to composite converter but that'd add a lot of bulk and iCade isn't exactly roomy.

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I have tried to do a side by side comparision of the old vs new LCD and I think I need something much better than a crap camera that doesn't handle white balance well.

 

 

If I adjusted my camera to favor the new LCD, the old one becomes really hard to see, like trying to play it outside under strong sun without the sun visor. If I adjusted the camera to favor the old LCD, the new one is bright and washes out everything. Anyone with 2 Lynxes, one new and one old LCD, and a decent camera with good manual white balance adjustment?

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