McWill Posted May 5, 2015 Share Posted May 5, 2015 So is the LCD screen replacement and VGA out all part of the same mod or is there a VGA out only mod? It is one board including the 3.5" LCD replacement and VGA out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loktar Posted May 5, 2015 Share Posted May 5, 2015 Got mine today, and its amazing... I'm a noob when it comes to this kind of thing, my dad helped out fortunately lol ended up taking us like 5 hours (we only had some crappy desoldering wick so removing the parts took the longest) but the results were worth it! Sorry for the potato quality My dad working on it. http://i.imgur.com/yaYo5R9.jpg http://i.imgur.com/eWIctmX.jpg The end result http://i.imgur.com/0UBdn47.jpg http://i.imgur.com/whzbJD3.jpg McWill thanks for this, its amazing what you've put together. haha with that said though I think in the future I might have to pay someone to do these mods for me. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted May 5, 2015 Share Posted May 5, 2015 It is one board including the 3.5" LCD replacement and VGA out. Ah ok. Any chance of a cheaper VGA out only mod coming in the future? The replacement LCD screen looks nice but if I have VGA out then I can't see myself ever using it as a portable again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McWill Posted May 5, 2015 Share Posted May 5, 2015 Ah ok. Any chance of a cheaper VGA out only mod coming in the future? The replacement LCD screen looks nice but if I have VGA out then I can't see myself ever using it as a portable again. Sorry, but a cheaper VGA out won't be coming in the future, because the most components of the LYNX mod are also necessary for VGA out. The power consumption of the original LCD with backlight and the LYNX mod is too high without power mod, perhaps your LYNX will be damaged! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted May 5, 2015 Share Posted May 5, 2015 Sorry, but a cheaper VGA out won't be coming in the future, because the most components of the LYNX mod are also necessary for VGA out. The power consumption of the original LCD with backlight and the LYNX mod is too high without power mod, perhaps your LYNX will be damaged! Ah ok, that makes sense. I assumed the Lynx screen was turned off when the VGA mod was running. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McWill Posted May 5, 2015 Share Posted May 5, 2015 Ah ok, that makes sense. I assumed the Lynx screen was turned off when the VGA mod was running. Yes, that's right. When the internal 3.5" LCD is off the VGA is running. But I do not recommend using the LYNX mod and original screen. BTW: If you ask the 250 new LYNX mod user, they won't have back the old LCD (as you can read in several threads). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted May 5, 2015 Share Posted May 5, 2015 Yes, that's right. When the internal 3.5" LCD is off the VGA is running. But I do not recommend using the LYNX mod and original screen. BTW: If you ask the 250 new LYNX mod user, they won't have back the old LCD (as you can read in several threads). Oh I'm sure the quality of the new screen is amazing and a huge leap forward from the old one. I was just hoping for a VGA only mod since I don't actually take my Lynx anywhere anymore (or any other portable for that matter). I guess I'll just have to get the whole package then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+remowilliams Posted May 6, 2015 Share Posted May 6, 2015 And now the Lynx I gets the best upgrade, ever. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7800fan Posted May 6, 2015 Share Posted May 6, 2015 Should spoiler tag that shit as NSFW! Naked board! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
venom4728a Posted May 8, 2015 Share Posted May 8, 2015 I need to order a second screen!!! I had an another Atari Lynx II that had no video. I recapped the unit and still no video. I did have a known working screen to test with too. I desoldered the screen connector and all the power components, and installed the new screen from my first working unit and the second non working unit now has video using Mcwill's LCD Replacement. Robert Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cowdog360 Posted May 8, 2015 Share Posted May 8, 2015 I need to order a second screen!!! I had an another Atari Lynx II that had no video. I recapped the unit and still no video. I did have a known working screen to test with too. I desoldered the screen connector and all the power components, and installed the new screen from my first working unit and the second non working unit now has video using Mcwill's LCD Replacement. Robert This is good to know, since I have a Lynx II that has no video as well, and I've recapped it. I've got several screens on order, so I'll have to try it on my broken one first. I wonder if it's something wrong with the original lcd connector? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mckafka99 Posted May 8, 2015 Share Posted May 8, 2015 Received my modded Lynx II today and as others have said (and it still cant be said enough) - WOW!! I can't say thanks enough to both McWill (for making this mod available) and to Busterm for hooking me up with a modded Lynx II with my screen (I wasn't about to risk destroying a Lynx II with my sub par/near non-existent soldering skills). It is nothing short of a thing of beauty to see and play the Lynx with this screen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neochrisg Posted May 9, 2015 Share Posted May 9, 2015 Hi, First time I've posted here - I recently purchased and fitted the Lynx 1 version of the mod and I just felt compelled to write by the awesomeness of this mod! I've modded a few consoles over the years, but I can honestly say this has to be the most radical improvement I've ever done to a console. The quality of the screen and it's 'compatability' with the lynx is outstanding. Fitting it is reasonably challenging, but definitely not impossible if you have just a little bit of soldering experience. For those of you considering whether to do it yourself, here are a bunch of pictures of my install. Note that I chose not to do the VGA install - when I saw the screen in action I realised I would never need to plug it into anything else! First off a quick tip - extending the wires to the battery compartment makes working on it much easier. Also I found it easier to mount the screen before soldering the data connections, so I could use really short wires. Overall, it took about 2 hours to do, and worked first time. You will need a desoldering pump and a fine-point soldering iron (I'd recommend 30W+). But on to the good stuff.. How it looks! Below are some side-by-side comparasons of a few games running on an old Lynx 1 I have, and running on the modded Lynx. Both picture were taken at the same time, in the same light conditions (indirect daylight). The reason the new screen pics look like they are taken at night is that the screen is soooo much brighter that it forces my camera to reduce the exposure. I have not done anything to these pictures other than crop them - they are straight off the camera. The extra detail you see is truly amazing. And the response time matches it too - playing Lynx games like this is almost a completely new experience. Anyway, that's enough rambling. I hope this is useful to any of you wondering whether to do it. Any many thanks to McWill for a freakin awesome mod. Chris 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gilsaluki Posted May 10, 2015 Share Posted May 10, 2015 Received my modded Lynx II today and as others have said (and it still cant be said enough) - WOW!! I can't say thanks enough to both McWill (for making this mod available) and to Busterm for hooking me up with a modded Lynx II with my screen (I wasn't about to risk destroying a Lynx II with my sub par/near non-existent soldering skills). It is nothing short of a thing of beauty to see and play the Lynx with this screen. That's good for you. I am still waiting for my mod install by Busterm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoyx Posted May 10, 2015 Share Posted May 10, 2015 Are there online instructions for this mod? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoyx Posted May 10, 2015 Share Posted May 10, 2015 Are there online instructions for this mod? Found it... back on page 5. This is rev 1... any later version of the docs? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McWill Posted May 10, 2015 Share Posted May 10, 2015 ... This is rev 1... any later version of the docs? Here are the updated versions of the instructions: for the LYNX-I Quick Guide_LYNX-I.pdf and for the LYNX-II Quick Guide_LYNX-II-REV1.2.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MIV Posted May 10, 2015 Share Posted May 10, 2015 @McWill Is it possible for you to make this LCD mod for another handheld?Specifically, the TurboExpress \ PC Engine GT ? mivlives Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7800fan Posted May 11, 2015 Share Posted May 11, 2015 TE/GT and Nomad are already easy to mod if you find a 4:3 LCD panel that takes standard composite. A direct digital to LCD and an ez-fit LCD board would be nice though. I'm still waiting for the upcoming Game Gear mod. The current RGB mod with composite LCD kinds of work but it does not handle screen scaling between GG games and SMS games so GG games ends up very small. I'm also hoping there's Microvision replacement. Most of Microvision has bad LCD so there aren't many playable Microvision left. Plus there's no true dumped Microvision ROM because they are stored inside CPU and there's no way to safely extract the ROM, one would have to cut the chip package up, use a good microscope, and find the correct location then read bit by bit to "dump" so emulation isn't practical. Microvision LCD are simple 16x16 design 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McWill Posted May 11, 2015 Share Posted May 11, 2015 @McWill Is it possible for you to make this LCD mod for another handheld?Specifically, the TurboExpress \ PC Engine GT ? mivlives At present I have no TurboExpress \ PC Engine GT for testing. I can try to make a digital mod in the future. But the NOMAD mod is my project at present, because a lot of people are not satisfied with already available NOMAD mods. .... I'm still waiting for the upcoming Game Gear mod. The current RGB mod with composite LCD kinds of work but it does not handle screen scaling between GG games and SMS games so GG games ends up very small. ... The GG mod is already in production and should be available in 3-4 weeks (incl. scaling between GG and SMS games) . Pre-orders are welcome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoyx Posted May 11, 2015 Share Posted May 11, 2015 Starting to assemble... already stuck. According to the quick guide, I solder 3 ground wires to the VGA connector. Only one goes to the mod board. What happens to the other 2? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+remowilliams Posted May 11, 2015 Share Posted May 11, 2015 Connect the one wire to all three ground pins on the VGA connector. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoyx Posted May 12, 2015 Share Posted May 12, 2015 Thanks Remo. Well, the mod has been installed and it won't power up. Now for the debugging... ugh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lamer Deluxe tm Posted May 12, 2015 Share Posted May 12, 2015 Have been working on installing this mod over the weekend after receiving it on Saturday. Bought a cheap new soldering station for it that turned out to work great. Reading this forum I decided to desolder the LCD connector, that was a lot of work, I had to keep checking if all the solder was gone using a magnifier (I used desoldering braid). Then it turned out the colored wires I bought (they didn't have the rainbow ribbon cable I wanted) were too thick to fit through the holes. So I went searching through my spare parts and found an IDE-style ribbon cable and also an edge connector that could be used as a VGA connector, as shown here in the thread. Cut off six connections then made the grooves on the side too deep, so I had to do that all over again and then there wasn't enough light to properly solder the connections (might have melted the connector as well), so the VGA out will have to wait. One of those lit magnifiers with an arm would probably have been a good investment. I agree that a black VGA connector would have looked nicer than the white one. Installed the screen yesterday evening and luckily it worked the first time, the difference is incredible. A lot of games look really fantastic on the new screen and are a lot easier to play as well. The small demos I've made for the Lynx won't work on it because they all use flicker-transparency tricks. I noticed I need a new speaker as well, maintenance of this Lynx will be slightly harder now that the display cannot be disconnected anymore. I replaced the display of this Lynx unit because it had a rainbow interference effect that moved when moving the display, it now turns out the lens over the display is causing this, because the effect is still there, if only I had known. So now I need a new lens as well. All in all a fantastic product, looks more professionally done than many commercial products and McWill was a lot faster than most companies as well. Thank you for making this McWill, it is like having a new model Lynx, I'm interested in the GameGear display as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McWill Posted May 12, 2015 Share Posted May 12, 2015 Thanks Remo. Well, the mod has been installed and it won't power up. Now for the debugging... ugh. The mod won't power up or the LYNX won't power up? 1. If the LYNX won't power up, check the FPC of the buttons. Perhaps the traces of the FPC are defective / battered. In this case, cut the FPC just 1mm with a scissors. 2. If the mod won't power up, check the VCC +5 Volt and GND wires. If the LCD displays some colored pixels, check TPR / RES and CL2 wires. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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