Fixing on old non-booting Lynx

[leonk]

Some great ideas here and yes, lots of people still repairing Lynx handhelds.  I fix many of them for the Canadian market as the price went up in recent years.

 

On my desk right now is a Lynx 2 that came in.  Game audio was playing, but video was stuck on the title screen instead of moving/scrolling.

I opened it up, started testing voltages.  Discovered 5V rail was almost 8V!  Used console5 power rebuild parts to bring it back in check but it was too late.  Unit turns on/off but that's it.  Even the "backlight" button doesn't turn off the backlight.  I noticed one of the RAM chips was too hot to touch after 10s!  I replaced both RAM chips.  No change.

 

I checked the reset circuit, voltages, oscillator.  All good.  Address lines are all low, Data bus is blank! (like not connected).  This tells me that CPU is dead.  And potentially Suzy.  Off to best electronics I go.

 

But after USD -> CDN conversion and shipping cost, these 2 ICs will be almost $100 for me.    So yeah, having a pool of "donors" will be helpful.

 

[Nop90]

Lesson lernt (at least for me): always start testing a just bought lynx with a 5V power supply instead of 9V, check as soon as possible the power circuit parts and repair them as first thing if needed.

[leonk]

Would the zener diode even work with 5V input? I know 7805 in older consoles needs about 7V min to work. 
 

in any case, this system came broken. So the previous owner did a good job cooking Micky. 
 

so if anyone has a working Micky for sale. I’m open to purchase.

[Nop90]

3 hours ago, leonk said:

Would the zener diode even work with 5V input? I know 7805 in older consoles needs about 7V min to work.

Unmodified Lynx HW works perfectly with 5v after the zener, with 5v in input there are about 4,3V after the zener (if it is working) that is enough to make work the lynx, but the screen is very dim and the light diode blinks fastly.

 

If the voltage regulator fails, you have all the input voltage on the IC, and with 5V there is no risk for the IC.

 

 

 

[leonk]

I have a defective Micky with bad audio. I put it in and system boots. It plays the music but screen is not refreshed. It’s frozen on the title screen. Is this a sign of a bad Suzy?

[leonk]

New Mikey and new Suzy shipped from Best Electronics was over $80USD. 
 

It’s too bad they’re the only supplier of these parts, because after cost of RAM + rebuild power circuit when I’m done this unit would cost me more than a known working one.

 

so unless you get broken Lynx for free or close to it, restoring them at this point isnt financially worth it. 

Edited November 9, 2020 by leonk

[The_Son_of_Farore]

I have a mickey that I suspect might be bad, but I wanted to be sure of it first before I tried to replace it. How would I go about testing that? My Lynx II boots up to nothing  (actually it doesn't boot up at all without manually booting it, but I'm not sure that's related. ) Touching the recently replaced ram and suzy, they are no longer hot to the touch, but if I leave them running for half an hour they will be warm. Mickey on the other hand is warm from the get go, but never gets significantly hotter than the other chips do. That all being said it heats up to it's peak in only a few minutes. It's not as though it's significantly hot, just a bit warm. 

 

My question is, how would I be sure it needs replacing? Would it even be responsible for a failure to boot?  Also I'm looking for a pinnout of the suzy and mickey chips so I can be sure I haven't shorted the legs or anything. If anybody has those I'd appreciate it a lot. 

 

Wasn't sure if the question warranted a new topic.

[gilsaluki]

On 11/8/2020 at 10:41 PM, leonk said:

New Mikey and new Suzy shipped from Best Electronics was over $80USD. 
 

It’s too bad they’re the only supplier of these parts, because after cost of RAM + rebuild power circuit when I’m done this unit would cost me more than a known working one.

 

so unless you get broken Lynx for free or close to it, restoring them at this point isnt financially worth it. 

It IS getting to the point that fixing a really dead Lynx may not be worth it.  I am looking to the Analogue Pocket (with the Lynx adapter) as a possible long-term solution.  We shall see if it ever reaches the market, and in significant numbers. 

[battleman13]

On 12/27/2020 at 5:00 PM, gilsaluki said:

It IS getting to the point that fixing a really dead Lynx may not be worth it.  I am looking to the Analogue Pocket (with the Lynx adapter) as a possible long-term solution.  We shall see if it ever reaches the market, and in significant numbers. 

Analogue makes a great product, but they have very limited bandwidth to deliver those products.

Their SuperNT (FPGA recreation of the Super Nintendo) has been out of stock for over a year IIRC. Their Mega SG (Sega Genesis FPGA system) just sold out and likely won't be back in stock for a long time to come.

Analog has the pocket and their turbografx systems coming. The pre orders for the pocket sold out in like 60 seconds, and it was a small quantity. 

I don't know that you'll be able to order any of the mentioned systems easily in the next 1-2 years. Fixing original hardware may be your only choice.

[battleman13]

On 11/5/2020 at 6:36 AM, Nop90 said:

Lesson lernt (at least for me): always start testing a just bought lynx with a 5V power supply instead of 9V, check as soon as possible the power circuit parts and repair them as first thing if needed.

That's the way I always test a board, 5V directly into the legs of the larger power cap (C39 for lynx 1, C41 for lynx 2).

No danger of blowing anything up that way. 

[leonk]

Quick update: I replaced every IC on the Lynx 2 and still get just title screen frozen and music playing.  I just happened to have a BennVenn LCD here so I quickly connected it..  to my surprise it works perfectly.  All along it was a bad LCD screen!!!

 

[therbking1980]

On 6/17/2020 at 4:22 PM, shred said:

Yeah.  I worked at that Atari R&D office for a few years.  I'm near Austin now.  I probably have other parts and pieces around as well but haven't run across them yet.  They threw out a whole lot of stuff.

 

 

Don't suppose you have some screws for the lynx 2 you would sell do you ??

[Wessyman]

On 6/16/2020 at 9:50 PM, shred said:

Is there still demand for Lynx parts?  When the Atari office in Texas closed down almost 30 years ago, they threw piles of stuff in the trash.  I found a box from that era in the garage today...  Lynx chassis parts, reflectors, the odd screen, some mobos, etc.  Figured I'd dump it in the electronics recycling bin, but if people still want that stuff I'll fish it back out.

I’d definitely be interested