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Really disappointed in this McWill Lynx I bought


Cobra Kai

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I don't usually make bad purchasing decisions on eBay. I have a strict rule, no purchases without the seller having %100 feedback. I broke that rule to buy a McWill modded Lynx II that was supposed to have HDMI out on it. The guys feedback was not %100, and the item description didn't even have pictures showing all the supposed mods. But, I bought it anyway. Not one of my better decisions.

 

I did receive the Lynx yesterday. And it is modded with a new screen, which works and looks beautiful, so all is not lost. But the 'HDMI' mod? Ooh boy. It looks like an S-Video connector on the Lynx, provided with an S-video to VGA cable, and then provided with another VGA to HDMI adaptor. Then I can plug it into HDMI on my TV that way. The item description didn't actually say this was how it would be, it just basically said 'with HDMI'. 

 

Anyway, after hooking all that up, it didn't work, and I tried and tried, believe me. The s-video socket was loose on the Lynx itself, so I had to open it up and tighten it down. But even after that it still didn't work. Even if I somehow manage to get it working, I don't think it's playable because all the adaptors you have dangling down are so heavy they just fall right out of the socket anyway. I seriously thought I was going to be plugging an HDMI cable straight into the Lynx to the TV, not have a series of heavy adaptors going from S-video eventually to HDMI.

 

I'm going to keep it because I always wanted a new McWill screen anyway, but I broke my cardinal rule of ebay, and buyer beware, I suffered the consequences for it. I think I'm going to transfer over the guts of this Lynx II into another one I have that is in better physical shape. This modded one I have doesn't have the rubber grips on the bottom and a few scratches.

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2 hours ago, tripled79 said:

Is it possible, that the "S-video" connector is not an S-Video connector at all? It might be an RGB connector? I don't know, I'm just spit-balling because I can't see it...

Seller just got back to me, the socket is an 8-pin mini din. I just have to hook everything back up and figure out the extra power, then it should work. It's still a messy contraption though, and all the cables and adaptors are so heavy that the cable just wants to fall out from the weight.

 

Unfortunately I can't mess with it for a week. I just cleaned up my basement in preparation for carpeting. So, everything is unplugged and moved.

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2 hours ago, Cobra Kai said:

Seller just got back to me, the socket is an 8-pin mini din. I just have to hook everything back up and figure out the extra power, then it should work. It's still a messy contraption though, and all the cables and adaptors are so heavy that the cable just wants to fall out from the weight.

 

Unfortunately I can't mess with it for a week. I just cleaned up my basement in preparation for carpeting. So, everything is unplugged and moved.

hook that baby up to a Framemeister!

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3 hours ago, Cobra Kai said:

Seller just got back to me, the socket is an 8-pin mini din. I just have to hook everything back up and figure out the extra power, then it should work. It's still a messy contraption though, and all the cables and adaptors are so heavy that the cable just wants to fall out from the weight.

 

Unfortunately I can't mess with it for a week. I just cleaned up my basement in preparation for carpeting. So, everything is unplugged and moved.

I am visualizing Cthulhu oozing out of the side of your Lynx.  Please post pictures! 

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Can you please change the topic of your post, because you are *not* complaining on the McWill mod, but you complain about some private modifications someone did to it.

 

The McWill mod does not have HDMI. So it was clear from teh beginnign what you were buying ...

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2 hours ago, sage said:

Can you please change the topic of your post, because you are *not* complaining on the McWill mod, but you complain about some private modifications someone did to it.

 

The McWill mod does not have HDMI. So it was clear from teh beginnign what you were buying ...

It’s impossible to edit posts from over an hour ago. 
 

8 pin mini din? Are you sure that’s S-video?

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Basically it seems that what the seller did here, was instead of using the normal 15-pin d-sub connector as you would normally use for VGA, they wired the VGA signals up to an 8-pin mini din and then created an adapter harness to break that out to a standard 15-pin VGA connector. They likely did this because the VGA connector directly off the lynx can look a bit goofy depending on how you mount it. They didn't want to make the huge hole you need for the VGA output on the case plastic. So I can see their reasoning for using a different output port as an 8-pin mini din would provide enough pins for the signals needed to run VGA through it.

 

Having said, that, I don't know what VGA to HDMI adapter they might have provided, but yes most of them require an external +5 power source. The one I was using at first was pretty small and I actually had it powered from my TV's USB ports as that was enough to make it work. But it was a bit finicky with VGA signals. It worked okay on PCs I connected it with, but it did have some sync issues causing some flickering on both my GG and Lynx II with McWill's I installed into them and connected the VGA on. The picture was also quite small in the middle of my LCD as the VGA adapter was really just a small transcoder and didn't really provide scaling. So I would have to use my TVs zoom features on the aspect. This caused the picture from it to be quite soft but very playable.

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

My Lynx with VGA out has the standard VGA port, but in order to hook it to a framemeister, i have to use a VGA>HDMI adapter, which indeed requires power, and indeed, is clunky.  It also is heavy because the vga adapter sticks off the top of the Lynx and so i have to be careful using it. 

 

I can capture native video (And do, as on my youtube) but its far from elegant.  

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