NOTE: Whilst I originally measured current drawn by the Nomad (with the modern screen mod and a normal cart) at ~0.4 amps, the Everdrive will be consuming quite a bit there - maybe half an amp or more? Dennis got 6 hours out of 3000 mAh batteries and a standard cart! I will re-test at some point and do a follow up perhaps! RetroGameRevival - ruclips.net/user/RetroGameRevival
Good idea, though it was great to see a test with the Everdrive as I expect that is how many retrogamers would be using the system nowadays. As Owen Crawford points out, you might also get better results with different batteries; I don't know how RS Pro's lion batteries rate relative to others, but their alkaline batteries were below-average in a benchmark I recently perused.
BTW - The other inspiration (on that keyboard thing I mentioned) was PTFE tape on the "Commodore Amiga Checkmate Keyboard Shell & A1200.net Replacement Keys / A2000 DIY Keyboard" video! That was from watching you plumbing!!!
I need to stress the point of it being a prototype, when the final product launches, these issues will be rectified, no need to solder in tiny resistors anymore, or worrying about wires being exposed. I am working on a custom board which integrates all these things for the next iteration :) Thanks for sharing though Gadget! Hope people will be looking forward to this
Could this be easily adapted to run on lower voltage LiFePO4 cells? I already have a bunch and prefer them for hobby electronics projects because of the difficulty in finding a consistent source for decent high capacity Li-Ion cells.
@@Rezigunn yes, that version is also planned to be made! But before I get there, I wanted to ensure the electronics are done correctly, and the wired one was simply easiest to start off with :)
@@yukisaitou5004 good question, never looked into them much to be honest! I dont have a direct answer to that, but will definitely keep it in mind, thanks :)
This is really beautifully made, great job Dennis. I did something similar on my Nomad, but I reused the OEM rechargable battery pack. Rip out the dead NIMHs and all the other guts and put a 5000mah lipo in there, powering one of those Adafruit Powerboost 1000C boards. Those only out put 5v, but the Nomad runs on 5v so I removed the power regulator and just bridged it. The 5v from the battery is already regulated so it's safe to do. This also means you can power the Nomad from USB, I kept the barrel jack and use a USB -> barrel cable - can charge the battery and power the Nomad directly with the same cable. I also wired two small copper contacts where the battery connects on the back of the Nomad for the low battery signal and hooked it up to the Nomads LED so it also still works. Mine has the RGB screen mod, and I get 5-6hrs running from an Everdrive. If Dennis reworked this into a single large cell or 2 parallel cells running at 5v you could squeeze a lot more run time out of them.
Outstanding Sir! Thank you so very much for finding this battery pack the older ones are quite dodgy this would be a dramatic improvement! The only issue I would have had is the polarity of the battery pack at its battery terminals there is no protection on the Nomad for that. But since this uses the mains power plug I am sold and not skeptical at all.
Amazing how good that battery pack looks, Nomad was definitely console I wished I'd had bitd. I remember using a Rechargeable Gamegear battery pack on my Turbo Express - with an added 'modified' barrel pin adaptor reducer (or whatever it was called) which I managed to buy from the same importer. Back then handhelds were so expensive, think I paid £250 for my Turbo Express boxed new. Great video and nice insight on the work of the homebrew retro hardware scene :-) .
Perhaps the next revision should have light pipes for the LEDs (or have a small PCB with just the LEDs on it, and mounted on the side of the case near the power switch.) 😏
@@GadgetUK164 I wouldn't actually take mine out though, it's too rare. I wonder how many are left out of the 1 to 2 million made, and also how many have been imported into the UK altogether (I know at least a few others have).
Cracking homebrew charger. It never ceases to amaze me how many of us retro enthusiasts can produce fabulous bits of kit like this. I think 3D printers have single handedly unleashed the creativity of so many retro enthusiasts. Along with the likes of PCBWay producing circuit boards at very reasonable prices. I just wish I was clever enough to come up with stuff like this!
Great work as always. Given that I used to use the game gear rechargeable pack on my Nomad, I think this means that you could use this battery pack on the Game Gear? obviously you'd need to find a way to fit it such as a velcro patch maybe.
My first thought was the above average draw on the Everdrive cart. I'm no engineer but I do recall reading that the Everdrive carts pull more current than a standard cartridge does.
Samsung makes a 3000mah cell. I think it is called the 30Q. I have 2 of them I bought from a reputable dealer for like $4 a piece. But I still think you are better off just using a normal Sega battery pack and using NIMH cells. This unit is pretty nice, but I imagine it ain't cheap either.
i may be wrong, But i already spot on major law with it... There are two cells in parallel, There is no Balance lead going between the Negative of each. To avoid overcharging more than 4.2v on each cell, when they other isnt quite full.. Not good, and not safe for 18650's...
Never seen those Batteries before, looks heavy. Never seen a Sega Nomand either. I notice its got a 9 Pin connector at the bottom as well. Seems a nice handheld device, but i guess you cannot hold it for a long time, gotta be alot of weight to the whole thing. Good work with that tiny Resistor Chris
You are using protected cells which are designed for use in torches etc to prevent over discharge, as the the battery pack has an integrated charge protection system built in you should use normal 18650 batteries.
eneloop AAs are 1900mAh, the 2500mAh ones are called eneloop pro. My Nomad has eneloop pros and a Mega Everdrive Pro with a SanDisk Extreme Pro in it. very professional.
@@RWL2012 I was talking about both eneloops and no-name low self-discharge 2500mah cells. I do know the pro (black cells) are higher, but they aren't as good, I've heard. I have a GP2X which pulls a lot of current, like an amp, during boot. The Eneloops are great for that. I have a Nomad with the battery pack, but I don't think I've used it in years. The GP2X fits in my backpack and only needs 2 batteries.
I can't wait for a lithium ion battery pack with replaceable batteries. This one looks nice, would be cool if this delivered power through the contacts on the Nomad instead of the cord.
have you seen the one made by laser bear industry? it's a pretty elegant solution. If you want li-ion AMGamer has one on ebay, but it's non replaceable.
@@user-yk1cw8im4h I have seen both. Laser Bear sounds like a winner. I wish that battery cover was more secure on his. I really like the look on this pack though.
Dennis is so good at what he does - I love his work. One of the things he created after my suggestion was a power button replacement for the Nomad, which seems to inevitably go missing. I test printed it for him and it worked perfectly first time. You can find the rest of his available work at the same link. www.thingiverse.com/thing:3639407
It hasn't been made public (I think) - see links in the video description, speak to Dennis, me might be able to point you towards them if he has shared them.
how come it doesn't just use the metal contacts at the back to transfer power, that extra cable for connecting to the port next to the switch isn't very elegant... I have made my own battery and countless others out there did the battery mod without having to add an extra cable to the already big handheld.
I will do a version with the metal contacts as well, but as stated, it's a prototype, and I wanted to ensure it was all running safe and properly. This happened to be the easiest way for now :)
Please, tell me where I send my money. I need this in my life. Sold my Nomad in 2001 for 90$ and just bought one last night for 350$. This new one doesn't come with a battery pack. I cannot throw my money at this fast enough.
NOTE: Whilst I originally measured current drawn by the Nomad (with the modern screen mod and a normal cart) at ~0.4 amps, the Everdrive will be consuming quite a bit there - maybe half an amp or more? Dennis got 6 hours out of 3000 mAh batteries and a standard cart! I will re-test at some point and do a follow up perhaps!
RetroGameRevival - ruclips.net/user/RetroGameRevival
fogstar have some excellent high capacity batteries
Good idea, though it was great to see a test with the Everdrive as I expect that is how many retrogamers would be using the system nowadays. As Owen Crawford points out, you might also get better results with different batteries; I don't know how RS Pro's lion batteries rate relative to others, but their alkaline batteries were below-average in a benchmark I recently perused.
Interesting video Chris, nicely made product. Instantly recognised the USB tester - cheers for the mention :-)
No worries =D
BTW - The other inspiration (on that keyboard thing I mentioned) was PTFE tape on the "Commodore Amiga Checkmate Keyboard Shell & A1200.net Replacement Keys / A2000 DIY Keyboard" video! That was from watching you plumbing!!!
@@GadgetUK164 Oh I was wondering. I will check it out later 👍👍
I need to stress the point of it being a prototype, when the final product launches, these issues will be rectified, no need to solder in tiny resistors anymore, or worrying about wires being exposed. I am working on a custom board which integrates all these things for the next iteration :) Thanks for sharing though Gadget! Hope people will be looking forward to this
Have you thought about adding the prongs that connects the battery pack and the nomad without the cable like the original?
Could this be easily adapted to run on lower voltage LiFePO4 cells? I already have a bunch and prefer them for hobby electronics projects because of the difficulty in finding a consistent source for decent high capacity Li-Ion cells.
@@Rezigunn yes, that version is also planned to be made! But before I get there, I wanted to ensure the electronics are done correctly, and the wired one was simply easiest to start off with :)
@@RetroGameRevival I'd say don't worry about it. It would be nice to not have to worry about accidentally bumping the battery pack out of place.
@@yukisaitou5004 good question, never looked into them much to be honest! I dont have a direct answer to that, but will definitely keep it in mind, thanks :)
This is really beautifully made, great job Dennis. I did something similar on my Nomad, but I reused the OEM rechargable battery pack. Rip out the dead NIMHs and all the other guts and put a 5000mah lipo in there, powering one of those Adafruit Powerboost 1000C boards. Those only out put 5v, but the Nomad runs on 5v so I removed the power regulator and just bridged it. The 5v from the battery is already regulated so it's safe to do. This also means you can power the Nomad from USB, I kept the barrel jack and use a USB -> barrel cable - can charge the battery and power the Nomad directly with the same cable. I also wired two small copper contacts where the battery connects on the back of the Nomad for the low battery signal and hooked it up to the Nomads LED so it also still works.
Mine has the RGB screen mod, and I get 5-6hrs running from an Everdrive. If Dennis reworked this into a single large cell or 2 parallel cells running at 5v you could squeeze a lot more run time out of them.
Outstanding Sir! Thank you so very much for finding this battery pack the older ones are quite dodgy this would be a dramatic improvement!
The only issue I would have had is the polarity of the battery pack at its battery terminals there is no protection on the Nomad for that. But since this uses the mains power plug I am sold and not skeptical at all.
Amazing how good that battery pack looks, Nomad was definitely console I wished I'd had bitd. I remember using a Rechargeable Gamegear battery pack on my Turbo Express - with an added 'modified' barrel pin adaptor reducer (or whatever it was called) which I managed to buy from the same importer.
Back then handhelds were so expensive, think I paid £250 for my Turbo Express boxed new.
Great video and nice insight on the work of the homebrew retro hardware scene :-) .
Perhaps the next revision should have light pipes for the LEDs (or have a small PCB with just the LEDs on it, and mounted on the side of the case near the power switch.) 😏
Literally just watched your Nomad videos. Would love one of them myself.
They are very cool little systems! Playing a Megadrive on the move is awesome =D
@@GadgetUK164 I wouldn't actually take mine out though, it's too rare. I wonder how many are left out of the 1 to 2 million made, and also how many have been imported into the UK altogether (I know at least a few others have).
Cracking homebrew charger. It never ceases to amaze me how many of us retro enthusiasts can produce fabulous bits of kit like this. I think 3D printers have single handedly unleashed the creativity of so many retro enthusiasts. Along with the likes of PCBWay producing circuit boards at very reasonable prices. I just wish I was clever enough to come up with stuff like this!
I can see a market for various models for different systems.
Looks great!
Not a bad idea! Might try and tackle GG next :D (or maybe PC Engine GT)
That’s probably the cleanest 3-d printed pieces I’ve ever seen. The detail! I thought at first, it was an OEM part 😳
The Nomad is so cool, great video!
Thank you! 👍 Thanks to Dennis for creating this amazing thing!
Great work as always. Given that I used to use the game gear rechargeable pack on my Nomad, I think this means that you could use this battery pack on the Game Gear? obviously you'd need to find a way to fit it such as a velcro patch maybe.
My first thought was the above average draw on the Everdrive cart. I'm no engineer but I do recall reading that the Everdrive carts pull more current than a standard cartridge does.
Yes, wanted to test with that though as its what I use most of the time and I figure others probably would too!
Samsung makes a 3000mah cell. I think it is called the 30Q. I have 2 of them I bought from a reputable dealer for like $4 a piece.
But I still think you are better off just using a normal Sega battery pack and using NIMH cells. This unit is pretty nice, but I imagine it ain't cheap either.
i may be wrong, But i already spot on major law with it...
There are two cells in parallel, There is no Balance lead going between the Negative of each. To avoid overcharging more than 4.2v on each cell, when they other isnt quite full..
Not good, and not safe for 18650's...
I hadn't noticed that! I will talk to Dennis about it and see if it does need a design change! I think they may be in series?
Never seen those Batteries before, looks heavy. Never seen a Sega Nomand either. I notice its got a 9 Pin connector at the bottom as well. Seems a nice handheld device, but i guess you cannot hold it for a long time, gotta be alot of weight to the whole thing.
Good work with that tiny Resistor Chris
You are using protected cells which are designed for use in torches etc to prevent over discharge, as the the battery pack has an integrated charge protection system built in you should use normal 18650 batteries.
I wasn't aware of differences between 18650 cells - I will talk to Dennis about this and do some research! Thanks for the info =D
@@GadgetUK164 If you are looking for a reliable supplier I can recommend fogstar
Molicell 18650s from fogstar UK are a good brand as well 👍
Thanks, will check those out!
Definitely upgrade the batteries I know they are more expensive but big difference in last ability
Just put 6 eneloops in the regular battery pack. 6 eneloops will last just as long. 2500mah lo self discharge AAs are pretty cheap.
At the time we were both looking for the "AA" battery packs, they were selling for $200!!!
@@GadgetUK164 WOW, I did not know that.
eneloop AAs are 1900mAh, the 2500mAh ones are called eneloop pro. My Nomad has eneloop pros and a Mega Everdrive Pro with a SanDisk Extreme Pro in it. very professional.
@@RWL2012 I was talking about both eneloops and no-name low self-discharge 2500mah cells. I do know the pro (black cells) are higher, but they aren't as good, I've heard.
I have a GP2X which pulls a lot of current, like an amp, during boot. The Eneloops are great for that. I have a Nomad with the battery pack, but I don't think I've used it in years. The GP2X fits in my backpack and only needs 2 batteries.
Perfect antedote to the Lockdown Blues!
I can't wait for a lithium ion battery pack with replaceable batteries. This one looks nice, would be cool if this delivered power through the contacts on the Nomad instead of the cord.
have you seen the one made by laser bear industry? it's a pretty elegant solution. If you want li-ion AMGamer has one on ebay, but it's non replaceable.
@@user-yk1cw8im4h I have seen both. Laser Bear sounds like a winner. I wish that battery cover was more secure on his. I really like the look on this pack though.
Dennis is so good at what he does - I love his work. One of the things he created after my suggestion was a power button replacement for the Nomad, which seems to inevitably go missing. I test printed it for him and it worked perfectly first time. You can find the rest of his available work at the same link.
www.thingiverse.com/thing:3639407
Hi where can found the 3d print file ?
It hasn't been made public (I think) - see links in the video description, speak to Dennis, me might be able to point you towards them if he has shared them.
It's so profesionaly made.
where I can find it
See in the video description - link to Twitter for Dennis!
how come it doesn't just use the metal contacts at the back to transfer power, that extra cable for connecting to the port next to the switch isn't very elegant... I have made my own battery and countless others out there did the battery mod without having to add an extra cable to the already big handheld.
I will do a version with the metal contacts as well, but as stated, it's a prototype, and I wanted to ensure it was all running safe and properly. This happened to be the easiest way for now :)
Dennis did play around with various prototype ideas on how to achieve that - it's easier said than done!
Did you burn your hand ? Looks red n sore.
Yeah, hot air accident I think!
Please, tell me where I send my money. I need this in my life.
Sold my Nomad in 2001 for 90$ and just bought one last night for 350$.
This new one doesn't come with a battery pack.
I cannot throw my money at this fast enough.
See the description above - there should be a Twitter link for Dennis.