since my rgb mod for the Retro duo is on hold, i was randomly rummaging through a box of wires and stuff, found my gamegear battery pack. now this worked when i 1st got it with a gamegear from ebay a few years ago, but has since died. so im going to replace the dead batteries in it with nice new ones. this is a 3rd party battery pack, Gamester LMP, not the official sega powerback. so anyway i hacked it up with brute force, a screwdriver and a sharp knife, only slightly injuring myself. this thing was not made to be opened once seal lol. inside were: 7 battery cells - 1.2v 600mah, and a resistor + diode soldered together. nothing else, resistor looks like its a bit heat stressed so may change this the batteries had leaked all over the place and were pretty nasty. not the worst i've seen tho. now im assuming the resistor + diode were just to smoothe down the power input from the ac adapter from 9v to 8.4v? the gamegear would have normally taken 6x 1.5v batteries being 9v Question is if i use better battery cells 9v eg 6x1.5v or 9v total would i really need the resistor and diode in place? i'd also probably be using a better rated ac adapter to match the mah for the new battery cells, as the gamegear one is 9v 850mah is my logic/ Guessing sound? or am i destined to blow something / set fire to something i have seen some youtube videos where people have used 7.2v replacement battery packs although this was on US gamegears where as mine is a Pal one, which uses a different ac adapter. as for the value of the resistor i can't be sure the heat stress has faded / obscured the bands, and i currently have no multi meter(doh!) which also means no way to test the diode any tips or suggestions welcome and appreciated! i just want to get my gamegear all working again, its still in pieces from a re-cap audio and display fix.
Don't worry about where the Game Gear comes from at the end they run off the same voltage. The official power pack used a 7.2v ni-cad batteries very similar to the Remote Controlled car ones (think Tamiya style). What you could do is use some hefty NiMH but fit the proper balancing charger plug and use a RC charger to charge it up.
Thanks, wasn't sure if the US and PAL Game Gear's had slightly different power input other than the connector, now just to find battery cells the right size to fit the shape of this pack lol
Only difference for most consoles that are PAL or NTSC is the supply voltage and the PSU. Swapping PSU to proper voltage input one will make machine work again. As for the voltage to the GG, they seem to run fine off of 6 NiMh/ NiCad cells or 2 lithium cells.
The diode is there to stop the batteries from reversing polarity if they are deeply discharged and the resistor is there to give a little load so if a short happens then the batteries won't get hot and/or explode. When I had my Nomad, I used a sealed lead acid battery to give myself hours of gameplay, so I could travel from Woking to London, 5 days a week and not have to charge the battery, where as before a set of rechargable batteries would last about 30 minutes. As long as you have a decent protection circuit, you could use a lithium polymer battery. It would be ultra light and you might be able to get one that would fit in the battery area. Replacing the CCFL with some white LEDs will massively improve the battery life. Also see here http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?41195-Game-Gear-Parallel-Lithium-Ion-batteries
i have been tempted a few times to do the LED backlight mod but will wait til i have problems with the CCFL or prehaps look into a backlight panel similar to the DS ones. but thats wayyyy down the line. so many options, for this, lithium batteries may be better as being lighter and smaller, i'll be ordering parts on friday so i have until then to decide what the best option is. ability to still use the original ac adapter to charge would be appealing
