If you think your original Sega Nomad display is blurry, washed-out, or stealing your battery life like an electric vampire, then you need an upgrade.
Replacing your Sega Nomad's LCD is easier than you may think. You'll need the following to perform this upgrade.
Factory Sega Nomad with attached 3rd party LCD
- 3.5" LCD with composite input and 9V-12V power (~$35 Amazon )
- Soldering Kit (Amazon )
- Gamebit screwdriver (Amazon )
- Small Philips screwdriver
- Prying tool
- Thin Insulated Wire
Sega Nomad with PCB removed from housing
First things first, get rid of the old LCD. Open up the Nomad with the help of the gamebit driver. After you open the Nomad, pull the circuit board up and you will see the LCD module. Remove the LCD by dettaching the ribbon cable on the back of the module.
You can use any LCD display you would like that comes with composite input and runs on power between 9V and 12V, but I used the LCD in the link at the top of the page. Now is a good time to get out some frustration by destroying your LCD housing and carefully moving the LCD and attached PCB.
LCD and PCB
Once you have your LCD and PCB out, position the LCD on the back of the lens of the Nomad and hot glue it into position. Be sure the LCD is correctly oriented before gluing. Be sure the ribbon cable is not under any pressure and the PCB sits nicely on the back of the LCD.
Now it's time to solder the wires necessary to power the screen and get video to it. You will be soldering 4 wires, 2 grounds, and video. The 2 ground wires go to the same spot on the LCD PCB. I recommend using plenty of hot glue to hold different components in place and to cover and weak soldering points with extra glue.
When you are all done with soldering, test the Nomad with the power on and a game in the slot. You should see a world of difference in the quality of your new display. If everything works, put it all together, and enjoy your new Nomad LCD upgrade!
Completed LCD upgrade