Well as I said in the chat yesterday my Lynx 2 is kaput. It will not power on. There is a brief flicker on the power light but other than that nothing. So looking on the net and YouTube the power circuit seems to be the main point of failure. So I have ordered a power circuit replacement kit from a company called RetroSix and am waiting on that arriving. In the meantime I have stripped down my Lynx and desoldered the parts that will be replaced and given the PCB a clean with IPA. Hopefully this will fix it, if it does then the next thing will be to replace the capacitors. Even though they are not leaking it might be worth it. The other thing would be to fit a new screen to the Lynx as well which they also sell. I just hope it was the power circuit that failed and didn't send 9V through the console as that will have killed it.
Got everything crossed for you, Rich, that there will be a positive outcome here with your sterling efforts to gather in the parts required to give this Atari baby another welcome lease of life. Keep us updated, my mate and best of British, bud.
Kit arrived today and it took around 30 minutes to get everything soldered. The PCB is actually pretty nice to work on, it's not like the old 65XE or Amstrad/Sinclair computers where the traces lift as soon as you look at them. The parts came off pretty clean with minimal clean up needed. The new parts are tiny but with a pair of tweezers it was fairly easy. The important thing is it has fixed the problem. If anything the output on the screen looks better than before, less banding and seems more stable. It seems like this modification/revamp is a must for both the Lynx 1 and 2 the guy has a website where he does a deep dive on the Lynx power circuit and how he reverse engineered and re-spec'd the power circuit. So it was £8 well spent. If anyone else has a Lynx and would like it updated then just drop me a line. I'm not sure how many of us have Lynxes though or Jaguars. So next step is to replace the screen with a modern one.
You went and ACED that, Rich - the guys here will be pleased as punch for you - well done and excellent work, mate. Anyone else got any Lynx lurve on ere, fellas?
Always liked the Lynx and it deserved a lot more success than it got. Some of the games haven't aged that well but I'm still a fan.
With the El Cheapo SD Cart I can play any retail game or homebrew title so I can even play the hard to get titles these days. It was the best Handheld console until the 3DS IMHO it was way better than the GameGear technically but it was the software that let it down in the end. The graphics were way ahead of anything else for such a long time, the sprite scaling and rotation was really impressive, Gauntlet 3 is a good example of that. The sound was good as well, the music from Klax was really good, in particular the bass riff. It definitely deserved to do better but they could not compete with Nintendo and their practice of making game developers sign exclusivity deals.
That's a nice sd solution for the Lynx. The IPS drop-in replacement screen along with that would make the Lynx very nice indeed. This might be the next system I buy from you Richie lol
I have fitted my new screen now and will post some pictures of it this weekend, makes a massive difference compared to the old LCD screen. It is an amazing machine.
Here is a before and after shots of my Lynx 2 with it's new screen fitted. I haven't used them but you can add scanlines if you want as well. I should have used the same game as comparison but you get the idea.
Great work, Rich. An unbelievably good improvement, mate. Knocks the socks off the old dull lifeless screen - suddenly bright, vibrant and you wanna play on it. Super stuff and another top example of retro computing being given another lease of life.
Don’t know about the battery life yet as it hasn’t run flat. They do reckon they last a lot longer so will report back with a number when I find out.
Cheers Richie I just got my new Anbernic handheld - the one that looks like a Gambeboy Advance and am going to play some Lynx games on it but always best to have the original handheld and that screen makes one helluva difference! Always enjoyed Warbirds and Checkered Flag, what are your favourite Lynx games?
