Downing's GBA LED & Battery Mod

[Downing]

While I'm waiting on a few parts to come in, I thought I'd start up a small and quick project (hopefully) that I should have done by the end of the week. I acquired a GBA in a bulk buy from a friend of mine a few months ago and it came with a very scratched up screen and a few dings in it. Worked great though. So I ordered in a replacement screen covering (screen was fine, covering was scratched up pretty good) and was about to swap it when I got to thinking how much I hate how dark the GBA screen is. With no back light, it made for impossible viewing in dark or reflective areas.

So I decided to do an LED mod using 3MM white LEDs, 2 on the top, 2 on the bottom. Of course where to put them was a problem as well as what I was going to use to power them. So that led to the update of the systems batteries in which now there is a 7.4V 2000ma Li-Ion battery with a 7805 regulator in it's place. Yes I will be putting in a recharge jack, probably mini USB to recharge the batteries. This should also greatly increase play time even with 4 LEDs going.

So getting as far as I could today as I do not have the proper resistor to power the LEDs correctly, I got the LED's in place, the battery placed and the case halves painted. Again, a nice Red, White and Black.

Hopefully the resistors will be in this week and I can finish this off so I can start back up on my desk. Just waiting for some more parts for that one as well. But I'll keep you updated as I go! Enjoy!

 

[W00gala]

Cool

 

[Mr. Hooker]

I want to see this work. MAKE IT HAPPEN!!

 

[Bibin]

I'm sorry, but have you... tested this "LED mod"?

The 7805 isn't necessary. Just use a 3.7V pack and put it where the old pack went... 7.4V is silly for a thing like this.

 

[Downing]

I'm sorry, but have you... tested this "LED mod"?

The 7805 isn't necessary. Just use a 3.7V pack and put it where the old pack went... 7.4V is silly for a thing like this.

Yeah it's not gonna work. I only used 7.4 because I already had a battery pak wired up that fit perfectly with a 7805, but regardless I'm calling it quits on this because in further readings I found that even with 4 LED's it's still not going to cover the screen the way it's supposed to and back-lighting isn't an option for this particular screen.

So after a few failed attempts I decided to just call this one quits with just a custom paint job.

Using the other GBA I had on hand, I replaced the back portion as the original could not hold AA batteries anymore and rather than waste time painting it Red, this one was a transparent Pink. I thought about putting a couple LED's in there for some lighting effects on the back, but like I said, I don't want to put any more time into this.

I now have three case commissions on hand that I need to do before I can start back up on my desk project so I've got some work to do!

 

[Downing]

Video Added