How-To: Frontlight your Game Boy Color!

[Bibin]

You sure the panel isn't upside down?

What looks a lot better is cutting the panel down to size and not rotating it.

 

[Jewjo]

You sure the panel isn't upside down?

What looks a lot better is cutting the panel down to size and not rotating it.

It might be upside down; it fell out more than once. I think it's the dust though.Disregard. It wasn't flipped upside down, but it rotated it 180 degrees and it's 100% more visible (but that part of the screen is messier, whatever).

I'd rather keep the panel sideways because it lowers the chance of me making a mistake. :thumbsup:

 

[BlueLink77]

For all my internal battery mods I too use broken GBA SPs as chargers, with a seperate charging port.

Wow I never thought of the way you are doing this Bibin. I might use the charging jack instead of a dock, I'll have to ponder about that.

For lazy people who don't know what he is talking about, here's a pic of what he means: (stole of his blog for extra win)

 

[Jewjo]

For all my internal battery mods I too use broken GBA SPs as chargers, with a seperate charging port.

Wow I never thought of the way you are doing this Bibin. I might use the charging jack instead of a dock, I'll have to ponder about that.

For lazy people who don't know what he is talking about, here's a pic of what he means: (stole of his blog for extra win)
http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn18 ... G_1634.jpg

If you can, I'd really recommend doing the dock instead. For one, it will probably look more professional, and for two, it'd look really sleek with your gameboy standing upright in a charging dock, staring down the rest of your room like a boss.

 

[the_luiz]

wow, impressive.

 

[Bibin]

For all my internal battery mods I too use broken GBA SPs as chargers, with a seperate charging port.

Wow I never thought of the way you are doing this Bibin. I might use the charging jack instead of a dock, I'll have to ponder about that.

For lazy people who don't know what he is talking about, here's a pic of what he means: (stole of his blog for extra win)
http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn18 ... G_1634.jpg

If you can, I'd really recommend doing the dock instead. For one, it will probably look more professional, and for two, it'd look really sleek with your gameboy standing upright in a charging dock, staring down the rest of your room like a boss.

The dock takes up more space though and might end up being tedious. I actually made a dock for this, but for the reasons mentioned I disassembled it and did it this way.

 

[BlueLink77]

For all my internal battery mods I too use broken GBA SPs as chargers, with a seperate charging port.

Wow I never thought of the way you are doing this Bibin. I might use the charging jack instead of a dock, I'll have to ponder about that.

For lazy people who don't know what he is talking about, here's a pic of what he means: (stole of his blog for extra win)
http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn18 ... G_1634.jpg

If you can, I'd really recommend doing the dock instead. For one, it will probably look more professional, and for two, it'd look really sleek with your gameboy standing upright in a charging dock, staring down the rest of your room like a boss.

The dock takes up more space though and might end up being tedious. I actually made a dock for this, but for the reasons mentioned I disassembled it and did it this way.

I'll give the dock a shot first, as I have an old GBA charging dock that I could probably mod with a bit of effort. If not, I can take your method, but I probably wouldn't go with a RJ45 jack, I would probably make a switch and use the GBC AC port. One side of the switch for charging, one side for power.

 

[Bibin]

For all my internal battery mods I too use broken GBA SPs as chargers, with a seperate charging port.

Wow I never thought of the way you are doing this Bibin. I might use the charging jack instead of a dock, I'll have to ponder about that.

For lazy people who don't know what he is talking about, here's a pic of what he means: (stole of his blog for extra win)
http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn18 ... G_1634.jpg

If you can, I'd really recommend doing the dock instead. For one, it will probably look more professional, and for two, it'd look really sleek with your gameboy standing upright in a charging dock, staring down the rest of your room like a boss.

The dock takes up more space though and might end up being tedious. I actually made a dock for this, but for the reasons mentioned I disassembled it and did it this way.

I'll give the dock a shot first, as I have an old GBA charging dock that I could probably mod with a bit of effort. If not, I can take your method, but I probably wouldn't go with a RJ45 jack, I would probably make a switch and use the GBC AC port. One side of the switch for charging, one side for power.

If you wire it up right, there's no need ;D

 

[Goose]

so anyways is there anyway to repair http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/8914/dsc01920x.jpg that broken connector? One of the two is broken and stuck to the wire that broke off.

Someone mentioned using a dremel to repair it but I have no idea how that would do anything.

I'd rather not scrap the project and start over as it was working great and if I can get this connector working its done.


The guy that discussed a dremel

I found that if you break the connectors, you can fix it by using a dremel with a pointy grinding bit (cone shaped) and clear away a contact point on the orange stuff.

It worked for me.

 

[Bibin]

Wow, that wire is way too thick - thinner wire will be a lot easier to work with.

Take out the old wire and LED. Destroy it. Throw it out. It sucks. Get a new white LED, and just put it right there with hot glue.

 

[justinthursday]

so anyways is there anyway to repair http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/8914/dsc01920x.jpg that broken connector? One of the two is broken and stuck to the wire that broke off.

Someone mentioned using a dremel to repair it but I have no idea how that would do anything.

I'd rather not scrap the project and start over as it was working great and if I can get this connector working its done.


The guy that discussed a dremel

I found that if you break the connectors, you can fix it by using a dremel with a pointy grinding bit (cone shaped) and clear away a contact point on the orange stuff.

It worked for me.

Same thing happened to me.
I used a razor blade to expose some more of the connector to solder to.
Worked great just made sure to tape it up so that it wouldn't break off again.

 

[Goose]

Wow, that wire is way too thick - thinner wire will be a lot easier to work with.

Take out the old wire and LED. Destroy it. Throw it out. It sucks. Get a new white LED, and just put it right there with hot glue.

yeah I know, I diagnosed that as the problem, I didn't have any thinner wire sitting around but I went ahead and bought some.

 

[justinthursday]

Finally finished mine.
Didn't realize you couldn't really wipe off the frontlight.
It's kinda dirty not. Oh, well. Lol. It works.

 

[justinthursday]

So I'm trying to find some of the plastic/glass sheet to buy that is used for the front light on AGS-001 but I just don't know what to call it.
Any help with this or even a site that I can buy these kinds of materials would be great please!

 

[PalmerTech]

Lots of people with far more know how than you have looked for the material on its own, and it simply does not exist in the class we need. It is ancient tech by today's standards, the only way to find it is in GBA SPs, or some old frontlit PDAs.

What you would be looking for is called a "light guide".

 

[Goose]

Would putting something like AR (antireflective) film help? And if I do, do I just place it right on top of the screen? Also if it will help can someone link me to a cheap one.

 

[justinthursday]

Lots of people with far more know how than you have looked for the material on its own, and it simply does not exist in the class we need. It is ancient tech by today's standards, the only way to find it is in GBA SPs, or some old frontlit PDAs.

What you would be looking for is called a "light guide".

After hours a googling thats about what I figured.
Thanks a lot!

 

[PalmerTech]

@Goose: Use a cell phone anti-glare screen protector. Or, this: http://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Kindle-Cle ... B001ACNN9W

It is more expensive, but you get a lot more material to play with in case you mess up, or make more than one.

@Justin: If you check on eBay, you can often find old frontlit PDAs for cheap. You are really better off looking for broken GBA SPs, though.

I have looked into adapting the light guides used in book lights, but they are very thick compared to the SP one, and the diffusion grating is very prominient. Good for reading books, not good for lighting screens.

 

[Darkstar87]

Ok, followed the guide and it worked great for a while but the origional led packed up! Mind you it came from a very knackered old gba sp. Bibin wrote 'Take out the old wire and LED. Destroy it. Throw it out. It sucks. Get a new white LED, and just put it right there with hot glue.' which seems a good option, however i'm a bit new to this and would like some guidance on what type of led and where to make positive and earth connections. I'm in the UK and have a Maplins nearby - any help would be appreciated - thanks

 

[pizzahutmaster]

Hey guys I'm going to attempt this mod in the coming days, but from what I have read it seems as though the standard leds on the GBA SP don't work all too well.
I don't feel too comfortable installing new LEDs in the screen.
Are they really that bad or is it just me over analyzing?
Also, the screen should not get blurry if I do this exactly like the guide right? I've read about the screen looking fuzzy and stuff.
Thanks in advance!