Hardware GBA Backlight! (AGB-001)

[constantgamer247]

@[member="Auyx"] No worries =) ...yah I woke up and saw I had an eMail that there was a comment on my video. Saw you beat me too it so I just went for breakfast.

I only have a 1 megabit per second connection here (my up speed, down I get 20 megabits per second ) so I clicked upload and went to sleep.

I'm going to annotate it now

----- EDIT -----

Fully annotated, done, complete, finished ect... ready to watch. Go at it. Hope you all enjoy.

 

[plc268]

Just got one I'll post a video review tomorrow. His work is really really good. I got a pre built one (I've been a bit pressed for time recently; enough so that I don't have the time for a mod project, and I decided I didn't want to scrap my SP+ for this mod. Plus I'll be traveling soon so I wanted this for the airplane). I was expecting it to come in a chinese knock off shell with shitty gummy buttons (bought a lot of replacement shells over the years for mods and none of them have been on par with official nintendo quality) I was just going to swap out the guts of it into my official shell and use proper official nintendo buttons and rubber. However I believe he took a used japanese OG gameboy advance and slapped an SP screen into it, connected the adaptor ribbon cable and soldered the wire on for power. I could tell it was a japanese gba because of the sticker on the back. The plastic bumpers/plastic bits on the side of the gba, and the R+L trigger were also heavily yellowed, so I just poped the back off, put a USA gba back on (just so it has the USA sticker and barcode ect...) and put in new R+L triggers with the side bumpers/plastic strips on the side of the gba.

It was really really nice when I got it. I just wanted something a bit more shiny for my R+L buttons and those side plastic bits, so that was 2snds work.

The other reason I believe it to not be a knock off shell is because it had tri-wing screws in it. Most (98%) of all replacement shells for all nintendo consoles, especially the GBA, I have bought/ordered have come with + screws, but he could have just put those in.

FYI, the knockoff shells come with triwing screws and even the sticker with the serial numbers on them. They also feel like the real thing. I bought two orange cases a while back, and they're pretty solid.

I got my screen and cable in two days ago, and just had time to install it. Looks great:

I'm seriously considering getting another one, possibly prebuilt (depends how much it costs from the guy) just to have a spare.

 

[Achilles]

How does the brightness of this mod compare to an actual AGS-101? The AGS-101 has 2 brightness settings, and I'm wondering which one this winds up looking like. Thanks in advance people!

EDIT: Nevermind. Answered my own question by watching the rest of the YouTube video and reading the installation instructions. Hot damn... I need to order this.

 

[constantgamer247]

How does the brightness of this mod compare to an actual AGS-101? The AGS-101 has 2 brightness settings, and I'm wondering which one this winds up looking like. Thanks in advance people!

EDIT: Nevermind. Answered my own question by watching the rest of the YouTube video and reading the installation instructions. Hot damn... I need to order this.

Brightness will be controlled by how much power you supply to the screen.

Less power = Dimmer screen
More power = Brighter screen

You can adjust the brightness by adding resistors or you could easily install a variable resistor knob a.k.a. potentiometer.

By default the screen is a tad dimmer than the GBA SP+ (ags-101) on low

 

[Thatotherpirateg]

I just finished two more of these gameboys. I found out that there is another solder point, it makes the screen brighter. It's now a smidgen brighter than the Sp+ on it's default setting

 

[Achilles]

I just finished two more of these gameboys. I found out that there is another solder point, it makes the screen brighter. It's now a smidgen brighter than the Sp+ on it's default setting

My Screen and ribbon cable just showed up from Zerey - really nice guy. I'm going to try and get it installed tonight and I may run my multimeter around on the mainboard to see if I can find some other points for brightness - maybe even hook up a switch or variable resistor to choose brightness. I'm excited!

 

[Tom]

So, he took the screen from an AGS-101 backlit SP, and put it in an original GBA??? What a waste.

No thats not possible sp screens dont work with the original

 

[Achilles]

So, he took the screen from an AGS-101 backlit SP, and put it in an original GBA??? What a waste.

No thats not possible sp screens dont work with the original

Yes it is possible. That's exactly what we're all doing. Someone has made a ribbon cable to connect an SP screen to an original GBA.

 

[Achilles]

Took some time and got my screen installed tonight - it's glorious! Original GBA form factor, looks totally stock, but inside is backlit awesomeness.

I just wish I could have found another point on the circuit board with higher voltage to get the brightness up to the SP+ level 2, but no such luck. As it stands, using the instructions "level 2" solder point, it looks exactly like my SP+ on it's lower brightness setting. I'm still really happy and would do it again in a heartbeat.

 

[plc268]

So, he took the screen from an AGS-101 backlit SP, and put it in an original GBA??? What a waste.

No thats not possible sp screens dont work with the original

Yes it is possible. That's exactly what we're all doing. Someone has made a ribbon cable to connect an SP screen to an original GBA.

Yea, what this ribbon cable is, is essentially an extension cable for the ribbon cable. The ribbon cable on the gba sp screen comes out of the bottom, and would be too short to reach the connecter in the og gba. Also, there's a seperate wire that breaks out from the extension that powers the backlight.

Also, it's important to note, that there are two variations of the original GBA. One has a 32 pin cable, which is not compatible with the backlit screen, only the frontlit, as far I understand. There's a second, 40 pin variation that is compatible with the backlit screen.

After looking at my one cable that I bought from the guy, it seems like it would be fairly easy to make (assuming you had the connectors), but the real issue is that there's no real source for the ags 101 backlit screens other than tearing apart perfectly working ags 101s.

 

[Achilles]

Also, it's important to note, that there are two variations of the original GBA. One has a 32 pin cable, which is not compatible with the backlit screen, only the frontlit, as far I understand. There's a second, 40 pin variation that is compatible with the backlit screen.

Not true. He makes a different cable to convert from the 32pin mainboard to the 40pin screen.

 

[plc268]

Also, it's important to note, that there are two variations of the original GBA. One has a 32 pin cable, which is not compatible with the backlit screen, only the frontlit, as far I understand. There's a second, 40 pin variation that is compatible with the backlit screen.

Not true. He makes a different cable to convert from the 32pin mainboard to the 40pin screen.

Yea, I saw that, but the translation of the page indicated that it was not compatible with the backlit screen.
I dunno, maybe google translate was off or I'm misinterpreting it, but that's what it sounded like.

 

[ZachLoving]

Can anyone post a high quality image of this adapter?

 

[Shano56]

My mind came up with a lot of explanations for the acronym SP but I never thought of Screen Protected.

I think I was thinking things like:

Special Powers
Special Pocket
Super Pocket
Super Powers
Speed (SP is the abbreviation)
Special (again SP is the abbreviation for)
Skill Points

Things along those lines; I would have to say SP standing for Special is the most convincing and that Screen Protected would be the second most convincing. Has Nintendo ever said anything about this?

My biggest gripe with the SP are the shoulder buttons. That and the bad ergonomics of it >_<

I always thought since SP were my initials, I assumed nintendo was talking about me xD

either that or i thought it was super player or something along those lines.

 

[plc268]

Can anyone post a high quality image of this adapter?

This is the best I got (pic from an iphone). Click the pics for larger versions.





And this is how it looked connected while I was testing the screen:

 

[constantgamer247]

Can anyone post a high quality image of this adapter?

This is the best I got (pic from an iphone). Click the pics for larger versions.





And this is how it looked connected while I was testing the screen:

Cool! Bench testing!

 

[Auyx]

I have mine now and its cool and all that but I must say im a little disappointed with the build quality of my pre assembled unit. The issues are that the screen is much dimmer than I thought it would be, its awesome at night but try to play it outdoors or in a car on a sunny day and I struggle. My screen came installed slightly wonky and the power light flickers like crazy while being used unless the switch is in the exact right spot. Another small problem I have is that the sound on this unit I have is very dull in comparison with my other GBA unit. On the plus side it is a genuine Jap GBA shell and all the buttons are nice and clicky, although the start and select rubber buttons have gone a bit smokers yellow. I'd be interested to see where exactly people are soldering in the screen for more current or if anyone comes up with a better solution to the power supply issue. Will Edit this post with some pics when I can be arsed.

 

[Thatotherpirateg]

I have mine now and its cool and all that but I must say im a little disappointed with the build quality of my pre assembled unit. The issues are that the screen is much dimmer than I thought it would be, its awesome at night but try to play it outdoors or in a car on a sunny day and I struggle. My screen came installed slightly wonky and the power light flickers like crazy while being used unless the switch is in the exact right spot. Another small problem I have is that the sound on this unit I have is very dull in comparison with my other GBA unit. On the plus side it is a genuine Jap GBA shell and all the buttons are nice and clicky, although the start and select rubber buttons have gone a bit smokers yellow. I'd be interested to see where exactly people are soldering in the screen for more current or if anyone comes up with a better solution to the power supply issue. Will Edit this post with some pics when I can be arsed.

Sorry to hear you aren't happy with yours, maybe your screen is dimmer than usual?
Anyhow here is where I soldered mine to increase the brightness a bit..

 

[Auyx]

Thanks man, mine is soldered to the top of C35, I will try redoing it to your point when I get back from a trip over the weekend.

 

[Another World]

please excuse me because my electrical skills are limited to hooking LEDs to a battery.

the points on the board that you solder to, what are they there for? why are there areas on the board that provide power? is it safe to solder to them? what are the inherent risks of powering the screen this way?

regards,
-another world