Hardware GBA Backlight! (AGB-001)

Delanofilms

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Okay, here is the Aurora Deluxe cable with 2 way brightness switch. I took pictures of a GBA and GBC game with High/Low brightness.
The backlight still turns on even though I did NOT solder the wire to the motherboard yet. I'm guessing that if it's soldered, it will be more stable and possibly brighter screen.
I will solder the wire later tonight after I buy a new solder pencil from the store and see if the brightness changes. I notice the instruction pictures show a new soldering point, which im hoping is the most stable.

The cable adapter itself
http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTIwMFgxNjAw/z/em4AAOSwcWdTbCdG/$_57.JPG
Testing
http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTIwMFgxNjAw/z/QAoAAOxyBotTbCdP/$_57.JPG
GBA low brightness
http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTYwMFgxMjAw/z/QOkAAOxyBotTbCdc/$_57.JPG
GBA high brightness
http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTYwMFgxMjAw/z/-W4AAOxyuR5TbCdn/$_57.JPG
GBC low brightness
http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTYwMFgxMjAw/z/oNoAAOxyc2pTbCdx/$_57.JPG
GBC high brightness
http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTYwMFgxMjAw/z/L5oAAOxyYANTbCd7/$_57.JPG


Did anything ever come of this? The adapter I got on ebay only gets as bright as the dimmer ags 101 setting. How does this compare to the brighter ags 101 setting? Any issue with gbc and gb games?
 

MoeBiikolo

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Not the first time I've heard about this rainbow/aurora/whatever cable. What is the deal about the product and the group?
 

Lordroy

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Hello guys
I'm new here
I'm a 33 years old French Guy and I'm looking for a Game Boy Advance/Game Boy Advance SP with AGS 101 screen to play my old games again.
Someone have one in good condition to sell ?
Thanks
 

Cartmanuk

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Thanks, but I've not been able to find that cable from anywhere other than taobao - have you seen it, or the manufacturer, elsewhere?

The manufacturer only sells wholesale so unless you want to buy $2000 worth or cables you might diy a switch mod yourself.
 

SaurusX

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I'm nearly to the point where I'm going to do the mod. With all the talk of "AB" and "B" screens and which is best for what, I went ahead and got a one of each screen type and I'm going to test both in my 32-pin AGB-001. In fact, I have everything I need to do the mod, but I discovered a crack in the front of my GBA shell! It goes right through the Nintendo logo, too, so that's unacceptable. As such, the replacement shell from a Chinese seller on ebay is on its way to me. When that arrives I'll conduct the test with the 32-pin board and each screen type. I'll document the process and post everything here. If I also had a 40-pin board to test that would be great, since that's the one that people seem to be having issues with when it comes to screen-type compatibility.
 
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SaurusX

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Here's the GBA to be operated on.
DSCN0974.jpg


All the requisite new parts. Shell, glass screen, and 32-pin adapter ribbon. Since I discovered the crack in my old shell there was no way I'd be using that.
DSCN0976.jpg


The two different screens. "AB" type is brown connector and is said to work equally well with 32-pin or 40-pin motherboards. The "B" type is the white connector and is said to work best with 32-pin motherboards. "B" screens have been known to cause ghosting in 40-pin motherboards. I'll be putting all this to the test with my 32-pin mobo.
DSCN0975.jpg

DSCN0978.jpg


Another way to tell them apart is that the "AB" has leads of differing widths in the ribbon. The "B" screen has leads of uniform width.
DSCN0979.jpg

DSCN0980.jpg


The backs of the screens. Both have the padding indicating that at some point they were harvested from AGS-101 models. Not by me, though.
DSCN0981.jpg


My sacrificed USB cable to get the wires out of it. My local Fry's didn't have 30 AWG wire, so this'll have to do.
DSCN0977.jpg


The "AB" screen connected to my 32-pin GBA... looks like crap. Totally washed out and very dim
DSCN0984.jpg

DSCN0988.jpg


The "B" screen connected to my 32-pin GBA... looks great! Screen and image are both very clear and bright!
DSCN0985.jpg

DSCN0987.jpg


I would include pictures of my finished GBA mod, but the camera died. Needless to say, though, it turned out OK despite a few whoopsies along the way. The worst was that I managed to lift the pad up on P1 of the ribbon cable extension by inadvertently tugging on the soldered wire during all of the testing. I was really cursing myself, but ended being able to scrape the plastic above the lead and laying down another blob of solder to attach it. Part of the problem was using my dad's soldering iron which was made by Tandy computers about 30 years ago. In any case the mod turned out beautifully and I'm very happy with it.

The end conclusion is that apparently the sellers on ebay aren't totally full of crap like I thought. The type of screen you use definitely does matter in that you must take into account the type of motherboard you are using in all situations. A 32-pin motherboard (like mine) must use a white connector, a "B" screen. Other people on here with 40-pin motherboards have mentioned problems with serious ghosting when trying to use a "B" screen. As such, 40-pin motherboards must use an "AB" screen with the brown connector. There is no motherboard type that is completely compatible with both types of screens. Maybe there are ways around these problems, though. Other posts before this one have mentioned connecting VCOM to ground or some such, but those processes need to be better documented before I'd try jumping in.
 
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SaurusX

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And the finished product. I had to adjust the potentiometer a bit as I was getting some interlacing artifacts. Looks good, man!
DSCN0993.jpg
 
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SaurusX

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Where did you buy these screens?

Both came from ebay and within the past month. I'm fortunate I found the second "B" screen with the white connector as that's the one I ended up needing for my 32-pinner. I guess I'll be re-selling the "AB" with the brown connector, since it's redundant.
 

pelago

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Does anyone know why these screens are called "AB" and "B"? Why not "A" and "B"? And is "A" or "B" or "AB" written on the screen anywhere?

I'm just wondering where those names came from...
 

Delanofilms

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-snip-
The end conclusion is that apparently the sellers on ebay aren't totally full of crap like I thought. The type of screen you use definitely does matter in that you must take into account the type of motherboard you are using in all situations. A 32-pin motherboard (like mine) must use a white connector, a "B" screen. Other people on here with 40-pin motherboards have mentioned problems with serious ghosting when trying to use a "B" screen. As such, 40-pin motherboards must use an "AB" screen with the brown connector. There is no motherboard type that is completely compatible with both types of screens. Maybe there are ways around these problems, though. Other posts before this one have mentioned connecting VCOM to ground or some such, but those processes need to be better documented before I'd try jumping in.

I have a white tab screen, which I am to understand is the oem screen while the black/brown tab screens are 3rd party, in my 40 pin mobo and have no trouble with ghosting, but it only gets as bright as the basal brightness level in its native hardware. Also has some light flickering with Pokemon Silver, apparently because old carts have a higher, less constant electrical pull. Have you found anything similar?
 

SaurusX

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I have a white tab screen, which I am to understand is the oem screen while the black/brown tab screens are 3rd party, in my 40 pin mobo and have no trouble with ghosting, but it only gets as bright as the basal brightness level in its native hardware. Also has some light flickering with Pokemon Silver, apparently because old carts have a higher, less constant electrical pull. Have you found anything similar?

There's an inconsistency with the 3rd party screens in that their connector colors and lead widths don't match up with the way the OEM's do. For the OEM screens, the "AB" screen with differing lead widths has a brown/black connector. Taking a look at this post you can see that the 3rd party screen has a white connector, though the leads are of differing widths. So, no, it doesn't seem that the black/brown connector is an indicator of a screen being 3rd party. Additionally, there was another post in this thread here from Monty Kensicle with open AGS-101 units showing off the two different screen types within. EDIT: Well, looking at the picture again I think I saw it wrong. With that 3rd party screen it's difficult to tell what color the connector is... The additional point about Monty opening the two AGS-101's is still good, though. :)

If you really have a "B" screen with a white connector hooked up to a 40-pin motherboard, though, then I'm perplexed. Maybe what was causing the ghosting in other peoples' units was a bad ribbon extension cable. It's hard to say; there are a lot of variables at play here.

And I haven't run across any games that give me any kind of flickering... yet. My library isn't that big.

Edit: added links to Monty Kensicle's post with pics of the two connectors.
 

Delanofilms

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There's an inconsistency with the 3rd party screens in that their connector colors and lead widths don't match up with the way the OEM's do. For the OEM screens, the "AB" screen with differing lead widths has a brown/black connector. Taking a look at this post you can see that the 3rd party screen has a white connector, though the leads are of differing widths. So, no, it doesn't seem that the black/brown connector is an indicator of a screen being 3rd party. Additionally, there was another post in this thread (which I can't find) showing someone with open AGS-101 units showing off the two different screen types within. EDIT: Well, looking at the picture again I think I saw it wrong. With that 3rd party screen it's difficult to tell what color the connector is... The additional point about someone opening the two AGS-101's is still good, though. :)
I'm almost 100% certain the white tabbed screens are oem, I just opened 3 ags-101's doing this mod and found 2 white tabs and one black tab. When this mod first popped up there was one guy in china making adapters while also selling black tab screens identical to the ones in circulation now that were widely available for him. Plus, the chinese sellers for all the adapters call the black tab screens "new" and white tab ones "disassembled." There's also a chinese ebayer currently selling adapters with switches referring to them as such.
 

Hairball

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I just did a AGS-101 screen install on my midnight blue AGB-001. I had the 40 pin GBA, and I got the screen from an original pearl blue AGS-101 screen. I ended up buying a cable on eBay. I'm not sure what the AGS-101 screen version was.

When I just connected it, it worked, but it was severely faded out, at the end I soldered 103 to ground after playing around a bit, and it looks much more acceptable. I had messed with the POT earlier, so I might need to tune that a little more, but I'm happy with the results overall!

I had previously installed an Afterburner on my GBA, but scrapped it and put in the backlit screen, it's much much better!

A9Zj4I7qY7G5PAX2Ytn43-QqUwd8FjZWPkFW1kqgMjzQ=w743-h845-no
 

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