Hardware GBA Backlight! (AGB-001)

[MoeBiikolo]

Does anyone know how I can get my hands on one of these? I'd love to have a key-combo solution to changing the brightness level, rather than using a manual switch. I'm in Canada, and it seems that they don't ship to people outside China...

Have you tried contacting them?

 

[opt2not]

Have you tried contacting them?

No I haven't. The site is in Chinese, and when I try to click on the Contact button, I get a dialog box that looks like I have to login?

Would anyone like to share their email address?

 

[MoeBiikolo]

No I haven't. The site is in Chinese, and when I try to click on the Contact button, I get a dialog box that looks like I have to login?

Would anyone like to share their email address?

Your best bet then is to use google translate, make an account, and contact them via this way. I cant think of any other way.

 

[BazookaBen]

Hey guys, currently I have a 40-pin GBA and a B (white-tab) screen. Am I reading correctly that it is better to use a 32-pin GBA with the B screen? Is it possible for me to find an adapter cable that will give me comparable quality on my 40-pin GBA?

 

[SaurusX]

Hey guys, currently I have a 40-pin GBA and a B (white-tab) screen. Am I reading correctly that it is better to use a 32-pin GBA with the B screen? Is it possible for me to find an adapter cable that will give me comparable quality on my 40-pin GBA?

IMO, if you have a 40-pin GBA you should use a screen with a brown connector. It's been proven to work without problems. If you use a white tabbed screen with a 40-pin GBA, then you're venturing off into unknown territory. The easiest solution would be to buy a 32-pin GBA off ebay and use that for the screen you already have. Then sell your 40-pin (or keep it; two is always better than one).

 

[BazookaBen]

I bought a 40-pin to B-type connector from somebody on Ebay yesterday, he insists it works fine, and he uses it with his 40-pin motherboards. I'll let you guys know how it goes. He has a 2-week return policy so I'm not worried.

 

[MikeAwkward]

Hi guys, I recently ordered a 32 pin adapter and screen from the US. It arrived last night and I got it working, however there appears to be artifacts when for example characters move on Pokémon. It's like a vertical bar the width of the character which is translucent and moves with the character left to right/up and down. This appears regardless of the setting of the potentiometer.

The cable that came with the adapter was a bit thick, hard to manipulate, and had to be soldered at both ends so I've ordered another 32 pin adaptor with the cable already attached which is thinner. I've currently got it attached at point 1 on the guide, so I'll try connecting the thinner cable at point 2 instead.

Also, does anyone know what the default position of the potentiometer is? I've tried playing with it and would like to reset it so I don't damage the screen.

Here's a pic. Is my screen/cable combination right? I read something about Type AB and Type B? Mine appears to be Type AB with the dark tab.

 

[BazookaBen]

You should have marked the default position of your pot before you moved it. That's something that is calibrated on a per-system basis in the factory.

The AB screen has unevenly spaced wires inside the ribbon with a brown tab, and the B screen has evenly spaced wires with a white tab.

 

[MikeAwkward]

What about screens with a white tab?

Mine is brown tab with unevenly spaced wires I think. From right to left, 6 thick, lots thin, 2 thick and the rest thin.

 

[BazookaBen]

What about screens with a white tab?

Whoops, that's the B screen, had a typo in my last post

 

[BazookaBen]

Alright guys, got the B screen installed on a 40-pin mobo, and contrary to other experiences in this thread, it looks great! I guess I found a better adapter for this combination? Here's the ebay link:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nintendo-Ga...=63346c6f69d8464d813625d137e46b0e&pid=100102&

The extra wire isn't required, but it gives you a little more brightness. Without the wire, it is slightly dimmer than the low setting on the 101, with the wire, it is about halfway between the low and the high on the 101. I was trying to spot color disparities, but it's basically identical to my 101. I need to get a second copy of one of my games so I can test them side by side. Switching carts back and forth, I couldn't see a difference.

Will update with pics later. My AGB-001 is second hand, had a lot of scratches on the screen cover, so I'm gonna try to buff those out, or maybe get a glass replacement.

 

[MoeBiikolo]

Alright guys, got the B screen installed on a 40-pin mobo, and contrary to other experiences in this thread, it looks great! I guess I found a better adapter for this combination? Here's the ebay link:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nintendo-Game-Boy-Advance-Ribbon-Cable-Backlit-Adapter-AGS-101-40-PIN-OR-32-PIN/201374782062?_trksid=p3693.c100102.m2452&_trkparms=ao=1&asc=20140212121249&meid=63346c6f69d8464d813625d137e46b0e&pid=100102&

The extra wire isn't required, but it gives you a little more brightness. Without the wire, it is slightly dimmer than the low setting on the 101, with the wire, it is about halfway between the low and the high on the 101. I was trying to spot color disparities, but it's basically identical to my 101. I need to get a second copy of one of my games so I can test them side by side. Switching carts back and forth, I couldn't see a difference.

Will update with pics later. My AGB-001 is second hand, had a lot of scratches on the screen cover, so I'm gonna try to buff those out, or maybe get a glass replacement.

Get a glass replacement. Definitely worth it.

 

[BazookaBen]

On a side note, has anybody tried putting the original reflective AGB screen into the AGS-101 shell? I just have these two parts sitting here, would be shame not to make a working system out of them.

 

[pelago]

On a side note, has anybody tried putting the original reflective AGB screen into the AGS-101 shell? I just have these two parts sitting here, would be shame not to make a working system out of them.

Interesting idea, but I guess it would need another (different) adapter cable, which probably wouldn't be worth anyone's while making in bulk.

 

[BazookaBen]

Apparently, this seller on Ebay has the cable I would need. Has a "T" and a "F" cable listed, but doesn't explain the difference. Maybe one is for SP's that had the "B" screen and the other the "AB".

http://www.ebay.com/itm/F-Repair-Ri...239?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35e6e1c077

http://www.ebay.com/itm/T-Repair-Ri...450?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4aec293902

Actually, not even sure these would be for 001 or 101 models

 

[MercilessDeth]

Alright guys, got the B screen installed on a 40-pin mobo, and contrary to other experiences in this thread, it looks great! I guess I found a better adapter for this combination? Here's the ebay link:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nintendo-Game-Boy-Advance-Ribbon-Cable-Backlit-Adapter-AGS-101-40-PIN-OR-32-PIN/201374782062?_trksid=p3693.c100102.m2452&_trkparms=ao=1&asc=20140212121249&meid=63346c6f69d8464d813625d137e46b0e&pid=100102&

The extra wire isn't required, but it gives you a little more brightness. Without the wire, it is slightly dimmer than the low setting on the 101, with the wire, it is about halfway between the low and the high on the 101. I was trying to spot color disparities, but it's basically identical to my 101. I need to get a second copy of one of my games so I can test them side by side. Switching carts back and forth, I couldn't see a difference.

Will update with pics later. My AGB-001 is second hand, had a lot of scratches on the screen cover, so I'm gonna try to buff those out, or maybe get a glass replacement.

I bought a cable from the same seller. I asked him a few questions and he told me that different sellers have different cables and he never bothers to differentiate between GBA mobo types other than which ones require soldering. I went ahead and bought a second hand 32 pin anyway, which other than a few scratches looks great. I'm going to attempt using it for the mod. But either way I just wanted to chip in that he seems to have a better quality cable than others.

 

[BazookaBen]

Yeah, I was on the verge of buying a 32-pin board and selling my 40-pin because of some of the posts here. But I contacted the seller (thegodofgaming) and he seemed pretty confident in the cables he had, and said he was using them to do the modded system he sells in his store. So I gave it a shot and am very happy with the results. I'm thinking maybe some of the people here that got bad results may have just picked up the wrong sort of cable.

Anyway, here's a pic of my system (looks way better in person), very stoked about it. Buffed the scratches of the lens but that left a little bit of streaking, leaning heavily toward a glass screen from Rose-Colored Gaming now.

 

[MikeAwkward]

That's looks great!

Update on mine: the new adapter and cable arrived, and I've succeeded in soldering it to point 1 instead (had to solder the other end directly into the connector rather than the P1 traceout because the gold printed disc quickly came off).

However, the image quality is the same if a little brighter... here's the issue:

Is this ghosting? I can't tell.

Discoloration?

 

[BazookaBen]

I'm not familiar with the game, so i can't tell if there is discoloration, or if the image is washed out. Also, there is a lot of glare on the screen, you should have probably taken pics in a darker room.

And I'm not sure what everybody means by ghosting. I've always thought the term meant the motion blur you get on most LCD screens, but it seems a lot of people here use it when speaking about image retention.

 

[MikeAwkward]

I'm not sure either. In the picture showing the game, you can see that there is a vertical band around the character that's slightly lighter. That moves with the characters movement. It's the same as the intro screen, vertical bands that move with animation.

I think the last picture does show discoloration. It's got a red/pink tinge when I think it should be just white and blue.

I might try adding some connections like in this post: https://gbatemp.net/threads/gba-backlight-agb-001.328487/page-42#post-5278968