Gba sp reshell

[BallisticZombo7]

Hey i would like to know if i could reshell my gba sp, battery and all, into a normal gba shell. Since i dont like the size of the sp control area, its just a preference. Im just curious if i could do it with my 001

 

[FAST6191]

How much effort would you be willing to put into this?

I have never seen a kit to do it and doubt I ever would (far easier to stick a battery pack and backlight into a normal GBA).

If you wanted then the same techniques and concepts people use to make portable or ultra small versions of consoles would work here as well, in this case probably want to make daughterboards and fly wires rather than snap and solder for the control aspects, and would likely need to make a new set of ribbons for the screen.

 

[BallisticZombo7]

Oh. I thought it would be easier to do a sp reshell over modding a gba to get a backlight and rechargeable battery. Ive never modded hardware before, just software and firmware. I just kinda wanted a starter project to get into that type of stuff

 

[FAST6191]

This is anything but a starter project, and you would be well into full bore custom territory -- you would likely be making custom PCBs or at least standoffs, flying wires around to things that might be known but you would have to read diagrams for, likely fiddling with CNC/3d printing, probably a bunch of hand tool work, the battery pack and screen thing mentioned, whatever needs to be done to make the screen work in its new location (or adapt and existing one). Nothing too outrageous or requiring of particular exotic engineering skills but still a grind even for someone that has done all that before, and likely a fairly high bill for it all (would not be surprised to see this in the hundreds of dollars).

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Oh. I thought it would be easier to do a sp reshell over modding a gba to get a backlight and rechargeable battery. Ive never modded hardware before, just software and firmware. I just kinda wanted a starter project to get into that type of stuff

Definitely not, because the SP form factor is so different that fitting all the guts into an OG shell is akin to trying to portabilize a GameCube or Wii (meaning cutting down the board, rerouting components, all that fun stuff), plus it's essentially uncharted territory.
Meanwhile you can get kits for installing a SP screen into an OG GBA that are almost plug and play. Rechargeable battery is a bit more effort, but you can probably find a small charge controller and buck converter combo board to convert ~3.7V from a lipo into the ~3V the GBA expects, and with cutting out some of the plastic on the rear shell be able to fit it inside along with the battery itself.