GBA SP in a DS case

[metrolf]

Hello and merry christmas to those still alive and kickin on here! I thought I'd just share my progress on a little christmas project I'm working on.

Not all that much to say about it, it will have all the features of a standard SP, a headphone plug and I sanded down the sides of the DS-case, seeing as the sharp edges on the original DS is utterly gruesome to hold. Hopefully I will be able to cram the SP motherboard inside the case. It's very little room in the case, but it should be possible.
I just threw everything together in this picture, just to see how it will look like when/if I complete it. Nothings working or anything. I'm kinda stoked for this tho, it feels really nice to hold and it will probably look very good when the paint job is done. I'm thinking black case and white buttons

[metrolf]

Update 31.12.2012

Continuing work on the case. Should be done very soon, then the even trickier part comes; getting the internals all wired up and crammed in place. Almost every damn component on the SP motherboard will have to be desoldered and relocated. Sigh, this will be a tricky one
Added holes for the speaker, moved the A/B buttons to the other holes for better comfort and accessibility, fixed a piece of the screen border that fell off (I mad) and added the link cable port. The charging port is currently besides the link cable port and the holes to attach the gamecube-GBA cable so that it's going to be possible to charge the system while using the system as a controller for, say, Four Sword Adventures; a feature none of Nintendos rechargeable GBA systems ever provided, imagine that!

[metrolf]

Update 10.01.2013

Hi to all and a happy new year! I'm nearing completion on this and just got the case painted. Still not working or anything so I'm not really sure I should post these pictures, but here goes anyways. Decided on black buttons as well. For some reason the white shoulder buttons I had was shaped differently so they didn't fit well. I put the on/off switch on the back of the case in lack of a better spot, but it works just as well there as any other place. Also added the sweet nintendo logo over the d-pad, and it's simply made to be! Looks awesome.

If you for some reason don't wanna see it before it's 100% complete, I'll just put the pics in spoilerwindows for you.

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[scotty0990]

ok, I'm a noob. I have to ask, how do you move the buttons and connect them to the GBA board?

[metrolf]

ok, I'm a noob. I have to ask, how do you move the buttons and connect them to the GBA board?

I'm going to post some pics of the wiring when I'm done with it for you to see, but basically I will use parts from an old ds motherboard and figure out what leads get shorted when each button gets pressed and so on, then solder wires from each button to the appropriate place on the GBA board. This will require me to poke and probe around quite a lot with my multimeter tho. The trickiest part however is relocating all sorts of components (volume adjustment, power switch, charge/link ports, LED diodes and things that just sticks out too much) and I hope It'll still work when I'm done

[scotty0990]

Sounds good.

Yours looks great, by the way.

[metrolf]

Another update:

Got a lot of work done this weekend and progress is slow, but steady.
However I ran into a little problem that could be conquerable, but time-demanding. With the screen being where it is and the motherboard being where it is, the ribbon-cable from the screen does not go all the way to the connector... "This is it. The project is screwed" were my initial thoughts, but I came up with a plan. A hard one, but it may be possible. I started cutting the ribbon-cable between each line, bending every other lead up, thus making it possible (still far from easy) to solder to it. Finding the right places to solder to and placing the wires cleverly will probably also be ridiculously tricky. Also when this massive undertaking is done it will be interesting to see if there still is enough space left in the case, seeing as I already only have about 2-3mm to work with. To those reading this, cross your fingers on this with me. I'll need it

Things that I Have done:
-Relocated a cap, and resistor for the LED's to fit
-Relocated and connected the ext. and link-cable ports
-Connected the battery and the power switch
-Wired up the LED's (Tested with power and charging, all is a-ok)

Things that I have left to do:
-Figure out the pinouts for the headphone port and wire it up (do-able, maybe hard)
-Connect and position speaker (No prob)
-Hook up the volume adjustment knob (No prob)
-Connect all buttons (No prob, but tedious)
-Extend and connect the frikkin' ribbon-cable from the screen in a way that doesn't take up too much space (Very hard, AND tedious)
-Misc. repositioning before closing it up and other unforeseen hickups

Pictures, wooho, yay:

Ribbon-cable "operation: cut-up" in its early stages

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Progress on internals so far

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(Looks like) It's ALIVE:

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[ModderMan]

I made a custom headphone connecter for my SP, use this: http://pinoutsguide.com/Game/gameboy_sp ... nout.shtml" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and wire the L,R Audio GND and headphone detect up to a headphone jack, working out we're to connect the wires is easy, just plug headphones into the headphone jack and use a multimeter or battery and find the negative pin for the headphones and then using the negative test the 3 other pins if 2 click see witch is left and right the remaining one connects to the headphone detect pin on the SP, turning the internal speaker off. If you use the connecter from the DS it should have 4 pins. I use an old gameboy headphone connecter and had to figure out its pins the way I described but it worked. Hope that helps you.

[metrolf]

Thanks Modderman, but I already got it hooked up before reading your tips. Unfortunately it seems like nothing (only power LED) on the gameboy works when the screen is unplugged so I didn't get the chance to test if it worked. I only had the screen relocating left and I screwed it up... Worked on it for 7 hours today and it didn't work. The extended cables didn't stick to the ribbon cable and fell out and everything just went to crap. The ribbon cable is beyond repairs. Also the ribbon cable slot on the gba is hacked to pieces so until I get a new screen and try this nightmare-relocation again, this project is dead I know that if this will ever happen, I gotta buy that replacement screen NOW, or I will not get around to it. But before I buy a new screen, I would REALLY appreciate it if someone could help me out with something:

Can anyone tell me if a GBA SP still turns on with the screen removed? If it does, is the power LED on and does it give out sound? Would someone please check this out for me? My power LED is on, but no sound or signs of life otherwise. If these symptoms match those of a unhacked, standard SP with the screen disconnected it would be a HUGE relief and an indication that it still may finally work when trying to connect a new screen. I desperately need this confirmation to keep trying to complete this. I've so far wasted ridiculous amounts of time on this project and I don't wanna waste even more time, and on top of that, money too... Truly a sad day... I can't talk about it anymore, I'm so pissed off! I gotta go destroy something

[zeldaxpr0]

I was working on a GBA SP side project and I know the answer. Without the GBA SP LCD attached, the motherboard will still turn on (green light) and sound works as well. I've tested this several times. When a game is inserted and you turn it on, everything works like it should (you just can't see obviously due to no screen attached lol).

[metrolf]

I was working on a GBA SP side project and I know the answer. Without the GBA SP LCD attached, the motherboard will still turn on (green light) and sound works as well. I've tested this several times. When a game is inserted and you turn it on, everything works like it should (you just can't see obviously due to no screen attached lol).

Well that doesn't bode well does it..? Oh well, I guess I can clean out the botherboard of the SP, rebuild the case so the screens ribbon cable doesn't have to be extended and buy myself a backlit SP and put it in my case somewhat safely. Maybe use the frontlight from the screen I destroyed and put it in my GB Color? By all means, destroying a SP doesn't make this a good day, but maybe it's not a total disaster after all...

[metrolf]

I added the frontlight from the unuseable screen to my Gameboy Color and it looks great. Since a frontlit gbc isn't revolutionary news, I'm not posting pictures unless you want to see pictures. Do you want to see pictures?

As for the SP, I'm fairly certain it's dead, aswell as the screen. Tried connecting the volume knobs shielding to the MB earlier today and for some reason the LED stopped working and it instatly started smelling burnt However I'll finish it when I get a new SP (hopefully backlit) to replace the broken one, and remade the front case part. Imagine the one I have, except with the SP's screen-front sticking out, positioned higher so the ribbon cable will still fit. Will probably leave a big, empty space in the lower middle under the screen... Maybe I'll think of someting to put there... Ideas?

[metrolf]

Project is back on track, sorta. Still haven't gotten a backlit SP yet, but I'm trying to get the case redone and ready. I'll add a picture of the new design.

Had to do some tricky frankencasing, but it turned out good. One problem tho..I would really appreciate some help from someone well versed with painting cases. The red piece of plastic in the middle doesnt like the paint quite as mch as the rest of the case. The sanding is smooth as hell, but when I paint it, the paint folds up and creates lines where the bondo-border is. Im currently trying to sand down the paint without removing it completely so the surface will be the same all over, then give it another paint job and see how it goes.

Not entirely in focus

[argelfraster]

Yo! That looks awesome! I can't wait to see more

[metrolf]

Yet another UPDATE

Casework is finally finished! Again.. And hopefully for good this time
Had to remove the red piece of plastic which didn't work well with my paint (it made the plastic corrode or something ) and filled the hole with bondo instead. I am for the record VERY happy with the results this time! Can hardly wait until I get some cash to burn on a backlit SP on ebay, which is the only thing left, except for the wiring, which I also have allready done once. Therefore it should go relatively smoothly. I hope

While on the subject of the wiring, I decided to actually attempt to contribute on the forums with something usefull for once: I scanned the wiring I had done and I'll add the scan below. After a lot of poking with the multimeter I found many usefull solder-spots (for instance if you want to wire up the volume adjuster, but don't want to solder underneath the MB. I found a spot that is connected to the same place on the front of the MB). I believe this could be usefull to anyone attempting a SP mod that requires relocating components from the MotherBoard. Not all traces can be followed on the picture (some goes underneath the board, covered in glue etc...), but most can be followed. Also, it's not entirely in focus... Ahem...
WARNING! Keep in mind that this scan is from a system that I have not tested, but know for a fact is dead, but for unknown reasons. Therefore some of the wiring may be the reason. Not all to likely, but still... I will be using the same kind of wiring (unless someone on this forum notices an obvious flaw. So please, have a look) when I get a new SP to hook up and will confirm, or deconfirm as I finish it.

One last thing before the pics: I'm considering maybe making another one of these when I'm done and putting it out for sale, maybe an auction, who knows. Imagine that it is complete and working and all that; what would you be willing to give for it? I'm trying to get a "lay of the land", so to speak I wanna see if it's worth it or not, cause it's a SOB of a casejob!

Now for the pictures! Even though it's just a mockup; nothing is working or anything, this badboy still got the looks and then some!

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Wiring scan:

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