GBA SP front light on original GBA? EDIT: YES! pix soon!

palmertech · Post by **palmertech** » Sat Aug 16, 2008 12:13 pm

Has anyone ever attempted this? If so, any pointers? If not, it looks like I would be the first person to do this! I figured out how I could do it during some GBA SP and DS phat brightness mod experiments, it is very easy to hook power up to the LED assembly independant of the rest of the hardware.

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Sat Aug 16, 2008 1:07 pm

Ever heard of the AfterBurner? It was a commercial product and did just that!!

palmertech · Post by **palmertech** » Sat Aug 16, 2008 4:24 pm

Of course! I have seen one in action, and the performance was not very good. The light, while actually a bit brighter than an SP, looked REALLY ghosty and washed out, with a very noticable blueish tinge. The reviews for it are good mainly because there was nothing else to compare it to at the time, but now that the SP is out, it pales in comparision. Not to mention that the only way to get an afterburner these days is to buy refurbished ones for like $50 online. If you could find one, I would be much obliged. I got my SP backlight from a SP with a cracked screen!

OMG! GUESS WHAT! IT WORKED!!

I now have a purple front lit GBA, it looks better than the SP display! (Maybe they use a different kind of display?). The other reason is that mine is running at a slightly higher voltage than the SP, making it a bit brighter. The light panel adds a LOT of thickness, so I had to make some pretty radical case changes, but it looks stock on the outside....Until you turn it on, that is.

I hope to have pics tonight when I can borrow my sisters camera, it might be tomorrow.

Would anybody be interested in a tutorial?

Dr. KillGood · Post by **Dr. KillGood** » Sat Aug 16, 2008 4:28 pm

Pics or it didn't happen.

PS: Could of just gotten afterburner for $10.

palmertech · Post by **palmertech** » Sat Aug 16, 2008 5:24 pm

Bad news! In all my DS modding experiance, I usually hook up LEDs to the regulated power off the GBA cart slot. Not thinking too much, I did the same for the GBA....Big mistake. It worked great with all my GBA games at 3.3v, but then, I put in pokemon yellow...

GBC games switch the cart slot to 5v, and the screen looked AWESOME for about 2 seconds... Then the LEDs blew.

Lucjily, this was just an experiment since I had a cracked SP screen lying around, I have a few good ones, looks like I will have to break those open tomorrow. Does anybody have an Uber cheap GBA? I want to post a tutorial, but this GBA already had quite a bit of plastic modded from other stuff, so a clean GBA would let me show where to cut. Besides, I want to mod one and sell it, then keep another for bragging.

themadhacker · Post by **themadhacker** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 4:06 pm

tell me. will DS lights work? if so, I might buy my friend's broken DS lite

palmertech · Post by **palmertech** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 4:19 pm

Darn it! I used my other SP screen, used new power points, then used a 22ohm resistor instead of a 47omh one!

Now I have killed two of these things... I have one more left, I am ordering a busted SP off ebay so I can swap my last working screen out with the busted one that still has a working backlight.

I know you can use a ds phat screen, but a DS lite, probably not. I have a few broken ones, going to check that possibility out. How broken is the DS lite? I need a few busted ones for other projects.

themadhacker · Post by **themadhacker** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 4:26 pm

the DS has the same problem as Shock Slayer's. the top half of the case broke so it is loose and the screen cable exposed. after being moved back and forth from gameplay, the Ds turned on, flashed, and turned off.

palmertech · Post by **palmertech** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 4:28 pm

I can fix that.

PM me if you want me to fix it up, I also have various DS "enhancement" cartridges for sale.

themadhacker · Post by **themadhacker** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 4:36 pm

it's not mine. in a previous post, I said it's my friend's.

He wants to sell it for $10, but I might be able to talk it down

palmertech · Post by **palmertech** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 4:59 pm

How about we cut a deal: I give you $22, you buy it for $10, send it to me for $4.70 (Flat rate shipping), and you make $7.30! I might talk up.

I am gonna bust open a DS phat screen tomorrow, backlighting time!

Aguiluz · Post by **Aguiluz** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 6:12 pm

palmertech wrote:GBA games at 3.3v ... GBC games switch the cart slot to 5v

The GBA operates on 2x AA batteries, right? So that is 3 volts.

Where does it pull the 5 volts?

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 6:32 pm

Aguiluz wrote:
palmertech wrote:GBA games at 3.3v ... GBC games switch the cart slot to 5v
The GBA operates on 2x AA batteries, right? So that is 3 volts.

Where does it pull the 5 volts?

Step up regulator. No matter what batteries you use, its always 3.3v for GBA and 5v for GBC (well, I'm not sure, but its constant). Otherwise it might run slower or something if you switch from alkalines to rechargeables (~3v to ~2.4v).

themadhacker · Post by **themadhacker** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 6:44 pm

Palmertech wrote: How about we cut a deal: I give you $22, you buy it for $10, send it to me for $4.70 (Flat rate shipping), and you make $7.30! I might talk up.

I'll have to think about it (partly because I want to repair it for myself using Khaag's guide). If ,I can buy it, and decide to sell it to you, I'll PM you

palmertech · Post by **palmertech** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 6:44 pm

Actually, from my testing on the gb micro...gbc games will work at 3.3v, but Nintendo had to do everything with ""proper engineering practice".

Unlike us.

Maybe a mod to run gbc games at 3.3v... Or I could just add the right resistor.