Modding my Gameboy Pocket (kind of tutorial-ish)

Saucy

Gameboy arrived and tested. New parts ordered.

gooseberry fool, I never knew the GB got a San Andreas port!? Looks amazing! :shock:

Chocolate-Milk wrote:
Victor Mildew wrote:This is addictive stuff

I wanted a SP, but can't find a reasonably priced damaged one to start with.

I found one for a tenner on Facebook marketplace. Apparently it doesn't turn on, but it looks in fairly good nick otherwise so hopefully it's a simple fix.

The Game Boy was 15, working but with a few missing lines down the screen. Apparently that's an easy fix too, but I'll likely swap out the screen for an IPS anyway.

I got my SP on Facebook marketplace pretty cheap scratched to strawberry float and didn't turn on (although they hadn't mentioned that). Just needed a clean and bingo

You should see the state of this pocket. I don't know who let's their kids treat stuff like this so badly :dread:

The Color I won showed up in pretty decent condition, to be honest! The B button is a bit iffy, but I'm sure a good clean and some new pads will sort that out.

I also won a GBA at the weekend, because I have very poor impulse control. :slol:

Chocolate-Milk wrote:The Color I won showed up in pretty decent condition, to be honest! The B button is a bit iffy, but I'm sure a good clean and some new pads will sort that out.

I also won a GBA at the weekend, because I have very poor impulse control.

New pads are onky a few quid, so worth getting even if you're happy with the current ones. Gives the buttons their proper feel back.

Are you going to mod both? The colour has a screen with the glass integrated if you wanted to go for that, as it is just a drop in solution then. (Id do that if modding mine).

The new pocket is a newer revision than the one I've already done. Plus it has a light, so I probably will desolder my current screen, swap this pcb in to my current one and use the other one as the basis of the red one. This new one is going to look so good in clear red :datass:

Victor Mildew wrote:New pads are onky a few quid, so worth getting even if you're happy with the current ones. Gives the buttons their proper feel back.

Are you going to mod both? The colour has a screen with the glass integrated if you wanted to go for that, as it is just a drop in solution then. (Id do that if modding mine).

The new pads are already here (I had to buy two sets, not realising the first one had white start/select buttons), and the drop-in screen is on its way. I also got cleanamp and cleanpower boards, though I'm not confident in my ability to install them. :simper:

I'll be doing the GBA eventually, but it'll have to wait until I've got the funds! :slol:

Chocolate-Milk wrote:
Victor Mildew wrote:New pads are onky a few quid, so worth getting even if you're happy with the current ones. Gives the buttons their proper feel back.

Are you going to mod both? The colour has a screen with the glass integrated if you wanted to go for that, as it is just a drop in solution then. (Id do that if modding mine).

The new pads are already here (I had to buy two sets, not realising the first one had white start/select buttons), and the drop-in screen is on its way. I also got cleanamp and cleanpower boards, though I'm not confident in my ability to install them.

I'll be doing the GBA eventually, but it'll have to wait until I've got the funds!

The hardest part was removing the old power bits, as you need to add fresh solder to the pins on one side, then heat those at the same time to melt the old stuff underneath, while simultaneously bending that part away with a tool, all while holding a soldering iron at 350+ degrees :dread:

You need a third hand. I mean what those clip things with a weight at the base are actually called.

I picked one of those up too, with a light and a magnifying glass on it. No such thing as over-prepared! :lol:

I've made the translucent red gameboy now, it looks properly nice. I put the innards of my previous pocket in the red one, so I can have the newer innards (with a power led) in my dmg style one. This meant open the current one, desolder the wires at the screen side and move that to the red shell, then resolder to the new screen, which was no problem.

However...

I had to do a start from scratch on the latest one, which is take off the old power regulator, solder on the 5v one, solder wires to the pcb and then screen. I properly strawberry floated up the 5v attachment part. Wheras last time I got 5 perfect blobs of solder going thst I just had to reheat, this time I ended up with 3 blobs merging to one as the thing was nearly done, meaning it would have just shorted. Trying to heat the solder enough on both sides to lift this tiny SIM card sized thing off was such a pain, and THEN the solder was a total mess, so I had to carefully remove as much as I could. Got there in the end though, but soldering was so easy last time, so I paid for it this time I think. I also ballsed up somehwere when attaching wires to the pcb, as the on screen display doesnt appear with the select + A + B combo. I suspect I've wired select to the wrong point, so that'll have to be fixed. Otherwise it works perfectly though, and looks finished now with the led.

Red shell pocket:

It's a deeper red than it looks here. Plus the red screen is also deep red, and not orange like it looks here.

Do you have a good solder pump and some wick?

Also flux helps guide the solder to the pads I believe. Although I've never used it.

Green Gecko wrote:Do you have a good solder pump and some wick?

Also flux helps guide the solder to the pads I believe. Although I've never used it.

I've not got any of that :shifty:

Will look in to it though, definitely feels like I'm missing a trick.

Solder pump mate. You heat up the solder and it'll basically rip up with a vacuum what's on the board around the point it pooled.

It's strong enough it might even take up traces from the PCB so don't use it too much.

It's just a little pen like thing with a button and a spring in it but it works damn well. Not an actual electric sucky thing. Under a tenner.

Don't want to link to any random webshops in case they're gooseberry fool, and unfortunately they're no longer metal like mine but Antex is fairly decent: https://cpc.farnell.com/antex/w024100/m ... /ANWO24100

Oh nice, yeah I really could have done with that when j managed to bridge 3 points with a long line of merged blobs. Thanks.

Victor Mildew wrote:Oh nice, yeah I really could have done with that when j managed to bridge 3 points with a long line of merged blobs. Thanks.

Edited ^ https://cpc.farnell.com/antex/w024100/m ... /ANWO24100

This one looks fancy https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/252020536679

And yeah it pretty much eats solder.

I got it in a kit with my Antex small iron years ago at uni when I was hacking electronics stuff and doing sound art.

My first soldering iron was a piece of gooseberry fool Silverline, I've had the same pair for a decade since then (:dread:). The iron isn't super hot but that can be better (less likelihood of melting everything), anyway the solder pump was probably the best thing I discovered by mistake.

Thanks

Look at that beauty. New GB shell/buttons, funnyplaying IPS, power capacitor, cleanpower and cleanamp boards. :datass:

It took me about five hours, it still has a low hiss with the sound off and it makes a weird *vvvwip* when it powers off, but I did it, god damn it.

Modding my Gameboy Pocket (kind of tutorial-ish)

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