Front Light Gameboy Color Mod TUTORIAL
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- Опубліковано 2 жов 2024
- The first video tutorial on how to Front-Light a Gameboy Color!!! This is super awesome for nostalgia-sake. **IMPORTANT**
Read and understand this tutorial before attempting this!!!
Original Tutorial mikejmoffitt.co...
THIS IS NOT AN EASY MOD, ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE UNEXPERIENCED IN SOLDERING AND WORKING WITH CIRCUIT BOARDS. PERFORM THIS MOD AT YOUR OWN RISK.
SUBSCRIBE & LIKE ME ON FACEBOOK: / ellyawesome
Excellent tutorial!
Hey Austin, didn't expect to see you there
I didn't expect you either, I came to see one of the first Gameboy mods I did.
Elly, you were the pioneer of Gameboy Color lighting mods. For a good two or three years, this proved to be the only solution. Thank you for stepping in and giving us a way to light these machines before LCD swaps became common.
i have absolutely NO use for this tutorial but still found myself watching it for general knowledge bc it was a GREAT walk through lol! my fav commonly used line ..... "now rubbish" lmao keep up the great videos. thumbs up!
I wish I could do this in the 90s....pokemon past bed time......
3:30 y u do dis... this whole part ruined the entire mod for me a few years ago lol. i went back and did it again tho, without doing that, and it turned out awesome. so anyone reading, DO NOT rub your finger across the light reflector
Great video Elly! This makes the GBC so much more epic than it already is.
DO NOT immediately peel apart the TWO ORANGE TABS like she talks about in the video!
As a few people have mentioned, there are some versions of the SP that contain a front light where these two tabs CAN NOT be peeled apart without rendering the front light UNUSABLE. There are some variations where the tab that she tells you to peel off actually contains the soldering pads that you must leave intact in order to solder wires onto the front light unit - the soldering pads being the two gray vertical lines II in the middle of the orange tab, as depicted in her diagram. On these versions if you peel this tab off your front light is now useless. Therefore, DO NOT peel these two tabs apart (at least at first), unless you have completed the mod and the front light is still not coming on. If you have followed every other step thoroughly, and have ensured that all your wires are completely soldered on at all the proper points, then AND ONLY THEN should you peel the tabs apart to see if this fixes the issue. I unfortunately learned this the hard way by peeling the tabs apart and ruining my front light. Please learn from my mistake. This seems to vary from one SP to another, so give it a try and see what happens.
I bought a set that came with a 001 light. Should I still do this with that? The light is just the screen itself, not an actual SP.
same here, ended up ruining my gb. Well, a few years later and a little more skill in soldering later I finally got a working frontlight on my color
The resistor she used (and the one in detailed guide) was 47Ω (ohm). If you look at the resistor, it has color bands on. It should have (from left to right): Yellow, Violet, Black & Gold.
The one in the first written guide actually uses a resistor with a +1% tolerance and has five bands on. Yellow, Violet, Black, Gold & Brown. This is the one I got from my work place so that would work as well.
You could just get a multi-meter and check the resistor, set the multi-meter to Ω mode.
Hey. You made a great video. Let me just point out a few things about your mod that would make it better, more reliable, more pro looking and so on.
First, you might consider using thinner wire gauge for this mod.
Also, when you strip the wires, strip only the lenght you need to make contact with the surface of the flexible orange circuit board. That way you will have insulation all the way up to the solder joint. That will make it very unlikely for the two wires to touch each other at any point. The way you have done it with a lot of copper exposed side by side will most likely short circuit at some point. I realize they are somewhat stiffer with the solder and stuff, but it is a major possible point of failure.
When you put solder on the wire tips, the proper method is to apply a little solder to the irontip, hold the tip to the copper wire and heat it good. When it is hot enough you can apply solder directly to the copper and it will flow out all over by itself. It will also flow in between the strands. This is very important, because when you apply the way you do, you solder with too low temperature, and this can easily cause the solder joint to break over time - so called cold soldering.
You used too much solder. When you apply solder to the copper correctly this will be easier to get a fine result when you are to solder the joint.
If you find it difficult to apply solder to the stripped wires like I describe, it is because the copper is dirty. Clean with flux.
Also be aware that when you strip the wire, and apply heat to get the solder flowing correctly, the insulation will also heat and most likely strip back even more because of melting. This can be compensated by stripping less off the cable than you need, and let the heat finish it off :).
Don't get me wrong - very nice video, and very cool that you make a tutorial, but I thought I'd point this out to you and others watching, to make you able to better your soldering skills and also do a more reliable job and all that.
Hope you don't take this as personal critisism, but for what it was meant to be - some soldering tips for getting the job nicely done.
nicely done! I've tryed this way a year ago, but I broke the backlight as I cutted it out of the Sp :/
really nice to see that it works this way.
very solid effort for your first ever mod!! Ive been a modder for about 2 and a half years and my first solder job was a ps1 modchip...and i destroyed it, for you to do this so well is epic! props!
Same here really :) Watched it all the way through although I have no GameBoy and will probably never get one. Love the detail and the way she fixes her mistakes. If I had some sort of tech company I'd hire her right away! :D
Cool, but why not use LEDs instead?
+Gibran Munem SMD's will fit but you'll need a difusser
***** it is but if you want pink light it's only way i think, why pink? Idk
I got really lucky today and found a cheap pokemon edition gameboy color, I knew I needed to mod it right away. Thank you for the informative video! We need more Aussie channels, I live in Vic.
Gamegirl O.o
The term that shouldn't exist
***** Because it draws in unecessary attention. Just because I'm a guy people don't call me a "Gamer-Boy". Gamer is someone who dedicates alot of their time into playing games (Facebook games not included). Doesn't matter what gender that person so happens to have. Their still just a GAMER.
Cress Alvein They mean it's not a GameBoy, it's a GameGirl.
What is this?
A game girl that plays decent games and was willing to mod a console?
that made my day
hahaha i can imagine the amount of swearing you must of done (being australian) when you realised your mistake XD
I was very disappointed lol it's a miracle I fixed it
This is awesome, I was just thinking about whether or not I could figure out how to do this! now I don't have to figure it out myself!
By everwhere she means google bing and youtube
TheGaming Banana have you watched banana gaming on UA-cam?
Did it to my gameboy color. Works great! Kind of hard to come across a cheap sp that I'm just gonna push off to the side. Was able to keep the sp functional by not cutting the ribbon. Gonna see if it will work on a gameboy pocket.
This is quite easy to do, with some time and soldering can be done with no problem.
It increases the value of the gameboy as well by a good amount. With everything together It cost me
25$ gameboy color gameboy sp light, (can be used from broken gameboy) 20$
Other Materials 5$
They retail for 80-100$ As no one wants to do the work.
Ive made quite a couple of these and they have turned out fine. I encourage others to attempt to do this as it isn't that hard and is definitely fun.
EVERYONE DON'T MASSACRE ANYMORE GAMEBOY SP'S. PLEASE BUY A FRONT LIGHT AND SOME LOCA GLUE TO DO THIS MOD!!! YOU'RE A MURDERER ELLY
Row Nu dont worry its the ags 001 model
Row Nu They weren't as readily available back then
Omg you are awesome you are not a geek you are like the coolest person on UA-cam!
"This is now rubbish." *cringe*
U know, like you I too just love my GBC. I will definetely give a try... Keep up a good work.
Ohm, not O.H.M.
I think it's cute how she says O.H.M
Ah ok awesome. I actually had no idea if you had to separate it or not because like you said no websites say whether you need to peal it apart or what lol. Luckily that worked for me but if I try it again I guess I will use more solder and not peal it apart. Thanks for the comment and I'm glad it worked for you :D
ummmmm it is called backlit
No, it isn't. A front light is just a light shining in FRONT of the screen. A back light is a light built into the screen powered by the console.
Assuming that you cannot use a *back*lit SP for this mod: yes. If you use a frontlit SP and cut that thick ribbon like she did (at 2:07), your SP will be broken. You do not have to cut that off, it's just to get easier access to the screen. Leaf that connected and just cut the small ribbon (2:47), it should still work after you assembled the screen again. Without the light of course.
this looks a little easier than the gameboy pocket backlight mod. I have a junk AGS 001 that turns on fine but the shoulder buttons dont work so I have no problem salvaging the front light to try this. I also have an extra gameboy color I got for 2 bucks cuz it lacks a battery cover. This seems like the perfect project for me to try out.
@RiceMolester Mustache If you're lucky you might be able to use a flat head screwdriver but yeah I got my tri wing for like $3 on eBay :)
Flip the screen? While the gameboy is back together touch the screen the bumpy side is the side you should be touching not the smooth side as the smooth side is where the light comes from it will be brighter and could make you're screen fuzzy or blurry.
-From an awesome person.
Cool mod! I'm glad there's a video for it now!
Don't worry he didn't feel a thing. I bought it off ebay and it was already broken ;)
Wow that's fantastic! Glad you have been successful! Thanks for letting me know :)
major thumbs up ^_^ i think theres also a mod for a speaker change to make the gameboy color louder but i think a backlight is more useful, i still have a color and an advance with out light so i might use this technique for both unless i find a gameboy micro lol
No major change in battery life! The gameboy handles it quite well :)
Guilherme, you don't necessarily have to destroy your sp- simply disassemble the screen without cutting the cable. If you get it all put back together after removing the front light, you'll simply be left with an SP that you can't play in the dark, much like the original GBAs.
10 years ago I followed the tutorial and it brought me into the world of modding. Now there a so many different IPS screens and I have done mod on so many consoles. It’s definitely primitive and outdated for sure but that fact this still works is amazing. Very much loved this video and can’t believe it’s been that long 😳
Thanks for the vid! just completed it successfully using a different resister. Thanks!
The way you did this would look horrible on a clear/translucent case xD
@HarlsBeGaming Aww that sucks lol good work for trying! :)
I use KNYAR wire. It's very weak and narrow and has ONE string running through the center. It is used to prevent damage to the SP Frontlight
Good tutorial, and yes, probably one of the first ones online. I'd like to just point out a couple things for those attempting this mod in 2015 :)
- Like another commenter mentioned, DO NOT rub your finger on the screen like Elly did. The ridges on that plastic are incredibly tiny and fragile so even that will mess it up and fill your screen with blotches and stains when you turn the light on (like she had at the end of the video). DO NOT TOUCH THE RIDGED SIDE WITH ANYTHING.
- For that matter, do not remove the plastic from the screen until you are ready to install it. The less time that frontlight stays in the open, the better. Dust, liquids and anything else WILL mess up the frontlight.
- No need to peel off the padding on the back of the screen. Just remove the screen cover (the one you look through to play :P) and lift the frontlight from that side. That's how I do it every time.
- Although this is a good method, there are 2 much better ones nowadays. Either 1) cut that lens to size and fit it with the ridges horizontally, like it was designed to sit originally (Mylk's Mod), or 2) get a frontlight kit from Kitsch Bent and apply it with LOCA. Either one of those methods can be Googled for more info.
Having said all this, I take my hat off to you and anyone else pushing the Game Boy scene further :)
My Game Boy collecting and modding account on Instagram is @gene.boy If you add me, let me know you came from here! :P
Eugene Romero Ha : ) ......I feel ever so slightly internet famous [][][]
mylkTV Hah! My hat goes off to you for even finding my comment :) yep, I have followed your tutorial and recommended it to others since it's by far the most detailed one there is for this mod. Good job bro :D
Eugene Romero Cheers, really appreciate it !
Ok so I tried and succeeded with a speaker replacement, but messed up on the light screen. Can't wait to try again!
if that message was intended for me....well thank u! :)
HARD-CORE!!! This truelly is awesome, great job, must have been so difficult and fiddley.
Best tutorial I have seen by far thank you for the help👍
Aww that's really sweet! Gamer/geek girls FTW :D
Bad ass!!! Keep doing such a wonderful job!!!
You could also just by a front light for a Game boy sp from an after market parts manufacturer. Also the action of coating the wire is called tinning and should be done with any wires you plan to solder to things. It's also pronounced OH-mmm :p Nice starter mod for people to get into modding game Machines. Congrats on entering the Modding comun!
Well, you would just have to find some free space, and dremel out a hole for the switch to come through. You can use either of the wires; all a switch does is open and close the circuit.
What kind of wires do you have to use?
When you wedged off the GBC's screen, you should have wrapped the screwdriver tip in paper to avoid scratching the screen. Please add this to annotations.
That GBC looks awesome, I recently modded some original gameboys (DMG's) for music purposes. Have you ever thought about making chiptune music?
@appleboy423 Yay that's awesome
no do not solder it to the white thing that moves, if you do your gameboy power switch will not be able to slide to power on and off your device
You installed the LED panel the wrong way. Just like she explains in the video, make sure that it is excatly how she put it down. Look at the organge tap from the LED panel and makes sure it is in the same position that she has it. The orange tap should be right about the A and B buttons. If done the other way, the screen will lit out instead of in.
Damn 11 years? i still remember this video and mod. Glad we dont have to butcher any GBA:s anymore nowadays.
Me too haha, thank you for the lovely comment
omg thank you so much! now i don't need to use one of the cursid external lights for my gameboy :)
In the UK we spell it COLOUR too...
Its funny how one person doing/saying things in the correct way is made to feel wrong or stupid to the point they feel they should do/say what everyone else does/says just because what is wrong is so widely accepted.
lol, 47 "O.H.M." resistor. It's a 47 Ohm resistor, but clearly you don't need to know that to do awesome things! Great job!
It was a broken SP
No, nothing major
This is beautiful.
a girl doing stuff like this on the net is cool. usually you see only guys posting stuff like this. nice.
Remember when you wanted to play Pokemon at night to beat heat the gym leader but your parents told you to turn the light off . So you had to either play in the dark,bathroom, or turn the light on and get in trouble. But it was worthit.
good video thanks but you could mention about your mistake when you showed the part not later on lol:D
Thanks :)
SOL-DERING. My god, your accent is adorable xD
Haha ;D
yeah there are lines when it isn't on, and you can't get anything on it or it shows really bad when it's on.
I'm really pressed for cash, so would eletrical tape be a good replacement for a sodering gun?
Don't glob solder onto the wire with the iron, place the iron on the contact to heat it up, then apply solder to the contact. Then put the wire in the joint.
I followed the directions exactly and everything looked perfect. However, when I put the back casing on (without screwing it in) to see if it worked the light came on and it looked fine. I removed the back to finish putting in the motherboard screws and screwed everything back together. Turned it back on and the light did not turn on. I tried everything and found no solution. Any help people?
Front lights always wash out the color of the LCD a little bit. Thats the nature of a frontlight. However, its worth it when the system has zero lighting at all.
bought 2 gameboy advanced sp's, both had glue on the front lights from where the black sticky stuff was touching it which was really annoying, but that didnt matter because both times i tried to do this mod the orange tab rippped anyway, its really fragile.
It worked!!Thanks you're the best!!Subscribed!
Yay! You're welcome! :D
yes its a 47ohm 1/2 watt resistor
I'm sure you have heard this before but...marry me!!! lol anyway, as an electronic engineer you did a great job as a first timer. Soldering job was a bit sloppy but it worked and that is all that matters. :)
great video! im going to modify mine this week. but do you think its possible if I can modify the battery as well with an SP battery? since the backlight will use up more of the battery as well.
You can play any older game boy game on the one with the light.
I liked, but I have no skills for soldering. :)
Thanks for this video!
Thank you AppChat, so far I have done this on 3 Gameboy Colors with success thanks to your video tutorial. God Bless you :)
Hey I did the mod, and it was kind of weird at the end because it didn't seem to fit into place completely i had to push really really hard to get the power switch to line up with the thing on the circuit board. Then when I turn it on, it turns on for about a second and then turns off, but the backlight seems to work...just doesn't stay on for more than a second...any help would be awesome!
gameboy color screen, little resistance then pop its ruined -.-
Yha you'll short out the whole system as more power has to go through the system to power the front light and the GBC was not built for that. Because if you don't have that and turn it on you would hear a crack snap and you're GBC would be fried.
very useful!! But I don't want to waste my GBASP...
Kitschbent offers backlight kits.
Nice video mod worked for me thx all though my childhood game boy sp is finished
RIP Becky the gameboy sp
Jordyn Hardyman So sad. You shouldn't have killed your sp for this mod imo. It'd be better to buy an sp off ebay, and take the frontlight, and sell the rest of the sp for spares
Can u please make another video of how to properly remove the orange tab please? i pulled apart the two tabs but the silver contacts came off as well :( ruined a BRAND NEW sp and i would like to know the correct process before attempting this again, the webites say you have to "disconnect the wire contacts with your iron" any feedback would be greatly appreciated
A tip with your soldering.. Heat up the wire with the iron and then apply the solder to the hot wire. In that way it turns out muuch better! :) (Yes i'm a friggin geek with 14 years of soldering experience).. XD i'm only 20 btw.. lol
your soldering skills scare me.
Nice makes me wish I had a girl like u :/ sucks being a guy unless your a bug jerk any ways nice mod thingy :) I want to try and solder stuff some day I did when I was kid a little but my hands are kind of shaky
damn ausies with your different names and different techniques and your kangaroos
do the wires have a specific side of the orange tab they need to be sottered to? If you guys know what im talking about.
I wired up everything and put it all back together, and when i turned it on it was BEAUTIFUL! But after 10 seconds it flickered and now the light is very dim. The brightness seems to fluctuate every time I press a button, but it is too dim to play in the dark. Does anyone have an idea what might be causing this? Thanks!
Good Video! i'm currently looking at my GBA and trying to front light it.
i run a ags101 lcd in my SP so i have a spare ags001 screen to play with xD
Soldering tip: don't put solder on the iron directly, heat up the wire and have the solder directly melt on it. Also, adding flux helps, you can never use too much flux.
I have to agree. As a collector and a gamer I hate to see people destroy older game systems.
I modded my GBA for frontlighting, but I didn't destroy another system to do it.
This video is incredibly helpful! Thank you so much, I can't wait to try it out. My fiancé bought me my first NTSC GBC for Christmas, however the backlighting is the only problem with such a perfect console. I'll let you know the results of my venture, which will be attempted over the next few weeks :) thanks again for the upload!