I want to change the red LED next to the screen on a gameboy color to green or something. Ive have seen it done on youtube videos and stuff but have never been able to find a tutorial. how should I go about doing this? thanks guys
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Austin, Texas
I'd have to open one of mine up and look at the PCB again, but I'd planned to do this to a couple of my lime green ones…
It should be pretty straightforward, it's just a through-hole mounted component. The stuff is just packed a bit tighter than the DMG internals, and you have to be careful not to cook off any of the SMT components. 
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Telerophon wrote:
I'd have to open one of mine up and look at the PCB again, but I'd planned to do this to a couple of my lime green ones…
It should be pretty straightforward, it's just a through-hole mounted component. The stuff is just packed a bit tighter than the DMG internals, and you have to be careful not to cook off any of the SMT components.
Sorry, I'm kind of still a total noob ><
Is there anywhere I could find a sort of detailed explanation? A tutorial of how to do this on a DMG might work too now that I think of it.
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San Diego
This is actually quite easy. Easy enough that it doesn't really need a tutorial but I can give you a quick run down.
On both the front and back of the board you'll notice the LED diagram to show you the direction you need the LED to be facing. All you have to do is desolder the back side, slide the old LED out, place the new one in, and reapply some solder. BAM, you're done. If the LED doesn't come on when you power up the Gameboy make sure it isn't in backwards since it won't work. If its in backwards just flip it around and you should be good. Hope this helps a bit.
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San Diego
Here's an image of a Gameboy I did for a friend where I switched out the LED with an orange one to match the backlight.
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Austin, Texas
He specifically asked about the Game Boy Color, but as I recall it's not very different at all.
As I said though, I'll have to crack a CGB open to check it.
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San Diego
Whoops, that was my bad. Here's a pic of 2 GBC PCBs. It's damn near the same thing as the DMG only you have to watch out for the smaller resistors on these boards.
If you notice on the PCB to the right the LED is lined out in white. Right next to the C9 tag (I know it's upside down in this pic).
Last edited by Vile (Nov 8, 2012 4:01 am)
I'll give it a shot this weekendOffline
Vile wrote:
Whoops, that was my bad. Here's a pic of 2 GBC PCBs. It's damn near the same thing as the DMG only you have to watch out for the smaller resistors on these boards.
If you notice on the PCB to the right the LED is lined out in white. Right next to the C9 tag (I know it's upside down in this pic).
Can I use any type of LED or it has to be a specific type?, Does the resistor has something to do when replacing the LED?
For a MGB what type of LED would work better?
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Austin, Texas
If I correctly recall, you want a 3v 3mm LED, but someone double-check me on that.