Offline

After much deliberation and second guessing, I finally started my first mod tonight.  After struggling immensely with proper soldering (and desoldering) technique and testing all my connections with a multimeter, I powered on my DMG and was sadly disappointed to find that none of the LEDs turned on.  The actual DMG seems to be functioning perfectly.  I'm afraid I've damaged the backlight, but am hoping that's not the case and was hoping someone with more experience could clarify.

I'm using a V5 backlight from Nonfinite.
I am attempting to install a rocker switch to power the backlight unit.
Here's how I wired it:

The backlight's positive lead (which, confusingly enough, came with the black wire attached to positive and the orange wire to negative) is soldered to the left of the two contact points located immediately above the capacitor nestled under the LCD.  The negative wire loops through the hole around said capacitor and reaches up behind the PCB to the top right where it joins up with the rocker switch (I've read it doesn't matter which prong you connect to in a 2-way switch like this).  The other prong goes back around the front and connects to the other lead above the capacitor below the LCD.

I'm really hoping that I just wired everything wrong and that the unit isn't damaged, but there's a chance I did a severe number on it while I was peeling off what I thought was the protective film.  I wasn't being attentive enough and hastily pulled the white plastic piece away from the plastic piece which houses the LEDs and respective circuitry.  On seeing the circuit, I said: "oh shit" and stuck it back together using the tape that was already on it and what was left of the adhesive.  It's still a bit loose, but it holds in place.

I know they aren't ridiculously expensive, but I'd be super bummed if I ruined a perfectly good backlight.

Insight?  Comments?  Scorn?

Offline
Jyväskylä, Finland

Have you tried to install backlight without the switch or solder wires other way around?
Also, can you take some pictures of your soldering?

Offline

No, I've not tried without the switch or wiring the switch the other way around.
I'll give both things a try and get back to you.

Right now, I don't have a way to take any photos that would be of any use.  I know--it's very unhelpful.

Offline

Just short the switch and you won't have to desolder it when trying smile

Offline
Pale wrote:

Have you tried to install backlight without the switch or solder wires other way around?
Also, can you take some pictures of your soldering?

I desoldered the negative lead from the switch and took it out of the circuit completely.  After re-connecting the negative from the backlight, I powered on the GameBoy but got more of the same thing--a whole lot of nothing.  I have another backlight, so I quickly swapped it out to see if that would power on either.  No dice.

Is there another way I can test the backlight to see if it's functioning properly?  Forgive me if that's a terribly noobish thing to ask.
In my experience with troubleshooting, I can logically conclude that I've wired things wrong or that there is something not functioning properly in the actual GameBoy (or at least that something isn't occurring at the contact points).

EDIT: Nevermind.  I have determined the backlight is, in fact, dead/dysfunctional.  I tried installing it on another PCB with no luck so I tried the other backlight that I have on both units and it worked fine.

Last edited by SpookGoblin (May 15, 2014 1:15 am)

Offline

You sure it's not the wires that are bad?

Offline
Dadibom wrote:

You sure it's not the wires that are bad?

No, actually!  I don't have any spare wires on hand.  Are there any other alternatives to testing them besides swapping out ones which are guaranteed to work?  I tried a multimeter already.  That would be good news if it's only faulty wires.

I did try to swap the wires at first now that you mention it.  The wires were orange and black with the black wired to positive and orange to negative.  I didn't want to get confused since I'm used to black representing negative so I de-soldered them, swapped them, and re-soldered them.

On another note (one which doesn't necessarily have to get addressed in this thread), I installed the other backlight and a 1/8" pro sound mod tonight, got the backlight working fine (with a switch) and the pro sound jack produces sound.  However...  Everything is really quiet and the speaker emits no noise now.  Is that common?

Offline

Maybe your soldering is bad?