GoingHam
Offline
Chicago

Backstory: I recently purchased 2 dmg01 gameboys to add to my collection, which are somewhat broken now.
Which is great and all but the first one that I received I spliced the ribbon cable that is directly underneath the thin rubber gasket with a razor blade while trying to remove the polarization and emulsion layer. Which lead me to purchase another unit today. The gameboy was in very good condition no external damage or dead pixel or lines, I was so exited.

I've spent the whole entire day messing with this thing and I'm at my wits end.

I solder the backlight into the second one and then power it on, the screen only has one horizontal line at the top which I don't really mind to much but the the entire screen is completely white. The contrast wheel isn't any help, it doesn't function any longer besides slightly changing the contrast of the horizontal line. The gameboy is still functioning as it starts up and the little ping sounds and the game starts but still nothing but a blank screen.

I really need help is there anything I can do to fix this?

kineticturtle
Offline
Matthew Joseph Payne

Take some photos, decent resolution, focusing on your soldering, and post them here.

GoingHam
Offline
Chicago

I uploaded photos and a demonstration video  here : http://www.flickr.com/photos/78506184@N … otostream/

This is currently the first gameboy's bottom half with the second's front board installed, just to clear where this project is at right now.

kineticturtle
Offline
Matthew Joseph Payne

Yeah, it looks like you've got thrashed ribbon cables on both gameboys. In this photo:

...the third pin from the left looks like a goner, possibly others.

In this photo:

...well, I think you're aware of the problem.

The one I posted second is 110% fucked. The first one I posted could theoretically be fixed by running very thin wires from the board contacts pictured to the relevant pins on the ribbon connector's socket on the CPU PCB. You can use a multimeter or continuity tester to confirm which pins on the ribbon are not connected. You would need to use VERY thin gauge wire (like 30 or so) so it would fit comfortably under the backlight.

However, I must warn you that it doesn't seem like your soldering is up to the task. All of your solder joints are cold joints, and have a decent amount of mess. I would suggest finding something you care less about to sacrifice and practice soldering. You want to wind up with a smooth, shiny pile of solder that neatly covers the available metal surface. Tin your wires first. Breathe, calm down, apply heat until the solder melts completely, apply wire to be soldered, remove heat, don't let the wire move until the solder has completely cooled. Practice practice practice before you start working on the gameboys again. smile

It's also possible that your iron isn't getting hot enough. If you find yourself working hard to press the iron onto the joints you're soldering to get them to melt, then that's probably the case - or you never tinned the tip of your iron.

Alternately, you could pass this to an expert. Myself, Apeshit or Justinthursday could all redo this affordably. Any one of us could probably sell you a new screen PCB as well.

GoingHam
Offline
Chicago

Wow! THANKS KINETICTURTLE SO MUCH!!! Very nice detailed post, I can finally stop racking my brain with troubleshooting for hours upon end.

I figured the second one photo'd was completely cached nada worries though. I don't know how I feel personally trying to solder the thin wires to the board contacts then to the connector socket. You would be correct this is really my first soldering project, but mostly its just because I've solder and soldered over it again and again due to trial and error and lack of patience with this machine.

Now I still have a perfectly fine ribbon cable (like shown in first picture) connected to the sliced ribbon cable unit. How difficult would you presume it would be to make this kind of transplant? / Would I even be able to handle it without a big solder mess?

Out of extreme curiosity and interest how much would and 3 of you guy's charge for this kind of operation or just an entirely new screen PCB?

Apeshit
Offline

I could send you a pre-backlit LCD. Feel free to PM me if you're interested.

GoingHam
Offline
Chicago

PM'd.
I just want to say, I can't thank you gentlemen enough.
I'm glad to have found such a fantastic chiptune forum community, you guys are fucking fantastic!

kineticturtle
Offline
Matthew Joseph Payne

Glad to be of service. I'm sure that Ape will be able to take care of you from here, he does fantastic work.

GoingHam wrote:

Now I still have a perfectly fine ribbon cable (like shown in first picture) connected to the sliced ribbon cable unit. How difficult would you presume it would be to make this kind of transplant? / Would I even be able to handle it without a big solder mess?

For the record, transplanting those ribbon cables is theoretically possible, but generally not worth the trouble, especially at a beginner's skill level.