65

(36 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)

e.s.c. wrote:

in what sense? aluminum has been used for everything from business card cases to briefcases to cameras. no reason a game console NEEDS to be plastic, and aluminum has the bonus of helping dissipate heat

Aluminium is heavier than plastic, assuming the same structure. The heat dissipation advantage really only holds true if the heat-producing components are thermally bonded with the case. A Gameboy shouldn't need the extra heat sinking anyway. Also, as I've repeated everywhere I've had the opportunity, I'm 95% sure that's not actually aluminium, but regular ABS plastic with a silver finish. Think the original Nintendo DS's silver finish as an example, and of course any number of random products. Maybe I will have to eat my words when the thing comes out, though...

New version released.

New in BGB 1.5.6 (2017-12-06) - Fixed regression: choppy framerate and sound glitches after pause.

BGB homepage

New version released.

New in BGB 1.5.5 (2017-11-27) - Added support for GUI display scaling. Improved input lag on 120 Hz display mode. Improvements to debug messages. A number of bug fixes and small improvements.

The link port works the same on GBA SP as on any other Gameboy. You can use it to sync etc... Just make sure your link cable has the smaller plug on one or both ends (as needed). The bigger plug is used on DMGs and the smaller plug is used on Gameboy Pocket, Color and Advance.

69

(7 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)

Roni, I've replied to your PM.

70

(6 replies, posted in Releases)

Nice use of "concat". I tried "sincat" to reduce my dependence on felines, but ultimately it instead just made them float in space on harmonically pure waves.

One common cause of this type of fault is that you might've briefly shorted two adjacent pins on the ribbon cable while inserting or removing it. In particular, the LCD drive voltage (-19 V) and the combined line used for reading the state of the left and B buttons. For this reason, you should NEVER insert or remove that ribbon while the power is on.

If this is the case, booth left and B have been permanently fried, and the CPU is basically unusable, unless you find an application where missing those buttons is acceptable. (Maybe external MIDI control?) If the B button is still functional you know that this is NOT the fault though, and you should look for a place where something connected to ground is shorted to something else.

72

(1 replies, posted in Bugs and Requests)

No username changes are allowed, sorry.

Have you checked continuity between the two pin 13's with a meter or only through visual inspection? Something like micro-crack in the trace, or a dry solder joint that has separated from the surface can be hard to detect visually.

If you look at the SID datasheet page 3, you'll see that voice 1 and 2 are in the lower half of the memory map, where A4=0. So it seems like for whatever reason, the second chip is not reacting to writes to the top half of its memory map. This could be because the A4 line is broken on the SID2SID. (If it was broken elsewhere, the same problem would affect both chips equally, even without the SID2SID.) It could also be because the IO1 pin doesn't decode correctly when A4=1 for whatever reason, which could be an issue with the machine itself.

Also check that pin 13 (number 2 counting up from the bottom left corner) has a connection to pin 13 on the other chip/the long legs. You might have a broken trace on the PCB, bad solder joint, missing solder joint etc.

Double check that the CS connection (the wire soldered between the chips) goes to the right place on the C64.

76

(7 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)

I'd go over these connections with a soldering iron. Turn the power off before doing this, and gently hold the flexible PCB down so it does come lose when applying heat. Make sure there are no bridges before turning the power back on. Otherwise, this might be a problem with the contrast wheel, such as the wiper not making good contact with the potentiometer track.

Oh wait, I misread the message of the seller completely. If there's sound (consistently) then the CPU is getting power. I will go out on a limb and suggest that the first thing you should try to replace are the capacitors on the power board. Then, some of the ones on the LCD board.

Also, a general precaution. Never plug or unplug the LCD ribbon cable while the DMG is powered on. Doing so at any slight angle might kill the function of the  left and B buttons, because those are next to -19 V drive voltage for the LCD. Always worth pointing out.

Could be a power issue. What he describes as lines on the screen sometimes, could be power that dies after a split second. Might for example be related to the power regulator board in the lower left corner, for example bad capacitors. It could be due to dirty/loose contacts on the power switch, corrosion in the DC jack. (It has an internal switch that disconnects the battery when a DC jack is inserted, and that internal switch could be broken.) But hard to tell without further information. Likely to be fixable, but you need to find the problem.

Would help to see a video of the issue once you receive it, as well as pictures of the internals.

New version released.

New in BGB 1.5.4 (2017-07-18) - Fixed regression: pokemon yellow broken in SGB mode. Fixed a number of bugs.

Since it doesn't work well with GBA, the probable answer is no.