8bitcollective

I appeciate you revealing this and I'm sure others will to, you did the right thing.

Ok! This looks good. First a couple of qustions regarding the layers.
1) Mirror foil This layer is self explanatory, but to do you have any specific recommendations? Is a "real" mirror foil much better than, say kitchen aluminum foil.
2) Diffusion plastic Also self explanatory, and I know from my own experiments that real diffusion plastic is better than just plain plastic. Forgive me if I'm wrong on the terminology, but I assume that this is the layer with lines of ridges and grooves to help spread the light evenly.
3) Growth foil Tell me more about this layer. Or is this what I described above.
4) Blur foil Again, any recommendations?
5) Polarization foil The problem I've found with the polarization foil is not so much to get the (reused) foil itself clean from glue, (Ok, that too) but to get the LCD clean from the glue.

About the voltages then...
I see your point about the 9V batteries. If the LEDs are premounted and have a voltage drop of 2.66V each you really need 9V... But I have a theory on how to drive the LEDs without the battery mod. If you could tell me the value of the resistor you use now, I'll give you instructions for a little experiment.

And BTW, at some point I'll hook up a 9V battery to a Gameboy and make a timer app that counts how long it takes before the battery dries out. (And also check which voltage the battery is at, at that time.)

The only real problem I could detect with using a 9V battery is the possibility of the screen breaking because of it. If someone has a DMG that they can waste, maybe has too many broken lines or something, could you try this:

Power the Gameboy with a fresh 9V battery. Insert a cartridge with LSDj and turn off power save. Turn the contrast to the palest (lightest) setting, leave it on like that for maybe ten minutes. When you come back, see if you can adjust the contrast, or if the screen is broken. If that works, adjust it to the darkest setting and leave it for 10 minutes again. If the display still works, it's probably completely safe to use a 9V battery. If not... I'll have to figure something out.

Very cool, thanks for posting this!

So- the main difference between this and, say, the nonfinite mod, are the extra layers of "foil?" Specifically, the magnification ("growth") layer and the "blur" layer, right?

I'm guessing that the "diffusion plastic" is the original gameboy LCD. Is that right? If so, is the "mirror foil" the original foil on the GB LCD, or did you scrape that off?

I've seen "magnification" plastic from disassembled LCD monitors. Pretty cool stuff, but i'm not sure where to get it. Perhaps a science surplus site?

The "blur" layer must  diffuse the light even more, to eliminate the "hot spots," but i have no idea what it might be called officially, or what it is really doing, technically?

Hey everybody,

thanks for your postings, comments and tips.

So, let me try to explain each layer/foil a little bit more (though I have to admit, that I don't know any shop yet, who is selling those foils (instead of polfoil), but I'm still sure that won't be a big problem with the help of a great community like this):

1.Polarisation foil: this one is a foil, that is glued to the back of then Gameboy-LCD (in a pretty sticky way). Everybody should be familiar with that term.
2.Blur foil: I don't know the officially description for „blur-foil“ - I just named it like that, since I treasured it on my notebook-excavation (open your old - or maybe even broken - notebook-LCD and look for yourself. You'll find many usefull stuff in there): when my stock is exhausted, I will bid on another broken notebook and rape it well. Btw.: Also I tried to use silicon-spray on 60g/m2 paper to make a layer, that diffuses the light and blurs it, but forget about that – this is a naughty, greasy and meaningless procedure.
3.This one is magic! I have to admit, that I don't know the correct description for this aweseome layer, too. I couldn't even find anything about it in the www. Just one little clue: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vikuiti a company, that created a so called Vikuiti-foil, that has the abilty to reflect and strew light as a layer above the diffusion-plastic. Maybe you guys will find out more!


http://www.astromedia.de/


@burnkit2600: I don't own a Nonfinite-Kit or Nonfinite-DMG-mod (maybe I will order one once, since I'm starting to like the whole thing about the DMG). My brother Bonewire has a blackboy with a blue blacklight from nonfinite. I saw it, when I switched the light on and it looks great! This method is awesome and very professional solved. So, I can't answer your question (if the main-difference between mine and a Nonfinite-backlight are those layers), but I CAN say, that for my method it really IS necessary, to use 3 LED's, if you're up to receive such a bright and smooth result, like a here in droves shown „Lightboy-DMG“ offers (@analog).

@burnkit2600: The difusion-plastic is not the original Gameboy-LCD. Nor t's the mirror foil. When you remove the mirrorfoil (in fact it is more a glued layer than a foil) from the polarisation-foil of the DMG, it's not usable anymore. You can't pull that damn thing off in one whole piece!!!

@nitro2k01: kitchen aluminium foil has the attribute of being less shiny, less reflectiv, less darker  and less robust than a plain foil. Aluminium has a constant structure of small scratches. I didn't try it, but I just can't beleive, that you'll get the same effect and be happy with that. Maybe those little differences makes my method as good as it is.

@nitro2k01: when I pull off the polfoil from a DMG-LCD, there is mostly no glue left on the glas. Sometimes it happens, that there are some little glue-particles, but I'm cleaning the whole glas (LCD) anyway, before I start modding (often again and again, when my butcher-fingers can't assemble the DMG without touching it).

@nitro2k01: I'm really curious about your Idea of how to drive the LED's without my 9V-dual-system! To say it in Ogre-jargon: the resistor me using reduce the voltage ammount from 9V to exactly 8V (german values and meassures are often not equal to other countries).
I wouldn't connect a DMG to 9V – and I don't in my Lightboy-mods. There is a reduction, that feeds the Gameboy with soft 5-6 voltages. This won't affect the LCD.

@nitro2k01 (again): the „timer-thingy“ would be GREAT! If you can figure something like that out, you'll be next to hulk & co.!

@ICEnine: Deal! p+p comes to 93 €.

When I mount my next Lightboy-DMG (a greyboy or a blackboy), I will make some pictures for you guys, assembling it. But that could take a little while, since I have much other work to be done.

Some things could've been explained more accurate for me in german, but I hope to expressed understandable anyway.

Cheers,
Lightboy

LightBoy wrote:

@burnkit2600: The difusion-plastic is not the original Gameboy-LCD. Nor t's the mirror foil.

Ok, so the game boy LCD goes between the mirror and diffusion layers? And the LEDs shine thru the diffusion layer, not the side of the GB LCD?

awsum! thanks for the instructions.
still a tough one though!
if anyone gets a shop selling foils like lightboys, let us know, PLEASE!

chris_limitbreak wrote:

you did the right thing.

the internet hath spoken.

I just want to say thanks. And sorry for the upset before.

Hi guys (Hi little Bro

Just to make sure you don´t miss that, here is the post from my last Thread.
I Made some new photos to show the smooth light of this method.
I will do some inside photos when I´m doing my mod this night and will post it.
Hope you like it.

cheers

http://gallery.me.com/bonewire#100077&a … &sel=0

files.me.com/bonewire/e59dfn.mov

Bonewire wrote:

files.me.com/bonewire/e59dfn.mov

That video is the first LED mod I've seen that rivals EL. I otherwise think LED sidelighting is way ugly.

Any plans for Pocket?

arfink wrote:

OcnGhst wrote:

Any plans for Pocket?

I've already done this to pockets. Same materials. I am thinking of making a tutorial, as the pocket is significantly more difficult to work with.

E-mail me; I'm interested in chatting about it. ocnghst -at- gmail -daht- com.

(BTW, where's the e-mail functionality on profile pages, mods? No PMs, now no e-mails? Ooooor am I just missing something?)

WhiPpYcranium wrote:

"9V-block battery (580mAh – for the Gameboy)

9V-block battery (200mAh – for the backlight)"

The gameboy and the backlight are each powered separately.

do you need to have different types of batteries for each power supply or can you use the same 9v batteries for both of the power supplies?

You can use any 9V-battery for both, of course. It doesn't matter and works fine, the only difference is the battery-lifetime then.

You could also use 2 x 1200mAh 9V's, but for the backlight it's not really necessary, as the LED's are using very few power.

@OcnGhst: I installed a backlight in a Pocket. It's hard, to remove the Polfoil from the LCD without breaking the ribbonwire. The second Problem is the low voltage of the GBP (3V). It might be possible, to dremel a 9V-battery-sized hole in the chamber, powering the pocket and a backlight...

sorry, arfink. could you explain your last sentence in detail fro dummies. I really don´t understand that. 18v from where?

thank you.

cheers
Glenn (bonewire)

Hey everyone, I've kind of lurked on this board over the years and I've finally registered. This new backlight is just too awesome.

LightyBoy:
How much would it cost (if you're willing to do this) for me to send you my grey DMG and have you put a backlight in it? I don't want a Prosound or anything, just the backlight. You could take however long to mod it and then just send it back to me whenever you finished it. I'm hoping it wouldn't cost too much.

LightBoy, would you be willing to do what I posted above? ^^^^

This looks awesome. I have no idea where I'd get the materials, but it doesn't look like it's that difficult.
But I suppose with everybody looking at it there'll be some improvements made to it, so I think I'll wait before I try it out.

Latest Lightboy-mod:



A NES-Blackboy, without extra switch, using the original 4xAA Batteries!

The backlight is even a little bit brighter than in my 9v-method (still the same backlight-technic, of course)!

arfink wrote:

OcnGhst wrote:

Any plans for Pocket?

I've already done this to pockets. Same materials. I am thinking of making a tutorial, as the pocket is significantly more difficult to work with.

I made a tutorial for both the Pocket and the Game Boy Color. Mine involves taking the backlight from cracked DS lite screens (though you can order a new one for 10 dollars and take parts from it)

And what would it be without pictures?

GB Pocket: http://forums.modretro.com/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=263


GB Color: http://forums.modretro.com/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=916



Also, this video really shows it off quite a bit better:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loeZzz8m3Fo

Sadly, the GBC is not backlightable, and must be frontlit.



Also, arfink, the DMG does have ~11V in the front half, pullable from caps, but at much lower current - my attempts to power a backlight resulted in disgusting contrast, so wiring 3-4 in series is the way to go using the available LED voltage.

Last edited by Bibin (October 01, 2009 4:46 pm)

As arfink said, the DC-DC board has 18V output; just be sure to add some resistance so the LCD gets enough current for itself! It'll flicker otherwise.

As for the GBC, I'll be making another one and prosounding it, and selling it. If you are interested, feel free to make offers.

Hey guyz,

I got some new SMD-LED's which are even 30% brighter than in my old Method! It looks awesome and keeps the contrast just as good!

I just made a black Gameboy Classic with inverted polarisation, a blue power LED, 2 blue SNES buttons and my new backlight, of course.

So all in all this Gameboy is totally black & bue.

Here is the blue SNES-Blackboy DMG!

Feel free to bit!


Edit: And another one - Greyboy with darkgrey buttons from special edition!

Last edited by LightBoy (December 01, 2009 1:58 pm)

I just found a great solution, brushing the display-front!

Also I found a good looking matt-black paint for the case.

Here is the Black Mattboy DMG.

Here are 2 pictures:


(Black-brushed display [just after removing the brush-protection-tape])


(Black Mattboy - with blue power SMD-LED)

For more pictures click on the link above.

Hope you like it!

Edit:

And heres my black Tetris-cartridge (all part of the auction, of course):

Last edited by LightBoy (March 02, 2010 6:16 am)

Hurray, people are taking advantage of biversions finally!

Feel free to slap on a wee bit of credit No pressure though

Last edited by Bibin (March 21, 2010 10:53 am)