Guide to frontlight a Gameboy Color

[ChooChooBot]

Hey guys I recently modded my Gameboy Color to have a frontlight from a GBA SP in it. Doing this mod was a blast, so I decided to make a guide. Visit this link to get started building your own front lit Gameboy Color. http://www.choochoobot.com/builds/gameb ... d-001.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Coreykun667]

This is a pretty good guide. It seems a lot more thorough than a lot of other guides. Thanks for sharing!
By the way, is there a way to solder the wires without melting the ribbon cable? I'm a newbie to things like this. Any tips you can give me?

[ChooChooBot]

Ahhhh I can see your concern and trust me I worried about that too. A thin tip for your solder gun will help you get in narrow places. If your nervous about soldering practice on wires, a perf board, or start with a more simple circuit. I have messed up my fair share of GBA SP frontlight ribbon cables in the process of making my own so don't feel bad if you mess up.

[Coreykun667]

Yeah, I'm pretty worried, I can't really get access to many frontlight sp's for a decent price even if they're broken. What type or gauge of wire did you use?

[ChooChooBot]

22 gauge wire.

[Coreykun667]

Thanks! I might also paint the outside of my GBC. Purple isn't exactly the color I like. Maybe silver on the front and then make the back black.

[ChooChooBot]

Cool idea and best of luck on your mod!

[Coreykun667]

I just got some 22 gauge wire. I didn't know whether to choose between solid or stranded. I picked solid, is that ok?

[ChooChooBot]

I like to use stranded in all my mods. But when I prototype on my breadboard I like solid. You should be fine with solid wire for your Gameboy.

[Coreykun667]

I've had a thought. Somebody said something about the color being washed out from the mod. I heard about anti reflective film for the screen to prevent that. Where would I happen to find this?

[ChooChooBot]

Nah you won't need any anti reflective film. Those films are used in Backlight mods. In our mod the light is in front of the screen. Hence it being called a frontlight mod. If your screen looks washed out when your mod is done it means that your frontlight is flipped the wrong way.

[Coreykun667]

Oh, I thought I would have to put one on the lcd, but I'm glad that I don't have to do that.

[Coreykun667]

I finally got the donor sp. Just waiting on the srewdrivers to come in the mail. The sp has some problems, so I don't feel bad about killing a fully working one. I paid 5 bucks for it as-is.

[Coreykun667]

I've been thinking. Is there a significant loss in battery life, or is there no loss at all? Nobody has really complained about it, but one of my friend brought the question up when I told him I was going to mod my gbc.

[ChooChooBot]

Nice grab on the 5 dollar SP. Mine were $24 a piece.... . The battery life feels the same to me so no need to worry about in draining batteries.