LED Game Cartridge

[Gaara Ichimaru]

Hey guys, sorry if I sound like a complete noob (tbh I am to modding anyway) but I want to mod my gbc game cart, add an LED light to it so that when its in my gbc it lights up, I did find a tutorial I think but I lost it and it didn't make much sense to me

If you only answer specific questions,

1) what do i connect the LED too, and do i need to solder wires to the LED first?

2)Will it only light up when its in the GBC?

Thanks for your time, I just want to start out with a simple mod for experience reasons. If I posted this in the wrong section, sorry, I'm not completely used to the forums yet.

-Gaara

[Haunted360]

Hey,

Yea you can do this Mod. It looks VERY cool when finished.

I think it was Shock Slayer (Known as SS'), who did this.


All I know, is that if you open up your game cartridge and find the +5 / +3.3 Volts (Pin 1) and ground (Pin 32), then wire that to a resistor (if 5 Volts) - followed by an LED. Then your finished!

And yes. It will require soldering.


Thanks.

[Gaara Ichimaru]

Hey,

Yea you can do this Mod. It looks VERY cool when finished.

I think it was Shock Slayer (Known as SS'), who did this.


All I know, is that if you open up your game cartridge and find the +5 / +3.3 Volts (Pin 1) and ground (Pin 32), then wire that to a resistor (if 5 Volts) - followed by an LED. Then your finished!

And yes. It will require soldering.


Thanks.

Got any pics? or a quick labelled diagram? Im not sure where the pins are, do you mean at the opening of the cart? Also will a resistor fit when its closed? O.o

[omfgcaps]

When he says pin 1 and 32, he means the far right and left pins on the cart.

when you open it up, one will say GND, one will say VCC

[Gaara Ichimaru]

When he says pin 1 and 32, he means the far right and left pins on the cart.

when you open it up, one will say GND, one will say VCC

so im guessing I solder the wires attached to the LED to the GND (ground?) and the other to the VCC? and do I have to use a resistor? If so, would i have to put one at each end?

Sorry I'm being a pain, I just need to learn really..

Thanks very much,

-Gaara

[lucidPerspective]

Gaara! Youtube! HERE

the resister is used to drop the voltage/current so you don't blow up your LED.. INFORMATION!

Hope that helps

[Gaara Ichimaru]

Gaara! Youtube! HERE

the resister is used to drop the voltage/current so you don't blow up your LED.. INFORMATION!

Hope that helps

Thank you very much Lucid, the most helpful comment I have ever read perhaps

My only real question now is, do I attach the positive side to the power and the negative side to ground?

I'm about to go to the electrics store so I'll pick up those things, thanks again,

-Gaara

[lucidPerspective]

Haha, all good, I'm here to help

But don't quote me on "drop the voltage/current" I can't remember if it drops voltage or current, or both. I'm pretty sure that it drops everthing, I'm sure someone will drop by and prove me wrong if I am, but the basic idea is that your LED will blow up if you feed it too much voltage/current

yes that's right, you want to go 'Postitive Voltage - resistor - LED (make sure you attach it the right way around) - ground

The LED will have a flat bit, like you'll see that it's round mostly, but above one of the legs there will be a flat bit.. that flat bit is the way to ground. like this positive ----- ___Cl___ ----- ground

" Cl "is the LED.. the flat bit is the negative side..


Lol.. that was probably more confusing than helpful, but I'm sure you'll figure it out.. just ask the guy at the electronics store what value resistor + LED you should get, tell him you'll be running it off 5v and he should be able to get you the right ones. (assuming the gameboy cart's rail IS 5v)

Have fun! ..don't blow up too many LED's before you get it right

[Haunted360]

But don't quote me on "drop the voltage/current" I can't remember if it drops voltage or current, or both. I'm pretty sure that it drops everthing, I'm sure someone will drop by and prove me wrong if I am, but the basic idea is that your LED will blow up if you feed it too much voltage/current

It drops the Voltage only. Current (I think you meant Amps), is the power it can supply.

I mean, if you had 1 Amp going through it, it would not do anything - as long as it is running at 3.3 Volts of course.

[Gaara Ichimaru]

Okay, I took some pictures earlier, so as you guys are helping me a great deal I decided to post them so you can see progress

Here is the Gameboy Colour I'm using:


And this is the type of game cart I'm using:


Here are my LED's, I'm still deciding which one to use, one is 3mm the other is 5mm I think the 3mm is a red super bright and the 5mm is just ordinary:

Left are my 82r resistors which I'll use to connect the LED and right are my 42 ohms resistors for the front-light:


My wire that I'll use to attach everything:

(A whole ten meters of it!)

And this is how I got out this annoying screw for the cart :



And that's all, when I get a soldering iron set up I'll take more pics

Thanks again guys,

-Gaara

[lucidPerspective]

It drops the Voltage only

Your wrong.

I just did some tests with a battery, and having a resistor mainly only drops the current (Amperage)

2.4Amp - 8.09V battery (Natural)
0.1uA (0.01mA or 0.001A) - 8.09V (with 4.6k resistor)
0.0A - 7.3V (with 500k resistor)

so having the resistor drops only the current, unless you overkill it with a huge resistor like the 500k one I tried, and then the voltage drops a bit too.

So I was right but, I really should've been sure of my answer before I made it


Pics always make a thread come alive! hopefully you don't screw up your game cart, I'd practice on a game you don't like first

[Gaara Ichimaru]

It drops the Voltage only

Your wrong.

I just did some tests with a battery, and having a resistor mainly only drops the current (Amperage)

2.4Amp - 8.09V battery (Natural)
0.1uA (0.01mA or 0.001A) - 8.09V (with 4.6k resistor)
0.0A - 7.3V (with 500k resistor)

so having the resistor drops only the current, unless you overkill it with a huge resistor like the 500k one I tried, and then the voltage drops a bit too.

So I was right but, I really should've been sure of my answer before I made it

Yup, in fact it told me that in one of the links you sent me XD which is the only embarrassing thing about it.

And yeah It's only Rayman, which isn't my favorite, when I get a Pokemon crystal i'll replicate it when I'm sure I won't mess it up

And that is why a resistor is called a resistor, current is the flow of the electrical particles, think of it as a hall way,
the wire is a hallway, and the current is the people all crammed in the hallway trying to run through it, well the resistor basically narrows the hallway, making it harder for the people (Current) to get through, therefore less people are able to get through and It takes longer for them to reach their destination (The LED). The less people passing the destination (The LED) the less power it gets And voila! my essay on current and resistance is over

Thanks for reading to the end and not getting completely bored (I hope).

-Gaara

[lucidPerspective]

Now that was a good description! I really should have looked at those links I gave you

and I did comment about your mega post lol, look at the bottom of my reply .. one thing though, you should probably make your pics smaller, or just post a thumbnail of the pic. You'll probably get told off by a moderator for "screen stretching pics". I know they stretched my screen and I'm on a 24"

edit: you edited your post when you saw I did talk about your post ..which is only fair because I edited that bit in at the last minute

[Gaara Ichimaru]

Now that was a good description! I really should have looked at those links I gave you

and I did comment about your mega post lol, look at the bottom of my reply .. one thing though, you should probably make your pics smaller, or just post a thumbnail of the pic. You'll probably get told off by a moderator for "screen stretching pics". I know they stretched my screen and I'm on a 24"

Yeah I made an edit to my post as I just noticed the bottom bit of your post after posting... Headdesk...

But yeah, I'll go and make them smaller now, they are quite big

EDIT: Made the images a better size now so it's easier to get a real feel for it

-Gaara

[lucidPerspective]

Are you sure you changed the size of the pics? they still look the same to me lol

edit: I'm thinking you might have a hard time using that wire and getting it to all fit back into the closed cartridge. you only need thick wire like that if your putting lot's of current/voltage through it. for an LED job like this the wire from an IDE cable should be fine (IDE is 28AWG, bigger number is smaller) ..that wire could just look bigger than it actually is though lol