Wow - i signed up just because of this thread! I can't believe what a great job you have done, congratulations!
Any chance of a full guide?
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Wow - i signed up just because of this thread! I can't believe what a great job you have done, congratulations!
Any chance of a full guide?
thanks! i'm glad you liked it :)
about the guide, in the next days i have to unmount the vmu again to check that damn led in the middle, i'll make some pics and explain step by step how to do this mod :)
Soon i'll mod a Game boy Color either, a friend of mine liked a lot this mod and wanted his GBC modded in the same way :D
Thats awesome, thank you, im sure there are a lot of people that will want to give it a go, thanks again!
Please dont have forgoteen this guide, i think its going to change my life!
hi, don't worry ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by unerd
today or tomorrow i'll post the guide here, i'm not english so it's a bit challenging for me to write down a full guide to explain something in a different language. I'm writing it on notepad right now :D i just have to check again my awful grammar and syntax, then upload all photos to explain steps better :p
Sorry for double post:
Let's premise i'm Italian and my english is not Jawsum, so if any moderator feels sick reading this for my awful grammar, i would be pleased to be corrected and make this guide more readable! ;)
for this mod is needed:
a VMU (rly?)
reflective layers
SMD flash white leds
resistor(s)
Multimeter
basic soldering skills
a LOT of patience
pick a screwdriver and open the vmu's back. remove the others two screws on the battey's blades. Watchout for the speaker's wires (i recommend to unsolder it, it's really annoying to have the back cover hanging around)
Now, flip the vmu, hold the screen with a finger, and remove the front cover.
We have only the board and his screen attached.
http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/2919/44400190.th.jpg
now, use a marking pen or whatever to remember what's the top and the bottom of the screen. It never happened to me, but i think the screen won't be happy to be plugged upside down...
then, GENTLY raise the screen's rubber conductors from the board to detach it. use something like a tiny screwdriver, a blade or anything else thin enough.(detach both at the same time by the same direction)
DO NOT try to brutally lift up the screen, you could risk to detach the rubber from the lcd itself, the result could be a dead screen or missing lines on it!
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/7611/57818087.th.jpg
Here comes the hardest, dangerous and tedious step:
The original reflective sheet on lcd's back doesn't allow the light to pass through him, we need to remove it from the screen, this part is a terrible PITA.
During this operation is extremely easy to accidentally hit and snap off these protruding rubbers and fu*k up everything!!
My own tip is to first lift only a corner of the paper, this paper is glued to the screen, you could use an hairdryer to heat his glue and make this task a bit easier.
http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/1699/44201925.th.jpg
now, before completely lift it up, take the front cover and put the screen in the original place.
as you can see, in here the plastic corners holds these rubbers, finish this operation in here, it's safer for potential errors.
after this, the tedious part is not over. Even if we have completely removed that sh(i)eet, the glass surface is all sticky with glue all over it.
personally, i choosen to clean it, but this takes a LOT of time and it is DAMN BORING, it's optional.
But now, let's talk about the cool and entertaining stuff! :p
we need some leds to light up our screen, then something to diffuse the light homogeneously on it.
This part would be a LOT easier if you have an existing device to sacrifice, disassembling his lcd and stole leds and reflective sheets.
If you have an old smartphone, a digital camera with a cracked screen or simply obsolete stuff with a backlighted screen on it, you could use them for something worth of.
You could also take reflective layers from common lcds like monitors or tvs, but usually they are not so good for this job, their layers are thicker and wont fit between the vmu's screen and the board ( you have also to deal with the vmu processor underneath),
an other problem is the backlight itself, usually they have a thin and long fluoro lamp. So, you should buy SMD leds apart anyway.
Here as example the tiny lcd screen of a broken printer:
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/1467/71409811.th.jpg
i've removed the cover, now i can unplug the lcd screen.
We need to separate the lcd itself form reflective layers and leds:
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/6254/34243789.th.jpg
gently open it and take them apart, that's all we need:
http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/6882/34976726.th.jpghttp://img52.imageshack.us/img52/2539/36402768.th.jpg
we don't need any of the other pieces:
http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/4835/65374178.th.jpg
if the device you're sacrificing was still working, i recommend to plug back to the device his leds (without the lcd) and check with a multimeter their Volts and mA, usually each one needs from 3,0V to 3,5V and 20mA maybe less, but hardly more. Watchout for shorts!
These leds are usually soldered in series. for example: 3 leds in series needs around 9V from the device, higher if you have more leds.
http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/5854/95538501.th.jpg
your VMU can supply at least 3,5V from pin1 and 3,3V from pin14, it's obviously not enough to supply the whole series. We have an other PITA job to do, we have to wire these tiny leds in parallel.
the easier way is to solder in first place a wire on each led's anode and cathode:
http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/2915/15842025.th.jpg
this is an other way, harder but better:
http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/9514/84916972.th.jpg
then cut the series traces or just cut the board using a scissor (they're usually soldered on a flexible pcb), then distend some electric tape upside down on the table, and stick all leds together, in this way, you've cutted the original series traces and parallel wires are ready to use! ^^ (be sure each led is distant from each other as before)
attach them to the main reflective layer. the main is the thicker one, it should be also less opaque than others. If you use tape as i do, try to not invade the plastic layer as possible, a nice alternative could be a bit of transparent glue.
http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/4534/88504125.th.jpghttp://img9.imageshack.us/img9/8427/72958980.th.jpg
now place all others layers in the original order (usually everything on top of the main one, but the mirror-like one behind it) and test them:
http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/742/59876240.th.jpg
don't give up, it's almost done! :)
now we need to cut all the exceding plastic. to fit perfectly behind the screen it should be 3,3cm (1.3 inch) width and 3cm (1,18 inch) height.
after this, let's put the lcd back on the surface and check if everything fits well.
http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/2952/30222899.th.jpg
of everything is ok, let's go to the final step!
the only thing left is to solder these wires to the vmu! :p
As TmEE recommended to me, add a resistor to gain a longer life for leds and less waste of power.
A resistor around 100-180ohm should be ok if leds you're usig needs around 3V to work. if not, or if you want to check it by yourself just calculate it, it should be like this:
if you want use pin 14:
Resistor= 3,3V - (your leds volts) / 0,02A (if leds are too bright, try to divide for a lower current, like 0,015. if too weak try 0,025 or 0,03)
if pin 1:
Resistor= 3,5V - (your leds volts) / 0,02A (same as before)
leds are polarized, so they work only if wired by the right side! every anode to the positive, and cathodes to ground (pin 7 and 8). Solder every led's wires per once, if it doesn't light up, try to reverse wires.
if everything is ok, close your vmu! in first place, mount the front cover, the cover itself will center the screen in the right position. Flip the vmu and put back battey's blades (screw them tight!). Solder again the speaker and finally close the damn thing.
THAT'S ALL! :D
post for any question!
thank you, i can't wait to give this a try, i've read the guide over and it all seems to make sense (especially when matched with the images!). I'll let you know how it goes.
Thanks again for your efforts!
Excellent work My good man! This is going on My list of things to do to My VMU. (Next time I've some petty cash, I'm planing on adding an external battery so I can finally play those damn mini-games!)
1. Am I correct that the LEDs in your first mod (Sonic 2 screen) are on the bottom of the screen, and in your tutoral on the side of the screen?... If so, does it make any difference?...
2. The picture with the connected LEDs doesn't show all the connections due to the tape. I suppose you simply connect all the cathodes together, and separately connect all the anodes together, and then just add a wire to both the outer cathode and anode?...
Very very nice mod by the way. Very stylish... :)
Since you didn't bother answering I just went along and tried it out for myself.
I used a Nintendo DS screen to make this one :
http://i984.photobucket.com/albums/a...MUrevision.jpg
The leds aren't as bright in reality as in the picture, but they are still bright.
I guess the results will always vary a little depending on what screen you use to do the mod.
In time I might add a resistor to tone them down a little, although the screen is quite enjoyable to look at as it is... ^^
Very nice tutorial. I'm bookmarking this.
One question : can I use mobile phone LEDs ? I was using that kind of LED to modded my Dual Shock controller LED years ago ( but it wasn't me who done the work ).
Yes, they should work just fine...
Thank you for the answer :D
btw, nice work elmagicochrisg, i wasn't active in those weeks when you asked help for your mod, sorry!
Rezqiano, as elmagicochrisg said it should be fine ;)
i'm planning other mods for DC's controllers! like glossy backlighted ABXY buttons, an extra input port on the controller itself to attach unmodded Saturn's controller (like wiimote does with nunchucks or classic controllers), motion sensing and maybe built in rumble :p
But i guess i'll have sacrify something, or else i'll get an excessive power consumption and the controllers port fuse will blow easly.