Possibility of modding a GBA SP+ screen/parts into an original GBA?

[Jedah Doma]

Fisrt of all, hello and howdy to all. This is my first post here. I'm reaching out to this place because the other forums I visit don't have members who know much about modding.

So here's my dilemma. I love me some Gameboy Advance. I own both a GBA SP+, with the new backlit screen, a GBA Micro, and an original GBA. As much as I love all these systems, the form factor and d-pad of the original is my favorite. Of course the only problem is the lack of a backlit screen.

Now I know about the Afterburner mod and a few others, but from what I've seen, the colors are washed out and bland. I would like a screen almost or just as good as the new SP's. So a thought came to mind, could I cannibalize a screen from a new SP and slap it into an original GBA? If not just the screen, could I then take the guts of a GBA SP and implant them into an original GBA?

Thoughts?

UPDATE:

Well I bought an original GBA to see what my options were. I don't think I'll be able to take the guts from a GBA SP+ into a GBA as the button and d-pad placement is different. I would have to do some serious circuit board modding to seperate pieces in order for me to get everything in the right spot. While that sounds like fun, it seems very difficult if even possible.

But, my first idea of switching screens may work. Here are two pictures.

ORIGINAL GBA
http://www.substance-tv.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/img_6736.jpg

GBA SP+
http://www.substance-tv.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/img_6731.jpg

Now I'm no electronics expert, but from what I can see, there are 32 connections on the original GBA and 34 connections on the GBA SP+. Both connectors look very similar. I can only imagine that the two extra connections on the GBA SP+ are for the extra power etc. needed to run the screen. I would think there would be a way to solder two extra wires from the circuit board to facilitate whatever power/connections are needed to power the GBA SP+ screen.

Pretty much, what do some of you modding/electronic gurus think of the possibility of transplanting a GBA SP+ screen into an original GBA?

[phreak97]

You would have to find pinouts for the two displays. if they are unobtainable you can try freezing the same image on both screens (pull the cart out while on) then measuring the pins against eachother, they might be the same aside from the couple of extra ones, but I dont know.

If youre lucky, they'll be the same protocol and a close pinout. but even then, soldering that isnt going to be heaps easy, and you'll still need to recreate the backlight power (it may not be constant voltage).

[kwyjibo]

I've just dissasembled a GBA (ice blue I think it was named), and it has a 40 pins connector... Different revisions? It seems to have a Sharp LCD.

[phreak97]

I think all of them are sharp lcd's.. psp's are sharp too funnily enough.
most consoles undergo a series of revisions, it's quite possible there are different gba lcd revisions.

[kwyjibo]

Here are my experiments,

Used the test points to make a bridge between the two boards, powering the GBA board (not the SP board). I connected only the wires for the green colour (for simplicity). I figured out some connections (not every one was labelled). Please, ignore some floating wires, it's been a long time since I made the experiment, and then all wires were correctly soldered (or I hope so).

The results were a bit disappointing. The SP screen powered on, with light, but it didn't seem to be any image on screen (don't remember what game I used, but the game was running correctly, as the sound changed while a was navigating (blindly) in the menu. Only a small amount of green led were lighted, and didn't seem that they were following a pattern...

I attached a table with the connections, and a few close ups.

Any ideas?

[l_oliveira]

That kind of test don't work because you have a second and unpowered AGB-CPU chip on the GBA-SP board and that will put parasite resistance on all lines of the display. You need to connect the display directly to the GBA board if you wish to have any chance of it working. I recommend you to buy some flat ribbon cables and build an adapter from that.

[kwyjibo]

Thanks for the reply. When I started, I think about it, but, as building an adapter would be more dificult, I have to try this first... The main problem with the flat ribbon adapter, is that some signals are not present in the original GBA socket, so I'll have to wire them some how...

[phreak97]

yep thats where the difficulty is, you will neet to recreate any missing signals if they are required by the display. Having the display connected to an sp with or without power isnt going to help you there anyway though.

you should do some research to find out what the missing lines from each display do. you might find theyre compatible or adaptable.

[kwyjibo]

Exactly, if you look at the table, almost every signal needed for the GBA SP screen is present in the GBA, but the U83 which controls de light (and VDD5 in GBA SP is not equal to VDD5 in GBA)...

The problem is that the signals in the connector are not in the same order, which means I have to cut and flip part of the ribbon cable...

[phreak97]

are you sure you measured the vdd5 pins correctly? you havent specified any other power pin for the sp screen, I would expect Vdd5 to be the 5v connection.. the light you can ignore for now, just get the picture going, the light should be easy enough later. if you didnt wire up power to the sp screen then it was never going to work..  I was wondering why the sp didnt switch on by itself when you powered the gba on wired up in parallel.. connecting the 5v rails together should have caused all sorts of funky unhappiness including video sections fighting eachother and hurting outputs and all sorts.

you need to buy an smd ribbon socket to suit and a roll of wire wrapping wire, then you can wire the socket however you want.

[vresu]

hi how was the modded gba backlight so far i am intrested with this mod XD i would love to play my gba (old ) with backlight! not front light XD

[kwyjibo]

I'm trying, when I have time available, to do what phreak97 suggested, connect the SP screen directly, but I'm having some trouble soldering to the small connector I obtained from a spare parts SP...

[phreak97]

Are you still hoping to get this working? I'm interested to see some results too:)

[Mikeman64]

I too would love to see this happen. If you need any help at all let me know. I think it would be very much worth a team effort if need be.

[Masaray67]

Does someone have pinouts for the 32 pin gba's ribbon connector?

[metrolf]

Hi, stop what you are doing!
The reason for saying that is that I am fairly certain that there is a place online where you can get an adapter for the ribbon cable on the SP screen that allows you to plug it into an original gameboys screen socket without any soldering or modding at all. I think I found this by watching a guy on youtube that "specialized" in modding gameboys. Try searching for "Gameboy advance SP to original Gameboy advance screen swap" and/or add/search for "Ribbon cable adapter" 

Edit:

Now maybe not "without any soldering", cause I believe you would need to make up for the power to the light in the SP screen, possibly by grabbing it somewhere on the GBA board. But I know I've seen a screen-swap video on youtube! Also, check out my slightly related project, a GBASP in a DS case, here: http://forums.benheck.com/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=72038

Maybe I should've checked when this post was made huh? Only looked at the date of the recent poster, silly me For all I know, you might be the one who made that video I'm referring to