hencethus' GBZ work in progress

[hencethus]

Progress has been slow on this one, but I figured I'd start documenting it.


I found an "as-is" DMG-01 at a flea market for $25 and I bought it for the Game Boy Zero project, but when I got it home I found that it was too easy to fix so I didn't want to tear it apart. Instead I did the popular backlight and bivert mod and added a glass screen cover. Pretty nifty, but didn't get me any closer to a completed Game Boy Zero. I was able to find a DMG-01 with a busted up screen on eBay. Perfect for the Game Boy Zero.


I started by cutting out the screen window with some sewing thread, but wasn't too happy with the results.@MattTheHuman suggested using a metal shim and grinding away the plastic with a rotary tool until I hit metal. I found this door latch thingy lying around. The result is not perfect, but definitely "good enough" by my standards. I cut the button holes out using @Helder's template and glued on the button wells from an SNES controller. I had to grind them down a little to make them the right height.


Sacrificed a ribbon cable from an old IDE hard drive to solder on to Helder's button PCB. Looks like the PCB lines up nicely with the button holes. I sanded down the front half of the case and cleaned it up to prepare for paint. I applied a couple of coats of red. The plan is to use all white buttons from Kitsch-Bent.


I got one of the 3.5" LCD back-up cameras from Amazon and this is the board I got. The wiki has instructions on how to power it off of 5V. Here it is being powered from the Pi Zero. My desk really is that messy pretty much all the time. I tested the screen with some SMW. Unfortunately it feels ever so slightly laggy. If I hadn't spent so many hours of my life playing Super Mario World I might not notice it, but I know how it's supposed to feel and it doesn't feel like that. I'm not sure if it's screen latency or the Pi Zero. I'll have to do some testing to figure it out.

[Camble]

Nice idea inverting the colours! I've seen painted buttons before where the paint transferred onto fingers. Might be something to look out for.

[hencethus]

Nice idea inverting the colours! I've seen painted buttons before where the paint transferred onto fingers. Might be something to look out for.

Yeah, the Kitsch-Bent buttons are injection molded for the d-pad and xbxy and silicone for start/select. No paint. Also comes with a white power button and link port cover, but unfortunately won't have any use for the link port cover unless I can modify it to cover the USB port.

[hencethus]

Made some more progress today soldering the ribbon cable from the button PCB into the Teensy.


Here's how I prepped the wires. After peeling them apart I pulled the jacketed wires through the holes on the Teensy so I could mark the jacket where I want to strip back to with a Sharpie. After the wires were stripped I tinned them all to make soldering easier.


I did two of these, one for me and one for a friend. I'm still getting the hang of soldering. While this isn't the first project I've done that requires it, I haven't done many, and very few with components this small. I think I started to figure it out better on the second board, as the solder doesn't look as much like bulging blobs.

[Kilren]

[spoiler="Quote"]Made some more progress today soldering the ribbon cable from the button PCB into the Teensy.


Here's how I prepped the wires. After peeling them apart I pulled the jacketed wires through the holes on the Teensy so I could mark the jacket where I want to strip back to with a Sharpie. After the wires were stripped I tinned them all to make soldering easier.


I did two of these, one for me and one for a friend. I'm still getting the hang of soldering. While this isn't the first project I've done that requires it, I haven't done many, and very few with components this small. I think I started to figure it out better on the second board, as the solder doesn't look as much like bulging blobs.[/spoiler]

This is looking really good! What paint did you use? Planning on using a sealer to reduce how much rubs off from the oils from your hands? Good work, excited to see the end result.

[hencethus]

@Kilren
Thanks! That's actually a fairly terrible shot of the paint since everything in the photo is the same color. Here's the paint I used, just some spray paint off the shelf at Home Depot that says it bonds to plastic. And here's a better look at the paint, one in full sunlight, and one next to some unpainted DMGs for context.



I'm not sure about a sealer. I don't have a lot of experience with painting. I was considering adding a clear coat, but I'm afraid that might add a shiny gloss to it.

[Kilren]

I'm not sure about a sealer. I don't have a lot of experience with painting. I was considering adding a clear coat, but I'm afraid that might add a shiny gloss to it.

Yeah, it is going to completely depend on the quality of the paint. It is a good thing to see that it is at least a primer/paint combo. A sealant won't necessarily make it shiny. There are what are called "matte" which is an anti shine or anti glare.

Your best bet is to find a sealant that is a clear matte and then test it on something other than your gbz and see how it dries.

[hencethus]

@razor had wanted to see how the HHL clear glass looks

Here it is


I haven't glued it in yet but I'm planning to use Household Goop per the advice from This to That since the #1 choice Loctite Impruv is pretty expensive.

Oh, and the buttons are from kitsch-bent.

[Fleder]

The white buttons look great!

[razor]

@razor had wanted to see how the HHL clear glass looks

Here it is


I haven't glued it in yet but I'm planning to use Household Goop per the advice from This to That since the #1 choice Loctite Impruv is pretty expensive.

Oh, and the buttons are from kitsch-bent.

@hencethus thanks for taking that pic. It looks great. Pretty convinced I'll get one now.