Hey folks,

This is an expansion and tweaking of user omp's great work on the forums (see here: http://www.sega-16.com/forum/showthread.php?17412-Game-Gear-with-DS-backlight).

I have decided to try adding the DSi backlight to my Game Gear and followed his instructions making some improvements.



You will need to order 2 parts (other than tools):



http://www.ebay.com/itm/2A-booster-board-DC-DC-step-up-module-input-2-24V-to-5-2...



http://www.ebay.com/itm/280820606116?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName...



Tools I recommend having:

*Dremel or rotary drill with sanding and cutting bit

*X-acto knife with flat blade

*electrical tape

*wire cutters

*wire (kynar 30AWG recommended)

and of course solder+soldering iron



Step 0: Remove the OEM backlight, transformer, capacitor, and inductor as shown here (and many other sites):



http://circuit-board.de/forum/index.php/Thread/1916-Game-Gear-LED-Mod/

http://xantufrog-games.blogspot.com/2009/05/game-gear-led-backlight-mod.html

Note: do not use the power points shown in these guides or worry about connecting the points under your removed inductor. More on this later.





Step 1: Disassemble your DSi screen







I was silly enough to order 2 DSLite screens before I realized this is a different system (modern gaming is not my passion, lol). This DSi screen is 100% the way to go and far easier to work with.

Start by using an X-acto blade or similar to work your way around the digitizer, prying it from the adhesive.









The screen is held in with a metal cover that is clipped around the sides. I used the same knife to pry these clips a little and pull everything apart. You'll notice a black sticky tape along the bottom of the screen. It can come off, but if it does you'll need to put a piece of electrical tape along the bottom where it was. This tape is important, it keeps the bright LED spots from showing on your display



Now, carefully unclip the back metal plate. This will be necessary in order to save space. Also, use wire cutters to clip the large two plastic bits off the top (that slotted into the back plate).



Gently pull the large ribbon cable off the back (you can cut it too if you don't mind wasting a good LCD).



Step 2: Modifying your Game Gear



This is where this guide differs a lot. I do not recommend removing your Game Gear screen from the motherboard except for a bit of sanding. Remove the 4 screws intact that hold the white cover behind the LCD (which it is glued onto) to the PCB. But do not try to pry off the LCD.

Instead, we are going to squeeze our new backlight into the existing opening. Sand down the extra bumps on the PCB under your cart slot along the pins, facing the top of your Game Gear. It's a hard to reach spot, but this will create space for our backlight to sit flush against the PCB edge:







Next, you will need to either completely remove the screw slot above the screen or (preferably) you can drill half of it away and slide the DSi backlight in. This works best as it will hold the backlight very well. I used a Dremel with a cutting bit to achieve this.



Step 3: Attaching the LED backlight



Now we are ready to slip our backlight into place. With the LED ribbon facing up (i.e. "upside down"), slide your LED backlight behind your GG LCD (with its white plastic behind it). You'll notice that it should fit pretty snug with only about 2mm space on the sides. You can also bend it slightly from the bottom if you didn't remove that GG screw hole for an extra snug fit. Careful your plastic doesn't unclip the reflectors though.



it will look something like this:





Step 4: Attaching DC-DC board



Next, we'll need to solder our DC-DC converter board. I found that if you put some electric tape to insulate the bottom and sand the trimmer pot solder point underneath a bit, you can place it over the left side of the backlight to hold it in. You can conveniently solder the two V- (Ground) pads to the copper pads used by the original backlight reflector as seen here:







I used some leads from a resistor to solder it in and keep it flush with the backlight.



Step 5: Wiring the DC-DC board and backlight.



This is another part where my mod differs. Now, we are going to be stepping up the voltage to 15.3v exactly, so the higher the voltage on our input, the less power we waste. So ideally, we want DC In (7v-12v) to go to our DC-DC converter board and not +5v like the guides that are circling around the net show. This is far more efficient. You can pull DC In from this point on your PCB:





Next, you'll need to adjust to get your output voltage. Turn the trimmer pot to the left using a voltmeter until you get 15.3v output.

Now, we'll wire our backlight as Red= + and Black= - shown here:







solder those wires with a fuse preferably on both sides of the DC-DC board to your V_out.



Finally, you might notice the LED ribbon cable pushes out the backlight cover a bit. In the image above with the full install, you'll notice I held it down with a washer underneath one of the PCB screws. This works really well and you can even solder ground to a point above T8 and T9 (on a VA0 GG board).







That's it!! Now you have a nice backlight mod that is brighter than the stock, without the dangerous work of ungluing your GG LCD, re- aligning it, and using tape and/or glue to hold in your backlight. Also, this design is smaller and more efficient with this newer micro DC-DC board.



The one single drawback to this mod is that your display will have a very slight reddish tint. This is barely noticeable and I believe is caused by the stock LCD being adjusted to accommodate the bluish light from the original cathode. I'm currently looking into a way to remedy this, as TmEE suggesting using a slightly blue filament between the backlight and LCD. I'll post more on that later.



Feel free to repost this guide anywhere you like, just please give me credit.



-Segasonicfan