Glacier Ice G-boy worklog

[Vrtxspltr]

Hi everyone!
Its almost 2024 and a perfect time to build a G-boy! or should I say the The G-Boy Rev4U! I'm making this a translucent shell with blue/white buttons so I'm calling it Glacier Ice!

I have always wanted to build the Gboy from movement I saw it. Unfortunately I'm a little bit late for the official kit. But the spirit of the G-boy lives on thanks to you all!
This was also my first time ordering custom pcb so that was a really cool experience!

Useful Links:
4Layer Technologies
DustinFisher updated the Rev3 case files
CrazyGadget list of helpful links
Curtismods edited case files
TMHF07 squishy tacts for L/R

Trim:
Pretty standard old 4layer wii from ebay. I did rip out the entire copper trace from one of the filtration caps. I though the motherboard was done for! After carefully looking over the traces It seems that I dont really need it. Phew!


I may have been overcautious marking the initial trim lines. I spent a solid 2 days Trimming--->Sanding--->Ipa bath---->Resistance check to get my trim to fit into the case (in theory)
I have a ghetto method of checking my trim in 3ds max since my case prints aren't here yet.


Trim test:
I hooked up all voltage line and connected the Composite lines to the 3.5 inch screen (JT035IPS02-V0) and powered it on. The fan spun up, the cpu was warm but no display. I even hooked up a button to the pcb to change source to AV. Fun fact, the 3.5 inch screen (JT035IPS02-V0) in the BOM does not support composite. I tried it with a spare 4layer screen & It worked first try!


Populating PCBs:
Pretty straightforward. I noticed that the squishy tacts (TMHF07) don't sit flush on the pcb bored. I had to solder them like this to get them to align. I might desolder and clip the tiny extrusions. I also hope the switch joystick connectors are soldered well. They are really tiny and a pain to solder!


I may have ordered the wrong copper sheets. This one is a tad big.


That is all for now. Thanks and Happy Holidays!

 

[supertazon]

Congrats on your first steps! I remember feeling so proud when the trim was booting, and yeah that 3.5" LCD driver board does not support composite unfortunately.

Thank you for giving the GBoy the love it deserves, can't wait to see the shell!

 

[Stitches]

Yeah you're meant to clip off the little plastic nubbins so that the buttons sit flush with the PCB

 

[Vrtxspltr]

Congrats on your first steps! I remember feeling so proud when the trim was booting, and yeah that 3.5" LCD driver board does not support composite unfortunately.

Thank you for giving the GBoy the love it deserves, can't wait to see the shell!

Thanks Supertazon! I totally agree. Its a huge relief and kinda unbelievable to see the trim boot after all the things you do to it. The shell is pretty basic Translucent from PCBway. I plan to spray it with a clear coat.

Yeah you're meant to clip off the little plastic nubbins so that the buttons sit flush with the PCB

That's good to hear. Thanks Stitches. I'll go ahead and clip the nubbins

 

[Vrtxspltr]

Happy New Year everyone! Hope you all had a great holiday and a pleasant first week.
Time for some worklog update.

Resin print
First impression, It looks awesome! I went for the cheaper translucent option expecting it to be frosted and not clear. I had no intentions of painting the case at this point except maybe clear coat.


Clear coat
I sanded the case overall with 1000+ grit sand paper to minimize deeper scratches and sprayed it with 2 layers of clear coat. I let it sit for 8 hrs between coats and another 24hrs to dry. This was also my first time using clear coat and had no idea how it would look.
I must say, I was pleased with the result but at the same time the shell was a lot clearer than expected.


I had to sand down this section a tiny bit to get the charging pcb to fit correctly. I also realized resin is very brittle and I had stripped a few screw posts. Shouldn't be too hard to fix.


Case Paint
Although I was satisfied with the progress, I was conflicted by how clear the case was. I looked into coloring options and found a cheap set of Alcohol ink on Amazon.
I followed along this youtube video to paint.

What could possibly go wrong

I didn't realize IPA would mess with the clear coat and make a mess! I spent a solid 2 days sanding/IPA scrubbing to get the case into a decent state. After that I painted once again and sprayed it with a final clear coat.


Controller PCB
With the case sorted I was excited to make progress. I soldered all the GC+ wires and realized the connects where no good.

The following were my observations
-R tact triggered Right analog up
-Left analog was not responsive
-Right analog worked but x-axis was inverted
-None of the face buttons worked except B

After a lot of troubleshooting I found out the face buttons were working but needed a hard press to register. That is when I found out about ENIG surface finish for pcbs and others ran into similar situations. My pcbs all had default options from JLCPCB and were HASL. I went ahead and ordered a new set of controller pcbs with ENIG which should be here in a few days.

Overall a great learning experience. It has been amazing so far.

 

[Stitches]

Damn those prints are slick!

 

[Vrtxspltr]

Hello everyone. Hope you're all doing well

I finally call the Glacier Ice Gboy done!

Worklog
ENIG surface finish is totally worth it. The weird analog and button problems vanished! I didn't even have to troubleshoot.
I had no issues connecting the audio & LED. It was now time to rubberband the thing and do some testing.


Troubleshooting
These were all the problems I found and their solution.

-Screen randomly turns off and on
-Screen misaligned (fixed)
-L & R inverted (fixed! Set triggers to digital)

Spoiler: Screen Troubleshooting Deepdive

Things I tried
-Second gnd wire to console & pms (didn’t help)
-Resolder vga lines on screen (didn’t help)
-Pms overheating? (Not really)
-Screen overheating? Added copper shim (didn't help)
-Ipa clean vga (didn’t help)
-Disconnected audio wiring (didn't help)
-Resolder 5v & gnd screen (didn’t help)

At this point I suspected it may not be a bad solder and the screen might be pulling too much from the 5v line. What made it weird is that the screen would work fine for a few minutes before turning off and on.
I dug into the forums/discord and sure enough I found a few instances of the same problem and also the wiring diagram for the UT-HDMI035 lcd pcb!

The fix was simply desolder a component and solder the 5v line. This is where I messed up the wiring and witnessed the blessed magic smoke. Now there was no sign of life. I worried that I killed my trim or PMS.

I hooked up the trusted 4layer screen to composite & to my surprise the thing was still alive!
I tried to fix the lcd pcb but it was probably dead. There was no display. Luckily I had a spare and went ahead with the 5v mod. It worked! No more screen issues.

To test I played Prince of Persia The two thrones. I got a bit carried away and beat the game My hand is now a claw!


Thank you for all the help everyone! After all these years, I can finally experience the glorious Gboy.

 

[Stitches]

That's a pretty great GBoy you have there. Well done!

 

[WolfSquatch]

Looks incredible! This makes me very excited about my upcoming build. Inspiring!