Adventures with a Wonderswan

[stephen_usher]

:dualthumbup:

[rubber_jonnie]

:dualthumbup:

Quite impressed, I only ordered 7 days ago, that's fast for Ali Express.

[rubber_jonnie]

OK, so more things Wonderswan :)

@HigashiJun kindly picked up a crystal black WS B&W from Japan for me, complete with battery box and it's just arrived :) Incredible it was only posted on Monday and it's come halfway around the world already.

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And in fact bar some corrosion on the battery terminals, it's in better condition than the one I just repaired for the polariser issue.The terminals are fresh out of a vinegar bath and rinsed off here:

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And the negative was the worst, but looks great now after it's bath and a clean with a mini wire brush on my refurbished rechargeable drill tool:

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The cleaned and reassembled battery pack works a treat! What's interesting is that the Wonderswan B&W has an inductor inline in the positive terminal of the battery, and the Wonderswan Colour doesn't:

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And the replacement screens have also arrived :) So I know what my plans are for the evening :)

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Wonderswan awaaaaay!

[HigashiJun]

:dualthumbup:

[stephen_usher]

:dualthumbup: :yay2:

[rubber_jonnie]

Typical of me, I couldn't wait...

I fitted the new IPS screen to the Wonderswan B&W and it's quite the transformation.

The contrast wheel now works as a brightness control and there are 8 different colour modes with a touch of the capacitance pad that comes with the screen.

Here is the 'White' mode:

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The green mode:

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Which is probably closest to the original green LCD. There are 4 other colours, red, blue, purple and yellow, but you get the drift with the white and green.

This is one of the pseudo colour modes that seems to replace the greyscales with colour:

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And here is the other:

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I have to say it was very simple to fit with just four solder joints and no case cutting required and just one fold in the new ribbon cable:

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If you have a Wonderswan then this is a must have upgrade IMHO. I didn't do a full install post because there are a ton of YouTube videos that show this, and frankly it's super simple to do.


Can't wait to do the Colour now, I'll perhaps do more on the installation with that, but that is going to have to wait until later...

[stephen_usher]

I thought that you may not be able to wait. :-)

[rubber_jonnie]

I thought that you may not be able to wait. :-)

I have a problem...

[rubber_jonnie]

I thought it's be good to have some reference pictures of the original non backlit screens.

First up is the original Wonderswan:

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Next two are the Wonderswan Colour:

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Note that I took these in relatively optimal lighting conditions, with the contrast adjusted for the best picture. We had to put up with a lot in the early days of handheld gaming...

[rubber_jonnie]

OK, so the Wonderswan Colour has got its IPS screen installed.

First off was to get the old screen out:

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Once disassembled and the ribbon cable is disconnected, it's really rather trivial to remove, just twist the case gently until the screen pops out.

Dropping the new screen in make sure the ribbon edge goes towards the d-pad end of the device and be sure to get the display pushed all the way to the bottom of the internal display frame as there is a small black border on the bottom of the new display and if you don't do this the line is more visible. This is apparently normal:

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And place the insulating film on the back of the display and the front of the mainboard:

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The next step is optional but I used some super thin 3M double sided tape to stick the PCB to the back of the display:

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It is very easy to get the ribbon cable the wrong way up in the connectors and when that happens, you don't get a picture.

Once the PCB was stuck down I soldered the 2 supplied wires to the positive and negative terminals of the battery on the mainboard and located the two capacitance pads for changing screen colour scheme and brightness:

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The ribbon cable is a bit long and needs to be folded with about half of it between the mainboard and screen and the other half on top going to the connector on the mainboard. I folded it like this and got a good result:

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And the end result? It looks great!!!

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There are 9 different colour modes including monochrome and 9 different brightness levels. Overall the 2 IPS kits I used were great and I'd recommend them if you have either a Wonderswan or Wonderswan Colour.