Issues with screen and battery upgrade

Skropeling

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Hello! I bought these two upgrades recently

(I guess this account is too new to post links) the battery is the "900mAh Battery for Game Boy Advance SP" found on retromodding dot com
the screen is the "Game Boy Advance SP Drop In 720x480 IPS Backlight with OSD" found on retrogamerepairshop dot com

I've been having issues with both sadly, I'll start with the battery because that's fast, when I plug in the charger, the orange charging light turns on briefly before turning back off, I'm not sure if it's charging or not. the gba still works fine on the original battery and the orange light is on as long as the charger is plugged in, do I just need to leave the new battery charging for a while?

On to the screen, I think most of the issues I'm having come from the capacitive touch sensors, when I tried it after install it was working great, but then I plugged it in, and the brightness levels starting constantly cycling, and then it also started cycling though the pixel and color effects as well. I can get the pixel effects to revert, just hold down on the touch sensor and it will cycle back to normal, but I can't figure out how to change the color back to normal, I almost think I need to solder on the button to do so, which I'd much prefer over the capacitive touch anyways. This leads me to my next question, in the 5th and 6th pictures of the screen in the link, you can see the two wires coming down for the touch sensor, once the button is connected, can I just snip these wires and insulate them with electrical tape or something and disable the touch sensors? I'd like to be able to use my gba while it's charging. Any knowledge would be wonderful I'm quite new to the modding scene, thank you.
 

FAST6191

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Replacement batteries are always fun but I suppose we have to learn to do what we can with them (chances are any original ones have not been carefully managed all these years, or are similarly in dubious condition/lots of uses).

Orange light blinking for a moment is a known thing in all this but not sure what it means in this if the original is still working (many times it is fuses, bad connection, E8/E10 gone pop). Guesses would be it thinks it is is fully charged so stops, or is so deep into discharge that it shuts itself off to protect itself.
For the latter if you have a more dedicated charging option (do be aware of 4.2V vs 4.3V lithium cells and chargers thereof) or care to manage it via bench supply then getting it charged up by one of those before seeing if the GBA will take over could be an option.
That said we have seen a few replacement batteries work fine for a cycle or two and then give up.

I am less familiar with fancy options on these latest batch of replacements. Website says not in stock unless you select a colour which is questionable design but different discussion.
https://retrogamerepairshop.com/pro...ips-backlight-with-osd?variant=42570337681580 for the sake of others playing along at home.

The video on the link ponders whether the firmware is different for the SP version as far as the button installs (which is to say not working/available even if nominally on the board) before you go down that path. If you solder them to test points or vias then easy enough to test (not sure if such things are pull high or pull low offhand).
If you mean the ribbon based one that uses the brightness/backlight button then yeah.
As far as snipping the wires leading to the capacitance pads then I might question something depending upon what it expects to see. If they tease up then might be easy enough to put some extra tape in there to make it see nothing on the capacitance front and can restore later if you want.

"when I tried it after install it was working great, but then I plugged it in"
I am not sure what that means. If you tried it loose as it were before reassembling then that might have set a baseline what it expects, which would change when the case/shield/whatever gets put back on.
If you mean plugged into a charger then I would be more into the speculation world (if you have ever got a tingle from a phone charger or something* then similar things could be at play in this as far as altering the capacitance it is watching, as might plain old power being gobbled and creating a nice field)
 

Skropeling

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Replacement batteries are always fun but I suppose we have to learn to do what we can with them (chances are any original ones have not been carefully managed all these years, or are similarly in dubious condition/lots of uses).

Orange light blinking for a moment is a known thing in all this but not sure what it means in this if the original is still working (many times it is fuses, bad connection, E8/E10 gone pop). Guesses would be it thinks it is is fully charged so stops, or is so deep into discharge that it shuts itself off to protect itself.
For the latter if you have a more dedicated charging option (do be aware of 4.2V vs 4.3V lithium cells and chargers thereof) or care to manage it via bench supply then getting it charged up by one of those before seeing if the GBA will take over could be an option.
That said we have seen a few replacement batteries work fine for a cycle or two and then give up.


The video on the link ponders whether the firmware is different for the SP version as far as the button installs (which is to say not working/available even if nominally on the board) before you go down that path. If you solder them to test points or vias then easy enough to test (not sure if such things are pull high or pull low offhand).
If you mean the ribbon based one that uses the brightness/backlight button then yeah.
As far as snipping the wires leading to the capacitance pads then I might question something depending upon what it expects to see. If they tease up then might be easy enough to put some extra tape in there to make it see nothing on the capacitance front and can restore later if you want.

"when I tried it after install it was working great, but then I plugged it in"
I am not sure what that means. If you tried it loose as it were before reassembling then that might have set a baseline what it expects, which would change when the case/shield/whatever gets put back on.
If you mean plugged into a charger then I would be more into the speculation world (if you have ever got a tingle from a phone charger or something* then similar things could be at play in this as far as altering the capacitance it is watching, as might plain old power being gobbled and creating a nice field)
So quick update, last night I did fix the screen issues, sorry if I was vague, I meant that when I plugged in the charger the screen would mess up and start randomly changing color / brightness options. I'm no electronics expert so I could be totally wrong on this, but it almost seems like the current from the charger would create some sort of interference that would freak out the capacitive touch sensors. Anyhoo, all I did was solder the ribbon cable to the brightness toggle button on the gba, and then I melted the solder off the wires going into the capacitive touch sensors, covered the wires with electric tape, and folded them out of the way. Screen works wonders now, no issues while charging, and using the button is much easier than the capacitive touch sensors, so if anyone buys this kit and has similar issues there you go I suppose. I'm still having battery woes, again the original still works fine, I'm just going to leave the new one charging and will give an update as to whether or not it comes to life.
 

RAHelllord

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So quick update, last night I did fix the screen issues, sorry if I was vague, I meant that when I plugged in the charger the screen would mess up and start randomly changing color / brightness options. I'm no electronics expert so I could be totally wrong on this, but it almost seems like the current from the charger would create some sort of interference that would freak out the capacitive touch sensors. Anyhoo, all I did was solder the ribbon cable to the brightness toggle button on the gba, and then I melted the solder off the wires going into the capacitive touch sensors, covered the wires with electric tape, and folded them out of the way. Screen works wonders now, no issues while charging, and using the button is much easier than the capacitive touch sensors, so if anyone buys this kit and has similar issues there you go I suppose. I'm still having battery woes, again the original still works fine, I'm just going to leave the new one charging and will give an update as to whether or not it comes to life.
What power cord are you using? I've had one from eaxus for my DS lite and it made the touch screen unusable while plugged in. Something similar might be happening for you where the power adapter is causing interference.
 

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