BW Version 9 Help With Pi 3

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DeRock89
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BW Version 9 Help With Pi 3

Post by DeRock89 » Wed Sep 06, 2017 6:58 pm

Hey guys! Im fresh out of the womb as far as Pi based gameboys as of today and I have a little experience with the Pi and electronics. I just got my first shipment of parts to start Building a game boy with a Pi3. The first thing im trying to do is connect the screen to the Pi 3 and test its functionality. I have the BW screen version 9 from Amazon. I have gotten no response whatsoever to the screen except one time when the screen turned white and then went off.

I saw where the wiki says to remove the 8 pin IC and bridge to the red power lead. Ive also seen several posts where the IC was not removed and its just bridged/ jumped from the appropriate points and worked fine. I wanted to try this because I would prefer to do that before I start ripping parts of the driver board....

I have the Yellow Video wire soldered to PP24 on the Pi3, The red power wire soldered to PP2, and the black ground wire soldered to PP5. I removed the white wire.
Ive tested all points from the initial bridge at the IC to the place where the red wire is soldered, and to the Pi itself and I get 5 volts on my meter. I tested with video connection at various points and I get 0.5 volts I believe.

The Pi3 is fresh out of the box. I have retropie loaded on it. It works fine when connected to HDMI and to a TV. I dont have any way to test by connecting the AV to a TV because I don't have that Head phone jack looking AV wire...

The issue is potentially a damaged ribbon wire because I didn't want to put strain on the screen and driver board by pulling at it to get the two separated so I used a razor blade to cut the double sided foam tape. I ever so slightly nicked the ribbon wire because I didnt know before hand that it was folded like it was between the two. Its a very tiny nick and I dont know if it even went through. Its the size of the tip of a needle. I figured if it was an issue, it would have just resulted in a partially dead image and I would still get some sort of image.

Here is my Driver control board
Image

Here is how I have the screen driver connected to the Pi 3
Image

This is My ribbon cable. If you look where the 45 degree fold is, right in the middle, that's where the damage is.
Image

DeRock89
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Re: BW Version 9 Help With Pi 3

Post by DeRock89 » Wed Sep 06, 2017 10:03 pm

I dont know why the images aren't showing... This is my first post.

An Update: I happened to have a 12v power supply and connected the red and black wires to it. I disconnected the Jumper wire and left the yellow wire connected to PP24 on the Pi. Still nothing but black screen...

I also uncommented the PAL line in the config.txt file.

oceanmist66
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Re: BW Version 9 Help With Pi 3

Post by oceanmist66 » Sun Oct 22, 2017 9:40 am

If 12v doesn't work, sounds like the problem is your config file. You also have to power up the pi with no HDMI connected at powerup(this stumped me longer then I care to admit) or it wont output composite video signal. The screen wont even turn on the backlight unless its recieving signal. Personally i modified my variant 9 differently, but if it isnt working with 12v then i dont think thats your issue.

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