Collecting information on alternative displays - please contribute

[dirtybeagles]

I've already make a try with a camcorder composite output and powered by an USB => it works well

Was wondering if you connected it to your GB0 setup yet? I am curious to know how the performance of this screen is once modded. I am getting screen jitter on the ePathChina one.

[SidSilver]

I've already make a try with a camcorder composite output and powered by an USB => it works well

Was wondering if you connected it to your GB0 setup yet? I am curious to know how the performance of this screen is once modded. I am getting screen jitter on the ePathChina one.

Not yet. For the moment I take my time to plan the building and get all the parts.

[tronicgr]

I bought this display that comes with lots of parts in it ready for use, even sound.. I'll test it the next days to see if I can get it fit inside the gameboy case.

http://m.ebay.com/itm/3-5-quot-TFT-LED- ... 3441815019

Thanks
Thanos

[Retrorednek]

I ordered the same screen as user "solder": http://www.ebay.de/itm/281957411642?_tr ... EBIDX%3AIT

I wasn't lucky though.. Got one with a huge pcb. Is this going to be always like filling a lottery coupon if you don't buy the adafruit one? Or is there any confirmed alternative item/seller that will work 100% sure?

[witti]

I wasn't lucky though.. Got one with a huge pcb. Is this going to be always like filling a lottery coupon if you don't buy the adafruit one? Or is there any confirmed alternative item/seller that will work 100% sure?

If its working anyway, maybe you could cut of a bit of the pcb, it looks like theres a lot of free space. You could try to see that using the flashlight trick @wermy used with the micro usb breakout board.

witti

[Retrorednek]

If its working anyway, maybe you could cut of a bit of the pcb, it looks like theres a lot of free space. You could try to see that using the flashlight trick @wermy used with the micro usb breakout board.

witti

I was thinking about that too until I checked out Wermy's guide where he uses the same board as an example: "The one on the left is too wide to fit in the Game Boy without cutting the edges a bit. Worse, though, it doesn’t work with some screen modes (some resolutions seem to just blink for no reason including some boot screens, as well as the Doom main menu), and has horrible image ghosting after staying on a screen for more than a few seconds (I tried it with both 5V and 12V)."

Damn... I was unlucky. Luckily it was only 18$ but the wait for a new screen to come is the worst... Thanks for the tip though witti.

[MiL0]

Hi! I recently bought two screens from Amazon UK. I bought 2 because it's been awhile since I've done any soldering and I thought it was better to buy two, just in case! (they're also very cheap). Funnily enough, even though I ordered them at the same time and from the same merchant, I believe I got different screens - a Variant 2 and a Variant 7 - see screenshots below:

DSC_0689.JPG (2.85 MiB) Viewed 10055 times

DSC_0692.JPG (1.44 MiB) Viewed 10055 times

The problem I've got is that I can't get either screen to work. Neither screen's backlight will come on when I plug in a 12V 500mA power supply to the power input on the screens (does polarity matter?). I've also tried 5 other power supplies (5V to 9V power) and still nothing. I also tried a 9V battery that I took out of my smoke alarm and that didn't work either (admittedly its quite an old battery so might be a bit flat).

I thought it might be just bad luck with the power supplies that I've got so I went ahead with the 5 volt wire mod on the Variant 2 screen - see screenshot above. Now the backlight will come on but I can't get any picture when I plug a Nintendo Wii into the video input socket. The slightly concerning thing is that the backlight doesn't stay on properly - it alternates in brightness every second or 2. Has anyone ever seen this?

Next, I tried to solder +/- power directly from the Variant 7 board to the +/- 5V output on my Pi Zero. The wiki states that the Variant 7 board should work with 5V without any mods. Unfortunately, I can't this screen to work at all - no flashing backlight, no nothing.

Has anyone got any suggestions? Would anyone be willing to check them over (preferably in the UK), make sure that I've done the mod correctly and send one back to me? (they can keep the other screen if they can get it work). I'd be willing to pay a few quid for your time!

[MiL0]

Hi! I recently bought two screens from Amazon UK. I bought 2 because it's been awhile since I've done any soldering and I thought it was better to buy two, just in case! (they're also very cheap). Funnily enough, even though I ordered them at the same time and from the same merchant, I believe I got different screens - a Variant 2 and a Variant 7 - see screenshots below:

DSC_0689.JPG

DSC_0692.JPG

The problem I've got is that I can't get either screen to work. Neither screen's backlight will come on when I plug in a 12V 500mA power supply to the power input on the screens (does polarity matter?). I've also tried 5 other power supplies (5V to 9V power) and still nothing. I also tried a 9V battery that I took out of my smoke alarm and that didn't work either (admittedly its quite an old battery so might be a bit flat).

I thought it might be just bad luck with the power supplies that I've got so I went ahead with the 5 volt wire mod on the Variant 2 screen - see screenshot above. Now the backlight will come on but I can't get any picture when I plug a Nintendo Wii into the video input socket. The slightly concerning thing is that the backlight doesn't stay on properly - it alternates in brightness every second or 2. Has anyone ever seen this?

Next, I tried to solder +/- power directly from the Variant 7 board to the +/- 5V output on my Pi Zero. The wiki states that the Variant 7 board should work with 5V without any mods. Unfortunately, I can't this screen to work at all - no flashing backlight, no nothing.

Has anyone got any suggestions? Would anyone be willing to check them over (preferably in the UK), make sure that I've done the mod correctly and send one back to me? (they can keep the other screen if they can get it work). I'd be willing to pay a few quid for your time!

[joe7dust]

I bought this display that comes with lots of parts in it ready for use, even sound.. I'll test it the next days to see if I can get it fit inside the gameboy case.

http://m.ebay.com/itm/3-5-quot-TFT-LED- ... 3441815019

Thanks
Thanos

Good luck with this, it is the first one I have seen that claims to handle audio for less than $100. One that uses an actual hdmi connection and has a speaker or 2 in it and runs off 5v would be amazing, but I'm not going to hold my breath on that.

[joe7dust]

[spoiler="Thanks OP"]I found a cheap-ish full resolution 640x480 screen on ebay for $85. I posted it here originally: http://www.sudomod.com/forum/viewtopic. ... =120#p1351

It ended up being $101.59 with shipping. I figured it would be a month before it got here, but I purchased it on 5/11 and it just arrived this morning (5/16) via DHL! It was packed extremely well and came out of the box in great shape.

Now the fun part! Video comparison of the Niceshopping screen from Amazon 320x240 (left) and this 640x480 screen on the right. Be sure to turn on 720p mode in YouTube player settings for full resolution action!

Super Mario World attract screen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NKDTRXggR4
Emulationstation text: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRy5UTc-vKs
Terminal text: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thPlS-F4crg

For me, I can't live with the 320x240 screen knowing that half the pixels are "gone." I want to see each and every one! Plus that halo around areas of sharp contrast on the 320 screen kills me.

If there's anything else people would like to see, let me know.

[/spoiler]

Thank you for sharing this! The 640x480 definitely does look better. I am quite surprised I am just now finding out about this. Every guide I have seen is using a 320x240 lcd. For that reason I just assumed that RetroPie only uses 320x240 output. I saw you are using an RPi2, have you tested this display on a RPi0? I'm curious if there is any performance impact.

edit: Apparently I have no idea how spoiler tags work here. I googled and found the thread from when this feature was added to the forums and thought I used the same syntax as they did... Were you at least notified that you had been quoted with it nested inside a spoiler like this?