Thank you putting this video on. I recently worked on a water damaged and battery leaked gba. So many broken traces and broken vias to fix. Plus a non working gb/gba switch inside the cartridge connector. In the end the audio amp turns out to be bad consuming a whooping 2 watts from two AA batteries. Took so long to get all of them fixed. Your video reminds me of that experience, both painful but also fruitful 😅
That sounds like a great project. It's the challenge I enjoy that most. I have a couple of GBC board that have had loads of work done but still refuse to power up. One day I'll get them out and start with voltages and clocks like I did this one. Thanks for being here and leaving a nice message
The best part for me was using the scope to confirm the lack of clock signal. I'm hoping the thumbnail will attract some more viewers too. Thanks for supporting me Mike
Are you implying that I took too long? 😉Actually I'll never trust an inconsistent continuity reading again. Any suspected broken traces are getting fixed first and foremost. Thanks for watching @matthewmaidment8464
The component that had shorts (T1 on the diagram) is a transformer with two center taps on each side (probably for some voltage level regulation wizardry, but that is purely a guess on my part), so if you probe all pins on the same side they will be shorted, that's normal. Unless you're doing AC stuff, a coil will always appear as a short circuit in DC or at low AC frequencies.
Yeah I couldn't work out why it need 4 pins on one side that were all connected to each other. One day I'll see something about transoformers and the penny will drop. At least now I'm not getting them mixed up with inductors lol.
@@PhilipBryden My guess as for why it has 4 pins is to allow for more than one type of configuration when connecting it up. Also yeah anything that has to do with AC is rarely straightforwards, I remember learning some techniques for converting AC circuits into some easier-to-understand ones back in my circuit design classes and make sense of them as if they were DC (or something among those lines, it's been over 10 years sadly).
@@fengye9911 Ah okay. Yeah I guess a transformer would also work in DC if the signal is pulsed... Although if you look at the schematic at 11:56, you'll see that pin 6 of the transformer is connected (through a capacitor) to a wire named DA1-AC and DA2-AC, so I assumed there was some sort of AC somewhere. I might be wrong though :) Also after doing some research I learned about saturable reactors, basically transformers where one side is controlled by DC to change the impedance of the other side where AC goes. This seems like it fits in this case since the DC side of the transfomer seems to be controlled by a pin named VDRV5 that could be doing some PWM regulation, and the other side is the one that has AC in the name (which is shorted through the capacitors if it is AC). But there's also the definitive possibility that I'm completely wrong about all of this, I have no idea how the GBA works internally and I haven't done any proper electronics in years, so yeah, that was just my interpretation :) Feel free to correct any mistake.
@@frosuski You are quite accurate about AC. What I meant AC was actually mains so it's not what happened in gba. I rechecked the schematics, so there is a power control IC(U4) that does output two voltages (VOUT3 and VOUT5) and appears to be outputting two pwm signals(VDRV3 and VDRV5). One of the VDRV signals will drive a mosfet(Q4) to eventually drive the modulated voltage on the transformer to generate modulated higher voltage (13V, -15V)
Thanks @GadgetUK164 I sure it was yourself who said, voltages, clocks and data lines. I don't know why the trace to the crystal went kaput early on, but I hold my hands up to the other damage I caused lol
The multi meter was picking up the 50 hz from your lights. Since you're in Europe, and that's the standard there. If you were in the USA doing the same test with the same meter, you would have seen 60 hz.
I thought it would be something like that. I'd definitely like to make more use of the oscilloscope in future and learn more about what all the buttons are for too. The auto button is nice but it would be nice to not rely on it everytime.
Excellent video. It didn't feel nearly an hour long. Philip, the ASMR voice of electronics repair. Brilliant.
Lol thanks. I'm not too keen on my monotone voice so that's a compliment 😃
hour-long GBA troubleshooting vid???? where's my popcorn
20 minutes of troubleshooting, 40 minutes of vandalism ha ha ha
Thank you putting this video on. I recently worked on a water damaged and battery leaked gba. So many broken traces and broken vias to fix. Plus a non working gb/gba switch inside the cartridge connector. In the end the audio amp turns out to be bad consuming a whooping 2 watts from two AA batteries. Took so long to get all of them fixed. Your video reminds me of that experience, both painful but also fruitful 😅
That sounds like a great project. It's the challenge I enjoy that most. I have a couple of GBC board that have had loads of work done but still refuse to power up. One day I'll get them out and start with voltages and clocks like I did this one. Thanks for being here and leaving a nice message
Well done Phil, you are a glutton for punishment with these corroded boards, but in true Vince style you did it 🤣🤣🤣🤣😀😀😀
The best part for me was using the scope to confirm the lack of clock signal. I'm hoping the thumbnail will attract some more viewers too. Thanks for supporting me Mike
Great video again ❤❤❤❤
Thank you @frozerinosrepairs
Welcome back Phil!
Thank you Edward.
Great fix Philip, got there in the end.
Are you implying that I took too long? 😉Actually I'll never trust an inconsistent continuity reading again. Any suspected broken traces are getting fixed first and foremost. Thanks for watching @matthewmaidment8464
Brilliant Philip, well done for sticking to it that looked a right mare, glad you sorted it and the price for the screen is too cheap surely lol 😊
I'm quite pleased with the way it worked it. Really paid off checking for clock signals, something I'll definitely be doing in future.
@ you did a perfect video thanks Philip
Updated my thumbnail, thanks.
@@PhilipBrydenoh thank you Philip 😊
The component that had shorts (T1 on the diagram) is a transformer with two center taps on each side (probably for some voltage level regulation wizardry, but that is purely a guess on my part), so if you probe all pins on the same side they will be shorted, that's normal. Unless you're doing AC stuff, a coil will always appear as a short circuit in DC or at low AC frequencies.
Yeah I couldn't work out why it need 4 pins on one side that were all connected to each other. One day I'll see something about transoformers and the penny will drop. At least now I'm not getting them mixed up with inductors lol.
@@PhilipBryden My guess as for why it has 4 pins is to allow for more than one type of configuration when connecting it up. Also yeah anything that has to do with AC is rarely straightforwards, I remember learning some techniques for converting AC circuits into some easier-to-understand ones back in my circuit design classes and make sense of them as if they were DC (or something among those lines, it's been over 10 years sadly).
@@frosuski not AC, it is for multiple voltage booster. The lcd somehow needs a 13v and -15v from the power source
@@fengye9911 Ah okay. Yeah I guess a transformer would also work in DC if the signal is pulsed... Although if you look at the schematic at 11:56, you'll see that pin 6 of the transformer is connected (through a capacitor) to a wire named DA1-AC and DA2-AC, so I assumed there was some sort of AC somewhere. I might be wrong though :) Also after doing some research I learned about saturable reactors, basically transformers where one side is controlled by DC to change the impedance of the other side where AC goes. This seems like it fits in this case since the DC side of the transfomer seems to be controlled by a pin named VDRV5 that could be doing some PWM regulation, and the other side is the one that has AC in the name (which is shorted through the capacitors if it is AC).
But there's also the definitive possibility that I'm completely wrong about all of this, I have no idea how the GBA works internally and I haven't done any proper electronics in years, so yeah, that was just my interpretation :) Feel free to correct any mistake.
@@frosuski You are quite accurate about AC. What I meant AC was actually mains so it's not what happened in gba. I rechecked the schematics, so there is a power control IC(U4) that does output two voltages (VOUT3 and VOUT5) and appears to be outputting two pwm signals(VDRV3 and VDRV5). One of the VDRV signals will drive a mosfet(Q4) to eventually drive the modulated voltage on the transformer to generate modulated higher voltage (13V, -15V)
Great job Phil =D
Thanks @GadgetUK164 I sure it was yourself who said, voltages, clocks and data lines. I don't know why the trace to the crystal went kaput early on, but I hold my hands up to the other damage I caused lol
@@PhilipBryden We all damage things the first number off times we work on something completely new! I still occasionally damage things myself =D
The multi meter was picking up the 50 hz from your lights. Since you're in Europe, and that's the standard there.
If you were in the USA doing the same test with the same meter, you would have seen 60 hz.
I thought it would be something like that. I'd definitely like to make more use of the oscilloscope in future and learn more about what all the buttons are for too. The auto button is nice but it would be nice to not rely on it everytime.