1) hold down feed while you turn it on for a special message. 2) You're 99% done with the repair! The print head needs some TLC. Like all thermal printers, the print head can get dirty and print quality drops. You figured out the paper, but the print head needs basic maintenance too. Full disclosure: totally did a fist pump of nostalgia when it printed anything at all.
You need some SEIKO S-950 paper, the game boy printer was manufactured by Seiko in the first place and this is by far the best working paper for it you can get for it currently, only downside is it won't be sticky like the original gameboy paper
If you turn the power on while holding down the feed button, you'll get a test print. A pic of Mario on the left, a Game Boy Printer on the right, and "Hello!" inbetween.
Pro tip to anyone - you can always check old thermal printer paper easily by getting something sharpish like a biro lid and quickly scoring it across the paper so it generates a bit of heat. If it "draws!" a clear black line, paper's good.
Also applying pressure from a fingernail on a hard surface onto the paper will cause it to activate. Just don't use hand sanitizers near that paper as it increases absorption of the chemicals 1000%
The GB printer uses a non-standard paper width in order to ensure you couldn't buy cheap paper rolls for it. Luckily in the time since it came out a few self printing card payment machines started using 38mm paper, which is the right size without cutting.
For about half the video I was thinking how cool it would be to have something like this today then I remembered they do make something like this today. I even got one for my daughter that she never uses. I wonder how long I can use it before she notices I stole it?
Top notch battery contact repair, dude! I use 99.9% isopropanol and a cotton bud to clean the thermal printhead on my label printer. Keeps the barcodes and stuff scannable, though that's mostly thanks to it being 300dpi but I digress.
Maybe a thermal head cleaner pen/wipe would help? We use them on client's printers in kitchens and bars as they get clogged with paper fibres and general pub gunk i know it's old and poor anyway, but y'never know
Steve, another good one! I had one of the original grey Gameboys back when they first released. I broke the screen when I was mad. We were living in Europe at the time, and they cost around $100. And this was back in 1990. So A little over $200 today. My mom made me pay for the replacement. To this day, I wont break my own stuff out of anger. Taught me a good lesson!
12:19 welcome to the club 🙂 Just a day ago I completed a GPU swap on a Xbox360 fat and was SO SURE, everything went right. Of course, the DVD eject button was still sitting on the table. Applause.
To save any future pairs of tweezers. For the battery terminals have a little tab in the middle that holds it in place. There is a hole in the plastic on the other side. You can bend it and they just come out.
Try cleaning the thermal rollers, I used to install Point Of Sale tills with thermal receipt printers and the rollers used to get gummed up with crap and paper dust.
Is there a potentiometer to control the burner's resistance ? Like in ps2 ps1 laser for example ? Nice fix! And dave's post mortem is very exiting to follow, what a lucky bug! ;D
When in doubt use your hot air rework pen and set it to to 60C (140F ) high flow and run it over a small piece you hold in tweezers. If it turns dark it’s good. Keep raising the temp on the gun until it does turn dark. If you are past 185C 365F and it’s only looking a little toasty it’s done ski.
great fix, just sad that the paper issue took longer than the actual fix on the battery terminals. But I am glad the corrosion only took out the terminals and the board was intact
perhaps for those metal plates as long as they are thin enough you may want to be using the electric spot welder. the two plates won't come apart. However I'm no expert.
I can't see how you can live in the modern world without a little electric screwdriver like the Wowstick (or similar), especially when you're unscrewing and screwing a dozen little screws each time you open and close something . . . since I got mine I couldn't live without it 🙂👌👍
I bought a similar one from aliexpress and it broke in 2 weeks, never again lol. I bought another thats a lot more powerful called the Banjo tool, its significantly better but is of course no good for small electronics. It's fine for laptops etc though.
I won’t use power tools for screws into old plastic. It’s too easy to break the plastic or cross thread it and make it worse. Always use a screwdriver by hand, then turn the screw in the loosen direction (some are reverse thread, so I purposely didn’t say right or left) then, when you feel the screw threads “bump” over the hole threads, you can now carefully turn it until it’s snug but not too tight since it risks breaking the plastic.
You can buy new paper. And there's definitely still something wrong with printer, since picture outline should be pretty black, not wash-out gray (gb printer with new paper owner here)
Not that it helps now but there is a self test mode for the printer. If you hold down the feed button while powering it on it will print a one line graphic.
i wound up modding mine, had a cord attached to a wall wart coming out the back. should really get around to putting a proper switched dc barrel jack in it at some point. constantly feeding it batteries was suck.
I know it's spoopy season, but don't take apart electronics with the batteries inside. Disregard for safety spooky. It was a shock coming from you.(Pun intended)
I ha ve one of these and it does still work. The sticky paper that comes with these printers is no good because the chemicals fade over time. I ended up buying some receipt paper at walmart and cutting it to size and it worked. I'm not sure exactly how to clean the heads of these because i cannot figure out how to get to the print heads to clean them.
If you used original paper, the pic prints a lot darker but still has those lines on it. I guess in its day it was a technological marvel.....maybe not. 😂
Reminds me of a ZX Spectrum printer which was a little larger than this and printed to a silver roll of some type of thermal paper. Was a novelty at the time and I remember printing loading screens and stuff. Also wondering if till roll (receipt) would work on this I think those are thermal and look about the same size.
Wow, for a second there I was thinking you need another calendar for how long it has been since you abused a tool... Looks like you may need one... lol
8:01 You could have just used the grinding pen to remove all of the rust without having to cut anything off of that. You could then have used a liberal amount of flux and some solder to replace the nickle plating that you ground off when grinding off the rust and then soldered the new spring plate to the old spring plate.
love the videos-- thankyou, thought for the day--or question -- if you have a transister,in circuit, can you deduce if it is pnp or npn by determinig if it has two connecting to ground vs one pin connecting to ground? (im new to this stuff so i hope its not a dumb question) for anyone that can or wants to answer
You can also take some 70-99% isopropyl alchohol to the thermal strip to rid of any debris, gunk and so on! after this the prints darker regardless of the paper!
1) hold down feed while you turn it on for a special message.
2) You're 99% done with the repair! The print head needs some TLC. Like all thermal printers, the print head can get dirty and print quality drops. You figured out the paper, but the print head needs basic maintenance too.
Full disclosure: totally did a fist pump of nostalgia when it printed anything at all.
When you put the printed picture of Dave next to the original, I couldn't tell which was which!
You need some SEIKO S-950 paper, the game boy printer was manufactured by Seiko in the first place and this is by far the best working paper for it you can get for it currently, only downside is it won't be sticky like the original gameboy paper
It's pretty easy to make things sticky at home with no effort. Much less easy to unstick them
If you turn the power on while holding down the feed button, you'll get a test print. A pic of Mario on the left, a Game Boy Printer on the right, and "Hello!" inbetween.
Pro tip to anyone - you can always check old thermal printer paper easily by getting something sharpish like a biro lid and quickly scoring it across the paper so it generates a bit of heat. If it "draws!" a clear black line, paper's good.
What's a Biro?
He could have also just used his heat gun real quick while he had it hot from the repair. It will turn black when heated by anything pretty much.
@@kalin666 Its a ballpoint pen.
Also applying pressure from a fingernail on a hard surface onto the paper will cause it to activate. Just don't use hand sanitizers near that paper as it increases absorption of the chemicals 1000%
@@kalin666 i hope youre joking
What humble fans you have. Very amazing community you have built. Always great content.
The GB printer uses a non-standard paper width in order to ensure you couldn't buy cheap paper rolls for it.
Luckily in the time since it came out a few self printing card payment machines started using 38mm paper, which is the right size without cutting.
Usually when I see gb printer videos people aren't using new thermal paper. Once it worked that was a major nostalgia kick.
LOL this was a great episode. Good to know the sealed paper I have is shot.
Love this fix, kinda reminds me of the old thermal printer for the ZX spectrum, lol those were the days lol 😆
For about half the video I was thinking how cool it would be to have something like this today then I remembered they do make something like this today. I even got one for my daughter that she never uses. I wonder how long I can use it before she notices I stole it?
Top notch battery contact repair, dude! I use 99.9% isopropanol and a cotton bud to clean the thermal printhead on my label printer. Keeps the barcodes and stuff scannable, though that's mostly thanks to it being 300dpi but I digress.
Maybe a thermal head cleaner pen/wipe would help?
We use them on client's printers in kitchens and bars as they get clogged with paper fibres and general pub gunk
i know it's old and poor anyway, but y'never know
That's a good shout, it certainly shouldn't do any harm!
@@StezStixFix IPA will do just as good. Its what in these things anyway!
Steve, another good one! I had one of the original grey Gameboys back when they first released. I broke the screen when I was mad. We were living in Europe at the time, and they cost around $100. And this was back in 1990. So A little over $200 today. My mom made me pay for the replacement. To this day, I wont break my own stuff out of anger. Taught me a good lesson!
But you're stil okay with breaking other people's stuff out of anger?
12:19 welcome to the club 🙂 Just a day ago I completed a GPU swap on a Xbox360 fat and was SO SURE, everything went right. Of course, the DVD eject button was still sitting on the table. Applause.
Caught Dave in 4k with the Bluesteel face for that selfie
Letter written in Comic Sans MS :)
To save any future pairs of tweezers. For the battery terminals have a little tab in the middle that holds it in place. There is a hole in the plastic on the other side. You can bend it and they just come out.
I really love your videos. Thanks Steve!
Try cleaning the thermal rollers, I used to install Point Of Sale tills with thermal receipt printers and the rollers used to get gummed up with crap and paper dust.
Ooh Dave’s a bit grumpy!
That's what I have to put up with! 😂
Great repair Really enjoyed the video thanks Steve 😊
I loved my game boy printer back in the day. I never had the camera, just a few random games, but it was amazing to be able to print pictures out.
Magic, this takes me back, the pictures were just like a Polaroid camera I owned in the 70s,
That was lovely. Well done darling 💕
I like that you improved your diction because I could understand the lyrics of your "song to my patrons" without reading the subtitles for once.
I think your brain just auto adjusted.
Is there a potentiometer to control the burner's resistance ? Like in ps2 ps1 laser for example ? Nice fix! And dave's post mortem is very exiting to follow, what a lucky bug! ;D
Never skip the tunes, it makes the vid
12:26 not like we didn’t warn you or anything 😂
If art = effort, then this is fine art 🎭 🎨
Get the Seiko S-950 paper, it's perfect for the Game Boy Printer. The GB Printer was manufactured by Seiko as it is.
Really loved this video, Steve You make me laugh...Thanks..
Well all I can say is "Your on a roll"
🤣Someone had to say it.
A cheese roll.
Nice!
great skill in fixing Ste.....cob it straight int bin
This repair deserves the quality bodge Seal.....
It means its almost legit...
Congrads
Use the tip of your soldering iron to test the thermal paper :) Or any heat source .....
Just love that anything with batteries needed a van load in the old days 😂
When in doubt use your hot air rework pen and set it to to 60C (140F ) high flow and run it over a small piece you hold in tweezers. If it turns dark it’s good. Keep raising the temp on the gun until it does turn dark. If you are past 185C 365F and it’s only looking a little toasty it’s done ski.
Yep exactly! I was yelling this at the TV, lol! He even had it heated up from the contact repair, so it wouldn't have taken much time.
That quality... Just... Damn!
I dunno why but this episode was particularly hilarious.
Oh lordy. Thank you for the "count down timer". I take every thing I ever said back. It's true what the Interwebs are saying, you do RoCk (now:)
I'm in the process of fixing a large Paper Shredder, and when the right value resistors finally get here I could shred all those unwanted photos.
tbh the best about this thing is the 8bit music. Brings me back to the late 80s.
That printer was in hd it almost looked transparent like if thomas wasnt there....😂😂
thats a sweet gameboy. very clean
It’s only a bodge if it comes from the Stez region of the UK, everything else is just a sparkling mend.
I just bought a whole box of replacement paper for mine after having the same issue. It works perfectly fine with the new paper.
i feel sry for anyone who bought one of them when it came out expecting a decent picture
One more Fun vid, thank you man. take care. GG!, big W.
The gameboy related content is always the best!
As a Canadian that lives Cabelas, nice shirt!
great fix, just sad that the paper issue took longer than the actual fix on the battery terminals. But I am glad the corrosion only took out the terminals and the board was intact
That looks like a picture of the Moon as beamed back by a very early Moon probe. Dave-on-the-Moon. I'd call it.
Enjoy your content very much. I was wondering what brand and model your grinding pen is? Thanks!
"I'd buy that for a Dollar"
Missing this from my collection 😞
Hi Steve, I think you should add a counter for each time you reassembled something without finishing the repair...will be funny i think :D :D
Awesome
Very rewarding 😬
Perfect - reminds me of my pics from Snappy Snaps 😀👍
Nice
perhaps for those metal plates as long as they are thin enough you may want to be using the electric spot welder. the two plates won't come apart. However I'm no expert.
Steve….dont forget the circuit board screws. Hope that helps 😀.
When you like the printing more, then the actual fix ...
I can't see how you can live in the modern world without a little electric screwdriver like the Wowstick (or similar), especially when you're unscrewing and screwing a dozen little screws each time you open and close something . . . since I got mine I couldn't live without it 🙂👌👍
I bought a similar one from aliexpress and it broke in 2 weeks, never again lol.
I bought another thats a lot more powerful called the Banjo tool, its significantly better but is of course no good for small electronics. It's fine for laptops etc though.
I won’t use power tools for screws into old plastic. It’s too easy to break the plastic or cross thread it and make it worse. Always use a screwdriver by hand, then turn the screw in the loosen direction (some are reverse thread, so I purposely didn’t say right or left) then, when you feel the screw threads “bump” over the hole threads, you can now carefully turn it until it’s snug but not too tight since it risks breaking the plastic.
I would love to get one of those some day. Only come across the box of the camera in the wild so far!
You can buy new paper. And there's definitely still something wrong with printer, since picture outline should be pretty black, not wash-out gray (gb printer with new paper owner here)
Not that it helps now but there is a self test mode for the printer. If you hold down the feed button while powering it on it will print a one line graphic.
Thats some serious MacGyverishnessosity! Rock on!!!👍🤙👏
i wound up modding mine, had a cord attached to a wall wart coming out the back. should really get around to putting a proper switched dc barrel jack in it at some point.
constantly feeding it batteries was suck.
I know it's spoopy season, but don't take apart electronics with the batteries inside. Disregard for safety spooky. It was a shock coming from you.(Pun intended)
Job well done Lieutenant bodge
who wants to mention to stez that the printer has a built in test feature :P
Gameboy quality is PEAK
Just checked on Ebay australia and rolls are available to buy as they were listed as coming from america.Hope this is helpful.
Hmm Grabs pliers - pulls spring apart like a raging madman .. I cannot really fathom why that spring won't work any more .. lol
When I win the lottery, I am flying over there and buying you several rounds of drink.
I think all computers should play a tune when printing, somthing like Bob Marley, I'm Jamin'.
I ha ve one of these and it does still work. The sticky paper that comes with these printers is no good because the chemicals fade over time. I ended up buying some receipt paper at walmart and cutting it to size and it worked. I'm not sure exactly how to clean the heads of these because i cannot figure out how to get to the print heads to clean them.
Well it's still less hassle than when I ever try and get my Epson to print anything from my PC...
Nice job.. I would say the Thermal print head is dirty or has residue on it....
If you used original paper, the pic prints a lot darker but still has those lines on it. I guess in its day it was a technological marvel.....maybe not. 😂
Reminds me of a ZX Spectrum printer which was a little larger than this and printed to a silver roll of some type of thermal paper. Was a novelty at the time and I remember printing loading screens and stuff.
Also wondering if till roll (receipt) would work on this I think those are thermal and look about the same size.
I think the printer “heads” need to be aligned and calibrated now. But it’s working….
Wow, for a second there I was thinking you need another calendar for how long it has been since you abused a tool... Looks like you may need one... lol
Tweezer Lives Matter😂
Makes the Sinclair ZX Printer look industrial grade
Nearly impossible to get adhesive paper for it, but most 38mm thermal credit card printer paper will work.
14:20 yep, just as good as I remember
LOL - I remember when they had a similar printer for the SInclair Spectrum and thinking it was the dog's doodas! ...Simpler times.
It was a long time ago so I could be misremembering, but didn't it use shiny, silvery-grey coloured paper?
@@steve.b.23Yes, and don't lick it, it tastes terrible.😀
Nice shirt!
The moment when you realise you jumped through all those hoops... for that.
Ya tweezers ain’t goin tweeze no more, RIP Tweezers.
Good work👌🏻
F for the tweezers😂
Comic Sans. Nice.
8:01 You could have just used the grinding pen to remove all of the rust without having to cut anything off of that. You could then have used a liberal amount of flux and some solder to replace the nickle plating that you ground off when grinding off the rust and then soldered the new spring plate to the old spring plate.
You could clean the thermal “print” head. It might help. They do get gunkked up after time.
love the videos-- thankyou, thought for the day--or question -- if you have a transister,in circuit, can you deduce if it is pnp or npn by determinig if it has two connecting to ground vs one pin connecting to ground? (im new to this stuff so i hope its not a dumb question) for anyone that can or wants to answer
If it works..it's a repair. Not a bodge :D
I'll take it!
You can also take some 70-99% isopropyl alchohol to the thermal strip to rid of any debris, gunk and so on! after this the prints darker regardless of the paper!
If something works and it's stupid, it ain't stupid. Old army saying
21:05 I never knew that Dave had a twin brother.