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Thread: OK. Who's done the Afterburner mod?

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    Default OK. Who's done the Afterburner mod?

    I got my kit in the mail today.

    Anything special I should be looking out for? I'm OK with a soldering iron just want to make sure there aren't any undocumented pitfalls in the modification process.

    Anyone care to share their experience?

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    Well, my buddy Scott (not me, the other one) installed this on his GBA a few months ago. While I didn't have a hand in the work, I can sure point out two goofs that spoiled the final product. They may seem obvious, but...

    1) When they say work in a non-dust environment, they ain't kidding you. Get one little spec of dust inside while you're working, and it'll become a glowing orb on your display come game time. If you end up with several bits of dust in there, then you'll be trying to look through a starry night's sky while playing.

    2) The thin plastic film thingy needs to be applied as flatly as possible. If any bubbles form in there, they will look terrible during gameplay too - basically white spots on the display that cannot be seen through.

    You'll also want to make sure everything goes in straight, otherwise, the lighting will form a "trapazoidal" shape on the display, leaving a triangular dark spot on one side of the screen.

    Just be careful in there - and do install the dimmer. Scott chickened out, and now regrets it.
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    Get your compressed air ready.
    And I would advise not to put on the dimmer switch, It looks aweful and you never use it.
    If you must have a dimmer buy the one that hooks up to the buttons.
    When putting on the reflective film, make sure the screen is blown off perfectly. Put the film down from one side to the other. If you can find someone to help, one of you start laying the film down while the other one runs the plastic screen remover behind it to press it down.
    Oh and take your time, rushing will only cause mistakes.

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    I did the mod right when it came out. From what I've read and discussed with others, the application of the AR film was the trickiest- I got that done in one smooth motion, no air bubbles, perfect. Easy for me.

    The light guide, on the other hand, was a nightmare. They scratch so insanely easy- and dust /will/ get in there. You can steam your bathroom all you want.

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    I did mine soon after they were initially available, and mine came out great. No problems at all. Just be really careful when working around the display, I've seen some botched installs, and they look really bad.

    As a matter of fact, I like mine so much that I think I'm going to forego the SP altogether.
    RIP bargora, you will be greatly missed.That is how we do things on Giedion Prime.

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    Oh they have the new Afterburner 2 kit. It comes with a precut gameboy front, and the button dimmer switch installed . It's $52.00 though .

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    If you want the mod done professionally, I would go here:

    http://www.yourhappyplace.com/

    This guy does to best work. I honesty wouldn't attempt it myself, because I know I would screw it up somehow

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    Mine was in the first shipment. I watched the site back when it was portablemonopoly.com and the guy was just trying to get a petition signed. When the kit came in the mail, I did everything but the soldering myself, and the soldering, while difficult, is not impossible. The AR screen went on fine, and the light guide fits well.

    My friend, however, put his on, and he must have done something wrong, because whenever he turned his on, the screen would become so bright it would be completely washed out and he couldn't play his games. When he removed the AR sheet, it pulled the polarizing layer off of the screen too, so when he turned his GBA on after that, nothing showed up. Luckily he (as do yo DP) has a friend who can get his GBA repaired for free, but otherwise it costs 49 dollars to have it repaired.

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    Quote Originally Posted by anotherfluke
    My friend, however, put his on, and he must have done something wrong, because whenever he turned his on, the screen would become so bright it would be completely washed out and he couldn't play his games.
    That sounds like he put the light guide in on the wrong side- and not necessarily his fault. Adam from Triton Labs himself admitted that the arrangement of the guides were sometimes mistaken and assembled wrong, I got two where the 'marked' side were completely different. Total mess of quality control imo.

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    I'm an electrical engineer.. but taking apart the GBA and putting in a light just sounds like too much hassle x_x ... Especially w/ GBA-SP coming out like.. tomorrow or something :P

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    I've had the mod for a while... in a box. I'm just too spooked to try it - seems like there's too much that can go wrong, adn it's not lke I have a lot of GBA's around to put to the test. I think that I'll wait to see how good the SP looks, and decide then whether I'm going to take the plunge.
    -- Bohus Blahut
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