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Sep 05, 2019 • 03:09 Profile Photo Sohokan

Hello guys

I’m new VB owner
And I fried iit
It started smelling like burn plastic no smoke although
That’s the short story

The long story is
I got VB that was having a bad contact with ac adapter and the tap
I realize this bad contact wheI slightly plug the ac adapter from the input so,it work for a while
I also tried the tap in another vb and didn’t work
So I follow this guide https://gbatemp.net/threads/tutorial-virtual-boy-turn-vb-on-without-ac-adapter-set.465122/
Alll the steps
And you guess it when press power ,it starting to smell burn
So my question is do the whole motherboard burn out? If so how can I check this?
Or just the voltage regulator
I also believe the controller burn out

Thanks in advance for any input
Btw, if this can’t be salvage at least it could serve as a warning

16 Replies
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Sep 05, 2019 • 05:17 Profile Photo speedyink

Well that’s an awesome article to be out there. The answer to the question of “what you should do if you don’t have a tap” is buy an adapter tap. They are not that hard to find for a reasonable cost.

Anyway, You may be able to replace individual parts if you can determine what exactly you fried. If you can’t figure it out then get another motherboard if you can find one for a good price. And a controller. Or a banged up parts VB.

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Sep 12, 2019 • 05:59 Profile Photo Sohokan

So I took out this circuit
It burn out
Could you please advise what’s for and which is the replacement ?

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Sep 12, 2019 • 14:52 Profile Photo speedyink

Really hard to tell in that picture as its dark but the circled thing looks like an SMD fuse. If you could get a better picture that’d be great. If it is indeed a fuse we’ll need to get an amp rating.

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Sep 12, 2019 • 22:39 Profile Photo Nes Freak

likly burned out the voltage regulator but im not completely sure either. personally id mod it run off usb. i thin kthe console runs off 5v

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Sep 13, 2019 • 01:23 Profile Photo Wyndcrosser

I did something similar to mine when doing my snes controller mod. I’d recommend just buying a unit only one and replace the board. The method listed below is a bitch.

http://notinmame.blogspot.com/2013/10/virtual-boy.html?m=1

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Sep 13, 2019 • 02:40 Profile Photo speedyink

I need to take apart a VB anyway to document/fix the displays so I’ll see if I can find that little board cause I really can’t tell what’s going on in that picture, lol.

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Sep 13, 2019 • 15:14 Profile Photo Sohokan

So I took a better picture and the voltage regulator U8 in motherboard slot
Was burn out.
Should I buy a new one if so what’s the model number?
If not, what’s the alternative
Thanks

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  1. img_20190913_085839-scaled.jpg

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Sep 13, 2019 • 18:45 Profile Photo speedyink

I found this old post from someone else with a faulty regulator board.
https://www.newark.com/nxp/nx1117c50z-115/ldo-fixed-5v-1a-sot-223-4/dp/66W5705

DogP has a very insightful post in here:
“FYI, the regulator isn’t a standard part… it’s a custom switching regulator board that Nintendo made. If you’re good with electronics, you should be able to replace it with a standard 5V regulator, like a 7805, though I’d recommend using a 9V AC adapter with that kind of regulator, because it brings the voltage down to 5V by wasting the extra power as heat.

This will kill batteries faster, and a 7805 will typically stop regulating at ~7V, so it won’t be able to suck the last of the batteries dry. Also, it’ll get really hot if you use too high voltage of an AC adapter (like 12V or more).

If you have a good electronics store, you could pick up a LDO regulator, like the LM1086, which would regulate with a lower input voltage (probably down below 6V), so you could use a 6V adapter, which would reduce the amount of heat.

I don’t know if the original caps on the motherboard are sufficient/compatible for linear regulators, so you may need to install two caps with the regulator (look at the datasheet).

Anyway, the pinout of the Nintendo regulator is:

1-Vin
2-GND
3-PowerGood
4-missing
5-Vout
6-GND

You may be able to tie PowerGood to 5V (Vout), though it may need a delay, since the purpose of it is to hold the system in reset until the power is stable.

You should also verify that the regulator is actually bad… measure the voltage at Vin with the controller on… it should be the same voltage as coming out of the controller. Then measure the voltage of Vout… it should be 5V, if it’s not, your regulator is probably bad, or something is shorted on the board and overloading the regulator. There should also be a small red LED lit on the regulator when it’s on.

DogP”

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Sep 13, 2019 • 19:59 Profile Photo Nes Freak

i still say be experimental 😛 wire it up directly to 5v usb power. i did it for the nes and it worked great 😛

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Sep 13, 2019 • 21:32 Profile Photo Sohokan

Nes Freak wrote:
i still say be experimental 😛 wire it up directly to 5v usb power. i did it for the nes and it worked great 😛

How do you prose to do that?

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Sep 14, 2019 • 22:09 Profile Photo Nes Freak

Sohokan wrote:

Nes Freak wrote:
i still say be experimental 😛 wire it up directly to 5v usb power. i did it for the nes and it worked great 😛

How do you prose to do that?

just wire up ground to ground and the 5v to what ever pin does the power. id have to check it with my volt meter.

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Sep 25, 2019 • 03:42 Profile Photo Sohokan

So now I’m.getting the following static red in 1 side and.no.image.in the other
I’m not sure if it’s a display ribbon problem
What do you recommend fixing it?

BTW, I place 7805 as fix

  • This reply was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by Sohokan.
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  1. img-20190924-wa0014.jpg

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Sep 25, 2019 • 04:18 Profile Photo speedyink

Good job! I’m glad to hear that patch worked a charm.

It does look like it could be a display problem.. If you’re good at fine soldering you could try soldering your ribbon cable in place of where that glue is holding on the display piece. You have to ‘scrape’ a bit of the insulated coating off the ribbon cable on that end.

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Sep 25, 2019 • 06:33 Profile Photo Sohokan

speedyink wrote:
Good job! I’m glad to hear that patch worked a charm.

It does look like it could be a display problem.. If you’re good at fine soldering you could try soldering your ribbon cable in place of where that glue is holding on the display piece. You have to ‘scrape’ a bit of the insulated coating off the ribbon cable on that end.

Thanks
What kind of tools do I need?
Which other alternative are there a?

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Sep 25, 2019 • 21:57 Profile Photo Yamagushi

Before you do that, you might want to make sure it’s a display issue rather than a power issue. Those two ribbons you see in your image, on the very left and right. One side plugs in, the other side is glued on. Press on the glued on sides while powered on to see if you observe any difference. If you see the screens correct/come on while you are pressing, it’s a display issue caused by the ribbons coming unglued, if not, it may not be display related.

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Sep 29, 2019 • 01:40 Profile Photo Sohokan

So there’s no sound coming from the vb
I can feel,the vibration all the time
What other posible issue could it be ?

 

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