Some of you may have seen the post on the PlanetVB front page about Ben Heck’s new Virtual Boy teardown video.

In the video, he devises a new and interesting way of dealing with the display ribbon issue. Rather than try to reinforce the ribbon with packing tape or solder it together, he uses a 3D printer to make a little plastic clip that fits around the top of the display PCB, holding the ribbon tight against the contacts.

I emailed Ben, and he graciously sent me an STL file for the clip. I have no 3D printing experience, and am not sure if this will work, but maybe someone else on the forums has access to that equipment and can test it out and let us know. I’m attaching the file.

Ben says it’s best to pad the inside of the clip with some foam. He recommends Funky Foam.

Attachments:

1. ribbon-cable-clip.stl

That doesn’t look like the one on the video, or even like it will actually work… The one on the video had a little hook on the side opposite the hole so it would hook under the board and act like a lever.

There’s no evidence that this even fixes display problems. He mentioned that he performed the “oven trick” (with a heat gun; which requires even more care to avoid messing up the cable than does an oven) multiple times before it was fixed, so the clip might not be doing anything at all.

I don’t like how he uses one of the screws that hold the display PCB mounting plate on, either. If you take these screws out, you risk misaligning the display PCB and causing blurriness which may lead to actual headaches (unlike the imaginary ones for which the VB is infamous).

Attachments:

1. 

   ben-heckendorns-clip.png
   

I noticed that, but I figured it was just the crappy freebie STL-viewer software I was using. If you’re seeing it too, it must be an issue with the file.

I’ve sent another email to Ben, so we’ll see if he gets back to me.

Agreed that it’s too soon to say whether this is a replacement for the oven method. I have a dead stock VB in my game cabinet that I’ll experiment on, if I can get access to some of these clips.

From Ben:

Oh right. That hook doesn’t print well unless you use support material.

So I printed it solid and used a Dremel to carve a niche into it for the PCB.

-Ben

litephiter wrote:
From Ben:

Oh right. That hook doesn’t print well unless you use support material.

So I printed it solid and used a Dremel to carve a niche into it for the PCB.

-Ben

Ah, yes… good old “additractive manufacturing” 😛

It would have been nice if there was at least some indication left of how deep a groove needs to be cut… Oh, well. Like I said, it seems like wishful thinking, anyway.

I am looking forward to seeing what he does to make the VB head-mountable, though…

Yeah, I thought clips were thought of but ultimately soldering always seemed like the most long term solution.

I seem to remember at least one person posting here who tried a clip of some sort. Dont remember any follow up, wonder how that worked out for them..

So, RunnerPack: messing with the big screws on the mounting plates definitely causes misalignment? Do you think there would be any way to apply one of these clips safely, in that case?

For example, would you be able to keep making small adjustments to the tightness of that one screw until everything was aligned again?

litephiter wrote:
So, RunnerPack: messing with the big screws on the mounting plates definitely causes misalignment? Do you think there would be any way to apply one of these clips safely, in that case?

I’ve never taken them off, myself, but I wouldn’t say it would definitely cause misalignment, it’s just likely to (especially if you’re not careful). It might be that if you only remove the one for the clip, the other would hold things tightly enough to not move.

For example, would you be able to keep making small adjustments to the tightness of that one screw until everything was aligned again?

It’s not the tightness of the screw that sets the position. The end-plate which the two screws are there to attach is designed with some play in its vertical, horizontal, and rotational positions. The screws just keep it from moving once the alignment is right. This was done at the factory when the VB was made, then they applied a bit of red (naturally ;-)) epoxy to keep the screws from loosening. If you only loosen one screw and tighten it again without shifting the black plate, it should be fine. You should probably apply some kind of thread-locking compound, too, but it may be fine without it.

You’re a font of knowledge.

Hmm… I’m no longer so eager to try this, but I may see if I can get some of these things printed locally anyhow.

Thanks for the compliment 🙂

I just thought of something: you could simply glue the black part on before you undo the screw. If it can’t move, it can’t misalign. Easy peasy.

One drop of a nice, free-flowing (i.e. non-gel) CA (i.e. “Krazy Glue”) in each corner should wick into the gap and hold very well without interfering with the operation of the VB.

He’s trying to put me and TheForce81 out of business! If this clip thing works, I’ll have to lure people back to my solder business by throwing in an air freshener with repairs or something 😉

There was definitely mention of a clip/clamp a while ago, maybe on that original VB repair thread. It would be kind of cool if it helps the problem, but do you suppose it’ll make the connection tight enough? If the ribbon cable has completely disconnected, I guess it would probably still need some soldering done.

HP Lovethrash wrote:
There was definitely mention of a clip/clamp a while ago, maybe on that original VB repair thread.

Hmm, this? http://www.planetvb.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?post_id=25202#forumpost25202

That’s the one, good find! You should be an admin or something ;).

Hey, folks! Just signed up after getting my VB in the mail today (I had one back at launch and loved it, but it ended up getting destroyed in a flood a few years back). Of course, the right display is out, so I’m gonna need someone to repair that… really don’t feel the need to buy a specialized driver for a single repair which should be a permanent fix.

I saw this thread and noticed that nobody seems to have gotten the Ben Heck clip printed to give it a shot. Welllllllll, I just happen to have a 3D printer on order as we speak, which should be here late this month or early January.

Provided all goes well with setting up the printer, I’d be happy to run off a few for testing purposes. Lovethrash, if you’d consider possibly offering them as a repair option, I could send you my VB to use as a guinea pig as well as some (non-Dremeled) clips.

I missed your post somehow! If you managed to get some printed, I would be curious to try them out and see if they work. There’s something about soldering them I would probably miss too much to stop doing it altogether heh…but, I suppose slapping the clips on over a soldered display would make for a truly impenetrable defense.

Drop me a line via HPLovethrash at gmail!