Have they been soldered? If not, that’s the most likely fix.
It sounds like pin 18 (CLKB) of one of the displays is not making good contact, or that it is getting shorted to a neighboring pin (CLKA or CLKC). These three signals control the overall brightness in a kind of PWM fashion.
It’s pretty easy for the thin, foil-like “wires” in the display cables to shift around or fold up when you plug them in. The pins also lose their tension over time. I’ve heard of people adding some tape to the stiffener on the back of the cable to make it fit more snugly in the connector. You can also try pulling it out just a bit after pushing it in all the way, so the pin has a fresh area of cable to clamp on to.
If it’s neither a connector nor wire issue, then it may, unfortunately, be the output pin of the display driver chip malfunctioning.

Console graphics editing not straightforward, and a full “how-to” is beyond the scope of a forum post or two. You should start by checking the graphics section of the “Tech scroll”, to familiarize yourself with how VB graphics work.
Next, you’ll need a way to find and edit the graphics in the ROM image. My favorite ROM pixel editor is YY-Chr (https://www.romhacking.net/utilities/119/) Note: although it’s not listed as such, it does support VB pixel format.
You’ll probably also want to get a standard hex editor and learn how to use it. With some skill, it can be used to locate the addresses of particular imagery (taken from screen shots, for example) inside the ROM. I like Hexplorer, but find one you like.
Just play around (be sure to work on a [i]copy[/i] of your ROM!) and if you get stuck, come back to ask questions. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

@mips5000: I found that you can peel just the last few mms of plastic off sideways (“across the grain”, as it were), if you start it by making a tiny incision on the edge. The resulting tear will try to “ride down” toward the end of the cable, but you can compensate by peeling “up” (toward the body of the cable) as you go over. You also want the strip you’re peeling off to be as flat to the board as possible, or you can lift the wires, and it’s not fun trying to get them flattened back down. Once the ends of the wires are exposed, a fiberglass scratch brush and some isopropyl will get the glue and corrosion off, so you need very little added flux. (BTW, I used the plumbing kind, too, when I first started. It’s fine if you clean it very thoroughly with isopropyl when you’re done.)

This might be too late to be considered, but I made some tweaks…

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   luigis-innsmouth-mansion-more-finaller.bmp
   

I’m not 100% happy with this, but I wanted to get it posted so I might be able to see it on the display with enough time to tweak it.

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   luigis-innsmouth-mansion-final.bmp
   

@Knightcrawler:
The other two VBs wouldn’t have a direct connection to the cart. They’d likely just have a small boot ROM that listens for commands over a shared communications channel (probably with a higher bandwidth than the link port, like a shared address in the Ext. area of the bus). They’d be synchronized by all running from the same crystal oscillator (which DogP already laid the groundwork for many years ago).

I don’t think it’s possible to squeeze enough performance out of one VB to time-multiplex the color signals, though (but I’d love to be proven wrong!)

I have no experience with the VT, but I’ve soldered a lot of display cables, so take this with a grain of salt, but it sounds like the BRTA and/or BRTB lines from the VB are un- or poorly-connected to the VT. I would thoroughly check/reflow all the connections between the VB and the VT. It might also be a good idea to leave the original display boards disconnected, just to eliminate them as the problem.

The photo didn’t load, and I don’t have a board or part to look at, but, assuming it’s not just a quartz crystal, which can be put in either way, you could use an ohm meter to find the GND pad and check the datasheet for the oscillator to see which way to put it.
Hope that helps!

Not to be ungrateful, since I do like the new design a lot, but it would be nice if it would work with mobile browsers, specifically Vivaldi on Android. Also, it still logs me off after a while, which is still annoying 😉

Side note: what is “connected items” in this comment form supposed to do?

As I said in my previous post: “the only realistic way to do it is through emulation”, which is essentially what you’re talking about. The way the SGB worked is by assigning different colors to the four shades in each of the GBs four hardware palettes. The VB has twice as many palettes, plus a way to change the color used to clear the screens before drawing. Since the programmers weren’t constrained as to how to use them, it would be a little more work to map them correctly for each game, and might even require hacking the games to get the best effect, but it could be done. However, it has to be done before everything gets converted to four shades for the displays – which happens inside the video processor – hence why it would have to be done with emulation.

Of course, the OP’s original question was about giving the VB a color display with which to show these new colors, which would be extremely difficult and expensive (unless you simply gutted the VB and crammed some small TFT displays inside).

I like that this topic is being discussed, though. Let’s keep brainstorming!

Here’s my crazy idea:

First, make a display that essentially contains three VB displays, one for each primary color (RGB), but with the light emitters very close together.
Second, figure out how to cram three VBs inside one casing, with two of them somehow slaved to the third.
Third, modify the games to run on the master VB (we’ll call this one “RED”), but send separate graphics to the other two (GREEN, and BLUE) to generate the other two color channels of the display, synchronized with RED’s graphics.
The result: 6-bit RGB video (64 colors; see attachment)

Before building one, it could be emulated to prove the concept. The displays would probably have to be built like my idea from this post: https://www.virtual-boy.com/forums/t/different-vb-display-color/#post-995351

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   6-bit-rgb.png
   

“Until science produces a material that can change the wavelength of light passing through it, you’ll just have to learn to like red 😉”

Note: this has been around for a while now, in the form of quantum dots. Anyone feel like brewing us up a batch? 😆

I would go a step further and open the controller, desolder the contacts that normally go to the tap/battery box, and solder the wires from your female jack in its place (making sure the polarity is correct). If you hot-glue the socket to the VB’s case, the entire mod would be 100% reversible if you ever come across a tap or battery box (just use a little isopropyl alcohol and the hot glue will pop right off). Let us know how it turns out!

Yes, but the main point of that thread is the pinout of the module, and the way the “power-good” signal works. With that info, you should be able to pick any DC-DC converter or other 5V source, and hook it up in place of the 7805. Do a search for “5v LDO” on your favorite electronics website. “LDO” means “low drop-out”. They’re more efficient.

The site actually has a very nice search engine. Here’s the thread you need:

https://www.planetvb.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=3661&forum=

[RunnerPack]

You’re not the first person to want a full-color VB, but the only realistic way to do it is through emulation. Even then, it would be shoehorned in, since the original games – and, as has been explained before, the system itself – only produces monochrome images.

You don’t seem to understand what a palette is (or how to spell it), the concept of bit width in a computer system, or how many LEDs are in a VB (224 for each eye, on 1cm-long silicon dies, which also contain demultiplexing and driving circuitry). But I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with! 👍 Keep us posted!

• This reply was modified 3 years, 10 months ago by RunnerPack. Reason: I guess the old emoji codes don't work anymore…

“Since the old programs included in the dev kit package are 16-bit, you’ll need DosBox to build a custom retro DOS rig to run them.”

FTFY

mellott124 wrote:
I was really hoping to use the Virtual Boy font as well on HyperFlash but unfortunately gray shades don’t work for partial updates and fonts. I tried just a binary black/white version but it didn’t translate well.

Before I made that one, KR155E made a low-res pixel version for the grey title bars at the top of pages, and it was a pretty good likeness, given the limitations. Maybe he still has it kicking around…
I’ve been wanting to add hints for smaller sizes since I made it, but I haven’t found a good, free font editor that supports that in an intuitive way (plus, it’s a lot of work!)

KR155E wrote:
Just made a VUEngine-themed template so future ROM releases can come bundled with an e-label. This could also function as a template for other games using the Virtual Boy logo instead.

I love these! If I ever find the time to learn VUEngine and get back into VB dev, my games will all have a label based on this :thumpup:

[RunnerPack]

segasonicfan wrote:

Very awesome, very cool! I was going to use this for a PCB design soon 🙂 I could send you $1 for each PCB sold if that works?

Thanks for the kind words, segasonicfan! :thumpup:

Private message on the way 🙂

• This reply was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by RunnerPack.

I’m not familiar with the particular machine you’re using, but maybe the fill issues could be mitigated by pre-heating the mold. It would slow down the cycle, as you’d have to wait longer before demolding, and then again to reheat it, but if it lets you use the material you want and get good results, maybe it’s worth a try.
Perhaps you could semi-automate it by using Peltier-effect devices to both heat and cool the mold more rapidly.