Glad to hear the DIY kit is going to be a thing! Is there a list we can get on?

What a project! Sad that I just detected this, but souped to see what else you develop!

The fact they have a Williams Multi in one of their pictures (somewhere under the jobs tab) is pretty exciting. Can’t find much info on the device itself though.

I do have an HTC Vive if you’d like some feedback on that.

To pivot a little bit here…

Do projectors have any value in gaming? Are there any benefits to motion clarity/input/color vibrance?

I wonder if the original image technology used in the VB has lived on in any form?

Yeah I agree that the projection to the retina claim is odd, they really didn’t need to add in that type of marketing.

From a portability stand-point it looks intriguing. People claim the image quality is breath-taking but its annoying that there is virtually no way to verify this. Also some claims of no frame delay by reviewers, but again, its all hear-say.

Honestly, I’d love to be able to try this thing with retro games and see what they look like.

Hey guys, sorry for the radio silence on my end.

Tried a bunch of the suggestions -> cleaned up things a bit. Fixed some shorts. Getting closer but still not good enough.

Here is where I am at as far as the better of the two:

Here is what the screen looks like:

I cleaned it well with isopropyl alcohol but I didn’t try the toothpick and alcohol method just yet. I don’t like the way some of the copper looks towards the left of the PCB. It looks like it is shorting but according to my meter its not. Despite looking much cleaner the picture doesn’t look all that better than the other PCB (it is hard to see, but there are lines going through the picture horizontally). The end of the cable seems sound when it plugs into the connector (no copper is folding up in the wrong direction).

About to take a stab at fixing the better of the two displays.

As for the first one, I have some questions:

1) Would you guys recommend peeling what’s left of the plastic off of the display and trying to solder down what’s left of the copper?

2) Does it make any sense that I’m testing no shorts between traces yet the picture still looks like garbage?

3) Is there any validity to testing the connections from the leads to the pin connector on the VB itself? When I did this everything tested out as it should, but it makes no sense that the picture is still garbage.

I get the sense that the original copper wire isn’t making contact on some of the leads. I just don’t understand how I can get a good readout via multimeter from the very bottom of the PCB to the edge connector if there’s no connectivity. My only other two working hypothesis is that I somehow damaged the ribbon cable, the pcb itself, or the VB unit.

Thanks for the updates guys. Those pictures really help.

As for the displays shorting each-other that’s really interesting. Had no idea that would happen. Unfortunately, the display still looks about the same level of terrible with the other one disconnected.

I have been using a desoldering wick to push the traces down.

Going to go at this again in the next few days.

Dove back into it today and worked on the worse of the two.

I checked everything via meter. Found a few shorts that I fixed. I tested the ends of each lead both in and out of the virtual boy and everything seemed ok. Unfortunately, I’m not really noticing a big different in the picture. In fact, oddly enough, both sides of the Virtual Boy have pictures that have large red lines every few sprites (the issue after solder fixing)… which makes me wonder if I could have damaged something when I took the console itself apart.

I’m probably over thinking it and missed a short or ten. When I gather enough sanity again I’ll take some more pictures.

Thanks for the advice guys. I’m going to dive back into this during the weekend and try and salvage things.

What happened on the left was I took out some freshly exposed copper wire with my fingertip by accident (it was practically perfect, so it was insanely frustrating when I did that). I could not get any abrasion method to reliably whittle the adhesive down. In hindsight, I should have been more selective. I was shocked by how long it was taking me to expose the wire.

I definitely used a bit of rubbing alcohol to clean the flux involved in the soldering, even on a cue-tip it spreads a lot faster over the PCB than I thought. The lens doesn’t seem to be open from the back, although I could be wrong. Hopefully that’s not the cause of the issue.

In the meantime, if anyone has a high resolution picture of what the finished product is supposed to look like, that would be immensely helpful.

Thanks!

Thanks for looking into this!

If you need me to do more testing let me know. I couldn’t get past the first plasma stage without seeing what was supposed to be there. I can always find a way to get it done though if it is needed.

Hey guys,

Sorry to wake an old thread for its slumber but I thought I could contribute something interesting regarding the patched ROM.

I picked up a second VB to practice repairs on and was getting the red screen issue upon boot-up. The patched ROM looks great on this system. I did run into an issue, however.

On the plasma stages, the enemies that are supposed to appear don’t. Anyone else run into that problem?

Thanks!