This is dirt on the plastic lens itself and is a non technical issue. It can be hard to get rid of though and you have to be careful not to make matters worse by scratching the plastic while cleaning it.
You can use an eraser and you can apply quite some force with that without really damaging anything. After that, cleaning it with rubbing alcohol and a microfiber cloth can help you get rid of this.
I have had some cases where I really had to go at it, but with a lot of trying, got rid of it.
What I cannot explain, is why it seems to move when you move your head, maybe the dirt is just a really small speck on the tiny LED and it just seems to move, while you see the moving of the mirrors trying to make the whole image.
Which also explains why it can be so hard to get rid of and isn’t detectable by eye on the lens itself.
Though it is a lens problem a 100% sure. Sometimes you see lots of seemingly scratches as well, which might have you think the display is ruined. Those are normally way easier to get rid of than the one in your case. Though almost always, it is dirt on the plastic itself.
Judging from that picture there, it really looks like a dead pixel, thus a dead line. If you didn’t know, the VB has a resolution of 224×1 and makes it into a 384×224 by using the mirrors.
Only way to fix this, is to replace the display completely unfortunately. I have seen a few cases with this, but that it is very rare. Seen about 4 in a 1000 displays.
Thanks for making me aware of the existence of Virtualboy Go, works great on my Quest 3.
While I do like it, playing it on the VB itself still has something over playing it in VR for me.
RetroDan wrote:
The motherboard side goes into the FPC connector pins downward. When installed, the LED side needs to be on the other side to be solderable. It does look weird at first blush, but it is correct.
Ahhhh, that makes sense, I get it now and sounds pretty logical. Thanks!
Looks good, only thing that catches my eye is that the motherboard connector and the part that needs to be soldered on the board are inside-out. Or am I overlooking something.
If they are $10 for a set, I will buy at least 10 sets. Are you on the PVB Discord server? Way more activity there, I am a 100% sure that if you post there, you could get enough interest for at least 30 sets or more.
Wouldn’t surprise me if you get enough interest for a 100 sets though.
Looks good to me, if you can supply them at a very reasonable price, it will be a very nice addition to repairing displays!! Still won’t be too easy to install, align and all that, but skilled people should have no issue doing that.
Splain wrote:
If you know how to design flex cables/PCBs and have them printed, then yes, you are smelling interest from me. 😀 If not, then I may start learning it myself. I have at least one LED board with no cable, that can be used for testing.
Ideally, they would also have a tab attached like the stock cables, to allow easy insertion/removal from the VB (and they also seem to help thicken the cable at that end for a good firm seating)
I’ve designed PCBs before – not flex cables – but I can’t imagine that it would be impossible for me to make the transition.
I can’t imagine the cables would be expensive, though. I’ll get to some designing and whack up a prototype, but I’d like to be able to order 100 (50 sets) at least, for cost reasons. I have no data to back it up, but I can’t imagine it would cost more than $20-$25 for a set.
I think $20-$25 is pretty expensive, I would have thought they would be dirt cheap, just the start up would be an issue. If you can get the costs to limit to $12 a set I would order 10 sets straight away.
If there will be reliable replacement cables available for not more than €10 each, I will be all over this!
I think €10 is pretty expensive, just to set a max price, because even with replacement cables, it doesn’t guarantee a fixed display if there are one or more dead LEDs on the board itself. Hope something like this will come to fruition!
You can do that, but it is a VERY hard job to pull off. I have started one and didn’t finish it yet.
I would commend you if you get it done! Keep us informed on your project. If cables break, it is very frustrating because you cannot do anything about that.
