BennVenn VA0 GGHD Display kit for Sega Game Gear Installation Guide
- July 30, 2024
- BennVenn
Table of Contents
BennVenn GameGear IPS ribbon install – VA0/VA1 IPS and GGHD
VA0 GGHD Display kit for Sega Game Gear
Remove the High Voltage Inductor. This will disable the High voltage circuit
originally intended for the backlight lamp
Remove the Lamp, original LCD and reflector. Do NOT tear the LCD ribbon from
the motherboard. Apply flux and heat and lift one pad at a time. Consult our
YouTube install video for more details. Trim this post with wire cutters (wear
eye protection) until it is level with the shell. Remove the black rubber
gasket that sits between the original LCD and the front shell half. Remove
these metal fingers that originally touched the backlight tube cover. Place
ribbon upside down, apply flux to the row of fine gold pins. Apply solder (a
process called tinning) to make soldering easier during install. It should
look like this: Take note of where Pin1 is on the motherboard. Some
motherboards do not have the 5 gold fingers before the #1 pin marker. Trust
the Pin1 marker. Place the ribbon with the small loop over the second pin on
the top row of the cart connector. This is the SMS detect pin. Apply solder to
this pin to anchor the ribbon in place. With the first gold finger of the
ribbon on top of the pad marked #1, you can now add flux and solder the ribbon
into place. Flux will help prevent pads bridging with solder. If they do,
apply flux and a clean iron and it’ll wipe away. Keep your iron below 300deg C
or damage to the PCB and ribbon will occur. Locate pads M10 and M11. These are
the Up and Down button signals. Fold the small ribbon back and solder down to
M10 and M11. Apply light pressure here with your finger to place a small
crease in the ribbon. You can also place kapton tape for mechanical strength
Just as we did with the ribbon, we will need to tin the gold pads circled
above. This will ensure a reliable solder connection when soldering the ribbon
to this PCB. Failure to do this will result in a garbled image, or no image at
all. Your PCB should look like this when done. NOTE! DO NOT EVER USE THIN
LIQUID FLUX OR IPA ON THIS DISPLAY. IT WILL RUIN THE IPS PANEL Align the
motherboard so all 4 screw holes line up and place the original screws from
the old screen to secure the new screen. Note the fuses (circled in green) are
still in position. This is to keep the IPS panel dead-center. If you remove
these fuses, alignment will be a little harder. They are not used
electrically. Fold the ribbon over the component side of the motherboard.
Align the ribbon over ALL PCB solder pads, apply solder to the pad marked
above (2) With the ribbon still carefully aligned, apply solder to the 5V pad
marked above. Next apply solder to the lowest pad marked SMS. If all pads are
still aligned, you can now solder the remaining pads. If any are out of
alignment, now is the time to fix this. Once all pads are soldered, it is time
to solder the Start button ribbon. The component designation changes between
GG models though it is always this Capacitor, and it is always the right hand
side. Tin this side of the capacitor. You can now solder the start button
ribbon into place as above. old the small flex arm labelled T10 over to the
pad marked T10. Don’t forget to tin the T10 pad on the motherboard before
soldering. The secondary T10 arm circled above is not needed on a VA0. You can
cut it off or insulate it. If installing into a VA1, you can cut the alternate
T10 pad off the top of the ribbon. More pics below regarding VA1 consoles. The
CLK pad circled above is again for a VA1 console, you can insulate this pad
with tape. On a VA1 motherboard, you would solder this to the pad FB1 directly
beneath it. More pics below regarding VA1 consoles.
The alternate Clock connection for VA0 motherboards will be soldered to the
left hand side of the tall metal can (crystal). Usually you will find a pad
called FB1 though on very early models you will find only a pair of resistors.
Solder the CLK arm between these two resistors. Above is a VA1 install – note
the yellow cut-off sections and the CLK solder pad. If you do not wish to
install the touch module on the GGHD kit, you can connect pads 4 to 5v. Note
the images below only apply to the GGHD kit. If you wish to install the touch
module, bridge pads ‘B’ on the touch module. This makes the output latching
(one touch on, one touch off). With B open, the output will only be active
while you are touching the pad. Note the colors I’ve chosen for Gnd, I/O and
VCC. Colors are not important though this will help show where they solder to
the PCB. See above for solder locations for the touch module. Lift the small
gate (carefully!) of the video connector and insert the shielded ribbon cable,
blue side up into the socket. Once inserted, lock the small gate. Make a 90deg
fold and crease. Make a second 90deg fold and crease. After cutting a suitably
sized slot in the lower case, install the resin printed mount to the large
screw post and push down firmly.
Congratulations! you’ve finished your IPS install! If anything went wrong, our
email is support@bennvenn.com though we suggest
using our discord as nearly all questions have been asked and answered.
Read User Manual Online (PDF format)
Read User Manual Online (PDF format) >>