Hey everyone, it's Colin, how's it goin'?
In the early 2000s, Nintendo released a new handheld console, but it wasn't a Game Boy.
It did, however, have one of the same problems as its siblings.
This time, let's fix that by installing a backlight in a Pokémon Mini.
[♪ Music - Intro ♪]
The screen technology used in the Pokémon Mini is very similar
to that of the Game Boy and Game Boy Pocket:
A black and white reflective LCD.
Hand-Held Legend has a kit for installing a backlight panel
and they were kind enough to loan me a console for this video.
If you've ever installed a backlight in a Game Boy, the process will feel quite familiar.
I started by pulling out the tiny game cartridge and unscrewing the battery cover with a coin,
then I took out the single triple-A cell.
Next, I broke out the tri-wing screwdriver and removed the four screws from the back.
It's important to hinge the back housing towards the left,
since the speaker is connected to the circuit board with a couple of wires.
Three black and two silver screws hold the board in,
and once those were out, I could carefully lift up the bottom to expose the screen ribbon cable.
I unlocked the connector by sliding it downwards a bit,
then the ribbon slid out and I could set the board to the side.
If your buttons are dirty, now is a great time to pull 'em out and get 'em cleaned up.
The screen is stuck to the front housing with pretty strong tape.
I found it easiest to gently flex the housing by opposite corners, until the screen popped loose.
I put it on a paper towel to prevent scratches, then peeled out these foam spacers.
They won't be needed anymore.
Now for a tricky part: The reflector and rear polarizer need to come off.
I carefully got out a craft knife under one corner and started to peel 'em off, but the adhesive was really strong.
The polarizer tore and it was turning into a bit of a frustrating mess.
The reflector itself came off pretty easily
and I ended up carefully sliding the knife behind the polarizer to cut through the glue.
There was a bunch of adhesive left and I found that rubbing it with my thumb got it to flake off the glass.
Then I went back with an alcohol wipe to remove any remaining residue.
The glass needs to be perfectly clean.
To prep for the backlight, I cut a couple of notches in the front panel on the left side to route the wires through.
They don't have to be very big, as the wires are pretty thin.
Then I dropped the LCD back in and peeled the protective film off the included polarizer.
It went in next along with the backlight panel.
I routed the wires through the notches and then between the screw standoff and the screen.
I put the buttons and membrane back in, then reconnected the screen to the circuit board.
I reinstalled one screw to keep the board in place, then fired up my soldering iron.
I looped up the extra bit of black wire to take up the slack,
then soldered the end to the negative side of the capacitor over on the left.
Then I soldered the red wire to pin one of the cartridge connector over on the right side.
A narrow tip for your soldering iron would be *really* helpful here.
The rest of the circuit board screws went back in,
then I flipped the rear cover into place and reinstalled its tri-wing screws.
Then came a game cartridge, the triple-A battery, and its cover.
All done.
And the results are, well, probably what you'd expect.
The illumination is decently bright and also very even.
The screen looks crisp and like a backlit Game Boy Pocket,
the black pixels show decent contrast.
Because the front panel is translucent, there's some light bleed, but it's not distracting.
There's one trick to reassembly that I found, and it's that you don't wanna tighten those tri-wing screws down all the way.
The Pokémon Mini is pretty cramped inside, and even though the backlight is pretty thin,
the rear casing can put pressure on it, which causes a couple of dark spots to show up on screen.
Loosening the screws by about a half a turn got those spots to go away for me.
And the resulting case flex was still quite minor.
Overall, it's great to see this as an option, especially since it works quite well.
It can be a little tricky to install because of the size of the console, but the process is still straightforward.
And at about $10 US for the kit, it's pretty inexpensive as far as console mods go.
So if you have a Pokémon Mini and you're tired of its reflective screen,
this kit is well worth the effort.
Big thank you to Hand-Held Legend for loaning me a Pokémon Mini and the kit for this one.
I'll include a link in the description so you can check it out.
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