pollo20x6 wrote:
Well, from what I’ve heard, you’re like the best. Everywhere I look, I always see recommendations. I even saw this video that compared your display soldering work to someone else’s and your’s blew the other one away by a mile.
Hmm… I don’t think I’ve seen that one. Got a link?
Hm…Well that sucks. I’ve had my Virtual Boy since like 2013, and haven’t had any problems. I was really hoping that perhaps the person who sold it to me on eBay had soldered it when they owned it, but guess not. Thank you for the answers! It makes a lot more sense now.
😀
Well, if you open the unit, it’s pretty easy to tell if it’s been soldered, and maybe even if it was me. I know at least one I did was going to be put up for sale, but I don’t record serial numbers, so that’s the only way you’ll be able to check.
The lines just don’t cross perfectly and my concern is that constant use of the IPD can eventually cause misalignment with the mirrors.
Actually, the IPD mechanism cannot affect the mirrors in any way. The IPD moves a pair of tubes toward and away from the center of the console. The pair of mechanisms that vibrate the mirrors are mounted to these tubes, and the mirrors themselves “float” on a spring-like frame. The only way to affect the mirror alignment is to physically move the mirrors, and it would take quite a bit of force, applied in an obviously incorrect way, to bend their frames enough to permanently misalign them.
The display boards, on the other hand, are mounted in a way designed specifically to allow adjustments. They are keyed to a plastic frame, which is attached to the aforementioned tubes by a pair of torx screws. When the displays were originally aligned at the factory, these screws were tightened by a machine to a specific torque, and then locked in place with a squirt of glue. If you mess with these screws, it would be quite easy to cause the LED arrays to become misaligned, which would ruin the picture until they were realigned and locked back down.
Also, I’ve heard about you. You’re the guy who fixes Virtual Boys, right?
I’m one of them, yes.
I had a quick question. I was playing Wario Land a couple months ago and I noticed, during the final boss, when the whole screen would be illuminated red, horizontal lines would appear on the “pad” that you stand on. When the light would go away, so would the lines. It was as if the lines were affected by the screen using a lot more pixels. I then played Mario Tennis and Red alarm and I didn’t notice any lines.
Today, I played through Wario Land again and the lines were gone. They didn’t appear at any time throughout the game and did not appear where they had consistently appeared during the final boss.
Yes, the glitchiness comes and goes, and is also affected by what is being shown on the screen. The two displays can also affect each other, as I said recently in another post.
Once the displays are soldered, all of this goes away, since there is then a permanent, electrically perfect path for all signals. Any glitches that occur after this would have to be caused by a software malfunction, or strong electromagnetic interference.
I’ve read online that sometimes the lines can be caused by the cartridge. Kinda like when an NES game has dirt on it or isn’t properly touching the pins and starts glitching up.
Is it possible that this was the cause? I know it’s a pretty hard question since I’ve heard the lines come and go, but I thought I’d ask a professional anyway.
No, dirt on the cartridge pins cannot directly affect the picture like it can on the NES. If there is a problem reading the cart, it will most likely either prevent the VB from booting up at all, or cause it to hang after booting.
marioweezer wrote:
Surely it can’t be an issue with the display if it’s only happening with one game?
Actually, that’s quite common; and don’t call me Shirley 😉
The VB’s display subsystem is a mysterious and complex beast. There are some very short and precise time periods involved, and everything has to be synchronized perfectly. When the cable doesn’t have a 100% perfect connection on every wire, any one of billions of specific data combinations can set it off and cause all manner of image defects, even though it normally displays perfectly fine. Also, since the two display boards have 29 of their 30 signals in common, something happening on one can affect the other, but not always in the same way.
I’ve taken a look at it. The main problem is that many of the parts, including the visor, have no thickness; they’re just collections of 2D faces with no “inside” or “outside”. I’ve already thickened the visor and cleaned up a few other bits.
The known-good version of the ROM has a CRC32 of e81a3703 and an MD5 sum of a460e2660fa951e9d4e3b05aee9f5018
If yours matches, there’s probably nothing wrong with the ROM, and it sounds like there’s nothing wrong with your FB, so the only thing left is “glitchy” displays. If you want them permanently fixed, there are those of us who can fix them.
If you live in the Americas, you can contact me via PM or directly at RunnerPack -att- gmail -daht- com.
If you’re in Europe, you can send TheForce81 a PM.
pollo20x6 wrote:
When I play games, they seem to play fine. Nothing that jumps out to me and says “hey, we clearly have a problem”.
So my question is, is there varying levels of misalignment? Can one virtual boy be slightly misaligned or to get the mirrors misaligned would be to make it an obvious problem.
If you can play the games, and there is no obvious misalignment of the game images, I wouldn’t worry about it.
As the mirrors are mounted on metal brackets, it is possible for the alignment to be off by a tiny bit or a great deal. That said, unless you purposely attempt to do so, it is nearly impossible to get them to misalign. The alignment screen is only there to check for factory defects, and I’ve never heard of one being defective in that way.
I’m interested in what your alignment screen looks like, but there’s really no convenient way to get a good picture of it. Can you try to describe how, exactly, it differs from the image in the manual? Have you tried shifting your head around slightly while you look at it? Are you sure you have your IPD set correctly?
For the sharp-eyed of you out there: the photos depict in the backgrounds two 3D stereoscopic games/toys from the past (excluding the VB). Can anyone identify them?
A real-life virtual prize will be awarded to the spotter. 😉
In the second photo, there’s a “Tomytronic 3D” LCD game hanging from the door (is it a “Sky Attack”? I used to have a “Planet Zeon”)
The other thing must be too out-of-focus or obscure for me…
While not entirely original (yes, I realize that’s a cymbal stand, but it’s basically the same thing), it’s still a great idea and a nice, clean implementation. Thanks for sharing!
I have to say the last page was the best. he playing game gear quick smash a virtual boy into his skull! :vb:
After researching a bit, I think the original picture was taken from Nippon Animation’s production of Anne of Green Gables, or one of the other shows in their World Masterpiece Theater series, but I’ve never seen any of them, so don’t quote me.
RunnerPack schrieb:
I want to play this just so I can find out what “robotic waste” is 😀
You tell me, it’s your native language! But seriously, I guess that’s not how solid or liquid remains of robots after being scrapped are called. 😀
No, you’re right; that’s what it would be called. I’ve just never lived in a society/world that has so many robots they need their own waste stream and facilities for handling it… But, I’m almost done re-reading Isaac Asimov’s “The Naked Sun” (couldn’t pass up a used, paperback copy for a quarter), and now it makes perfect sense! 🙂
3DBoyColor wrote:
A rechargeable battery isn’t a good option, unless you happen to leave your Virtual Boy running for several hours every day.
I beg to differ. Since the current draw is small, and it goes to zero while you’re using the VB, I think a rechargeable would work nicely. It’s good that (AFAIK) only a Li-ion cell would physically fit, though; the “memory effect” of other chemistries (I’m lookin’ at you, NiCd! ;-)) would ruin it after a few low-drain/top-up cycles.
Now that I think of it, though, maybe a supercap would be even better… But then you would probably have to run each cart for a few seconds every so often. Either that or find some pins that would fit, and make a rack that you can plug all your games into that supplies them with +5V 😀
That’s a great idea, execution, and first post all wrapped into one 😉 The only thing I don’t like is the use of the light fixture, but if you think it’s strong enough, I guess it’s alright.
For a replacement head strap, try to find an LED head-lamp at the “dollar-store” (i.e. a flashlight you wear on your head). It’ll be cheap (duh), and it might be hard to incorporate, but it should fit snugly and be adjustable, at least.
