Game Boy Color RetroGlow RGB LED Flex Board

I had issues with the FunnyPlaying Game Boy Color 2.0 Q5 IPS Laminated Backlight Kit and RetroGlow RGB flex cable from Handheld Legends.

Long story short if you connect the start and select wires to change the x,y axis and rgb color on the logo of the IPS kit you will NOT be able to change the rgb of the buttons on the console. I had to dial in the settings/color of the IPS screen first and then desolder the start and select wires from the rgb flex cable so they would work properly and I could change the colors of the buttons. For some reason both items aren’t compatible and now I can’t change the settings of my IPS screen. Although the kit looks nice, because of the fact I no longer have control over my Q5 2.0 IPS screens options I can’t give this flex board 5 stars.

for a few reasons. I installed this kit clean on my perfectly working GBC. Now the D-Pad will barely work. I’ve done everything you can think of to try to remedy this, but something about the kit (thickness? placement of the LEDs?) just doesn’t sit right and won’t read. Also, the way to operate it and charge colors is way too convoluted.

I used this board with a funny playing q5 v2 ips screen. I couldn’t get it to work properly when the wire were correctly wired (select to select Pad and start to start pad) after trouble shooting the issue, turns out the new ips screen have an issue with these boards and there is a fix. Take the select wire and move it to the d pad down spot on the led board. And keep the start on the start pad. That’s it. Works fabulous!

I had previously gone through the pain of hand soldering resistors to LEDs and wiring them off the GBC's internal power supply. It made for a great effect, but a pain to actually complete. So I saw this and decided to give it a try. I have intermediate soldering skills, and honestly the longest part of installing this was lining the board up. I'd encourage anyone trying this to make sure you're using a good solder, some flux, and a lower heat setting. Beyond that, it was trivial to install, and it actually makes installing a Q5 screen easier thanks to the handy button pads along the top. While you can get away with white membranes (what you see in my pic, with brightness set to '2'), you'll best be served by also picking up some translucent membranes so you can use a lower brightness setting. The menu can be a little tricky to figure out, but I really appreciate the ability to fully customize the buttons, and I can't really think of any way to better do this menu system. I did notice a little pressure on the LCD that results in a slightly dimmer on the left of the screen where the ribbon runs up for the power LED, but I suspect I can reroute some of the wires for the Q5 screen to resolve it. Overall, I'm impressed with this, and look forward to using it again in future builds.

Literally this product is everything I thought it would be and more. It's taught me how to mod. I've practiced and perfected this mod.

It could use 1 single thing. A way to have white included. Lol. That's such a small critique but if I'm being honest that's the one color I wish it had. Otherwise perfect.

First - this is really slick - nice craftsmanship here. The LEDs are dimmable and when they are turned all the way up they are very bright. They seem to pull about .1 amps at max. The breakouts for the screen OSD was a nice touch as well. There are two downsides to this. First, there is a constant high pitched squeal through the speakers/headphones. It's gets louder with the brightness. That's really the main issue. The other thing is not that big of a deal, but the LED that replaces the original power LED is so bright that it bleeds into the screen. So if you have a dark screen in your game it looks bad on the left side. That can easily be rectified by turning that LED down/off individually. Anyway, if there is some trick to getting rid of this (actually pretty irritating) sound I'm all ears.