By: Mr. Blinky
Date: Wednesday, January 12th, 2011 at 15:00
Comments: 9
Guides » 

Pokemon Mini LED Backlight Mod

Contents

Everything you need

  • Soldering Iron and solder. Required for soldering the LEDs and wires.
  • Siemens C60 Display with orange circuitboard (LPH type).  Needed for all the backlight parts.
  • Tape to keep display at its place during assembly and for sticking the LEDs at back of PM display.
  • 3V battery to test LED wireing and aligning.
  • A pokemon mini of your favorite color.
  • Thin single core wires can be taken from a Ultra IDE (80 wire) flatcable.
  • Cleaning alcohol. Needed to make PM display glue free.
  • Cotton and cotton earbuds. For removing glue from PM display.
  • Tri-wing screw driver. Needed to open up your Pokemon Mini.
  • Hobby knife. Needed to cut PM case to make enough room for the LEDs.
  • Tweezers. Optional but could be handier to use then flathead screwdriver at certain points.
  • Small philips screwdriver. Needed for removing the screwss at PCB.
  • Small flathead screw driver. To remove the PM Display from its case.
  • Side cutters to cut wires.
  • Finally some scissors to cut several of the C60 display parts.

Most important parts: a Pokemon Mini and a Siemens C60 Display.
Make sure you get a display with a yellow circuit board like in the picture and not the one with a green circuit board.

Modification process

First we need to take apart the Pokemon mini. Remove the game, battery lid and battery and then remove the four Y-wing screws at the bottom. Put them into a box or something so they don’t get lost. Now open up PM carefully. You will see that the case bottom is stuck to the circuit board with two wires leading to the speaker. Just put both halfs beside each other and remove the three black screws and the two at the IR sensor from the circuitboard. Now lift the circuit board for just a few millimeters at the front.  Don’t try to pull it off completely as it is still stuck by the display cable.

With circuit board lifted a bit you can look in between and when you look just above the blob in the center, you can see the display cable beeing connected to a white connector. You can also see that there is a small black bar at the front. This bar keeps the display cable secure. If you can’t see it go to a place with more light or use a flashlight. You need to use the small flathead screwdriver to push the connector to the back gently at both the left and right side of the connector. When done correctly you can see the display cable loosen. Now you can remove the circuit board completely.

PM case top. You can also see the yellow display cable.

PM case bottom. White connector with black bar above the black blob.

Now we need to remove the LCD display from the case top.  It is stuck to the top with double sided tape. The best way to remove it is to lift it a little at the right side of the display with the small flat head screw driver to loosen it and then lift it out completely at the right-top side of the display.

Beware ! If  you try to lift the display out directly at the right-top side without loosen it at the right side or when using too much force the display glass will crack !

Lift the display up at right-top slowly.

While lifting the display. The double sided tape may come loose too. When it does try to push  it back immediately with the small screwdriver. Once the double sided tape comes off completely. It’s not easy to stick it back to the case.

With the display removed we can now cut away some of the plastic at the bottom of the display area for the LEDs. Use a hobby knife to cut away the red area in the picture below. When done make sure there are no platic bits stuck to the double sided tape.  

Now it’s back to the display.  Remove the rubber strips carefully by peeling at the edges with hobby knife or screwdriver or just your nails. After a few mods I found out that peeling at the edges using my nails and then pulling the rubber strips off with my fingers works best. Keep the rubber strips somewhere save as we need to stick them back on later.

The reflective silver foil also needs to be removed. Start peeling at the edges. Again your nails will be your best tool.

Now we’ve come to the most daunting task: Removing the gluey substance from the display with your nails.  Because  sharp tools will damage the  displays softer non glass layer. Put the display on a clean surface and Use your nails to scratch off the glue starting in the middle and working towards the edges. When most of the thick glue has been scratched off dip a ear bud in alcohol and apply it onto the still gluey surface. Wait a little for the alcohol to soften the glue and then dip the ear buds again in alcohol and remove more glue with the ear bud. You will need to repeat this processseveral times until the surface is clean enough.

Finally the last bit of glue has been removed !

Time to open up the Siemens  C60 display. Use the small screwdriver at the side of the display to lift up the tabs so you can open the display.  After opening the display you can see a diffuser layer stuck to the back of  the display. This sticky diffuser layer needs to be pulled off. After pulling it off, close the display again so  none of the other layers may accidentally drop out and get mixed up. It also keeps dust away.

The sticky diffuser sheet needs to be trimmed slightly. Trim it to the small indents so  it stays sticky.

After trimming the sticky diffuser layer.  Stick it to the PM display like in the picture below. Make sure that no dust gets trapped between the PM display and diffuser layer.

Now it’s time to put back the PM display in the case top. But before you do, make sure there is no dust on the display and case top. After this open the C60 display again and take out the two thin layers. Cut the small tabs at the top of both  layers simultaniously and put the layers at PM display. (Sorry no pictures of this)

After inserting the two thin layers at the PM display. Remove the thick diffuser layer from the back of the C60 display. While doing so, do not damage the reflective film at the back of the display as we will need this too. After removing the thick layer, cut the outlined area in the picture below off using a hobby knife. Removing this part gives a bit more space for the PM display cable.

After cutting the thick layer put it at the PM display. Make sure you insert with the correct side front. After this take the reflective foil and trim it also slightly and put it at the PM display too.

Now we’ve got all the the layers in place.

  • Sticky diffuser cut to fit and stuck to PM display.
  • The two thin sheets with the top two tabs removed. (No picture)
  • Thick diffuser platic cut at the top
  • Reflective foil cut to size.  (no picture)

Now cut a few pieces of scotch tape and use stick them at left and right the edges of the case so none of the layers will move or drop when you pick up the case top.

Time to turn on your soldering iron. Meanwhile take the C60 display and take it further apart for the LEDs. The leds are soldered to some mylar. cut the  mylar with the LEDs like in the picture below and put them on a metal surface.  The metal surface will help in  conducting  the heat away while soldering. If you like you can use some scotch tape to keep the mylar with the LEDs from moving around.

Now take some thin wires with a single copper core like the ones used in IDE ultra DMA cables. Thats the IDE cable with 80 instead of 40 wires. Cut two wires with a length of about 10cm-15cm.  strip about 2 mm at one end a little and on the same wire strip wire again at about 1.5cm so you can solder thats wire to two LEDs. Now apply some solder to the stripped areas.  After tinning the wires solder the wire to the two LEDs like in the picture below. After soldering the first wire cut the second one to right length strip it, tin it and solder it to the remaining LED.

With both wires soldered to LEDs strip the other ands and hold them to the 3V battery to test the LEDs.  If they LEDs light up you’ve done it right. With the LEDs lighting  up make a note of which wire is positive and which wire is negative.

Note: If you have little experience in soldering or soldering on mylar. Try soldering some wires to the C60 displays circuitboard as an exercise.

Now stick the LEDs to the back of the display with some scotch tape. Use the battery again to check the LEDs are aligned properly.

With the LEDs aligned properly its time to put back the rubber strips. The rubber strips help in keeping  all the layers at their place once PM is reassembled. In the picture you see both rubber pads back at the display. On later mods I cut a little of each strip making two small rubber squares and stuck one rubber square at each LED as an extra help to keep them at there place. After putting back the rubber strips, guide the wires to the right just above the A button. you’re done with the case top.

Now it’s getting a bit tricky. you will have to put the display cable back into its connector and secure it with the black bar. When done secure the circuit board  with just two screws one at the left and one at the right  then put a game cart in the slot and a battery. Turn on PM to see if the display works normally and, test that the buttons work properly and test that the LEDs are OK. If  ther e is a problem with the display or LEDs or the buttons do’nt respond well you have to remove the screws again, look at the LEDs or  remove and reinsert the display cable again or in case of a button problem clean the button pads on the circuitboard and the rubber buttons.

When all works well then screw back  the remaining screws  and it is time to solder the LED wires to the circuit board. The negative wire should be soldered at the  top of capacitor C5 and the positive wire  to any or both of the rightmost two pins at the connector.  First try guiding the wires to their places and see if the wires are too. When they are  cut them a bit shorter. But don’t cut them too short.

After soldering the wires put back the case bottom. While doing so make sure no wires get caught between plastics then insert a game cart and a battery and see if all works well. When all is well screw back the Y-wing screws and you’re done!

The well earned result after a afternoon of tinkering.

Videos


Gallery: All models with LED Backlight

When you open the display one diffuser layer is stuck to the back of the display. Peel of this sticky diffurer layer and trim the sticky edges slightly.

9 Comments

Steve(spt) says:

Nice, clear instructiuons.
Great photos makes you want to have ago.

thanks for the information.

Agilo says:

Great guide, MrBlinky!
Excellent and very clear description and explanation.
Helped me to backlight a PM unit myself.. so pretty. 🙂

Diego says:

Where can I buy the display? D:

Mr. Blinky says:

Try ebay and search for “siemens (C60,M55,S55,A60,MC60) (display,bildschirm,lcd,ecran)”

zoranc says:

What is the difference between yellow and green circuit board variations? I got the green one since I didn’t check beforehand… Are those not usable at all?

Mr.Blinky says:

The display with green circuitboards have all layers but the thick diffuser layer integrated in the displays glass substrate which you can’t remove.

DaniPhii says:

Wow, this is just splendid work! I totally love this! 😀

Jamal says:

Nice 🙂 would anyone be kind enough to make one for me and I’ll buy if from them please?

tider14 says:

Sweet guide! However I’m just a little curious, are there any other LCD displays apart from the C60 and etc?

Post a comment