This was a cool Trademe pickup that I had no idea what was wrong with it, all I knew was that it took full sized SNES carts and was handheld and I had to have it. When I got it, the screen was showing corrupt  data and the USB charge port didn’t work.

Repairs Round 1

The first round of repairs was a bit of a mystery and I attempted to get the original screen working. But it appeared that LCD driver board had a hardware fault with it as I purchased a new screen and it had the same issues. I then purchased a car reverse monitor of the same screen size and managed to get the device working. Unfortunately, I killed the powerboard for it some how as well as still hadn’t figured out how to power it off the device instead of the benchtop power supply.

Repairs Round 2

Destined to get this project off my bench I reordered the reverse monitor as well as a power supply board that would take the 7.4V from the battery and boost it to 12V that the screen needed. The wiring was a bit tricky and getting the screen to fit was a nightmare but it actually works.

Final Outcome

The final position of this unit is an interesting one. The unit is full assembled, works and plays games and plays when running off the charger but not off the battery. I think the convertor board/screen draw too much current from the battery for the the device to work. This is an issue I can resolve later if I ever find a better screen that runs at the correct voltage.