I bought recently on yahoo auctions a set of 4 gameboys (1 brick, 2 colors and 1 pocket 1st gen) because I had a plan to hack them and I needed some guinea pigs. I have already 2 at home but … well, it was a total of 1,500 JPY (10 euro w/ delivery) so. Got them yesterday morning, quick check: all working modulo the inevitable sticky buttons or gunk that went everywhere after 15 years. Dismantle, wash (water & soap), remove glue (ugly pokemon stickers) and marker (acetone), dry, reassemble. Working fine, nice looking and that vomiting man-sweat smell is gone (previous owner must have had very sweaty hands).
One of the GB color had one battery electrode completely corroded by leaking battery (thanks “sweaty palms” for sending me the leaking battery too, appreciated). So I replaced it with one of the other GB color, worked like a charm. Then I saw that abandonned GB color without its original battery connector destined to inactivity … unless … hey, I was playing with some Li-Ion battery from old cellphone the other day, I even plugged one to those 2USD ebay Li-Ion charger. Hum, 3.7v & 1,100 mAh looks good that could power the GB, but 3.7v is too much, I need 3v. Wish I had some way to regulate that, but buying or making a buck converter looks boring, and buying on eBay takes time. If I could just drop those 0.7v it would be perfe… 0.7v drop? Hey, silicium diodes do that! + reverse polarity protection! Eureka!
For those who are curious, the battery has a massive lifespan, like more than 10h straight. I did the test: turn on the GB, start a game or let the tetris demo run, I never saw it run out of battery even after 10 or 12h straight… impressive.
By the way a good video about Li-Ion battery from Mr. Dave Jones http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6mKd5_-abk
Thank you Hackaday for featuring this page (^_^) http://hackaday.com/2015/01/01/game-boy-with-lithium-batteries-and-usb/
For more detail: Gameboy battery upgrade
