GBA SP Metal Shell Without The Hinge! | Boxy Pixel Unhinged SP | Install Tutorial + Review

[Applause] the game boy advance came in many forms some with a horizontal form factor like the original and micro and a compact foldable one in the sp but one that never came into existence was a design that resembled the original dmg pocket or game boy color that is until now introducing the sp unhinged project from boxy pixel this machined aluminum shell transforms the sp into a solid vertical orientation that pays homage to the game boy's roots but is it as awesome as it looks let's find out [Music] hey everyone how's it going my name is tito and welcome to another episode of retro renew today is the day i've been waiting for a very long time we're going to be taking a look at the sp unhinge shell from boxy pixel this project was announced on november 1st and i've been counting the days to its release ever since to those who are unfamiliar with this project essentially what these aluminum shells do is take a standard foldable sp and turn it into a solid non-foldable form factor very much resembling that of a dmg or gameboy color what's so awesome about this is that we never got a game boy advance that looked like this from nintendo and it could be argued that removing the hinge makes the console more reliable given that as we all know hinges are an inherent point of failure now for those of you who are new to the channel i am a huge fan of the company boxy pixel i buy all their products with my own money this one included they specialize in making high quality machine aluminum shelves for many nintendo consoles such as the game boy color and even the switch's joy-cons i have videos of all of these so definitely check out my boxy pixel playlist if you're interested now i'm really excited about this mod in case you couldn't already tell so let's get right into it as usual i'll start off by briefly going over the contents of the kit as well as all the other items you'll need from your old donor sp console then i'll show you how to install them and lastly i'll briefly discuss all the kits features go over the pros and cons and of course provide you with my overall thoughts so let's first go over the aluminum shell itself it comes in four primary pieces you have the front shell which looks absolutely stunning you can see on the bottom that there are some openings for a usbc port and a headphone jack which are both optional and i'll discuss later in the video this is the rear shell which will house most of the components such as the motherboard and this is the battery cover which attaches to the rear shell and of course holds in the battery now this part here is the rear cover for the lcd which brings me to the next item for this mod you will need to use an ips screen this shell will not be able to fit the original ags-001 or 101 lcd so again you must use an ips screen such as the one i have here the other mandatory item is boxy pixels metal buttons these buttons are uniquely designed to work with the shell the original sp buttons will not work with this mod oh and of course as with all boxy pixel kits it comes with its own set of machine screws now here are some of the optional items i'll be installing into this build the first is a boxy pixel battery which is rated at 700 milliamp hours this requires soldering so if that's something you want to avoid you can of course use the original battery instead however that requires the use of a 3d printed bracket to keep the battery in place you can find that in boxy pixels store and the last optional addition is the usbc charging board which will allow me to charge the sp battery note that the battery can be charged either through its original charge port or this usb-c port no functionality is lost by installing this upgrade okay we're almost through everything you need for this mod this brings me to what you'll need to transfer over from your donor sp console and i'll keep it brief you'll of course need the motherboard all the membranes the speaker power switch cover the led light pipe lnr triggers with the pegs and you actually don't need the springs for this mod and lastly the rf shield i already have all these items taken out from my donor console so i won't be going over the disassembly of the sp in this video if you want you can check out one of my other videos that shows a detailed disassembly of the sp i'll have a link to that down below great so that's just about everything now let's go ahead and build the unhinged sp to get things started grab the front faceplate and install the buttons membranes and speaker as a side note for my particular installation i had to use a bit of trial and error you may notice some inconsistencies in the footage and that's because i had to backtrack and redo some steps as i figured things out regardless if you follow these spoken instructions you should be okay next we're going to install the usbc charging board i like to use kapton tape to cover the pads on the bottom here you can see me using double sided foam tape but later found this caused fitment issues due to its thickness i later switched out the foam tape for normal clear double-sided tape which is very thin as you can see here with the tape applied go ahead and set the usbc module in place go ahead and pre-tin the negative pad and then solder in a wire then pre-tin the positive pad and solder in a wire as well [Music] and this is what it should look like next go ahead and install the ips ribbon cable into the motherboard if you want to add brightness control pre-tin the pad on the ribbon cable as well as the test pad labeled q12b on the motherboard then solder the included wire between the two points i then tape down the wire to keep it out of the way next with some flush cutters trim this metal tab shown here once removed add some hot glue in its place and then install the led light pipe as you would in a normal sp [Music] now make sure that your usb-c wires are routed as shown next we're going to connect the ips panel to the ribbon cable [Music] then peel the protective film and insert the ips panel into the front shell housing making sure it's properly seated then place the motherboard into the front shell also making sure that the usbc wires are routed through this hole in the motherboard shown here secure the motherboard by fastening this screw in the center and another shown here the motherboard is only secured with two screws and not three like a regular sp is next solder the black wire to the ground shielding and the red wire to the fifth pin from the left here's a better view of what it looks like [Music] and this is what the ground wire should look like now carefully slide in the boxy pixel ips rear shell cover as shown and then loosely fasten the two pan head screws insert the pegs and shoulder buttons next you don't need to install the springs for this shell grab the rear shell and screw in the rf shield there is only one screw needed for this step now we're going to install the battery pre-tin the positive and negative terminal leads feed the battery wires through the rear shell as shown and then solder the black ground wire to the negative lead and the red wire to the positive lead [Music] next drop in the power switch cover and then carefully install the rear shell making sure not to damage the power switch once the rear shell is installed begin fastening the screws at this point you can install the battery carefully tucking the wires then finish up screwing in the rear shell you can now tighten the two lcd rear shell screws on top go ahead and drop in the battery cover [Music] and secure it with the two remaining pan head screws then flip the console over and give it a quick test [Music] i have to say this is absolutely beautiful i'm not sure if it's the new form factor but i find playing game boy advanced games on the unhinged sp to be quite refreshing as always metal housings especially ones as beautifully crafted as this one are simply a pleasure to play on the aluminum shell and hefty brass buttons all make for a very premium experience the shell itself has some nice details such as an engraved start and select writing over the buttons and countersunk screw holes for the battery cover making the package nice and flush it all comes together really nicely i'm a fan of the metallic shell and brass button combination but boxy pixel offers some really nice colors for the shell such as black purple and red the buttons also come in quite a few colors as well so let me go over some of the key features of this kit when comparing it to the original sp we begin to notice a couple of things when laying both consoles on the table side by side the unhinged sp is quite a bit shorter comparing the thickness is a bit tricky but when the original sp is closed they are nearly the same thickness with the original sp being just a tad thicker also most obviously missing is the hinge so one could say that there is a loss of functionality or spun a different way you could say it's a more reliable design hinge mechanisms are a notorious point of failure when it comes to electronic devices as we've seen on consoles like the nintendo ds and even the sp itself really other than that there isn't much to say in terms of features it's simply an sp without a hinge wrapped in this gorgeous looking metal shell alright now let's get into the pros and cons starting with the pros first if you're just swapping your sp into this shell i'd have to say that it's actually a lot easier than reshelling the sp into a normal shell not having to deal with the hinge greatly simplifies things speaking of which adding the larger battery usb c charging and the headphone jack are completely optional so this mod can be done without any soldering at all another pro is that it's absolutely stunning to look at and it's the form factor that i've always wanted but never got until now the classic game boy form factor will always have a bit of nostalgia for me now if you're planning to add some of the optional features i'm glad to say that everything works as it should and there is no loss in functionality charging the console through the original charge port works as it should as well as charging through the added usb-c port and they both thankfully activate the charge led indicator and again this works with either the original battery or the aftermarket one like i have here additionally there is an option for a normal three and a half millimeter headphone jack which i'll be showing how to do in a future video and really this makes for a very flexible platform you have many options and you don't have to do any of the additional mods if you don't want to like installing a larger battery so this remains to be something that is very nice and accessible to a large amount of people and lastly it also has a space for a wireless charger if you want to add that in the future this will of course require a plastic battery cover but i think it's pretty neat that boxy pixel in a way future-proofed his design okay now on to the cons and i think you know what i'm gonna say the biggest con of course as with all boxy pixel products is that they're expensive i know these things aren't cheap but as i said before i do believe the cost is justified these are not mass-market products and boxy pixel isn't a huge company the cost of the shell and buttons together is a hundred and fifteen us dollars and that doesn't include the cost of the ips screen so there is a bit of sticker shock there now another con is the light pipe insulation the original doesn't fit too well but based on conversations with nick due to the intricacies of that part of the shell making a design that would fit the light pipe is quite difficult the solution that i showed you in this video i think is more than suitable to handle this and it isn't much of an issue for me in my opinion and lastly the shell isn't compatible with some game boy advance accessories such as the gamecube link cable i never use those accessories but for some i know this could be a deal breaker so there you have it the unhinged sp shell from boxy pixel my new favorite way to enjoy the game boy advance library as always i'm curious about what you all think of this new shell so definitely leave me a comment down below i hope you enjoyed this video if you did please give it a like and consider subscribing to the channel you can find me on facebook and instagram macho nacho productions i release content every thursday so be sure to turn on notifications and as always see you next time

Channel: Macho Nacho Productions

Views: 234,684

Keywords: Macho Nacho, Macho Nacho Productions, Boxy Pixel, Unhinged SP Mod, Boxy Pixel Unhinged, Turn the GBA SP into a DMG, GBA Mods, GBA SP Mods, gameboy advance sp, gba sp, macho nacho mods, How to install the Unhinged SP Shell, boxy pixel, advance gameboy mod, the retro future, funny playing ips, ips mod, macho nacho production, gba sp metal shell, gba sp aluminum, metal gba sp shell, ultimate gba sp, how to gba sp, A$300 Gameboy made of metal, gba sp unhinged, unhinged

Id: n3sJBIPn-wo

Length: 16min 6sec (966 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 18 2021