Knowledge is Power

After pulling apart a NDSL, I know a lot more!

 

Tracing out the connections, a lot of the LCD pins have a designator silkscreened on, which is totally awesome. I spent a bit of time tracing as many as I could, and then I internetted what I had. That led me to this amazing page, which has the rest of the pin names, but not a lot else relating to this. Totally rad information on other parts of the NDS and GBA systems, though.

Here’s the full(ish) pinout, according to Nintendo:

___NDS-Lite lower screen/lower backlight (P4)________________________________
  1-VDD-5 6-MOD    11-LD1xx 16-LD1xx 21-LD1xx 26-LD1xx 31-LS   36-GND
  2-VDD10 7-GSP    12-LD1xx 17-LD1xx 22-LD1xx 27-LD1xx 32-VSHD 37-COM1
  3-VDD5  8-GCK    13-LD1xx 18-GND   23-LD1xx 28-GND   33-GND  38-LEDA1
  4-GND   9-LD1xx  14-LD1xx 19-LD1xx 24-LD1xx 29-DCLK  34-xx1? 39-LEDC1
  5-VSHD  10-LD1xx 15-LD1xx 20-LD1xx 25-LD1xx 30-SPL   35-REV

That is actually pretty close to the datasheet I’ve been working from. My analysis of where the screens differed was pretty accurate, too, which is cool.

Based on that, here is the NDSL LCD pinout in order, probably, compared to the other one:

 

Pin Nintendo DS Lite LCD Sharp LQ030B7DD01
1 VDD-5 VDD
2 VDD-10 NC
3 VDD-5 MOD
4 GND SPS
5 VSHD CLS
6 MOD NC
7 SPS VEE
8 CLS VCOM
9 R0 SPL
10 R1 R0
11 R2 R1
12 R3 R2
13 R4 R3
14 R5 R4
15 G0 R5
16 G1 G0
17 G2 G1
18 GND G2
19 G3 G3
20 G4 G4
21 G5 G5
22 B0 B0
23 B1 B1
24 B2 B2
25 B3 B3
26 B4 B4
27 B5 B5
28 GND VSHD
29 DCLK DGND
30 SPL PS
31 LP
32  VSHD DCLK
33 GND VSHA
34 V0
35 V1
36 GND V2
37 V3
38 V4
39 AGND

The signals that don’t directly match the known datasheet are a guess, but usually a pretty good guess (eg. CLS on the datasheet is gate clock, and is in approximately the same pin area as GCK). I’ve gotta go back and check:

  • LS
  • xx1
  • REV
  • LEDA1
  • LEDC1
  • COM1

Figuring out the PCB footprint is also tricky from the component alone, and I made a couple mistakes in my earlier assumptions. Fortunately the PCB gave me a little more information, so this is the Nintendo DS Lite LCD connector. Which both gives me a datasheet, and a 50 cent source for more connectors instead of the Chinese manufacturers that market it specifically for the NDSL and charge $2. EagleCAD has a compatible library model from Omron with the model number “XF2C-3955-41A”.

For the touchscreen connectors, they’re 0.5mm pitch, four contacts. That’s a pretty common sizing, and it’s not even a good idea to use the same connectors. That thing totally disintegrated the first time I looked at it funny. A quick search turns up a decent replacement in both top and bottom contact versions, depending on where I want to mount the connector. Eagle part number “52745-0490” from Molex.

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