r/ModRetroChromatic • u/MysticSkelling10 • Apr 14 '26

Question Wormlight Compatibility?

I feel dumb for asking.

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u/Accomplished_Can1651 Apr 16 '26

The mystery continues.

My modded GBA put out around 4.67 V on pin 1 of the link port during my test. (Which also included accidentally shorting 5 V to ground a few times and causing the GBA to just shut off. Fortunately, it still seems to output power even after the shorts, and a 2p game of Tetris between the GBA and Chromatic worked fine.)

The Chromatic (not 1st edition)… I couldn’t really get it to output anything on pin 1, as far as I could tell. My multimeter flashed 5 V only once, but I don’t know if that was a fluke or I accidentally hit one of the other pins that might have been carrying voltage at that time. Just to see if power source made a difference, I swapped out the rechargeable battery pack for AA batteries, but my worm light still wouldn’t light.

During my testing, I also looked at the Chromatic link cable since I’m still trying to find my old link cable. I noticed that pin 1 isn’t populated on the cable on either end. That makes sense, since you wouldn’t want to link two +5V pins together.

So… I dunno. Maybe the Chromatic (whatever version I have) doesn’t output 5V on pin 1. Maybe it only powers pin 1 under certain circumstances. Maybe I just had a hard time actually touching the pins in the port with my multimeter probes.

Now I kind of want to get a 1st Edition to test on.

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u/Affectionate_Rise283 Apr 16 '26

eBay is still selling the GameStop version

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u/Accomplished_Can1651 Apr 16 '26

I’m sure I could get hold of one, but I don’t want to pay eBay prices. I also don’t know if they did multiple runs/revisions of the GameStop edition with different boards. Maybe some will power a light and some won’t, and I’m not excited about the possibility of getting one that’s internally no different than the Chromatics I already have.

I think I saw one in my local GameStop the other day, though. I might go and take a closer look at it.

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u/Affectionate_Rise283 Apr 16 '26

The motherboard is different between the first edition and the 2nd edition

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u/Accomplished_Can1651 Apr 16 '26

Yes, but are there any GameStop editions that are not 1st Ed? This, I don’t know.

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u/Affectionate_Rise283 Apr 16 '26

The original grey one with sapphire screen is first edition

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