So, I got a kit to fix, restore, and add a frontlight to a Gameboy Color.
I cast the instruction manual aside, patched the frontlight directly to the batterer pack, at the point the towers are soldered to the front, ran far more wiring than I likely needed, and added a breaker switch to the middle of the unit, which I put in place by grinding a hole with a steak knife... Don't be fooled by the apparently bare wires in this thing though, I made sure that they were all secured and insulated, keeping them visible was an atheistic choice in my part.
I like to think of this as a: Total Chaos Hackjob.


Frontlight on


Frontlight off


Frontlight on in complete darkness

Update:
Okay, so, I'm glad I decided to install that switch for the frontlight. As it turns out: much like with the original GBASP, the frontlight can more than double battery consumption. Only problem is that in this case, the battery cannot be recharged, unless a lithium battery pack is installed....


....In hindsight: this isn't a bad idea.....

The high battery usage might make this impractical for general use, but that's still really cool. Nice job.

A larger battery pack may help as well.
If it used 4, instead of 2 AA batteries, like the DMG-01 used, the drain might not be as noticeable.

I'll be doing the same thing to an original DMG-01.

Photos didn't capture well, but this looks a lot better IRL.
I've also gathered that I might currently own the only toggleable frontlit DMG-01 on the planet at this time.
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Edited by: The_Shadow, Jun 12th, 2017 @ 5:51 pm

Does the screen look good regardless of whether you're in regular light, bright sunshine, or a dark room? If so, that's super-extra cool.

Indeed it does. Albeit there is a minor decline in contrast with the frontlight on, due to how it works, it isn't enough to render anything unplayable.

In direct sunlight, contrast is still 1-1 to what the unmodified unit was, with the exception of expected screen distortion resulting from the frontlighting matrix plate.
This is not detrimental to the playability of anything though.
(It takes a bit of getting used to)

I should say that I am quite proud of myself.
Especially after seeing that the frontlight matrix plate is listed as "Incompatible" with the DMG-01.
...Kicked it's ass...
https://handheldlegend.com/products/game-boy-color-frontlight


Incidentally: Did you know that the pixels on a DMG-01 were blue?
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Edited by: The_Shadow, Jun 13th, 2017 @ 10:09 am

Quick update: This has been running as long as the initial test for GBC, with, as of current, no noticeable additional battery drainage. Seems that this actually works better on the DMG-01, than it does the CGB-001.