Picked up a pair of phat DS consoles 2 weekends ago, a pink one that had a broken hinge and a cracked top screen, the other was silver and also had a broken hinge but also had bent pins in the DS game slot.
I took the top screen out of the one with bent pins and fitted it into the other one to make sure it was fully working and then ordered a new shell from AliExpress, didn't get blue shell I wanted because they were doing an early bird offer on a gray Super Nintendo themed shell - which seems to be the latest limited edition at the minute.
When the shell arrived, I decided to use the screws and stuff from the DS with the bent pins to assemble the shell to check the quality before fitting it.
Here's the shell and the DS with the broken hinge that it's going on:
The finished result:
The power/charge light lens and battery terminals didn't fit properly which was stopping the bottom cover fitting flush, so I had to carefully make some adjustments with a sharp scalpel.
The aftermarket buttons didn't feel good at all, the power button was sticking and the shoulder buttons didn't feel right so I fitted the black set from the donor DS and they felt much better.
Then I decided that with the left over parts I could attempt a macro conversion that I saw on YouTube, ordered a pack of resistors, then when they arrived started to have a bash!
Fitting the surface mount resistor took a few attempts but I got there in the end:
I completely removed the DS game slot to make room for one of the speakers and then cut out a bit of the stylus holder to make room for the other speaker - but sadly with the speakers being at the bottom the sound is crap. (great with headphones plugged in though)
I'd like to paint it and do something with the parts above the screen where the top section was connected but I'll give it a week to see if it still works first!