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McWill Kit clones?


-^CrossBow^-

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This was just brought to my attention over at Sega-16. This is specifically listed for the Game Gear, but the screen and board design is awful similar? Anyone have any info on this?

 

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000250454690.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.10f74c4dVTAlk6

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It does vary from his current board layouts, but it looks similar to his earlier revision like the one I have installed in my GG from when they were first released. Either way, it looks to be the same ICs driving it. The instructions are fun too that they have provided with them just being pics and colored lines to represent the wiring. I don't see where they show the components to be removed for the power side of things when putting this in like you do with the McWill kits? Unless they are just saying to leave that stuff in. 

 

I've no real interest in this kit myself personally, but I can see people asking me to install something like this...

 

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Double posted but good to edit and add something to this convo.

 

@Albert you are correct in that this board doesn't look like the Lynx boards. But this 'clone' is nearly an exact match for McWill's GG boards. I was watching a few vids of the McWill boards recently and it hit me that the GG boards are differently laid out, and this clone is specifically for the GG. So, it does appear that McWill's GG board has been cloned and his lynx boards might not be far behind if that is the case.

 

Original McWill GG board as sold by Console5 currently:

 

McWill_GG_Brd.thumb.PNG.0553c48d72b884b85804843ccbb50bc7.PNG

 

Pic of the Clone board from AliExpress again like shown above:

 

GG_Clone_brd.thumb.png.e70e7e6e50f3e5fbc7d2381a980479f5.png

 

 

So yeah it is match for McWill's GG board. The instructions are hilarious though as even with the more detailed written instructions, the McWill GG installation isn't that easy and these instructions on AliExpress do not mention removing any components as normally required in the McWill installation.

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Updated the above post to show that this clone board is indeed a clone of McWill's GG LCD kit dead on at this point. I've no immediate plans to order one as I already have a McWill in my GG, but I can see this becoming a big thing as there is quite the demand in the modding community for GG repairs and LCD replacements as compared to what I see for the Lynx. So it would make sense that his GG LCD kit gets cloned first as it would be more in demand and profitable to clone vs the Lynx kits.

 

 

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On 11/1/2019 at 2:20 PM, Albert said:

The board layout is a bit different, but also suspiciously familiar..

 

Sega Game Gear mod:

 

image.png

 

McWill Lynx Mod:

 

Screen Shot 2019-11-01 at 8.17.26 AM.png

I've seen it also on Aliexpress and EBAY. I was able to stop the sales on EBAY, because they hurt my copyrights. It seems it is a McWill mod, but IT ISN'T! The PCB design is my previous design.
I also tried to stop the sales on Aliexpress, but it's not as easy as on EBAY.

The most important thing: They don't use high quality parts and I got some questions of "customers" that it don't work perfectly. That's true, beause it's NOT my mod kit! I also guess they have pixel issues, but who knows...

It's incredible that people in China clone everything and sell it as "Original 100% brand"!
 

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I have already heard from others in the modding community that have ordered the Aliexpress kit and stated that it is the exact same screen as apparently the LCD itself is a pretty common type. They used the same instructions to install the Ali kit as the normal kit and it does work in the exact same fashion. However, they did state that there is some strange buzzing from the audio after installing one of these kits so it would seem there is a ground loop or something the clone kit introduces.

 

Yes it is very disappointing to see this but again, it isn't surprising either as many of these types of things over the past few years have been getting cloned like this. The GDEMU is another and in the case of that device, the clones have become more popular than the originals.

 

You stated the kit is based off your old GG design PCB? I must have the older version then since I looked and even with the pics of your GG board on console5.com, the clone seems to mirror it? If you have a newer version of the GG PCB what is the main difference with the newer PCB?

 

 

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6 hours ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

I have already heard from others in the modding community that have ordered the Aliexpress kit and stated that it is the exact same screen as apparently the LCD itself is a pretty common type. They used the same instructions to install the Ali kit as the normal kit and it does work in the exact same fashion. However, they did state that there is some strange buzzing from the audio after installing one of these kits so it would seem there is a ground loop or something the clone kit introduces.

 

Yes it is very disappointing to see this but again, it isn't surprising either as many of these types of things over the past few years have been getting cloned like this. The GDEMU is another and in the case of that device, the clones have become more popular than the originals.

 

You stated the kit is based off your old GG design PCB? I must have the older version then since I looked and even with the pics of your GG board on console5.com, the clone seems to mirror it? If you have a newer version of the GG PCB what is the main difference with the newer PCB?

 

 

The main difference is the McWill LCD TM Logo and some optimized solder points.
The quality is the same as before ? (as expected from McWill).

So you can see the clone has bad quality regarding the audio buzzing. As mentioned before some people also said the clone isn't working. The reason could be that theses clones never were tested before shipping, because they have not the knowledge for this. The chinese just cloned it, sell bad quality and have no idea for testing things.
After import taxes and shipping cost the clone would be more expensive than my original. And a faulty clone could also be happen.

GG_back.thumb.jpg.f8d54b95335d781c5f1504ebf51cd46b.jpg

 

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Yes Ebay is pretty good when you alert them of these issues.  AliExpress forget it.  I don't understand people.  You don't just "stumble" on a McWill mod, especially given the skills needed to install, without having done research.  Yet you can be so easily duped.  The quest to say a few bucks is often quite dumb. 

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  • 1 month later...

In my opinion this is not a clone. The Chinese just sell the old version (stock). It is very probable that they produced more than McWill ordered and now they are selling them, or they just still produce the old ones, too. 

 

It would be too much work to clone McWill’s PCB. 

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