Simple Power Regulator by Skimzor

May 13, 2026

Skimzor’s SZ Regulator is a simple 5V power regulator for the Game Boy Pocket or Color used for newer screen kits. It’s a great resource to the community and it is a blank file that allows for customization. The challenging part is soldering on a quad flat no-lead (QFN) package. This is the not so simple part. The typical technique generally requires at minimum hot air and hot plate is helpful as well.

Someone once said, “if you solder a QFN by hand, the god of soldering will come down and stab you.” I definitely felt it. As a beginner, I tried to clean up poorly soldered or unsoldered leads using an iron and then of course I saw this quote and laughed out loud and now it’s in my brain forever.

Thankfully, I received helpful tips from a very kind modder in the community that recommended these steps that produced consistently great results under the microscope.

  1. Tin the PCB board first using solder paste and also the legs of the QFN chip

  2. Apply flux to the board and line up the QFN chip (place on hot plate next if you have one)

  3. Finish up by using hot air set the package.

After getting the right materials to reattempt the task, the first 20-30 times I tried to do this I was not successful. But it was due to a combination of factors. I was only able to produce two working regulators and checked using multimeter for confirmation. However, there remaining many chips that were seemingly soldered fully around the QFN without bridging and checked under microscope did not work. I wondered if there was an issue underneath the chip with the ground pad. I would get either chips that would read under 1V or over 6V.

I ordered another batch of Texas Instrument boost converter chips, this time from Mouser and swapped out only the QFN on every failed board and immediately all the boards worked. Under the scope, every chip labeled “”CER TI K 1BHX” were faulty. I had a bad batch of chips my first round. In any case, I’m glad to have a working bunch of regulators to complete some mods and thankful for Skimzor’s generosity. But I’m hoping that I won’t need to do many more of these.

The Build Materials