Gameboy color Front light: There's gotta be an easier way

Going through the hassle of pulling parts off of another gameboy to put into a gameboy color is rediculous in my mind. Why hasn't someone made an alternative to it? We have a strong gameboy modding community, so I am kinda surprised that a front light isn't available for purchase somewhere.

 

The idea is usually to take a screen from an otherwise broken GBA SP AGS-001, but you can always use the light from an original DS screen - cheaper and you don't have to take apart an SP for it: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/USED-1st-...G_Replacement_Parts_Tools&hash=item2c69bb55e4

 

Wow, that is quite cool and cheap. Is the DS screen the same as the SP screen? As in the front light?

 

Ds is backlight. But is fairly easy to pull apart and from memory the power ribbon (for the light) is also easy to remove from the main ribbon.

 

I just tried the mod using a DS screen, and the results were not satisfying at all. The diffusor doesn't work if repurposed for frontlighting - it gives a very blurry picture, whichever way you put it in. The light has an extremely uneven distribution (I'm guessing the mirror and polarization sheets help get around that in the original backlight configuration), and the LEDs need a whopping 12V which might or might not be available on the GBC PCB (haven't cared to look into that yet though, due to the shoddy picture it struck me as a waste of time).

This is my first try at lighting mods, so - am I missing something here...? I'm thinking the diffusor issue could maybe be worked around by salvaging another (frontlight specific) one from somewhere else, and maybe I'll try that later, but as is, I would not recommend getting a DS screen for this mod.