Question Do I need to purchase a new pcb set?

[Sully_:0)]

Alright so in my attempt to desolder the part on the driver board with my hot air station I accidentally knocked off multiple other parts -_- .

i attached a photo - are these parts important? I can try to put them back in place I guess.

i see where red and yellow go but I don’t know the proper orientation (like up or down - I don’t see any markings that would indicate which way)

blue and green I don’t really know what they are or where they went.

Am I better off getting a new board? What do you think

*****edit***** after thinking for a moment I can see where the parts go by looking at the old picture. I am still concerned about the orientation though

 

[Stitches]

Yea I think the main reason for it would be for the auto config so the borders line up with the screen correctly. I sent crazygadget a DM though because I might consider the additional board.

So when you say cut the trace - do you mean I would like scratch out the trace? Scratch it so it is no longer connected to the gc plus so I can wire it to the start pad? If thats the case I would have to scratch out the left and right button traces too right?

I am still new to all this so excuse me if I misunderstood

Scratch out, gouge with a knife, both work. You just have to sever the trace going from the left Z trigger's footprint to the GC+. That isolates it and will let you "re-map" it to the Start button. The grey buttons are already isolated, so you can just run a wire from the signal pad for each of them to the corresponding screen control button pad on the driver board instead of connecting them to the GC+/BT module.

Alright so in my attempt to desolder the part on the driver board with my hot air station I accidentally knocked off multiple other parts -_- .

i attached a photo - are these parts important? I can try to put them back in place I guess.

i see where red and yellow go but I don’t know the proper orientation (like up or down - I don’t see any markings that would indicate which way)

blue and green I don’t really know what they are or where they went.

Am I better off getting a new board? What do you think

*****edit***** after thinking for a moment I can see where the parts go by looking at the old picture. I am still concerned about the orientation though

Unlucky, but not the worst result. You can put the components back by following the silkscreen. The chip has a dot in one corner, which corresponds with the dot on the silkscreen to tell you the correct orientation. The little black component is a resistor, which goes on the R(esistor)24 footprint. The little yellow components are capacitors, which go on the C(apacitor)24/26 footprints, and the big one goes on the larger footprint right next to C26. You'll want to fix the other large cap's position as well. The resistor and capacitors are omnidirectional, so put them in whatever way fits. I don't know if the little capacitors have different capacitance values, but they're probably close if not identical.

Give it a shot, it'll probably be fine

 

[Sully_:0)]

Lmfao I went to solder the pieces back and that súper small black resistor flew away in my room and is MIA. So I ordered a new board.

But for the z button traces it looks like there are 3? So how would I map it to the start button?

 

[Stitches]

Lmfao I went to solder the pieces back and that súper small black resistor flew away in my room and is MIA. So I ordered a new board.

But for the z button traces it looks like there are 3? So how would I map it to the start button?

The thin line in the middle is the trace. The outside stripes are just a gap between the trace and the ground plane

 

[Sully_:0)]

Ohh okay so i would just wire this single pin I circled to the start pad?

 

[Stitches]

Ohh okay so i would just wire this single pin I circled to the start pad?

After severing the trace, yes. Just make sure that you're severing the Z trace on the correct side. The photo you've provided looks like the footprint of the right Z trigger, you said you wanted to use the left one as a start button

 

[Sully_:0)]

Hey again, so it says to connect 1.8v on the audio board to 1.8v on the wii. ---Although after looking it also says to connect 1.8v on the PMS to the wii as well.

I looked at the wii trimming guide but I only saw one spot where it said 1.8v.


Where do I attach these two connections to on the wii? I attached a photo of the 1.8v I was thinking of.

 

[Stitches]

Hey again, so it says to connect 1.8v on the audio board to 1.8v on the wii. ---Although after looking it also says to connect 1.8v on the PMS to the wii as well.

I looked at the wii trimming guide but I only saw one spot where it said 1.8v.


Where do I attach these two connections to on the wii? I attached a photo of the 1.8v I was thinking of.

The voltage slide should probably be updated to include the 1.8v locations, so here:

Personally I wouldn't try to solder to the back of the LDO due to the amount of heat and solder needed. The tantalum capacitor and vias are safer and easier

 

[Sully_:0)]

Thanks! So I was hoping to use 34 AWG magnet wire for as many connections in the build as possible since it’s easier for me. What connections require a thicker gauge?

also any tips before I start soldering to vias? They are super small and intimidating

 

[Stitches]

Thanks! So I was hoping to use 34 AWG magnet wire for as many connections in the build as possible since it’s easier for me. What connections require a thicker gauge?

also any tips before I start soldering to vias? They are super small and intimidating

You can use magnet wire for pretty much any data connection, buttons, video lines, audio, etc. Anything carrying supply voltage or return ground needs thicker stranded wire. We recommend 22AWG stranded wire for powering the Wii, but you can use 24-26AWG for supplying smaller peripherals if you need to.

For vias the best way to do it is to use a sharp knife like a craft knife/scalpel/Xacto knife to carefully scrape away the excess solder mask occluding the copper of the via, then use a "fibreglass pencil" to tidy it up and smooth things out. The fibreglass pencil works like a little fine point 1000grit sanding bit, but it only scratches away the fibreglass resin and leaves the copper unharmed. Then it's just a matter of tinning the via like you would any other pad, and soldering your wires to it. Best practice for that is to shove the tinned wire directly into the via so it goes into the hole and makes the strongest connection witht he lowest chance of shorting anything.

 

[Sully_:0)]

Hey again! So when you say return ground - what do you mean? For example the twisted audio lines you told me about has a ground wire twisted with it if I am not mistaken but it is magnet wire.

Also the 22AWG wire doesn't look like it will go inside the via, is it okay to solder it on top of the via instead once I clean it up with the fiberglass pencil?

****edit*** one more thing - does it matter that these two ground pads are connected? (Attached photo) if I needed to connect another ground wire to the pad next to it, would that be a problem with them touching? The pads seemed to be connected regardless

Thanks!

 

[Stitches]

Hey again! So when you say return ground - what do you mean? For example the twisted audio lines you told me about has a ground wire twisted with it if I am not mistaken but it is magnet wire.

Also the 22AWG wire doesn't look like it will go inside the via, is it okay to solder it on top of the via instead once I clean it up with the fiberglass pencil?

****edit*** one more thing - does it matter that these two ground pads are connected? (Attached photo) if I needed to connect another ground wire to the pad next to it, would that be a problem with them touching? The pads seemed to be connected regardless

Thanks!

The ground connection from the Wii to the PMS is the return. Basically, all positive voltage issued to a circuit needs a return path, since electricity flows in a big circle. And though smaller wires can be used to supply components with lower individual power draws, the return ground from the Wii to the PMS needs to be a 22AWG wire in order to be able to handle the full return flow of all components. You can think of it like how the plastic drain pipes on the side of a house are small tubes, but the stormwater drains they feed into are massive to handle the full return volume of all the drain pipes simultaneously. The twisted ground for signal/data wires is just to help mitigate some interference and doesn't really apply to this unless the signal has its own isolated ground line, which the Wii doesn't do.

You can solder to the top of vias, yeah. Pressing the wire into the via is just for magnet/kynar wire. I'm assuming you're taking about the 3.3v and 1.8v 3x3 via clusters btw? I can't see any reason why you'd use 22AWG stranded wire for any individual via connection.

All ground pads on the PMS and Wii are connected internally. You can blob the contacts together if you need to, it won't affect anything.

 

[Sully_:0)]

Okay thanks! Also yea for example it says to connect 3.3v from the pms and audio board to 3.3v on the wii. I figured I would need the 22AWG wire, or do I have it confused?

 

[Stitches]

You're not wrong, 22AWG wire is required for the PMS to supply the Wii safely and reliably due to its current draw. You can use a thinner gauge wire like 24AWG or 26AWG to supply smaller components if you really want to since they have a much lower power draw, but we tell people to use 22AWG for all power and ground for simplicity. The fewer arbitrary things to keep track of, the fewer accidents happen.

The Ashida has heaps of internal space, so you can just use 22AWG wire to supply power and ground to the peripheral components to keep it simple. There's no advantage or disadvantage. Also, you can connect multiple peripheral supply wires to the same 3.3v location on the Wii without issue. You don't have to use a separate pad or via for each supply, they can all be shared.

 

[Sully_:0)]

That seems odd they can be shared. I am wiring everything together tonight hopefully as long as I don't run into anything I am unsure about.

using the same example, so the 3.3v on the audio board and the 3.3v on the pms can both go to this 3.3v pad I circled In the photo?

also the vias I was referring to earlier are the ones below the circled pad.

 

[Stitches]

That seems odd they can be shared. I am wiring everything together tonight hopefully as long as I don't run into anything I am unsure about.

using the same example, so the 3.3v on the audio board and the 3.3v on the pms can both go to this 3.3v pad I circled In the photo?

also the vias I was referring to earlier are the ones below the circled pad.

Yes, both can go to the one spot. The flow of electricity is not unlike the flow of water through a network of pipes. The pressure (current output driven by the PMS) causes the flow to move equally in all connected directions (every wire connected to a voltage line is fed the same voltage). The 3x3 cluster of vias are directly connected to the convenient 3.3v pad next to them, just as they are connected internally to the big orange 3.3v cap above the GPU. You can use any and all of those points to both supply 3.3v to, and draw 3.3v from. You can use separate 3.3v locations on the Wii to power the perpherals from if you want to, but you don't have to if you'd rather have them all in one spot. It's up to personal preference

 

[Sully_:0)]

Hey again, so I’m confused.

i think I may have ordered the wrong pms? This one does not have 1.15v. What should I do? Do I need to order the right board or is there a workaround for the 1.15v?


**edit** i attached a photo of the diagram I have been following

 

[CrazyGadget]

 

[Stitches]

In voltage output denominations, they're often labeled as [Full Volts] V [Centivolts]. So 1.15v is printed on the silkscreen as 1V15, which as CrazyGadget has pointed out is present on your board there. 1.8v is also printed as 1V8, and 3.3v is printed as 3V3 as well but you likely auto-solved that and didn't realise

 

[jimelle acostoy]

Hell all! I am super new to soldering and this whole portable thing. I purchased the parts for the Ashida and I realized how bad I am at soldering. One of the gold pieces on the pcb set got torn off lol. I assume its important. I just figured I would show you guys so you can laugh at me and maybe tell me how I can do this a little better.
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greetings from the philippines! and the answer for that is you need to get a flux to flow nicely you solder the joints or if u accidentally torn the copper you can scrape and trace the connection. since you have double side pcb design. you can use also the multimeter and trace it using continuity on a multimeter where you can find or trace the certain point of the connection.