Worklog The Nintendo Swiitch - BocuD's first Wii portable

[BocuD]

Moved

Thanks, I will post my "actual" entry later, when I have enough time to make some pictures.

 

[GingerOfOz]

Did you get a new iron/ tip? I too failed at motherboard rewiring/ trimming. With my old setup, It took me an hour to solder to my u10 and USB traces, and the connections were garbage. I also probably damaged the board, because areas of it turned black. At that point, I just bought a trim from SS.

Flash forward to yesterday. I busted out the busted board and my new iron with an ultra thin tip just to practice soldering to tiny things. I soldered solid connections to 8 vias right next to each other in about 5 minutes. Stripping the magnet wire took longer than attaching to the vias.

So when you do come back to this project, definitely at least get a tiny tip! Everyone says "Wow, I wish I'd done this sooner", and so will you.

Looking forward to seeing your next project, as well as finishing this one!

 

[BocuD]

Did you get a new iron/ tip? I too failed at motherboard rewiring/ trimming. With my old setup, It took me an hour to solder to my u10 and USB traces, and the connections were garbage. I also probably damaged the board, because areas of it turned black. At that point, I just bought a trim from SS.

Flash forward to yesterday. I busted out the busted board and my new iron with an ultra thin tip just to practice soldering to tiny things. I soldered solid connections to 8 vias right next to each other in about 5 minutes. Stripping the magnet wire took longer than attaching to the vias.

So when you do come back to this project, definitely at least get a tiny tip! Everyone says "Wow, I wish I'd done this sooner", and so will you.

Looking forward to seeing your next project, as well as finishing this one!

link to iron pls I beg u

 

[GingerOfOz]

Here's the link to mine. The iron works great, but unfortunately I had the hot air tool burn out on me yesterday. I'm going to contact customer support and see what they can do, so I'd hold off and I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[BocuD]

Thanks, will definitely buy that. Also, how in the world is it just 59,99? Seems way too cheap to me for such a nice iron. I mean, it even has an integrated multimeter and DC power supply?! Thanks a lot!

 

[wifflebat]

Going to be honest, I would stay away from that station. If you want a nice soldering Iron go on ebay and Look for a Metcal SP200. You can get the station for 50 bucks or so. Then pick up a wand for 40 bucks, and tips you can find used on ebay for 10 bucks or new about 20. I know it is more money but trust me, it's a much better Iron. If you want a new one i would go for the Hakko FX888D. it's 100 bucks and a very outstanding iron. Trust me, in the end you will be much happier with one of those irons. You can also look for the Metcal MX500 on ebay sometimes you can get good deals on the station and a wand.

https://tinyurl.com/yccfgn6b

 

[Crazzyleprechaun]

The Hakko FX888D is amazing I've had it for over a year and it's worked great it has adjustable temperature and it's easy to replace the tip I would recommend it if you have that budget it is 100 dollar but it's worth it. Also this Weller is pretty good from what I've heard
https://www.amazon.com/Weller-WLC100-40-Watt-Soldering-Station/dp/B000AS28UC

 

[BocuD]

Okay. Here’s an update.
I trimmed a new wii yesterday since my old trim was so fucked up i gave up on it. The new wii motherboard had a permanent short between the 1.15v line and gnd net to the gpu, since i accidentaly dremmeled next to it. It is dead as well. I just got a new wii motherboard working (the u10 and custom regs)
Picture:

Yes, i removed all of the onboard regs first, so it was easier to check if my u10 is working. I will try to relocate bluetooth now, and then trim it. I wont do the full omg wtf trim since i dont need my wii to be that small so ill probably just cut a square around the cpu and gpu. This is wii number 9 so i really hope it works this time.
Edit: link to wii trim help thread https://bitbuilt.net/forums/index.php?threads/wii-trim-not-working.1524/

 

[jefflongo]

Okay. Here’s an update.
I trimmed a new wii yesterday since my old trim was so fucked up i gave up on it. The new wii motherboard had a permanent short between the 1.15v line and gnd net to the gpu, since i accidentaly dremmeled next to it. It is dead as well. I just got a new wii motherboard working (the u10 and custom regs)
Picture:
View attachment 3326
Yes, i removed all of the onboard regs first, so it was easier to check if my u10 is working. I will try to relocate bluetooth now, and then trim it. I wont do the full omg wtf trim since i dont need my wii to be that small so ill probably just cut a square around the cpu and gpu. This is wii number 9 so i really hope it works this time.
Edit: link to wii trim help thread https://bitbuilt.net/forums/index.php?threads/wii-trim-not-working.1524/

Btw you don't have to remove the on board regs to relocate U10/Bluetooth, but it would still be good to do so to test custom regs.

 

[Shank]

View attachment 3326

 

[BocuD]

Btw you don't have to remove the on board regs to relocate U10/Bluetooth, but it would still be good to do so to test custom regs.

Yeah it was mostly to test custom regs then. Im almost finished with the bluetooth relocation so in about an hour i should be able to trim it.

 

[jefflongo]

Why is your heatsink sideways lol

 

[Shank]

Why is your heatsink sideways lol

Ive done that before for testing. You cant put it back on in its original orientation when running custom regs because the newly soldered wires will short on the heatsink.

 

[cheese]

Ive done that before for testing. You cant put it back on in its original orientation when running custom regs because the newly soldered wires will short on the heatsink.

Why do that when you can LIVE LIFE ON THE EDGE NO HEATSINK NO WORRIES

 

[BocuD]

I posted these messages in the wrong thread, so here they are.

Shit me I did a fuck
I think my display driver board is dead.
I don't know why but the center chip heats up to the point that I can't touch it, after 3 seconds. It draws about 6 watts, even when the display isn't connected. It's an L7009 display. I know @Aurelio has one of those displays so maybe he can help me. Here are some pictures of the driver board:
Driver board by itself: (the MST703-LF chip is the one that heated up, it is the big chip in the center)
View attachment 3329
Driver board bottom:
View attachment 3330
Display front: (don't know if it helps but why not)
View attachment 3331
Front ribbon cable:
View attachment 3332
Display back ribbon cable:
View attachment 3333
If any of the pictures isn't clear just tell me, I'll upload another one. Also, I would like to have this worklog moved back since there is a chance that I'll finish the portable in time (if I don't need to order a new display at least, since shipping takes ages)
If any off you know of any quick way to get a new complete display (l7009 or l7007hd) without waiting 20 days please tell me, I really want to finish this portable in time. Perhaps you @Aurelio know of a way, since you have one as well?
Also, I can't confirm if bluetooth is working since I don't have a gamecube controller nor a synced wiimote, and I can't sync a wii remote without a gamecube controller (maybe any of you knows a way to get to the system menu?)
Thanks a lot in advance.

No, it was just turned on without video input displaying just a blue square with no signal on it.
Then it randomly shut off and stopped working. I really hope DX can ship me a new one in less then the 5 - 7 business days that it takes according to the shipping information. That is because the only other screen I currently have and can use is a 7 inch 480x234 display that only works with composite. I looks worse then a 240p youtube video.. If DX doesn't ship fast enough I don't think I'll be able to finish my portable in time.
Anyways I posted this post and the previous post in the wrong thread, so I'll move them over (just copy everything)

edit:
Anyways, I'm going to test bluetooth now using the information @Stitches gave me in the wrong thread '-'

 

[BocuD]

 

[BocuD]

Okay... so everything is working basically perfectly now, with the exception of bluetooth and therefore wii games. I don't know why this is, but here are pictures of the bluetooth module and the board in its entirety. It boots everytime and data line 10 and 11 (bluetooth data wires) have a 0 ohm resistance with their original data points on the board. there are no shorts with any of the data lines with 3.3v, gnd or another data line. if anyone can see what I did wrong, please tell me. I'm now looking for a bluetooth module identical to the one in the trimming guide and will then rewire that one. I hope it'll work.
Also, these are the voltages:
3.3v: 3,29v
5v: 5,09v
1v: 0,99v
1,15v: 1,18v

edit: yes, I have the wifi module on there, but that was just to test if maybe I forgot to install the NOWIFI ios'

 

[GingerOfOz]

What gauge wire are you using on the data lines? You need at use 30ga or smaller or else it won't work. It looks like you're using 22 which is really for power lines.

 

[GC64]

Yeah, I doubt you'll ever get bluetooth working with wire as thick as that, unless you're @E64

 

[BocuD]

What gauge wire are you using on the data lines? You need at use 30ga or smaller or else it won't work. It looks like you're using 22 which is really for power lines.

Yeah, I doubt you'll ever get bluetooth working with wire as thick as that, unless you're @E64

Yeah ill redo those with magnet wire then