Another OMGWTF Troubleshooting Thread

[Stitches]

Just confirmed that I'm getting continuity between PWR and GND Not sure how that happened as I've kept all the contacts away from each other and didn't have any bridging, but that pretty much confirms it's dead and I'll need to replace the battery management circuits

PW is shorted to GND? If you're lucky it might be a transient short, remove the cells and give your PMS a little IPA scrub to clear any flux-borne solder wisps

 

[LambBrainz]

PW is shorted to GND? If you're lucky it might be a transient short, remove the cells and give your PMS a little IPA scrub to clear any flux-borne solder wisps

Disconnected everything and cleaned it: still shorted to GND

 

[Stitches]

Oof yeah that's an issue

 

[LambBrainz]

Possibly dead board pic

 

[Retro95]

What power rail was shorted to GND?

The PMS soldered to the Wii with batteries connected will show 4 ohms to ground on the 3.3v rail but it's not an actual short.

Check all voltage rails to ground on the PMS and Wii now that they're separated.

 

[LambBrainz]

What power rail was shorted to GND?

The PMS soldered to the Wii with batteries connected will show 4 ohms to ground on the 3.3v rail but it's not an actual short.

Check all voltage rails to ground on the PMS and Wii now that they're separated.

None of the regular rails (1, 1.15, 1.8, 3.3, or 5), but specifically the PW one that would connect to the PMS-PD. I get continuity between that and ground. And when I connect it to a power supply it immediately latches (as if there was a button attached and it was being pushed) which it didn't do before.

After doing some more testing, I'm pretty sure I've wrecked the BQ242 chip that handles battery management since that gets wayyyy too hot.

 

[Stitches]

If it is the BQ that's dead, you can remove and replace it with a hot air station and possibly resurrect the PMS

 

[LambBrainz]

If it is the BQ that's dead, you can remove and replace it with a hot air station and possibly resurrect the PMS

Yeah I ordered a replacement and will get to it when it comes in.

In the meantime I'll work on case design lol