The Wii U is such a painful console to repair. You always need both a working console AND GamePad; if one is broken, the other won't work. Replacement parts are hard to find and VERY expensive. I can only imagine how many working Wii Us there will be in a few decades. Obviously, Nintendo did all of this to help combat piracy and force proprietary parts on everything, but at what cost? At what cost?
I mean, you can use the Wii U without the GamePad, but certain functions (like settings) aren't accessible. You can still play games that support other controllers like the Pro.
I recently replaced the screen on a PSP I got off eBay, and it made me feel like a champ because I had never done anything like that. I took it to a repair shop first, and they wanted $100 to fix it. I got the replacement screen off Amazon for $14. I'm so glad I did it myself! I think your videos appeal to that DIY part of me, and I've been binging your "try to fix" series! Love them!
Good try. We love your videos. We purposely do not look at the comments until the end so we don't know if you succeeded or not. Please keep this series going.
Yeah I know right. It was like they went "what stupid idea can we go and put into the Wii U to mess it up more?" And someone at the meeting said "you know how we region lock the consoles so they only play games for where it was bought? What if we took and added region locking to parts that don't have anything to do with actually running the game like we region lock the controllers." And they said "We love it lets do that."
When they released The Dsi they thought region looking consoles and controllers would be a good idea. They added that mentality to the WiiU and 3ds too. Nintendo realized region locking wasn't a good idea with the switch.
I love that you have absolutely no fear! I have had decades of soldering experience, and I still get nervous when the solder (usually Pb-free) refuses to flow.
Some soldering tips: 1) Use kapton tape on components in the area instead of tinfoil. 2) Use more flux, preferably the thicker stuff. Flux imho most beneficial effect is in helping old solder flow again. 3) After removing a component, clean the pads with some solder braid, (maybe clean it some more with isoprophinol if the area got quite dirty) and apply fresh solder. 4) Before desoldering, mix some fresh leaded solder with the un-leaded they use in production, it helps lowering the melting point. 5) You don't always need to use hot air to remove/replace smd components. For the IC you replaced you can just use the soldering iron. One technique is to put a ball of solder on one side, drag it up and down and lift that side up slightly. Drag soldering is very handy technique. You can solder packages like that the same way, again just use solder braid to remove excess solder. Really enjoy your video's. No critique, done worse myself.
6) with bigger chips(like this one) and some smaller chips treat it like welding and tack a couple corners with your soldering iron when you have it lined up. helps the blower not blow the chips away.
Hey Vince another awesome video! Although the desired outcome proved elusive, all of us benefited from this. For one, i didnt know the wii u controllers were region locked and we now know the swapped chip does not change the region lock. So you have saved the DIY community so much time! Thank you for sharing honestly so we dont have to make the mistakes!
Congratulations on your first successful chip removal and install Vince 👍 Those chips can take a fair bit of heat and if it had been damaged then it wouldn't have turned on at all..the board is the thing to worry about as they can't take as much heat before cooking Next time after you've got the chip in place you could go over each leg with the fine tip iron to add a little more solder but remember to tin your iron and use plenty of flux..once you get the knack of soldering it'll become a joy ...keep at it mate I'm enjoying watching your progress and if you need any advice feel free to drop me a message..electronics repair is what I do in my spare time 😉
Yeah, his work was fine, but that alu foil really hurts my eye. I know, that Kapton tapes are expensive, but the are way better in heat shilding than anything else.
For soldering the chip back on, you'd just want to clean / wick the pads with flux, then put more flux down to "stick" the chips legs down to the board. Then, using your soldering iron, solder two opposite corner pins, then work your way along each pin with your soldering iron. With good use of flux, you can touch the iron to the pad and the leg right at the end of the leg and that will head the pad and leg simultaneously, so the solder should flow nicely onto both. Not a bad job for your first try, though!
Honsestly vince, I know you didn't manage to get the region working but the fact you managed to desolder and re-solder a flash rom chip sucessfully with hot air and no experience is amazing. Another great video even though the outcome must have been a little disappointing, still kept me entertained and on the edge of my seat!
The chip swap seemed extremely plausible. I'd recommend going in with your fine-tipped soldering iron and adding just a tiny bit of fresh solder to each pin. The lead-free solder that the factories use on these chips isn't great, and it can get brittle; that can lead to a joint that looks fine, but that causes erratic behavior when you try to read from it at high speeds. But if you flow a little new solder on, it'll alloy with the old stuff and spread much better. I wouldn't give it a *great* chance of working, but it's definitely worth a try. The same trick actually helps when removing chips, too--you can use alloying to convince the chip to let go at a lower temperature. There's even special extra-low-temp solder they make specifically for this purpose; it goes under the name "chip quik," at least in the US. I wouldn't recommend it for use in joining, but for removing things it really does help. In fact, though, it seemed like you did fine removing the chips; this is just good to know if something puts up more of a fight in the future.
The solder job was ok, you did good (and using the tinfoil to cover the components, most important when plastic components are around, they need protection with tinfoil or better, kapton tape). The flux helps alot when using a hot air station (or soldering iron), so is a must. As for temps for using a hot air station, depends. I use from 350 to 450Cº with a air flow from 75 to 100 (or more) Litres per minute (most cheap air stations won't go over 50 L/m (some not even half of this) but can take most components out with preheating). I can take most chips in less than 30 seconds (some with big ground point can take a few seconds longer), but all this depends from component to component. Theres lots of videos out there you can see from different components and size of them. But those are some of the "easier" ones to take out. Few legs and big ones. The faster you take the chip the less will it get some thermal shock or end up with some faulty, because some don't like to be heat up for a long period (meaning more than 1 or 2 minutes with a high temp setting). In the end, sad to hear that chip wasn't the one with the region information, i never worked with a Wii U so i don't know the right chip and if it will even work or might end up with firmware error code or compatible error. So you did a good choice in gettin a new replacement board for it.
Flux lowers melting temperature of solder and helps with flow of it :) Before desoldering try to add leaded solder (60 - 40 mix it's my prefered solder). On chip like this in video You can try drag soldering, but before You must clean the pads with wick and solder two pins in opposing corners, after that add flux, solder on tip and just drag across the pins :) My prefered temperature for soldering is 350 C, but it can differ, if board has big ground planes i add around 10C and preheat the board, if i solder small smd component with little traces i usually lower temp by bit. But really nice job with this soldering, no pads gone missing :D
Just start using aluminium foil to cover the parts you don't want to heat up with the hot air. In the future you don't want to do that with the iron but the hot air. The chips are made to sustain heat. They were made in insanely hot temperatures. Don't worry about burning them out. Just tape strips of foil around the chip and apply hot air. Edit: Ok, I see you finally did that. Good work.
You can't really mess up a board with heat. At least not the way you're doing so. As long as the silicon doesn't reach 100c. It's ok the board is mostly copper and fiberglass so damaging it is hard without basically setting it on fire.
Man, I've been binging your videos for the past few days. Sucks to see this board not work, but it's cool to see your soldering skills clearly improving!
Vince, can I just say that these videos are awesome. This is stuff I would love to do in my spare time and you are getting me closer to achieving that goal. Keep up the good work brotha
you can buy a uk/eu game pad motherboard for £18. Just goes to show doing a bit of research before buying would of saved you there but, it might have helped other people doing the same fix. Regardless, great video as always :)
Your flux seems strange (in a felt tip way) I just use a tin of cream stuff that I can put my solder into when required. You learn from your mistakes and you learnt a lot today.
eevblog got me into and taught me so much about smd repair. He gets into detail. Voultar is a good channel......he deals with game consoles but his soldering techniques and advice are golden. Dont turn it on....take it ah part! -eevblog
Flux makes the solder flow, else it tends to clump together like water would on a waxed car window or like water in a bowl of oil. Use the wick to wick away the solder completely on both sides and you should be able to lift the chip up from the board. I do like the content, very entertaining to watch, keep trying and one day you'd fix anything. EDIT: Using the wick, you should keep the heat on longer then you did, that way the solder has the time and heat to flow into the wick.
Hi Vince, I’m a long time viewer. Have you thought about doing some reaction type video looking back at your early days in electronics and quashing some of the myths you appear to be concerned about when starting out. This one and the previous one (Switch M92 chip removal) are the first time you used your hot air station and you were very concerned about burning chips and other components would be a great starting point, given how far you’ve come. Love your work, please keep it up. Tony
This was such an enjoyable video! You did some things wrong, but I've rarely seen someone realize a mistake and do a turnaround so fast, especially when lacking experience. One tip: get some higher density flux like the Amtech 559 or 223 that comes in a syringe or jar (even the knock offs will do at this point). You may need to clean it up a bit afterwards, but the type you're using will crackle and smoke a lot more, and also evaporate, leaving you dry again.
It's a good practice to not stay on one spot for too long with the hotair reflow nozzle. Even heat distribution is less stressful for chips and you get the solder flowing on all sides equally. Flux is a tool to let the solder flow better and onto parts it's supposed to stick to only (metal) and also preotects it from oxidation while being soldered. But apart from all that, Your desoldering/soldering attempt didn't look too bad. To make sure the legs of the IC are on the corresponding pads, press down one after the other with a soldering iron that has a tiny bit of solder on its tip. But I think transplanting the chip worked fine, just that it seemingly didn't fix the region lock issue. Better luck next time ^_^
To see you on such a steep learning curve and self teaching yourself in this series is interesting viewing. Keep it up man and I'm liking the series :)
It's really fun to see how much you invest in trying to understand the source of the problem. Keep uploading videos please! I saw a few days ago a screen for 2DS XL, I remember that when you said that their price was really high, do you remember what price you got to see? If the price I saw is lower I would be happy to send you a link.
When using the hot air station, i've seen people cover everything around the chip in "Kapton tape". It's a heat resistant tape (up to 400 deg C) that might be just enough to not destroy everything around it. I've never used it because it's pretty hard to find in my area and too expensive (student budget) to order. However, i really suggest trying it if you can find it for cheap.
Yo Vince, a good tip for removing old solder is actually applying new solder to it first, I know this video is a bit old now so I don't know if you'll read this, but if you apply some flux and lay down a new coat of solder over the old solder it makes it much easier to remove :)
Good use of foil there to insulate the other components. I still suggest grabbing a big roll of kapton tape as it has other uses for electronics, like taping down that broken connector, but foil certainly does work in a pinch. You should use that broken wii u board to practice soldering. Just do it while watching some of the videos that people have been suggesting. With any luck you can eventually go back to that Switch and properly repair it.
Those little chips are actually pretty tough, dude. Place most of your worry into the board and components around it. Just be careful about holding the heat in one spot too long. There was a time in there I was cringing a bit saying to myself "OMG move the heat!" Move it in little circles back and forth. Personally, I dont like to bother with flux until I'm placing the new component on the board. While technically, I guess flux can help heat things up, but mainly I believe it is just good for creating a cleaner connection for your solder joints. In other words, removing a chip - no flux needed. Putting a chip on, use it. Also, if I can do the job with just an iron I don't bother with flux at all. There is actually a flux core in your solder, so when applying new solder remember that. Also, Don't leave you work dirty, wipe it clean with an alcohol wipe. Lastly, I recommend a circuit board holder. It is kinda like a vice grip that holds the board suspended in the air for you. The baking sheet works I guess, but the baking sheet also gets hot and can burn you or someone else that might pick it up not knowing it is hot.
Good Vid Vince! Your attitude is wonderful! It's a 'Never give In' attitude and that's how you get things done! Remember the saying 'Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained'.
Very good try, unlucky mate. Little tip about the reflow, it was pretty good (if not slightly hot and brutal) it would have been better to put a dab of fresh solder on each connector pin at the end. But yeah, probably need to change more components as well to change that region and/or flash the chip.
the Wii u gamepad region lock isn't a chip. each region has different software, its embedded in the memory, there is no way of fixing it unless you hack it or replace the memory chip. or without the special tools it is impossible and you just need to get a motherboard sold in the uk.
every electronic has some sort of memory, some is soldered, like everything from nintendo and needs pro soldering skills to replace it, others like laptops you just open up and replace. what im saying is if you want a different region you will have to take the memory chip from another board and put it in that one for the corosponding location you are in.
to awnser it not in a nerd way. their is storage chip on the board. you need to change the software in it or get another chip with a different location. that is what i mean the storage chip. quote from nintendo. "In addition, the feature region lock the region can play the Wii U is limited is mounted, you can not play other than software that is sold in the area."
Your right dude I've done a flew cfw on many consoles ie from pro Wii xbox360 and ps3 all are locked via firmware so changing chips will do nothing as info stored in the NAND chip hence why we Write to the Nand chip but u have to lean to be able to read the nand first and hence why there is so many Bricked Consoles on eBay!!!!!
I would of applied a lil fresh solder to help the heat gun , but my hat goes of to you for trying to learn and try to do this very few people try and have this ability we learn by doing and have the will to learn well done regardless if it don't work if you don't try u can't succesed
You can use a desolder braid and iron to remove chips, but your right your tip is to thin you need a chisel tip, 3mm is good. You can definitely solder in soic chips like this flash chip by hand, just take it slow and use plenty of flux. Use the old broken board to practice on! For hotair I use kapton tape to mask components that are close, chips can take more heat than you think.
Vince when you try to solder get some Kapton heat resistant tape to put on the surrounding components so they don't come off. It is how I do it and it works great.
No need to use the hot air station for that chip when soldering back. You can just use some flux and with soldering iron do every leg untill there is contact. Anyways you did great and im sure you will get better at this :)
Sad that it not works, hopefully someone finds a way to help you. So don't throw the parts away 😉 But besides it's not working you do a really great work. And I say that as a professional, working in the industry of soldering and resoldering 😉
Watching another TH-cam that repairs various Apple products for their living I like the approach they use which is use the heat gun to pull off both chips then solder on the chip to the board. They also apply a bit more solder to each contact to ensure it connects
Please do some research at what temp solder melts, it's around 350 - 400, having the heat up high will ket the solder melt quicker and not transfer into the chip, also gently heat around the chip fist so as not to thermal shock the board. Flux does nothing regarding the heat, its the clean off any crap on the pads/legs and allow the solder to flow/stick to whatever you want it to
Resolder the chip with 60/40 solder then remove as much as you can. The solder used will be lead free and that is high temperature. Other than that you can get low melt solder which if used on the chip will bring your solder melt point down to somewhere just over 100 deg. Use flux. Flux does 2 jobs restricts air so solder does not oxidise and 2 its slightly acidic so etches any tarnish there may be. With hot air warm the board before or you may shock the chip. So start back from the chip for some time before you move in..
The correct way is flux each pad, use fresh solder on each pad then use a solder sucker after you heat each pad with your wider soldering tip. After removing the solder from eack pad, it should lift off. Then you want to flux the bare pads then add new solder to the pads. ,Then make sure the pads on the chip are clean, flux and solder each pad. After that, align the chip and you can touch the iron to each pad to flow the fresh solder. Start by soldering one pad at opposite ends to make sure everything is aligned. Its easier to readjust that way. You got lucky. I would invest in the proper insulation tape to isolate the areas you dont want damaged when using the heat gun.
Video after video I keep wondering why are you still working with such tiny parts on the floor? Are you comfortable that way? I know not everyone has the space to have a workbench, but... well I’m sure you get my point! Btw keep on with your videos and your optimistic attitude! ✌😁
It might be worth it to work over a ceramic surface. For one it won't absorb heat as fast as a metal tray, most importantly there's less chance of gluing the pcb to the surface with the solder. EDIT Tining flux is your friend with a small tip soldering iron. It permeates heat through the solder and protects the pcb from direct concentrated heat.
HI Vince I love your videos congrats Vince can you tell me were can i buy a wii u motherboard UK?? you wrote in the end you found a seller in uk that sells.. Thank you...
I got it from a seller on eBay in the UK. They specified for the UK in the title and description. Just had a quick look now on eBay UK and I can't see any UK motherboards, they are all US or do not state so again will probably be US. First time I bought there was none for sale but 2nd time there was UK ones, so maybe keep an eye out and they might come back in stock. If you have no luck then message me back and I will find out the eBay seller I purchased from, you can message them to find out if they are getting anymore :-)
The home brew link is sleepii . ovh I spaced it so my comment doesn’t get removed. You also need files on an as card. However, Wii U game pad region locking bypass is not a thing on the home brew App Store.
flux makes the solderjoints easier to work with and breaks the surface tension of the melted solder to make it more fluid. Also the solder on those new boards is much harder because it's lead free. Leaded solder is muuuch easier to work with.
Good try, Vince.I think you didn't damage the chip, it just wasn't that chip, but don't get me wrong, i don't know anything about soldering and anything like that. But, i just have a request to you, could you do a "Trying to FIX: A Faulty 3DS(the first one that came out, not xl or new.)?
From google: As cleaning agents, fluxes facilitate soldering, brazing, and welding by removing oxidation from the metals to be joined. ... By preventing the formation of metal oxides, flux enables the solder to adhere to the clean metal surface, rather than forming beads, as it would on an oxidized surface.
I think it's easier to add some low-melting point solder to the chip before heating it up with the heat gun, makes it easier to remove without overheating the chip or any neighboring components.
Desoldering is.the reverse of soldering but instead of using the brade you skip that step and you use solder and a soldering iron and very carefully apply heat to each pin and add solder to hold the chip or components you are replacing
Chips and passives are designed to handle soldering temperatures. You cant ruin any of those with your soldering iron. You can ruin connectors as those are often manually soldered but they all will do fine :D
Another great video again vince maybe as you have nothing too loose now how about trying too change the charger ic the original fault you had in the first place if the ic is easy too change, what i do too find the charger ic is put the details of each chip into google and look at the data sheet pdf and see what each ic does you can then check the voltages too and if ic is easy to change swap it from your china board.
dave from EEVBlog has great video tutorials on sodering, but since you already have a hot air station just take a look at time graphs for heating chips, there are proper ways to ensure you won't damage anything from either over temperature or shock
I have a question, with the wii u, when playing old wii games do you NEED a wiimote or can you just use the gamepad as the controller for wii games instead?
There is also the posibility to use a ChipQuik kit that has the flux but also a bar of a metal that solders at a low temperature, but the thing is that it is expensive.
The Wii U is such a painful console to repair. You always need both a working console AND GamePad; if one is broken, the other won't work. Replacement parts are hard to find and VERY expensive. I can only imagine how many working Wii Us there will be in a few decades. Obviously, Nintendo did all of this to help combat piracy and force proprietary parts on everything, but at what cost? At what cost?
SkulShurtugalTCG hi
I mean, you can use the Wii U without the GamePad, but certain functions (like settings) aren't accessible. You can still play games that support other controllers like the Pro.
Any good games on the Wii U will make it to the switch. The Wii U was a failure but the switch has been successful. So it wont be that much of a loss.
Flux lowers the melting point of the solder.
hello
I recently replaced the screen on a PSP I got off eBay, and it made me feel like a champ because I had never done anything like that. I took it to a repair shop first, and they wanted $100 to fix it. I got the replacement screen off Amazon for $14. I'm so glad I did it myself!
I think your videos appeal to that DIY part of me, and I've been binging your "try to fix" series! Love them!
Good try. We love your videos. We purposely do not look at the comments until the end so we don't know if you succeeded or not. Please keep this series going.
Twins in VR haha I do the same,don't look at the comments....every vid I'm willing Vince on to get a good result....it will come no doubt
same here lol
Den Tyngaste we as in my twin and I, hence the name.
The Wii U Is Better then the switch because the every one loves the Wii U
It can be tempting to look at the comments first.
uk motherboards are on ebvay for around £19, not coming from china too.
Region locking a controller...
Really Nintendo? Why?
ProtosMerkabah They learned from their mistake and didn't fuck up the switch
Heaven forbid you want to simply sell the pad or something.
Yeah I know right. It was like they went "what stupid idea can we go and put into the Wii U to mess it up more?" And someone at the meeting said "you know how we region lock the consoles so they only play games for where it was bought? What if we took and added region locking to parts that don't have anything to do with actually running the game like we region lock the controllers." And they said "We love it lets do that."
When they released The Dsi they thought region looking consoles and controllers would be a good idea. They added that mentality to the WiiU and 3ds too. Nintendo realized region locking wasn't a good idea with the switch.
Because Nintendo are like Apple, total twats
I love that you have absolutely no fear! I have had decades of soldering experience, and I still get nervous when the solder (usually Pb-free) refuses to flow.
Some soldering tips: 1) Use kapton tape on components in the area instead of tinfoil. 2) Use more flux, preferably the thicker stuff. Flux imho most beneficial effect is in helping old solder flow again. 3) After removing a component, clean the pads with some solder braid, (maybe clean it some more with isoprophinol if the area got quite dirty) and apply fresh solder. 4) Before desoldering, mix some fresh leaded solder with the un-leaded they use in production, it helps lowering the melting point.
5) You don't always need to use hot air to remove/replace smd components. For the IC you replaced you can just use the soldering iron. One technique is to put a ball of solder on one side, drag it up and down and lift that side up slightly. Drag soldering is very handy technique. You can solder packages like that the same way, again just use solder braid to remove excess solder.
Really enjoy your video's. No critique, done worse myself.
These here are fine tips, Vince!
6) with bigger chips(like this one) and some smaller chips treat it like welding and tack a couple corners with your soldering iron when you have it lined up. helps the blower not blow the chips away.
Hey Vince another awesome video! Although the desired outcome proved elusive, all of us benefited from this. For one, i didnt know the wii u controllers were region locked and we now know the swapped chip does not change the region lock. So you have saved the DIY community so much time! Thank you for sharing honestly so we dont have to make the mistakes!
I love how you always stay calm, I'd be tearing my hair out
Congratulations on your first successful chip removal and install Vince 👍
Those chips can take a fair bit of heat and if it had been damaged then it wouldn't have turned on at all..the board is the thing to worry about as they can't take as much heat before cooking
Next time after you've got the chip in place you could go over each leg with the fine tip iron to add a little more solder but remember to tin your iron and use plenty of flux..once you get the knack of soldering it'll become a joy ...keep at it mate I'm enjoying watching your progress and if you need any advice feel free to drop me a message..electronics repair is what I do in my spare time 😉
Yeah, his work was fine, but that alu foil really hurts my eye. I know, that Kapton tapes are expensive, but the are way better in heat shilding than anything else.
How did you learn? i wanna start doing it but i cant find a good starting place
For soldering the chip back on, you'd just want to clean / wick the pads with flux, then put more flux down to "stick" the chips legs down to the board. Then, using your soldering iron, solder two opposite corner pins, then work your way along each pin with your soldering iron. With good use of flux, you can touch the iron to the pad and the leg right at the end of the leg and that will head the pad and leg simultaneously, so the solder should flow nicely onto both. Not a bad job for your first try, though!
I really love these videos I hope you don’t stop doing them they’re really helpful and enjoyable to watch :)
I don't know why but these videos are always fun to watch and learn. You can be a very good teacher. You explain everything clearly.
Honsestly vince, I know you didn't manage to get the region working but the fact you managed to desolder and re-solder a flash rom chip sucessfully with hot air and no experience is amazing. Another great video even though the outcome must have been a little disappointing, still kept me entertained and on the edge of my seat!
Thank you :-)
Thanks To Vince! ❤
The chip swap seemed extremely plausible. I'd recommend going in with your fine-tipped soldering iron and adding just a tiny bit of fresh solder to each pin. The lead-free solder that the factories use on these chips isn't great, and it can get brittle; that can lead to a joint that looks fine, but that causes erratic behavior when you try to read from it at high speeds. But if you flow a little new solder on, it'll alloy with the old stuff and spread much better. I wouldn't give it a *great* chance of working, but it's definitely worth a try.
The same trick actually helps when removing chips, too--you can use alloying to convince the chip to let go at a lower temperature. There's even special extra-low-temp solder they make specifically for this purpose; it goes under the name "chip quik," at least in the US. I wouldn't recommend it for use in joining, but for removing things it really does help. In fact, though, it seemed like you did fine removing the chips; this is just good to know if something puts up more of a fight in the future.
The solder job was ok, you did good (and using the tinfoil to cover the components, most important when plastic components are around, they need protection with tinfoil or better, kapton tape). The flux helps alot when using a hot air station (or soldering iron), so is a must.
As for temps for using a hot air station, depends. I use from 350 to 450Cº with a air flow from 75 to 100 (or more) Litres per minute (most cheap air stations won't go over 50 L/m (some not even half of this) but can take most components out with preheating). I can take most chips in less than 30 seconds (some with big ground point can take a few seconds longer), but all this depends from component to component. Theres lots of videos out there you can see from different components and size of them. But those are some of the "easier" ones to take out. Few legs and big ones. The faster you take the chip the less will it get some thermal shock or end up with some faulty, because some don't like to be heat up for a long period (meaning more than 1 or 2 minutes with a high temp setting).
In the end, sad to hear that chip wasn't the one with the region information, i never worked with a Wii U so i don't know the right chip and if it will even work or might end up with firmware error code or compatible error. So you did a good choice in gettin a new replacement board for it.
Flux lowers melting temperature of solder and helps with flow of it :)
Before desoldering try to add leaded solder (60 - 40 mix it's my prefered solder). On chip like this in video You can try drag soldering, but before You must clean the pads with wick and solder two pins in opposing corners, after that add flux, solder on tip and just drag across the pins :)
My prefered temperature for soldering is 350 C, but it can differ, if board has big ground planes i add around 10C and preheat the board, if i solder small smd component with little traces i usually lower temp by bit.
But really nice job with this soldering, no pads gone missing :D
Just start using aluminium foil to cover the parts you don't want to heat up with the hot air.
In the future you don't want to do that with the iron but the hot air. The chips are made to sustain heat. They were made in insanely hot temperatures. Don't worry about burning them out. Just tape strips of foil around the chip and apply hot air.
Edit: Ok, I see you finally did that. Good work.
You can't really mess up a board with heat. At least not the way you're doing so. As long as the silicon doesn't reach 100c. It's ok the board is mostly copper and fiberglass so damaging it is hard without basically setting it on fire.
Congratualtions for getting it working Vince. That repair would have been beyond me.
It's all about the effort Vince mate.. We wait to see what the next move is!
Man, I've been binging your videos for the past few days. Sucks to see this board not work, but it's cool to see your soldering skills clearly improving!
Vince, can I just say that these videos are awesome. This is stuff I would love to do in my spare time and you are getting me closer to achieving that goal. Keep up the good work brotha
you can buy a uk/eu game pad motherboard for £18. Just goes to show doing a bit of research before buying would of saved you there but, it might have helped other people doing the same fix. Regardless, great video as always :)
any links plz
Your flux seems strange (in a felt tip way) I just use a tin of cream stuff that I can put my solder into when required. You learn from your mistakes and you learnt a lot today.
eevblog got me into and taught me so much about smd repair. He gets into detail. Voultar is a good channel......he deals with game consoles but his soldering techniques and advice are golden.
Dont turn it on....take it ah part! -eevblog
I watch your videos to the end and truly enjoy and learn from them. Keep up the good work like you always do!
Flux makes the solder flow, else it tends to clump together like water would on a waxed car window or like water in a bowl of oil.
Use the wick to wick away the solder completely on both sides and you should be able to lift the chip up from the board.
I do like the content, very entertaining to watch, keep trying and one day you'd fix anything.
EDIT: Using the wick, you should keep the heat on longer then you did, that way the solder has the time and heat to flow into the wick.
Just a quick point as you mentioned it in the video. The flux helps prevent the solder from oxidizing after you've finished.
I enjoy watching you do what you do.. Very interesting to see you solve issues and learning and sharing what you know...
Hi Vince, I’m a long time viewer. Have you thought about doing some reaction type video looking back at your early days in electronics and quashing some of the myths you appear to be concerned about when starting out. This one and the previous one (Switch M92 chip removal) are the first time you used your hot air station and you were very concerned about burning chips and other components would be a great starting point, given how far you’ve come. Love your work, please keep it up. Tony
This was such an enjoyable video!
You did some things wrong, but I've rarely seen someone realize a mistake and do a turnaround so fast, especially when lacking experience.
One tip: get some higher density flux like the Amtech 559 or 223 that comes in a syringe or jar (even the knock offs will do at this point). You may need to clean it up a bit afterwards, but the type you're using will crackle and smoke a lot more, and also evaporate, leaving you dry again.
It's a good practice to not stay on one spot for too long with the hotair reflow nozzle. Even heat distribution is less stressful for chips and you get the solder flowing on all sides equally. Flux is a tool to let the solder flow better and onto parts it's supposed to stick to only (metal) and also preotects it from oxidation while being soldered. But apart from all that, Your desoldering/soldering attempt didn't look too bad. To make sure the legs of the IC are on the corresponding pads, press down one after the other with a soldering iron that has a tiny bit of solder on its tip. But I think transplanting the chip worked fine, just that it seemingly didn't fix the region lock issue. Better luck next time ^_^
To see you on such a steep learning curve and self teaching yourself in this series is interesting viewing. Keep it up man and I'm liking the series :)
Wow, what an ending LOL. I'm happy you managed to solder the chip correctly though.
Can't wait for another episode of this series it's really good !! Keep up the great work Vince ! 😀
It's really fun to see how much you invest in trying to understand the source of the problem.
Keep uploading videos please!
I saw a few days ago a screen for 2DS XL, I remember that when you said that their price was really high, do you remember what price you got to see?
If the price I saw is lower I would be happy to send you a link.
When using the hot air station, i've seen people cover everything around the chip in "Kapton tape". It's a heat resistant tape (up to 400 deg C) that might be just enough to not destroy everything around it. I've never used it because it's pretty hard to find in my area and too expensive (student budget) to order. However, i really suggest trying it if you can find it for cheap.
Yo Vince, a good tip for removing old solder is actually applying new solder to it first, I know this video is a bit old now so I don't know if you'll read this, but if you apply some flux and lay down a new coat of solder over the old solder it makes it much easier to remove :)
Good use of foil there to insulate the other components. I still suggest grabbing a big roll of kapton tape as it has other uses for electronics, like taping down that broken connector, but foil certainly does work in a pinch. You should use that broken wii u board to practice soldering. Just do it while watching some of the videos that people have been suggesting. With any luck you can eventually go back to that Switch and properly repair it.
Nice. Here is an advice if you don't mind. Lower the air speed to avoid blowing SMD components away. Use Kapton tape to protect plastic connectors.
unlucky mate, thought you had fixed it. You have encouraged me to try and fix things myself, keep up the videos mate love them.
Those little chips are actually pretty tough, dude. Place most of your worry into the board and components around it. Just be careful about holding the heat in one spot too long. There was a time in there I was cringing a bit saying to myself "OMG move the heat!" Move it in little circles back and forth. Personally, I dont like to bother with flux until I'm placing the new component on the board. While technically, I guess flux can help heat things up, but mainly I believe it is just good for creating a cleaner connection for your solder joints. In other words, removing a chip - no flux needed. Putting a chip on, use it. Also, if I can do the job with just an iron I don't bother with flux at all. There is actually a flux core in your solder, so when applying new solder remember that. Also, Don't leave you work dirty, wipe it clean with an alcohol wipe.
Lastly, I recommend a circuit board holder. It is kinda like a vice grip that holds the board suspended in the air for you. The baking sheet works I guess, but the baking sheet also gets hot and can burn you or someone else that might pick it up not knowing it is hot.
Good try Vince. Just found your videos and been loving them.
Good Vid Vince!
Your attitude is wonderful! It's a 'Never give In' attitude and that's how you get things done!
Remember the saying 'Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained'.
Good try Vince! You are very dedicated and don’t give up easily. Keep up the great work with the videos!
Very good try, unlucky mate. Little tip about the reflow, it was pretty good (if not slightly hot and brutal) it would have been better to put a dab of fresh solder on each connector pin at the end. But yeah, probably need to change more components as well to change that region and/or flash the chip.
the Wii u gamepad region lock isn't a chip. each region has different software, its embedded in the memory, there is no way of fixing it unless you hack it or replace the memory chip. or without the special tools it is impossible and you just need to get a motherboard sold in the uk.
or from where you live
"it's not on a chip"
"replace the memory chip"
What
every electronic has some sort of memory, some is soldered, like everything from nintendo and needs pro soldering skills to replace it, others like laptops you just open up and replace. what im saying is if you want a different region you will have to take the memory chip from another board and put it in that one for the corosponding location you are in.
to awnser it not in a nerd way. their is storage chip on the board. you need to change the software in it or get another chip with a different location. that is what i mean the storage chip. quote from nintendo. "In addition, the feature region lock the region can play the Wii U is limited is mounted, you can not play other than software that is sold in the area."
Your right dude I've done a flew cfw on many consoles ie from pro Wii xbox360 and ps3 all are locked via firmware so changing chips will do nothing as info stored in the NAND chip hence why we Write to the Nand chip but u have to lean to be able to read the nand first and hence why there is so many Bricked Consoles on eBay!!!!!
Oh mate, that sucks, i was really excited hoping you be able to fix it
i love watching your videos!!!!!! dont care if u fail or not. just enjoying how u work on it and get it to work
Always smart at entertaining videos.Never clicked faster
Flux will remove superficial oxidation from the pads and the part you wanna solder to the pad, making the solder stick better.
Good effort mate I really thought you done it there. Why Nintendo makes a controller region locked is beyond me..
I would of applied a lil fresh solder to help the heat gun , but my hat goes of to you for trying to learn and try to do this very few people try and have this ability we learn by doing and have the will to learn well done regardless if it don't work if you don't try u can't succesed
I love your vids Vince. You help me fix my stuff!
You can use a desolder braid and iron to remove chips, but your right your tip is to thin you need a chisel tip, 3mm is good. You can definitely solder in soic chips like this flash chip by hand, just take it slow and use plenty of flux. Use the old broken board to practice on!
For hotair I use kapton tape to mask components that are close, chips can take more heat than you think.
Well done hopefully new board you bought does the trick. 👍
Dang man! I was really rooting for ya! Keep up the great work!
Dang I was excited
dang you exited....
OneScoop shut the fuck 😐 auto correct
OneScoop nobody is perfect dude :/
I sincerely apologize for my rudeness. Also, watch your language.
woooooosh
Well, at least you have transplanted a chip from one board to another and seems to be functional, even if it's still the wrong region lock
Excellent vid Vince, great attempt at fixing it
@13:00 Cues up the theme song from Doogie Howser 😆
Wow Vince that mistake a lot of skill in effort great job keep up the good work
Vince when you try to solder get some Kapton heat resistant tape to put on the surrounding components so they don't come off. It is how I do it and it works great.
No need to use the hot air station for that chip when soldering back. You can just use some flux and with soldering iron do every leg untill there is contact. Anyways you did great and im sure you will get better at this :)
Gutted, my new fav TH-cam channel
Don’t beat your self up at least your trying to fix them grate video
flux is for when you are putting solder on you can use flux to help direct the solder to where you want for taking it off you do not need flux
Sad that it not works, hopefully someone finds a way to help you.
So don't throw the parts away 😉
But besides it's not working you do a really great work. And I say that as a professional, working in the industry of soldering and resoldering 😉
Hey! It is pretty sweet though, how you didn't mess it up. Good job.
👍
s13?, s14?, s15?
At least you tried and learned something new. Good job anyway. Thumbs up.
Hi vince loved the video. if you still want to fix it there’s a European mother board on Ebay for £18.99 from Leicestershire. Hope this helps
Dang i really thought he had this for once still these videos are very interesting
You just have to replace the U10 Micron 25Q256A 256 Mb Serial Flash with your original. Then you can use a motherboard with different region. :)
Emily Loves Panic! Literally that is exactly what he did 9:50
Emily Loves Panic! How did you know that ?? Your smart
Emily Loves Panic! Please make a video doing that on your Wii U!
Alternatively you could reflash it.
You are supposed reflash the chip with chip reader connect to a computer and reflash the chip with uk serial number
Watching another TH-cam that repairs various Apple products for their living I like the approach they use which is use the heat gun to pull off both chips then solder on the chip to the board. They also apply a bit more solder to each contact to ensure it connects
Bloody good effort and skills. I have every faith you will get it all sorted. Love your videos. Thanks Vince. 👌
Please do some research at what temp solder melts, it's around 350 - 400, having the heat up high will ket the solder melt quicker and not transfer into the chip, also gently heat around the chip fist so as not to thermal shock the board.
Flux does nothing regarding the heat, its the clean off any crap on the pads/legs and allow the solder to flow/stick to whatever you want it to
Resolder the chip with 60/40 solder then remove as much as you can. The solder used will be lead free and that is high temperature. Other than that you can get low melt solder which if used on the chip will bring your solder melt point down to somewhere just over 100 deg. Use flux. Flux does 2 jobs restricts air so solder does not oxidise and 2 its slightly acidic so etches any tarnish there may be. With hot air warm the board before or you may shock the chip. So start back from the chip for some time before you move in..
The correct way is flux each pad, use fresh solder on each pad then use a solder sucker after you heat each pad with your wider soldering tip. After removing the solder from eack pad, it should lift off. Then you want to flux the bare pads then add new solder to the pads. ,Then make sure the pads on the chip are clean, flux and solder each pad. After that, align the chip and you can touch the iron to each pad to flow the fresh solder. Start by soldering one pad at opposite ends to make sure everything is aligned. Its easier to readjust that way. You got lucky.
I would invest in the proper insulation tape to isolate the areas you dont want damaged when using the heat gun.
Video after video I keep wondering why are you still working with such tiny parts on the floor? Are you comfortable that way? I know not everyone has the space to have a workbench, but... well I’m sure you get my point! Btw keep on with your videos and your optimistic attitude! ✌😁
I really hoped it would work! Don't give up, wonder if there are PAL/ UK motherboards on eBay?
It might be worth it to work over a ceramic surface. For one it won't absorb heat as fast as a metal tray, most importantly there's less chance of gluing the pcb to the surface with the solder.
EDIT Tining flux is your friend with a small tip soldering iron. It permeates heat through the solder and protects the pcb from direct concentrated heat.
Hi i love watching the video's and admire the way you stay CALM if it was me i woud have smashed the f--in thing to smitherines.
HI Vince I love your videos congrats
Vince can you tell me were can i buy a wii u motherboard UK?? you wrote in the end you found a seller in uk that sells..
Thank you...
I got it from a seller on eBay in the UK. They specified for the UK in the title and description. Just had a quick look now on eBay UK and I can't see any UK motherboards, they are all US or do not state so again will probably be US. First time I bought there was none for sale but 2nd time there was UK ones, so maybe keep an eye out and they might come back in stock. If you have no luck then message me back and I will find out the eBay seller I purchased from, you can message them to find out if they are getting anymore :-)
@@Mymatevince Ok, I Will do that!! Thanks. All the best..
The home brew link is sleepii . ovh I spaced it so my comment doesn’t get removed. You also need files on an as card. However, Wii U game pad region locking bypass is not a thing on the home brew App Store.
he could try the method mentioned here: gbatemp.net/threads/how-to-use-an-out-of-region-gamepad-on-your-wii-u.513101/
It's worth a try
pG Angel lol I didn’t know that was a thing
Papaya it was recently posted in GBAtemp, so I'm not surprised. At least there's a possibility that the method works
pG Angel I don’t check through gbatemp that often
You did good with that chip
flux makes the solderjoints easier to work with and breaks the surface tension of the melted solder to make it more fluid. Also the solder on those new boards is much harder because it's lead free. Leaded solder is muuuch easier to work with.
Good try, Vince.I think you didn't damage the chip, it just wasn't that chip, but don't get me wrong, i don't know anything about soldering and anything like that. But, i just have a request to you, could you do a "Trying to FIX: A Faulty 3DS(the first one that came out, not xl or new.)?
From google:
As cleaning agents, fluxes facilitate soldering, brazing, and welding by removing oxidation from the metals to be joined. ... By preventing the formation of metal oxides, flux enables the solder to adhere to the clean metal surface, rather than forming beads, as it would on an oxidized surface.
I think it's easier to add some low-melting point solder to the chip before heating it up with the heat gun, makes it easier to remove without overheating the chip or any neighboring components.
Desoldering is.the reverse of soldering but instead of using the brade you skip that step and you use solder and a soldering iron and very carefully apply heat to each pin and add solder to hold the chip or components you are replacing
You should watch louis rossmann. You could learn a lot from seeing him do it
I watch him his videos are really good
And funny how he rags on apple too
Chips and passives are designed to handle soldering temperatures. You cant ruin any of those with your soldering iron. You can ruin connectors as those are often manually soldered but they all will do fine :D
Why do you always refer to Louis?
Because he does computer repairs for a living, and you can learn a lot about soldering just by watching him do it.
Thanks for sharing =) Sorry about the Wii U =(
Nice video and info , practice makes perfect they say . Thumbs up from me👍
Another great video again vince maybe as you have nothing too loose now how about trying too change the charger ic the original fault you had in the first place if the ic is easy too change, what i do too find the charger ic is put the details of each chip into google and look at the data sheet pdf and see what each ic does you can then check the voltages too and if ic is easy to change swap it from your china board.
dave from EEVBlog has great video tutorials on sodering, but since you already have a hot air station just take a look at time graphs for heating chips, there are proper ways to ensure you won't damage anything from either over temperature or shock
I have a question, with the wii u, when playing old wii games do you NEED a wiimote or can you just use the gamepad as the controller for wii games instead?
Can a gamepad motherboard be identified if it is PAL or NTSC visually?
There is also the posibility to use a ChipQuik kit that has the flux but also a bar of a metal that solders at a low temperature, but the thing is that it is expensive.