Vince's Repair Thread - (Console Repairs & Mods)

Armadillo said:
I have the hallpi sticks, they seem pretty good. Not put a huge amount of time on them because I want to put a backpaddle kit on, but they seem decent. Same as the gulikit tmr (confirmed, not just speculation) and those get decent reviews.
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They were 5 day delivery (same as my buttons and trim plate) on AliExpress whereas the only ginfull I could see were a lot longer and Guillikit were a lot more expensive.

Couldn't find our "rework" style soldering station at work, but did at least find a temperature controlled iron, so will give that a go for desoldering over the weekend if I get a chance. I've got some of the flux recommended in this thread, a solder sucker and some braid, so hopefully good to go.
 
Vince said:
Little pic of some stuff I've fixed over the last day or 2:



I really need to start upping my YouTube and general posting game. I'm probably going to be a bit quiet on that front for at least a few months as the company I work for got acquired and I've been heavy into projects to try and merge infrastructure and systems.

But given it's the new year let's set some goals again. 500 YouTube subs by the end of the year and just better quality videos and posts on here I think not crazy goals but goals!
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What's the name of your YouTube channel?
 
Armageus said:
Couldn't find our "rework" style soldering station at work, but did at least find a temperature controlled iron, so will give that a go for desoldering over the weekend if I get a chance. I've got some of the flux recommended in this thread, a solder sucker and some braid, so hopefully good to go.
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Well the temperature controlled iron (cheap Yihua) turned out to be a bust as it wouldn't heat up, so plodded on with my Aldi soldering Iron.


Managed this at least:
Armageus said:
Will also be replacing a soldered in rechargeable battery in my car key (Mini R56) so wish me luck :D
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Old battery de-soldered and holes mostly cleaned (I cleaned the big hole up a little more after this picture as the new leg wouldn't fit through)
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And new one soldered into place - nice shiny solder and good coverage, the gel flux and other tips from here really helped
1737362514125.jpg




Now looking at a new Soldering Iron to do my dualsense as my Aldi one is only 30W, any recommendations?
 
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Armageus said:
Well the temperature controlled iron (cheap Yihua) turned out to be a bust as it wouldn't heat up, so plodded on with my Aldi soldering Iron.


Managed this at least:



Old battery de-soldered and holes mostly cleaned (I cleaned the big hole up a little more after this picture as the new leg wouldn't fit through)
1737362514162.jpg



And new one soldered into place - nice shiny solder and good coverage, the gel flux and other tips from here really helped
1737362514125.jpg




Now looking at a new Soldering Iron to do my dualsense as my Aldi one is only 30W, any recommendations?
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Somewhere in here is a link to the one I use, its like £25 and is actually really good. Ill find another link.
 
bainbridge said:
... Snip
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Need to be pushing through my man. Just need to work out who sent me a random ps5 now... Turned up today and no idea who owns it :cry:

Ginfull sticks in yours and they seem to do decent. Done a basic calibration but you can fiddle until your heart is content.

Sent you a pm buddy.
 
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Armageus said:
Was it this one?



(and are the tips that come with it ok or does it need a bigger chisel tip for desoldering?)
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I didn't actually reply to say yes that's the one I use. You can buy t12 tips and have all the tips but the knife has one of the largest thermal mass of all the available ones. The beauty of the t12 is that the element is in the tip so you never have to mess around with new elements like you do with the sheath type designs of iron. I've never liked those ones I've never had one that works well.

There is a big wedgy boi available but knife is my go to for most things, especially game gears as I use it to scrape as well.. 2 tools for the price of 1!! Everything that comes with the kit bar the iron and tips is cheap quality tbh... Solder sucker was decent for a while but they go downhill quick those cheap ones. The solder isn't shocking but nowhere near as good as the stuff I use but then that stuff is £40 a reel so more expensive than the iron lol

Oh and you can also use haco t15 tips with the iron as well.
 
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Cheers Vince. I ordered it earlier, along with a d24 tip and some IPA. Got pretty everything now (braid, flux, leaded and lead free solder) so should be good.
Hopefully should go give results as tbh I was impressed with the job I did on my keyfob with my old abused Aldi job.
 
Armageus said:
Cheers Vince. I ordered it earlier, along with a d24 tip and some IPA. Got pretty everything now (braid, flux, leaded and lead free solder) so should be good.
Hopefully should go give results as tbh I was impressed with the job I did on my keyfob with my old abused Aldi job.
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D24 is a baby! Here is a small selection of tips:



These 3, C4 is a big hoof style wedge on the left, D24 in the middle and D4 is it's bigger brother to the right. Honestly though all babies compared to the knife

 
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To those that have done a thumbstick replacement on their PS5 pads, did you by and large just go ahead and replace the whole thing or did you think of, or even went ahead, with just doing a limited de-solder of just the two H and V wiper trace parts and associated wiper from donor new parts, by removing that part from the new assembly such that you only have to de-solder three pins per side, the rest of the thumbstick remains as is, with the new parts snapped back in once finished?
 
Bubo said:
To those that have done a thumbstick replacement on their PS5 pads, did you by and large just go ahead and replace the whole thing or did you think of, or even went ahead, with just doing a limited de-solder of just the two H and V wiper trace parts and associated wiper from donor new parts, by removing that part from the new assembly such that you only have to de-solder three pins per side, the rest of the thumbstick remains as is, with the new parts snapped back in once finished?
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Replaced whole thing. I was switching to tmr sticks, so not sure you can do just the pot change and if I'm in there messing about anyway, may as well just have a whole new unit.
 
Bubo said:
To those that have done a thumbstick replacement on their PS5 pads, did you by and large just go ahead and replace the whole thing or did you think of, or even went ahead, with just doing a limited de-solder of just the two H and V wiper trace parts and associated wiper from donor new parts, by removing that part from the new assembly such that you only have to de-solder three pins per side, the rest of the thumbstick remains as is, with the new parts snapped back in once finished?
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Whole thing but I went to TMR sticks also.

First time took me ages but once you work out a system that works for you it's not too bad.

I'm tempted to do a back button mod and click triggers on the controller I've changed the sticks on, likely change out the battery while in there as it's a launch day controller.

Just waiting for my second controller to start to go wrong.
 
ZG002 said:
Whole thing but I went to TMR sticks also.

First time took me ages but once you work out a system that works for you it's not too bad.

I'm tempted to do a back button mod and click triggers on the controller I've changed the sticks on, likely change out the battery while in there as it's a launch day controller.

Just waiting for my second controller to start to go wrong.
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Thanks. I did watch one video where to make it simpler the guy basically used a pair of snips to pretty much snip through all the plastic on the whole thumbstick assembly to effectively isolate each and every solder pin from everything else, so you only need to heat up one joint at a time and pull the now free single pins away one at a time, rather than trying to get all solder wicked/sucked away on all pins so the assembly comes off in a oner. It looked much simpler the way he did it, as you can get all the pins out, then suck the solder afterwards with a clear hole. You obviously have to fully commit as there is no going back, but of all the methods this one looked way easier.
 
Bubo said:
Thanks. I did watch one video where to make it simpler the guy basically used a pair of snips to pretty much snip through all the plastic on the whole thumbstick assembly to effectively isolate each and every solder pin from everything else, so you only need to heat up one joint at a time and pull the now free single pins away one at a time, rather than trying to get all solder wicked/sucked away on all pins so the assembly comes off in a oner. It looked much simpler the way he did it, as you can get all the pins out, then suck the solder afterwards with a clear hole. You obviously have to fully commit as there is no going back, but of all the methods this one looked way easier.
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Pretty much the way I've done it. Careful of the pcb with the snips it's easy to scratch it and possibly damage a trace.

I start off by adding low melt solder to each pin first.
Then cut away the potentiometers making sure to leave enough of the pin on the cut side to grab with tweezers.

Then I cut the corners of the cage, and little by little cut more away to end up with just pins or slightly bigger bits not connected to each other, careful with the switch, as it's easy to slip with the cutters.

Then yeah heat each pin one by one pulling them out with the tweezers.

Then I always seem to have an issue with the wick and flux, it leaves some of the holes with solder in them. So I've started to use the solder sucker first from the other side of the pcb. Cover the hole on the component side with the sucker, heat up the solder on the other side which tends to leave a clean hole and then I wick the rest away on the back.

Has worked for me anyway, must be nice just heating it all up with air and pulling the thing away from the pcb though.
 
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ZG002 said:
Pretty much the way I've done it. Careful of the pcb with the snips it's easy to scratch it and possibly damage a trace.

I start off by adding low melt solder to each pin first.
Then cut away the potentiometers making sure to leave enough of the pin on the cut side to grab with tweezers.

Then I cut the corners of the cage, and little by little cut more away to end up with just pins or slightly bigger bits not connected to each other, careful with the switch, as it's easy to slip with the cutters.

Then yeah heat each pin one by one pulling them out with the tweezers.

Then I always seem to have an issue with the wick and flux, it leaves some of the holes with solder in them. So I've started to use the solder sucker first from the other side of the pcb. Cover the hole on the component side with the sucker, heat up the solder on the other side which tends to leave a clean hole and then I wick the rest away on the back.

Has worked for me anyway, must be nice just heating it all up with air and pulling the thing away from the pcb though.
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That must take bloody ages!!
 
Well console delivery this week is absurd!! Probably more consoles and broader selection than I have had to date. It includes no less than 8 elite series 2 pads. N64 stuff, SNES, nes, MD, game gear, Dreamcast, series S, one x.. a ton of systems!!
 
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