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

DIABLO said:
Surprised there is not people doing this for a living just snapping all these consoles up.
Click to expand...

There probably are but I think the real money is really in repairing them for others. I'm picking switches up for around £65 delivered for lites and 80/90 for a proper console but remember there is always a possibility of soc damage etc so you can straight up lose out. Whereas I could take no risk and just repair other peoples consoles on a no fix no fee (well I probably couldn't I have no formal training and am teaching myself). Even though I have a 90+% sucess rate on switches I am still not confident enough to be working on somebodys pride and joy. When I own them there isn't any attachment if I don't fix or I mess something up. If they are other peoples then there is more in it. Mind you ive sold probably 20+ switches and nobody has complained yet.
 
Last edited:
DIABLO said:
Surprised there is not people doing this for a living just snapping all these consoles up.
Click to expand...

When you factor in your hourly rate, the risk of irreparable systems, and critically that you cannot scale up as you are effectively selling your time and not a product, then it really becomes a hobby and not a reliable job.
 
been doing a bit of painting on the rear heat shield....



Still needs a lot of work but it is getting there! I mainly need to clean up edges etc but you get the idea!

And with his fan shroom:

host image online

Mods aren't just all about the soldering you see! Sometimes its about the little cosmetic things that add a bit of fun.
 
Look what we have gents... Something different! A cheeky Vita has appeared. First problem, it has a proprietary charger I do not have one. Second issue port looks mashed. Finally if I plan on using it, it's cosmetically (bar the screen which is actually very good Ignore the smudges and grime in the pic) in horrible condition so we are going to have to spray the frame.



A bit more exploring tells me this is an oled model which is good. A charger should arrive tomorrow. Once that is here we shall see where we are at.
 
Last edited:
[Death] said:
Loooove my vita , it’s sat on me bedside table . Oled too . Hopefully u can get that fixed up
Click to expand...

We shall see later on tonight. Charger should be here today so I'll be interested to see if it works.

If not tye charge port looks a bit tatty so I'll look at replacing that first and work from there. Pics to follow!!
 
[Death] said:
Ordered some zinc and nickel anodes . These heat shields on older consoles gonna look brand new
Click to expand...

Nice! I hadnt even thought of renewing that - somebody went ham on the vita...



All but 1 pin disconnected and loads of trace damage... looks like ill be repairing some traces!! This is a reminder to people if you have literally no idea just leave it alone! Give it to somebody that has at least a bit of an idea.
 
[Death] said:
Oh jeez . People need to learn how to hot air / solder and not just rip it apart
Click to expand...

I know it sucks! I count probably 10 traces that I will need to run jumpers for :( Should be interesting though and of course its tiny, tiny so ill need to make use of my new micro pencil :D What I am not sure about is if there are any other missing components... looks like perhaps some smoothing caps might be missing.
 
Vince said:
I know it sucks! I count probably 10 traces that I will need to run jumpers for :( Should be interesting though and of course its tiny, tiny so ill need to make use of my new micro pencil :D What I am not sure about is if there are any other missing components... looks like perhaps some smoothing caps might be missing.
Click to expand...

JeVaXsUAPMKHQUHB.huge


Should be the same board if oled! I fixity have some nice pics for reference
 
[Death] said:
...snip

Should be the same board if oled! I fixity have some nice pics for reference
Click to expand...

Thats the board for sure. I will start with the charge port and see where we get, compared to something like the switch there are barely any components on this thing. Ill get that port off later and share the carnage... I'm fairly confident I can fix it though, I mean they didnt even tin the port before trying to put it on :eek:.

I'm just hoping that they didn't get too carried away elsewhere on the board. time will tell :D
 
Emlyn_Dewar said:
Good luck fixing that mess! :eek:
I still love my Vita.
Dragon's Crown is a great one to show off the OLED screen. I still don't have any issues with my screen, despite the age.
Click to expand...

It shouldn't actually be as bad as it looks.. And it looks bad:





I count 12 completely ripped traces and a snapped leg on the charge port, the charge port should have 21 pins not 20 and you can see pin 21 (or it might be pin 1 it's 21 or 1) snapped off. First thing I did was went hunting for a pinout to see what the port actually does as I'm pretty sure it doesn't need 21 pins for charging, this is what I found:

Console End:


Dock End:


So pins 4 to 15 are totally useless unless you own the vita dock which means for charging you need pins 1,2,3,(the first 3 are debatable) 17, 18, 19, 20 & 21. Or to put it more simply it's a usb2 connection. I will clean it up and jumper it a little later and see what we get. Ideally I would get a new port in but I think ill just jumper this port at first and see if we get any life - If we get life after the initial jumpers I could jumper all 12 traces.

So really all I actually need to do is this:

 
Last edited:
I've gotta get me one of those microscopes, every time I see this thread bumped I can't help but think this is an essential part of the electronics toolkit in this day in age.

Good luck!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom