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

Re-did my earier Dual Shock 4 and still won't work so going to give up on this one now. I re-soldered all the connectors today, even though under a magnifing glass I couldn't see any joins/merged solder from the work on Saturday. And unforuntately both Guilikit TMR modules are still not working. Everything else on the controller works in terms of buttons, wireless, dpad, rumble etc. And both modules are flat to the baord like my successful Dualsense modding from last night. So I am starting to lean towards the fact something was wrong with both of these modules as they never ever showed up in Gamepad tester and it's odd how they are both dead.

So a bit of work still to get to a TMR-based Dual Shock 4. I'm probably going to order some AKNES TMR modules on sale atm and try to rescue the original Dualsense board and have a go at another Dual Shock 4 once I can source one. So currently my record is:
  • 2 x JDM-055 Dual Shock 4 boards - My first efforts & total noob, so struggled to remove the ALPS Pots - looks like there is trace damage. After this ordered the Yihuo & new soldering gun
  • Donor JDM-055 board from Vince - the one below; don't know if this is worth pursuing
  • Dualsense (blue) board - still have it, and looks like it might be good - ALPS sticks removed, just need to buy some more TMR sticks to fit
  • Working Dualsense (pink) - successfully modded last night & is tested for several hours in the Division 2 last night.

So 1-4 atm. Maybe can get to 2-3 out of the above. Everything was broken (drift) so ironically the pink fully working before I took it apart Dualsense is my only success atm.

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Don't suppose anybody reading has a unifi U6-LR?

I have one here that's blown a hole in a chip and I would like to know what the chip is.
 
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I do have Ubiquiti gear (about to replace it as 5-years old) but unfortunately my access point in the office is a FlexHD
 
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Timber said:
I do have Ubiquiti gear (about to replace it as 5-years old) but unfortunately my access point in the office is a FlexHD
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Yea I have a UAP-LR and a UAP-Pro but I got this U6-LR for £30 faulty. Works but wont work on ethernet, will work in mesh and speak to my other aps over wireless.

This is the chip with a hole in it:



I can make out MT(burn hole)058 so its a MediaTek Voltage regulator in a QFN package. I don't necessarily need to find a replacement of the exact chip if I can get its datasheet (I can bodge it like ps3 wifi).





The question then is open another ap and see if they have this chip or measure its input and guess (problem is it might step down say 5v into 2 voltages for example 3.3/1.8 - Guessing is a risky business but I can work out its input voltage.
 
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Took chip off to try and work out what is happening:



This is what we have so far:



Im guessing its probably outputting 3v3 to the coil and 3.3 down to the voltage divider.
 
Can you connect just a dualsense pcb to the pc to test it, if not what's the minimum amount of things you need? pcb & battery?

I just want to test l3 and r3 once I've attached ribbon cable to them (backpaddle kit) and double check the sticks, make sure they are still all good. Doubt there will be an issue, but if I can give it a quick test without having to put half the controller back toghther, I will.

Thanks.
 
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Armadillo said:
Can you connect just a dualsense pcb to the pc to test it, if not what's the minimum amount of things you need? pcb & battery?
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I can't speak from experience, but I've seen in this Youtube video someone just plugged in the battery and none of the side modules, trackpad or microphones.

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Update on my side, got some AKNES TMR (they do have HallPi on the sides) modules today for both PS4 & PS5. Tried to fix the original Blue Dualsense which I've mentioned/photographed on this thread previously and unfortunately the joypad just won't even connect so pretty sure it's cooked. Like the two original DS4 boards it was faulty (drift) so hey-ho.

Anyway took apart a new Camo Dualsense (risky I know) and fitted the new TMR modules. Pleased to say when well and I now have a second Dualsense with working TMR modules. Might replace the battery at some point, but equally might leave it as it's new. Got the time down to about 45 mins, which isn't fast but most of that is the removal of the existing ALPS sticks so just trying to be careful not to damage anything. I also lose a bit of time fitting everything back which can be fiddly. I didn't realise the newer BDM-040 has the two extra power leads which feels a bit like cost cutting when compared to the earlier BDM-020 version.

Feels like I'm done with the Dualsenses for now. I do have two more available to me (one cheap and one special edition colour scheme) but I don't see the point right now, although there might be a modding opportunity down the road. And yes the mic had fallen off in the second pic, but was included when re-assembled.

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Timber said:
I can't speak from experience, but I've seen in this Youtube video someone just plugged in the battery and none of the side modules, trackpad or microphones.
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Thanks, battery and pcb is fine, maybe a little awkward to hold the battery and pcb, but only want to double check the sticks and l3/r3 once the cable is soldered on. I don't see any issues arising, but easier to check then than once everything is together. If it's too much faff I'll just have faith and assume it was fine before, it's still fine now :p
 
Yea I use a bare board and battery I'm an animal and just let the battery hang wherever it pleases.

With the DS4 you can just plug the bare board into the USB on back case.

This for example is how I tested manual TMR calibration on a Xbox One pad today.



You can use the little pin holes to change magnet location and change stick center without software. Great for pads that can't be calibrated like the Xbox One pad.

These little holes here... Stick a pin in and you can change magnet position relative to each side...



Takes some getting used to you sort of jam a pin in, wiggle the stick in the way you want it to go, giggle it around a bit and it sort of magically repositions center position. You should do this on PS4 pads that can't get full range.. manual get them close to the original stick and they calibrate much better.
 
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bloodiedathame said:
I feel like this is a hobby I could get into...

I have so much broken tat lying around...

Any tips on where to start eg Tutorials and equipment?
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Its one of those things that sort of progresses as you go. Soldering iron, a multimeter and some basic screw drivers etc are the best starting place after that it sort of grows as you go.
 
Dyson said:
It's been a great thread, definitely one of my favourites
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Ditto.

As someone that hadn't really been into repairing old hardware, even if I appreciated the craft of it, it's only recently I've accidently stumbled into destroying PlayStation controllers. And all of the help from @Vince and others has been much appreciated.

Great resource for anyone looking to get into the hobby. Also great in terms of sustainability and keeping things working. When you do repair something, or improve it; in the case of hall effect/TMR sensors for example, it's quite the buzz.
 
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Definitely one of the best threads. My youtube is a lot of stuff like this as well, even if it's stuff well beyond me (I saw a gpu repair where he was grinding the board to expose a track on a lower layer).

It's nice to be able to fix the sticks, but by now games "journalists" should have really called out the consoles on still using pot based sticks. We all know why (planned obsolescence), even the Dualshock 3 had a revision that used some sort of hall effect stick before going back to pots. The edge is basically a shake down racket, £200 and still uses pots so they can sell you the "fix" at £20 a pop.

Won't happen because games "journalists" are basically just PR, but it would be nice. You could see it when Sony blocked Dualshock 4, took the excuse of "encourage the dualsense features" and just nodded even though it's bs. You can turn them off for accessibility reasons, so games have to work without all that stuff anyway.
 
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Armadillo said:
Definitely one of the best threads. My youtube is a lot of stuff like this as well, even if it's stuff well beyond me (I saw a gpu repair where he was grinding the board to expose a track on a lower layer).

It's nice to be able to fix the sticks, but by now games "journalists" should have really called out the consoles on still using pot based sticks. We all know why (planned obsolescence), even the Dualshock 3 had a revision that used some sort of hall effect stick before going back to pots. The edge is basically a shake down racket, £200 and still uses pots so they can sell you the "fix" at £20 a pop.

Won't happen because games "journalists" are basically just PR, but it would be nice. You could see it when Sony blocked Dualshock 4, took the excuse of "encourage the dualsense features" and just nodded even though it's bs. You can turn them off for accessibility reasons, so games have to work without all that stuff anyway.
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Indeed. I do think there are some Youtube channels and a small number of influencers that bang the drum about sustainability, but as you say so much more needs to be done if we truly cared about this stuff.

I do sense that there is also a patent, or licensing issue with Gulikit. I do remember reading in Edge magazine years ago about a patent issue on analog sticks and I wonder if that too is another reason why all the current console makers have landed on Alps as their supplier.
 
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