exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

stephen_usher wrote: 19 Apr 2024 13:14 Oh, only decoupling caps dislodged really then.

Mostly, but there are some that 'might' be resistors and are so damn tiny I'm not 100% sure what they are.

rubber_jonnie wrote: 19 Apr 2024 14:13

stephen_usher wrote: 19 Apr 2024 13:14 Oh, only decoupling caps dislodged really then.

Mostly, but there are some that 'might' be resistors and are so damn tiny I'm not 100% sure what they are.

Oh, I see them now. Yesy, they look like tiny resistors. I'd not even noticed them in your picture before.

stephen_usher wrote: 19 Apr 2024 14:55

rubber_jonnie wrote: 19 Apr 2024 14:13

Mostly, but there are some that 'might' be resistors and are so damn tiny I'm not 100% sure what they are.

Oh, I see them now. Yesy, they look like tiny resistors. I'd not even noticed them in your picture before.

They are spectacularly tiny, and very easy to miss!!

rubber_jonnie wrote: 19 Apr 2024 14:56 They are spectacularly tiny, and very easy to miss!!

Maybe not so easy to miss with the tweezers though? ;) :hide:

JezC wrote: 19 Apr 2024 15:07

rubber_jonnie wrote: 19 Apr 2024 14:56 They are spectacularly tiny, and very easy to miss!!

Maybe not so easy to miss with the tweezers though? ;) :hide:

Quite...

Strictly speaking I pushed the M92T36 IC to check it was floating, changed position and nudged a whole heap of stuff off with the IC. Then I managed to make it worse with the tweezers...

The trouble is with components that small, surface tension is a harsh mistress.

OK, so slowly getting round to Switch stuff again as have been quite busy with a few non computer/repair/retro things lately, but getting back to normal again.

I managed to get another Switch that was 'working' from ebay quite inexpensively as the case was a mess. Powers on and charges, but I discovered the battery from the original pink unit was dead, so I at least now have a board that powers on and charges the battery. So reasonably solid ground here.

However hooking up to the good pink chassis, display is fine, but there is no touchscreen, which is kind of important. I then had a much closer look and it looks like somebody jabbed a screwdriver in through the side because I found scratches, a knocked off component and some trace damage.

The component I can fix as I have a donor board, but the trace damage is bloody annoying. Here it is part way through repairs:


The area of the traces you're looking at is about 10mm square so a microscope is definitely needed. There are 3 damaged traces. I have fixed the right hand one, but the middle and left traces remain.

For another idea of scale, the wire used to repair the right hand trace is a single strand of copper wire from a piece of 13A earth wire, so tiny.

Patience is very much needed here so for the first repair I soldered down the top end, confirmed continuity and then put solder mask down and hardened it before bending the wire to the correct angle and soldering it down.

Doing each repair this way should ensure that the first soldered down end stays put whilst I solder the other end. I think the middle one may be tricky, but I now have a super tiny microsoldering tip for my iron and that is helping.

Once it's all done and continuity tested I'll get some more solder mask down and hardened to keep it all in place. Fingers crossed that fixes it or next up will be some reflowing for the digitiser IC I think.

Annoying yes but imagine how much more satisfying it will be if you get it working.

I must admit that for trace damage I usually don't try fixing the trace itself if possible but instead run a bodge wire between the two components the trace links. It's not only easier in general but a lot more reliable (and visible for someone in the future.

alexh wrote: 10 May 2024 10:44 Annoying yes but imagine how much more satisfying it will be if you get it working.

Hell yeah :)

stephen_usher wrote: 10 May 2024 11:21 I must admit that for trace damage I usually don't try fixing the trace itself if possible but instead run a bodge wire between the two components the trace links. It's not only easier in general but a lot more reliable (and visible for someone in the future.

Just not possible in this scenario, otherwise I'd do the same.