exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

alexh wrote: 16 May 2024 14:08 If you google for Switch + SD + Dismount + Standby you find several threads suggesting that the brand of SD card could be the issue. That sort of makes sense if the switch tries to put the SD cards into deep sleep and that doesn't work correctly on some SD cards. Worth trying a different card just to be sure.

Well that did cross my mind the SD card was an issue, so I will buy some proper branded ones as the ones I have are just generic right now.

EDIT - I tried a Samsung card I have, however it was the same, but it's an older card and behaves the same.

So looking at what's recommended, it seems to be SDXC are what's needed and I don't have any, so I'll get one ordered see if it changes anything.

So a 2nd game card arrived today, and it's still no dice with the card reader...

So I pulled the reader out and had a close look at the connector and it's not good news:


The contact 2nd from the right is looking dodgy. Luckily I have spares on the donor boards, so I need to pull it apart again and somehow get an undamaged one off a donor and onto the working board...

I suspect it may have been damaged at the same time as the traces, but didn't move out of place until I unplugged the card reader. That would explain why it worked fine before I took the damaged but working switch apart, but not when I reassembled it.

Well, it's been a good day with the Switch :)

Firstly I recovered the card reader connector from my donor board. The whole process was actually surprisingly easy and because I heated from below the board, the connector came off like new. Getting the heat and airflow was critical here.

I used the same process to remove the damaged one, and the same process to fit the spare to the mainboard, and I shockingly got it soldered all in one go, and with no sneezes to dislodge anything!!!

Here it is fitted:


It's hard to give an idea of scale, but the connector is no more than about 15mm long, so you can imagine the size of the pins, and there are pins both sides!

It needed a good clean to get rid of all the flux needed for replacing the connector, and great care was needed not to damage the replacement.

At first it didn't work, despite making sure everything was clean, but I swapped out the card reader with my spare and lo and behold it was all working perfectly!!!

Here it is reassembled and with 2 card games installed on the front page :)


Next up I want to see if I can manage to rebuild the power circuit I sneezed away last time and see if I can get a 2nd board working.

Congratulations. You have one fully working console now?

Yay! And good luck with the other one.

alexh wrote: 18 May 2024 17:45 Congratulations. You have one fully working console now?

I do indeed, very pleased with the result :)

stephen_usher wrote: 18 May 2024 17:52 Yay! And good luck with the other one.

Thanks, The other one will be interesting since some of the missing parts are possibly the smallest SMD parts I've ever seen, but worth a try :)

So this arrived today, it's a Switch Lite mod chip:


One thing missing though was the instructions.

Now the USB port and black lead I get, but the other lead, :shrug:


It just doesn't seem to line up with anything!

I'm using a parts board BTW, so no need to worry about the working Switch!

Maybe there are different top ribbon cables depending upon the board revision?

I think you have the flexible cable upside down and back to front? In the correct orientation the cable folds back on itself to insert into the modchip.

https://vi.aliexpress.com/item/1005007024450666.html

Scroll down to see the installation images.