I love yall’s video’s, I found them on youtube and they are exceptionally clear. If I had come across them before I started this project I might not have botched it. I They may be the most informative beginners soldering instruction on the web right now.

I have attempted to mod a Wii with a chip that requires only six connections and is alligned to sit directly on the Wii’s DVD controller circuit board for a quick solder connection. Unfortunately I am inexperienced and was worried of overheating either of the boards and due to my inexperience the connections were incomplete. Because the chip sat directly on the controller I had difficulty removing the chip for another run at installation, this time with proper wires. Now here’s where the awful part comes in. During the removal of the chip (I didn’t have a solder vaccuum or wick) I lifted and removed the pad and it is currently stuck to the mod chip while the track(?) has been raised off the PCB! ...maybe the exclamation mark is out of place… Now, I believe I have bricked the Wii so haven’t much to lose, but I don’t know what I can do to keep the Wii working and get that chip on. At this point I don’t think it would be possible to have one without the other.

So, any ideas or thoughts? I know this is my fault, but I really like this sort of game and would really like to fix this. I could get yall low quality pics, or a high quality pic of the mod chip if you can help.

By the way, great site, I really like your video’s. Have yall considered doing a “Repairing raised pads and other difficult situations” video? I think that would be really good … but then I”m biased aren’t I. :) Or maybe after you’ve done a few more you could bundle them and sell them to the local or state ISD.

So, if anyone has any ideas I would love to hear them. I still think I can fix my mistake, but I would really like to hear from someone experienced.

Thanks, Ben S

Hey, thanks for the video feedback. Some pictures would be great to make sure I know exactly what you’re talking about. When people lift pads or traces, I usually link them to Circuit Technology Center’s Rework and Repair Guide , although that’s more of the pro way of doing things. Without seeing more pics, I’m not sure if this advice applies, but usually you can use very small wire (google 30 AWG, wire wrap, kynar… we’ll have some in our store by next week) to solder directly to the chip leg and jump over the broken pads and traces. You may have to scratch off the green solder mask that covers the traces beyond the pads to attach the wire.

The only situation where this wouldn’t work is if there’s a connection to an internal plane (some circuit boards have more than just a top and bottom layer) at the pad you broke. In that case, you really need a circuit diagram to find out how to get around the damage.

That’s a good video idea (repair), we’ll stick it in the pipeline. Oh, and btw, what’s local or state ISD? School District?

good luck!

Hey, here is a picture of the board. Sorry for the extreme low quality, but I don’t have a better camera than my phone. The red line is where the trace used to be and the square where the pad was.

Here is pdf pic of what the board looks like with a pic of the chip pasted over it.
pdf here

In place of the pad there is now an indention with something like goo? Since the trace didn’t go anywhere after that I expect that the circuit must continue to the other side or to an internal layer. Is there anyway I can decide if there is an internal layer? I am inclined to believe that there might not be because it is just the controller. I’m less optimistic about the outcome now.

I think I will plug in the wii to check if it works at all. Then I plan to check the opposite side of the board to see if there is a direct link through the board. Maybe I can jumper it around the board. If I can’t, and I don’t expect to, I will connect the mod chip directly to the chip the trace traces back to. The idea being that the chip was designed to work around the region checking feature of the game disc player and would therefore be a proper workaround for the broken circuit. I think that’s my final chance. Any objections? Is 30 AWG really required? What if I just go with the 24 gauge I have now? (24 gauge speaker wire was the smallest radioshack had.)

Thanks for the great link I’m going over the site, unfortunately some of it is currently beyond my practice and skill. Still I am looking at 6.1 and 6.4 for my answer. Thanks for the advice you gave it was spot on given the description I had given. It helped me understand what sort of things I should be taking into account when troubleshooting circuit boards. (Without actually being able to analyze the circuit that is.)

Thanks again, Ben S

You know, there might be some hope. Lots of times manufacturers leave extra pads for components that never get installed (extra features, different versions, etc), and those pads look like they might be for that explicit purpose.

Actually I think I made a mistake before. Usually surface mount pads don’t connect to internal layers, only tiny metal-plated holes called vias (or larger holes that are used for through hole components, which is what I thought you were talking about) connect through the layers. Sometimes they stick a via right in the middle of a surface mount pad, but that’s unusual.

I bet you’ll be alright jumping down to that main chip without worrying about internal layer connections—it’s certainly worth a try.

You can certainly use whatever wire you have on hand… I think radioshack may actually sell the small stuff (look for wire wrap wire, or maybe even motor winding wire—this stuff has an enamel coating that you’ll have to scrape off first). Try your 24 AWG and if it doesn’t work, go buy some smaller stuff.

Your best bet is going to be soldering directly to the pin of that chip I think. That trace is just too small. I would try to get the wire held in place with tape or epoxy before you start soldering—ie, don’t use the solder to hold it in place, have it already held in place before you apply heat. Also, I’d pre-tin the wire tip before securing it. Then, you may be able to just touch the tinned wire with heat and have it melt onto the pin. Some liquid flux may also be helpful.

Those pins are really small, but I think it should be possible without a lot of special equipment.

Let us know how it turns out!

If you need more help, point out which connection you’re talking about on the following pic from your pdf instruction guide:

Hey Thanks!

It took me a long time to finish and I used way too much rosin but I made all the connections and the joints look good overall. One has too much solder but the joint is clean and shiny, nothing practice wont quickly fix.

I used 32 gauge magnet wire I bought at Fry’s. I removed the coating by melting some solder and dipping the tip of the wire in. This wasn’t pretty but it removed the coating and tinned the wire at the same time. Still, I don’t think I would use that method again since I think it accelerated the oxidization of my tip (I think it’s dead) and it wastes too much solder.

The only part that I had difficulty with was soldering directly to that pin. At first I placed too much solder down and had to wick it up. It looked pretty ugly and it looked like I had taken off too much solder so I decided to go with poor practice and run the wire over the back of the chip instead of over the board. This made it possible to get a good connection to the pin. By the time I had everything done I wasn’t sure it would work (I didn’t check for continuity, how do I do that anyway?), neither did anyone else waiting on the mod chip and game. But it worked and we were all playing the Japanese release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl soon enough.

Right now the Wii hasn’t been put back together yet and the mod chip is floating precariously above the controller board. Also, one of my brothers friends broke a bent and fragile wire, luckily this wire will be easy to replace. When I do I’m going to clean the board with alcohol and coat the exposed tinned wire with a green overcoat pen to avoid shorts. Then I will bend the wires down to the board and tape them down. I’ll also tape both sides of the mod chip to keep avoid shorts. Does that sound ok?

Then I’m done and I won’t have to mess with it again. It’s been fun and you’ve been a great help thank you very much. If I had just spent the extra money on wire and done it using the long wire method in the first place I might not have had all this problem, but I would have done just as poor a job and not learned nearly as much. So thank you for those videos and those links you gave me. It would have taken me a long time to realize what rosin actually is and what it really does.

When I come across another project and need more supplies I’ll be sure to buy from yall. Oh, and I hope you really do put a repair or maybe troubleshooting video together. Thanks again.

Benjamin Serrato

good to hear, you sound like quite the perfectionist :)

I don’t think you let any serious “oxidation” harm happen to your iron tip in one use. If you leave it on for a long period of time (like over night), you can definitely kill a tip. But, in your case, a quick wipe with a sponge will probably bring the tip back to new condition.

If you have a friend with a camera, it’d be neat to see the finished product. You could also just glob some hot glue down to hold everything in place. They use epoxy in industrial places to hold jumper wires in place, just fyi. Your plan sounds fine.