Worklog Nemo's G-wii worklog

[Retro95]

You have way too much exposed wire on almost all of these connections. Something is very likely to short when you button it up later. You only need a few mm of exposed and tinned wire to make a connection to a PCB. I can sense @Stitches getting hives.

A lot of these connections look to be "cold jointed" as well. Which will increase resistance and drop voltage to the Wii board.

Are you using a quality flux when soldering? Are you using a rosin core or leaded solder?

What temp is your soldering iron set to?

I personally would agree with your fear of powering that on. I would not power the portable up until you've removed and replaced all those solder connections with much less exposed wire to remove the risk of shorting and damaging components

Also. What is that?

 

[NemoInSlumberland]

You have way too much exposed wire on almost all of these connections. Something is very likely to short when you button it up later. You only need a few mm of exposed and tinned wire to make a connection to a PCB. I can sense @Stitches getting hives.

I’m planning to tape the up at the end, so far none if them are shorting. I want to ensure I’m making connection though.

A lot of these connections look to be "cold jointed" as well. Which will increase resistance and drop voltage to the Wii board.

I’ve checked all the resistances one by one with the multimeter and they are good, so no issue with cold solder.

Are you using a quality flux when soldering? Are you using a rosin core or leaded solder?

I am using a resin core solder and I havenot had any issue with cold solder in other projects.

What temp is your soldering iron set to?

Varies, usually 320-350 but sometimes 400

I personally would agree with your fear of powering that on. I would not power the portable up until you've removed and replaced all those solder connections with much less exposed wire to remove the risk of shorting and damaging components

This unit worked exactly as is until I mistakenly wired 3.3V to ground in the last step of GC+ 2 connecting and fried the wii motherboard. I’m reasonably confident it won’t be an issue, unless I forget to make a connection given that I just swapped out the wii As far as the exposed wire, I’m going to tape it for the final step.

Also. What is that?
View attachment 28600

That bundle is a sort of “universal ground” that I am going to tape up later on, but if you have a better way I’ll give it a shot.

 

[Stitches]

I'll just............. yeah I've got nothing. If those exposed wires don't break off and short something it'll be a true miracle

 

[NemoInSlumberland]

Would you suggest taping each wire individually with electrical tape to better insulate it?

Or do I need to redo all the connections from scratch, I’m worried at this point about missing a step from doing everything out of order and multiple times.

 

[CrazyGadget]

Desolder the wires, cut the exposed part so that there is only enough to cover the pad, then resolder them.

 

[NemoInSlumberland]

I shelved this project several months ago after moving to a new place that didn't have enough space for a workbench, but now that I am back at my parent's house for winter break (I'm a grad student with less and less time these days) I really want to give this a sustained effort over the next few days. I have undone most of the previous wiring, I am just left with the USB-C PD wired to the PMS-2 where I have also wired the 1s4p battery and fan too. The fan, which previously would turn on when I pressed power, is now no longer activating. Each of the 4 batteries is reading 3.5V and in series also reads 3.5V. I have tested every soldered connection, there are no cold joints and no shorts.

When I connect the charger to the PD I get 15V across charge to gnd on both the PD and the PMS. I do not get any voltage for 3.3V on either the PMS or the PD. After charging for a few minutes, the battery is reading 3.6V but still nothing on 3.3V and no fan, even if I toggle the power switch.

Are the PMS-2 or the USB-C PD dead? Is the fan bad? Is there a way to test the fan?

Edit:
When the unit is charging, none of the voltages are building even if I power cycle the unit. On the PMS-2 it’s a 5V 0.14A fan, but I am reading 0V potential over F+\-. None of the other voltage ports on the PMS-2 are showing the required levels either. I’m going to assume the worst and rewire a new PD and PMS-2

Edit2:
Please let me first say thanks to everyone who replied to this thread earlier, especially Stitches and Crazy Gadget who made frequent contributions as far as I can remember. I appreciate the care and effort, I went into this expecting the thread to be a straightforward record of my progress, of course I have been completely humbled.
Anyway, I am a bit stuck right now, and not sure how to proceed. For the record, I rewired a new PMS-2, it turns out I don’t have a backup usb-c pd. I am getting the same results, 15V on charge, 3.6V on the batteries, 3.6V on pwr, but 0V everywhere else. The first wiring, I connected 3.3V on the USB-C PD to the “V” pad on the PMS-2. I assumed the pad meant “high” voltage or 3.3V, but it is not clear what the pad is for from the documentation on the 4layertech website. I did see somewhere in their files that the 3.3V pad indeed should go to the 3.3V on the PMS-2. I wonder if that may explain the problems.

Edit3:
Wow, ok I wasn’t holding the power button long enough. The fan and everything is working. I guess it means I get to continue! ‍

 

[CrazyGadget]

Holy quintuple post, Batman. For future reference, you should edit your post to include whatever new information you have, rather than posting 5 times in relatively rapid succession. That helps keep the threads neat.

As for your PMS problems, if everything is looking good now, then I would guess the PMS is fine and it was just user error. That being said, you still have way too much exposed wire on all of the joints here, and they all look pretty cold. Desolder the wires, clip the exposed portion so that it's just enough to cover the pad on the board, then resolder the joint. Use some extra flux when resoldering to get some clean, shiny, round joints with no bumps / peaks.

 

[NemoInSlumberland]

I rewired everything again before testing the unit. It should be less exposed now.

I have a new problem though, my screen will not turn on. I have wired 5V to the inductor and ground pads I used previously when it was working, but the screen does not power on, despite reading 4.9V on the inductor. Prior to blowing the build this summer, I had desoldered the switch buttons from the control panel, in anticipation of connecting them to buttons on the g-wii case. I tried wiring a switch to the power slot and toggling it, but it made no difference. Need to dig through the forums some more I guess.