Hardware Hacking Switch OLED 256gb NAND upgrade

[binkinator]

My second emmc arrived
Someone have soldering/reballing tips to me?

NICE!!!!! Congrats man!

My first one still a week few days away.



I'm going to try it with solder paste. There's a good video out there on how to do it...it's in another language but it was so straightforward I understood everything.

Found it:

Dude did it on the friggin floor with some napkins underneath it and farm animals in the background making noise in the middle of rush hour traffic!

Heres another one that uses similar technique to reball and then goes on to using hot air and flux to solder the chip in place.



Again, in another language but totally understand exactly what he’s doing.

 

[zal16]

Finally, i did it. But the battery meter is not measuring. But the console works out from wall

 

[evil_santa]

Hey guys
Finally I have some time on my night shift at work.
I'll start with the ground things.

Starting whit OLED/Light Switch
On this units the emmc is soldered to the main PCB.
I do not recommend anyone to start with this as it is very heavy and in my experience requires a preheat plate. The circuit board absorbs so much heat that the emmc is grilled in time.
Next problem is you need the modded spacecraft-nx firmware on your modchip.
This firmware write the ninti bct to your emmc (boot0).
Otherwise you must write the boot0 from a mariko unit to your emmc whit an external tool like this, this or this.
With the latter two it is necessary to solder the emmc onto the small emmc circuit board. which then makes a reballing necessary.

Normal Switch whit the emmc daughter bord.
changing the emmc on the small circuit board is much easier.
the small circuit board absorbs much less heat so that the emmc starts to "swim" after 10 seconds at the latest.
I would also strongly advise buying a separate emmc board. Should something go wrong, you still have your original emmc board here.

To the emmc chips from Ali/Taobao.
First don't buy SanDisk emmc's!
This emmc chips have only 4mb cache inside, it's very less and you have
Performance breaks.
Samsung chips are fine and should be preferred to all others.
They have 64mb cache, much more then SanDisk.
Second, all emmc's i bought (12 pieces) came ready for soldering (reballed)

Needed tools for soldering and reballing.
Soldering:
- a magnifying glass
- a pair of tweezers (Ifixit's ones are good)
- a good flux, amtech are recommended
- a small brush to apply the flux
- desoldering braid, mg chemicals super wick is good but all others should also work
- a soldering iron with a chisel tip
- a hot air station, don't buy the cheapest you can find
- a preheating plate if you want to mod an OLED or light switch
- a third hand to hold the emmc board
- isopropanol alcohol (ipa) to clean the PCB
- kitchen towel

Reballing:
in addition to the things mentioned above
- bga 153 stencil click , this one is perfect for later switch rework jobs
- a good leaded solder paste, i use the mechanics one click
- a tool to apply the solder paste to the stencil, best is a Scalpel with an elongated blade
or the flat side from a spudger
- a fork! ? yes we need a fork to hold the stencil in position, it's better as a tweezers

Starting whit the emmc daughter board

to be continued...

 

[binkinator]

Hey guys
Finally I have some time on my night shift at work.
I'll start with the ground things.

Awesome! Glad you found some time...

...
- bga 153 stencil, this one is perfect for later rework jobs

Is this the right one? I didn't see the 153 on it. Maybe I'm blind?

to be continued...

Looking forward to the next installment! This is good stuff.

 

[binkinator]

Finally, i did it. But the battery meter is not measuring. But the console works out from wall

Wahooo! Surely the battery thing is unrelated or maybe something got knocked off?

Anyway, congratulations man! This is inspiring!

 

[evil_santa]

Is this the right one? I didn't see the 153 on it. Maybe I'm blind

O shit, you are right there is no bga153 on this stencil.
I'll correct the post tonight.

 

[zal16]

Wahooo! Surely the battery thing is unrelated or maybe something got knocked off?

Anyway, congratulations man! This is inspiring!

My suspicious is the fuel gauge chip, the MAX17050. It's a cheap ic , but i try the software solutions before, ex.: drain the battery totally or rebuild the NAND...

 

[binkinator]

O shit, you are right there is no bga153 on this stencil.
I'll correct the post tonight.

I bought this one.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08Z35PG3T
...hopefully, it's decent.

 

[evil_santa]

I bought this one.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08Z35PG3T
...hopefully, it's decent.

Yes this one is perfect.
i have the same one too. That was also my first stencil that I had bought.

 

[binkinator]

My suspicious is the fuel gauge chip, the MAX17050. It's a cheap ic , but i try the software solutions before, ex.: drain the battery totally or rebuild the NAND...

Now that you have experience replacing Bga153 chips you should be able to easily handle that little guy!

I forgot to ask, did you chose a different technique this attempt than you did the first?

Any issues along the way?

 

[l7777]

Starting whit OLED/Light Switch
On this units the emmc is soldered to the main PCB.
I do not recommend anyone to start with this as it is very heavy and in my experience requires a preheat plate. The circuit board absorbs so much heat that the emmc is grilled in time.

Can't the heat absorption be mitigated by preheating the EMMC area with hot air or soldering iron before adding the EMMC and applying heat through it? Isn't this also a case where you would want to use max heat/airflow to liquify the solder rapidly before cooking the EMMC and things around it?

 

[zal16]

Now that you have experience replacing Bga153 chips you should be able to easily handle that little guy!

I forgot to ask, did you chose a different technique this attempt than you did the first?

Any issues along the way?

To solder the EMMC, simply align the edges with the two points that meet on the board. I had a dat0 adapter, but from trying so hard to resolder I ended up destroying it, so
I had to use the antique technique of the enameled wire soldered directly to the dat0 pin, however, this caused the chip to lie on the opposite side, so I placed two pieces of enamel wire diagonally, just to support the chip and keep it aligned .

To solder I used a moderate amount of solder paste and used a portable heat gum from yaxun, interestingly I was only able to melt the solder at the maximum temperature of the equipment (480 degress) at 1 minute.

 

[zal16]

Finally, i did it. But the battery meter is not measuring. But the console works out from wall

My suspect is confirmed. My fuel gauge chip (MAX17050) was cracked.
I have no idea how this happened.
I will buy another immediately.
But I think it will be much more difficult to solder it, as it is tiny.

 

[zal16]

I'm an unlucky guy

 

[l7777]

To solder I used a moderate amount of solder paste and used a portable heat gum from yaxun, interestingly I was only able to melt the solder at the maximum temperature of the equipment (480 degress) at 1 minute.

This makes sense. I've heard from some repair people that advise using max heat and max airflow to bring the solder up to melting point quickly so that heat can then be removed before components cook. That said, I have only put this to the test on some 0201 capacitors because I knocked them off on accident. While small, the flux kept them in place and I could see exactly when they liquified and settled into place. That said I'm assuming you should be able to see when the EMMC begins to float as well though the enameled wire could make this a bit difficult to see.

 

[evil_santa]

Can't the heat absorption be mitigated by preheating the EMMC area with hot air or soldering iron before adding the EMMC and applying heat through it? Isn't this also a case where you would want to use max heat/airflow to liquify the solder rapidly before cooking the EMMC and things around it?

I have only had very bad experiences without a preheating plate. roasted ram on a switch and torn conductors on a fire TV stick. but it works without it, only I can't do it. but i don't have enough experience. preheating only with hot air didn't work for me. but maybe @doom95 can give a few more tips.

 

[doom95]

OLED is a 10 layer board. I don't even think you'll manage to remove an eMMC with just hot air.

 

[l7777]

OLED is a 10 layer board. I don't even think you'll manage to remove an eMMC with just hot air.

Ohhh, another tool to investigate. Tips on preheat temps or quality equipment?

 

[zal16]

I have only had very bad experiences without a preheating plate. roasted ram on a switch and torn conductors on a fire TV stick. but it works without it, only I can't do it. but i don't have enough experience. preheating only with hot air didn't work for me. but maybe @doom95 can give a few more tips.

So I was very lucky considering the dozens of attempts (and a destroyed eMMC) as I didn't use a preheater. Maybe if I had used one, I wouldn't have tried so many times to be successful at soldering.

In fact, I'm still not 100% sure if the console will work without sequels, as I'm still waiting for my MAX17050 to arrive, as the console won't start HorizonOS (not even with CFW) without "knowing" the battery level.

 

[zal16]

It's possible to start the Horizon OS without the fuel gauge chip?
Or is there any way to bypass the battery level check?
For as far as I know, it is this check that is preventing the system from booting. Currently I can only get to Hekate.