Yeah... Fuck that guy. Boy do I have a story to tell. To the amazing installers in here that work really hard, I'm sorry you're about to see what I've been going through from a "professional installer."Unfortunately you'll have to send it back to him to get the dat0 adapter reseated, or ask for refund/partial refund and find someone else to do it for you. dat0 adapter is unreliable, best to find installer that do emmc dapter or kamikaze.
But there is a legendary installer here who claimed to have done 300 units using adapter without fail. Maybe you should get in touch with him
So last week I manned up and finally decided to open up my switch to take a look at the work of my FB Marketplace Brooklyn installer, and boy was I dissapointed. Here's the album.
Images were taken right after the 3rd failed dat0 adapter repair (well it did work for 4 days), within 2 months. To be fair his first install worked for 6 months no issues, after that it was just HELL.
- Completely stripped one of my screws. This is fine-ish to me, but I issue becuase he never told me. I wouldn't be mad but I feel like if you make a mistake you tell your customer.
- Flux on the board but points look dry on the waveshark... It works though!
- Leaving excess wire... takes 2 seconds to break off.
- CPU thermal paste all over the cables
- Bent my GODDAMN HEATPIPE, and now the heatsink is bent as well. > I'm REALLY pissed at this.
- Using needlessly thick double sided... MOUNTING tape?? Hello?? This is for nail-less photo frames and posters. The thinner stuff is WAY more afforable too. It's even thicker than the waveshark 2040... Explains why he had to bend the shield and make my switch more bode (sticking out) on the back-left side.
- Burned flux everywhere... I think kamikaze in the future may be difficult because of this mess.
- I found this piece of napkin paper stuck to the underside of the mounting plate. I had no idea why it was there.
- Until I took it off... and aligned it with the modchip... Instead of using proper kapton tape, (like 10 bucks for a roll??) this fool used a piece of a napkin to prevent shorts. Not glued down at all... I paid this man 100 dollars, and he self proclaimed he's done over 300 systems. But no kapton tape???
- This is just a wider board shot.
- Reusing thermal paste. Clear dry spots. This stuff is so cheap (7 dollars a tube?) so why do this to your customers?
- Bent up CPU shield absolutely ridiculous. It's probably another napkin paper underneath. the SP points. I didn't bother checking because of the rp2040 heavily stuck to the sheild.
- And of course the main issue to my problems... A CLEARLY misaligned dat0 adapter, with clearly a ton of left over flux. I brought the switch to this guy 3 times and all I guess he did was slightly shift the adapter instead of replacing it after a second visit. And it's the worst type of one too, with only 1 anchor... Of course its going to move! redoing the point he had me come in every 2 weeks just to "fix it." He didn't charge me but why would you want repeat walk-ins? Bastard.
- It's hard to see here but the display ribbon was slightly angled, and likely resulted the issue I had where sometimes I wake my switch, the joycons vibrate to indicate it's "on" but have no display. I would need to try 2-3 times every 10 wakes for the screen to work. It felt like something was inside the port preventing it from sitting correctly but "i fixed it" with canned air some 99% IPA. Feels like its still there but atleast its straight and not so angled.
But theres good news here! I decided that I would NOT go back to this guy as he clearly likes to cut corners, waste my time, and his time as well since he loves seeing my face repeatedly come back and complain to him.
I decided to JUST DO IT. I ordered a yellow 2 anchor dat0 adapter from AMZ for 9 bucks (I know, I couldn't wait for aliexpress. Let's call it a 2 day tax.) And got to work. Here are some install photos, reminder I am a complete noob. I just took my time is all.
- Desoldered his shit adater. (Unfortunately lifting a pad, but I know stethix says the corner pads are unused. Thank God.)
- Dry fitted the amazon adapter (it actually stayed in place, and yes I'm on a chip box. Only because I know it won't burn.)
- Connected battery, and screen. Chipped trained and failed to glitch first boot, but every boot after glitched properly. Removed battery and retrained again with no issues. Got NO SD 30+ times on samsung emmc. Good connection.
- Soldered down the adapter in place with tweezers (not my best work, but decent for one hand and low heat? [I was scared to go higher.])
- Cleaned with IPA! Also cleaned dried heatsink and replaced it with the perfect amount of thermal paste.
- Applied kapton tape over the chip (with hole for LED) screwed what I needed, put the heat shield down and booted to be sure. SD files read perfectly and it autobooted. I did remember to take sd card out before putting on back cover.
- Repaired!
And we're back. I feel comfortable doing this for myself now too. I wouldn't mind going back if the adapter fails. It's just those other points like the CLK being so tiny gets my nerves wild. I would love to try a kamikaze myself as I do have a dremel, but I don't have proper magnification equipment, for any skill or technique.
Summary is, if you're in NYC and you're looking for a local picofly install on FB Marketplace, the guy in Brooklyn will absolutely do the worst possible, and laziest job that will have you come in multiple times. Wait the couple extra days for a send-in repair or find someone else, or just a proper local repair shop willing to take the job.
I also had asked him to do a Kamikaze install, he refused and says he does not and will not support it, face to face. At that point I knew he wasn't serious and was a complete waste of time, and money. No reason if you're a so called "professional" to not be using the latest and more consistent options. Part of the money being made on each purchase should be going to making your operation smoother, not cheaping out on your customers. Maybe he just liked seeing my face.
