Hacking AK Team declare AK2.1 more stable

[coolbho3000]

It really does look like the manufacturing process has caused 'dry joints' in the components - running a heat gun with flux over the whole board seemed to have fixed the problem (FAT ERROR)

Reminds me of the towel trick for Xbox 360.

Since AK team doesn't seem to want to ship me a replacement AK2, I'll try this with my broken prize AK2. So, you just cover the entire board with flux and take a heat gun to it? Sounds dangerous.

 

[ROM Troll]

Find out whether to use liquid or wax flux then apply with a small instrument like a toothpick.

 

[onneeye]

Guess I just join the dead acekard 2 club. Mine refuses to read sd card or hangs. Now i'm getting 2 black screen. I'll all happen when I was updating a cheat for a game. Now it won't recongize any sd card I have (1gig, 2 gig, and (2) 4 gig sdhc).

Just one week old. Damn. Going to exchange for a cyclo ds.

 

[ROM Troll]

Guess I just join the dead acekard 2 club. Mine refuses to read sd card or hangs. Now i'm getting 2 black screen. I'll all happen when I was updating a cheat for a game. Now it won't recongize any sd card I have (1gig, 2 gig, and (2) 4 gig sdhc).

Just one week old. Damn. Going to exchange for a cyclo ds.

Was there any sticker on the blister packaging of your AK2?
Did you get it at DealExtreme? If so, will you have to pay the difference between the AK2 and the new $50 gold piece price of the CycloDS Evolution?

 

[Magus]

yay i just got an acekard 2 from dealextreme out of gbatemp recomendetion and i still have to try it!

oh and for the info the card reader is black with "acekard" written in blue
and there is an orange sticker with "ultra guide" written on it
also the thing it's still in the blister package... what should i do now?

 

[ROM Troll]

Magus, we have the same model/version. Go ahead and try it, the blister package shouldn't be sealed. I've never returned anything to DX but they may charge you a restocking fee if you try to return it and claim it works; DX will not cover your shipping either. If you decide to return it, claim either the "Fat Error" or "Still Processing" issue and see if you can get a CycloDS for $35 minus your AK2 credit. Otherwise, update us on your continued experiences at the Ultra Guide thread. Cheers

 

[pokemongalaxy]

omg, team acekard are giving me a review sample for my site dstemp.tk ...hope its not faulty, cuz I really need more reviews up there

 

[cracker]

@quantronics: where and how did you use the solderer? Those things are microscopic. More info would be greatly appreciated by everyone.

EDIT: I tried twice and nothing.

He probably flooded the pcb with low solid liquid flux and ran the heat gun over it a while which would be pretty similar to the original baking process the pcb went through (or should have gone through) to attach all the components. So he didn't target any one component in particular, he did all in one shot.

 

[onneeye]

I got mine from RHS. There was no sticker on the package when I got it. I can boot from the original firmware, but it hangs when loading a rom or saving a setting.

There very good about there warranty and product returns. I never had a problem returning defect items for RHS.

I really loved the skins.

 

[coolbho3000]

omg, team acekard are giving me a review sample for my site dstemp.tk ...hope its not faulty, cuz I really need more reviews up there

I could start reviewing flashcarts in Pokesav.org. It gets 1000 views a day, maybe some review samples will come my way.

(*cough* Teamcycloplease *cough*)

 

[Kevino]

I guess I'll try to reflow the my board and see if it helps. I'm getting the "Processing...Don't Power Off" error when trying to load a game. Some instructions on how to reflow the board would be useful. I haven't used flux in years - I always use solder with the flux built-in. I do have a heat gun, which I nomrally use just for shrink-wrap.

 

[cracker]

You need some no clean liquid flux. It seems to be hard to get ahold of in small quantities aside from a flux pen. A flux pen would probably work if you kept it pressed down and let it flow all over the board. Then you just need to heat the pcb up enough to reflow the solder and let it cool down without touching anything. Finally, make sure get any residual liquid flux off the board before you use it again.

 

[Tanas]

You need some no clean liquid flux. It seems to be hard to get ahold of in small quantities aside from a flux pen. A flux pen would probably work if you kept it pressed down and let it flow all over the board. Then you just need to heat the pcb up enough to reflow the solder and let it cool down without touching anything. Finally, make sure get any residual liquid flux off the board before you use it again.

I wish I knew this before I returned my faulty Acekard 2 to Dealextreme, who are now ignoring my emails.

 

[Searinox]

That's what I did the first 2 times. Letting the solder reflow didn't work.

 

[OzModChips]

I think they have fixed the issue
we have shipped about 70 of the new ones so far - and no complaints yet!
They have revised the hardware a little

its quite funny - we offered some customers an m3 real as a replacement, even after geting 2 faulty in a row....and they still wouldn't take it. People that like Ak2's interface don't want to switch to anything else, and understandably so.

 

[Bri]

That's great news! Please keep us up to date if things change. So, can you tell us if all the newer ones have the "Ultra Guide" sticker on them?

-Bri

 

[Searinox]

Been lurking around the forums on DX and AK too. Haven't seen any new complaints.

 

[marumari]

Also wish I had noticed this thread before I ordered. I bought two Acekard 2s, shipped July 11th from DX. They both have the "Ultra Guide" sticker on them. Feel really cheap compared to my old R4DS.

I got a FAT Error once so far, but reseating the card seemed to fix it (hopefully not just for now).

 

[Searinox]

Over the last few days I have been abusing my AK2 hard with reflowing and soldering paste smudging and whatever I figured could fix it, enough to make the board look like a total mess, the pins to look cripple, but not enough to fix the FAT ERROR yet apparently not enough to further damage it either. Today I threw it away in the trash, also my Supercard replacement will be in my possession this Monday at long last(been a month without a flashcart!), so that's one obsession off my mind.

 

[Wetpatch]

I ordered 5 of these AceKard2 2 weeks ago from Ace games Melbourne
Out of the 5 2 now have Fat errors and 1 has a 1010101010 error when starting up They seem to be of the new batch with a Orange Ultraguide sticker on the front

The Kingston sd are fine as they all work on my spare not a happy boy