Blacking out on docks

[arpruss]

Background: Years ago, I got a free Switch, with no accessories. It had been literally hit by a hammer by someone in a rage. I had little interest in spending money on yet another game console, so I kept it in a drawer until one day I came across a dock and a PD charger at my local Bin Drop store. The $5 dock was not very functional (another long story), but it was good enough to check that the Switch works, and after borrowing joy-cons from someone for a few hours, I paired the Switch with some Pro-clone controllers I was using for my PC and Raspberry PI. Eventually, I swapped out the battery (it had a giant dent from the hammer blow -- amazing that it didn't catch on fire or fail) and the fan (also smunched). I don't feel like spending $40 on a new screen/digitizer.

Current issue: I then bought a used Rocketfish dock online. Here the fun begins. The Switch was very temperamental with it. Sometimes it wouldn't display. Sometimes, it would go to sleep from time to time for no obvious reason. I took the dock apart. Yesterday, I noticed a weird but happy thing: when I had the dock out, I could pull the ribbon cable with the USB-C plug out of the dock and plug it into the Switch 180 degrees from its usual orientation. And, amazingly, no more problems that I could see. No black screens, no going to sleep. Moreover, the ribbon cable is long enough that I could put a 180 degree twist into it, and after a bit of grinding of plastic off the connector, I was able to install it in a 180 degree reversed orientation on the dock. And no more problems with the Switch that I could see since. But I'm not super happy with this solution, since it puts pressure on the ribbon cable.

Question: Do people think this sensitivity to the orientation of the USB-C plug is a sign of something wrong with the dock or with the Switch?

BTW, please don't suggest getting an original dock. The Switch is so badly bent that I doubt it would fit well in it.

Here's a photo of the twisted ribbon cable.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Question: Do people think this sensitivity to the orientation of the USB-C plug is a sign of something wrong with the dock or with the Switch?

BTW, please don't suggest getting an original dock. The Switch is so badly bent that I doubt it would fit well in it.

More likely a problem with the Switch since it's subjected to wear far more than a dock that just sits in place but you can't really tell by the symptom, it could be either.

You can bend it back

 

[Hayato213]

You could always replace the dock original shell with like a basstop shell if the original dock is too big for you.

 

[arpruss]

You can bend it back

Maybe not. The backwards-pointing dent in the screen pushes on the battery, making for a shortage of space inside. In fact, I can't even put all the rear-panel screws back in. (When I first managed to close it all up, the fan stopped working. I had to remove a few rear-panel screws to give the insides some "breathing room" for the fan to work, in light of how badly dented the insides are.) It's really a wonder the Switch actually works at all.

 

[arpruss]

You could always replace the dock original shell with like a basstop shell if the original dock is too big for you.

Or just 3D print a new shell. That's a thought. But it's $45 for a used OEM dock, and that's more than I want to spend, especially given that the problem could be with the Switch.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Maybe not. The backwards-pointing dent in the screen pushes on the battery, making for a shortage of space inside. In fact, I can't even put all the rear-panel screws back in. (When I first managed to close it all up, the fan stopped working. I had to remove a few rear-panel screws to give the insides some "breathing room" for the fan to work, in light of how badly dented the insides are.) It's really a wonder the Switch actually works at all.

If you aren't willing to replace the screen, sell it on eBay, it just needs a new screen and it would be fully working, there's definitely people who would buy that up

 

[Hayato213]

Anyway it is your choice, when it come switch only the official dock understand what the switch want, when the dock supply the wrong voltage that the dock is asking for, then you would brick.

As for rocketfish dock you can take apart and take a look at the USB port and the empty slot you are talking about I doubt there is trace on the board where you consider another USB.