HWFLY OLED install. I can't get the DAT0 connector to connect.

[gangan]

So after practicing micro soldering for a couple of weeks, my HWFLY chip finally showed up. However, I can't get a DAT0 connector to make continuity with ground. I tried with one of the original adapters, and one of the newer corner adapters. No matter how many times I moved them, I could never get the pad and ground point to make a connection.

Am I missing something? Both adapters have continuity within the adapter themselves. It looks simple on YouTube vids, but I can't figure it out.

I realize the one adapter is slightly bent in the pic. But I've flattened it out and maneuvered it around countless times. Still no dice.



Here are some pics:

 

[Nagaa]

The DAT0 should not make continuity with GND just set your multimeter on diode mode black probe on ground and the red on the DAT 0 point and it should read between 500 / 800 sometime less, sometime more
If you still got no reading try to push the adapter more

 

[Nagaa]

The DAT0 should not make continuity with GND just set your multimeter on diode mode black probe on ground and the red on the DAT 0 point and it should read between 500 / 800 sometime less, sometime more
If you still got no reading try to push the adapter more

And use the black adapter shipped with the modchip much reliable than the yellow one

 

[gangan]

And use the black adapter shipped with the modchip much realiable than the yellow one

Gotcha. I was checking for continuity using the diode setting. Unless I'm going about that wrong. Directly shorting them or touching two ground points will give .8 reading. Also wound up breaking off the pin that goes into contact with the dat0 connector. Any idea where I could source some of those, preferably in the US? Can't seem to find that model for sale on aliexpress (and would also rather have them in quicker than 3 weeks from now).

The corner ones do seem a lot more stable, since you can solder in place, rather than glue/epoxy.

 

[Nagaa]

Gotcha. I was checking for continuity using the diode setting. Unless I'm going about that wrong. Directly shorting them or touching two ground points will give .8 reading. Also wound up breaking off the pin that goes into contact with the dat0 connector. Any idea where I could source some of those, preferably in the US? Can't seem to find that model for sale on aliexpress (and would also rather have them in quicker than 3 weeks from now).

The corner ones do seem a lot more stable, since you can solder in place, rather than glue/epoxy.

I never seen them sold without the chip, try to contact some seller on aliexpress or maybe @doom95 @Modzvilleusa has some left
Or you can buy this one : https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/1005003736809099.html there is solder point to lock it but never used it so i don't know if they are good

You can still use the other one but be carefull to lock it well in place with UV Mask / glue i had lot of problem with them

 

[doom95]

The original one actually grips around both sides of solder balls, so alignment on that is much more robust. I always reflow them which is probably as good as, if not better than shoving it up to the anchor point.

 

[urherenow]

Gotcha. I was checking for continuity using the diode setting. Unless I'm going about that wrong. Directly shorting them or touching two ground points will give .8 reading.

diode does not test continuity. It tests voltage drop. sthetix says in his video that readings from 0.500 - 0.800 should be good. I, myself, got a solid 0.463 no matter what. And I was worried that it was low, but it works fantastic. But then again, it's not really a diode that we're testing.

The size of the point on the adapter, compared to both the size and spacing of the balls, kind of suggests that the fact you are anywhere near the ballpark (as far as positioning with the lines on the adapter) and getting any reading at all in diode setting (but not grounded), tells you that you should be good to go. If you've tried multiple times and get the same reading every time, you can be sure of it, even.

 

[HelloShitty]

Yeah, as @urherenow said, we measure for diode forward voltage drop in forward bias. Measuring continuity between Dat0 and GND and getting a bip, would be very bad sign, I guess. Mean we would have a short between Dat0 and GND.

However, I don't fully understand why we measure diode forward voltage drop in almost every point and expect to get the common 0.6V of voltage drop. Do we have a diode on every point we solder wires, from those points to GND?

@gangan, from your first picture, I would say it should be a little bit more for the left side of the picture. I think the marking stripes that comes with the adapter should be slightly visible on both sides of the chip! Or does that golden adapter only have one guiding stripe?

Here is my picture from yesterday:

Even mine should be a bit more for the right side of the picture, but it measured between 0.599V ~ 0.630V (before and after securing it with the first solder pad, respectively)

 

[gangan]

The original one actually grips around both sides of solder balls, so alignment on that is much more robust. I always reflow them which is probably as good as, if not better than shoving it up to the anchor point.

As in putting the adapter on then reflowing the solder under the chip to actually solder the dat0 connector on? That does sound like the most robust possible way of doing it, without actually removing the chip. Something I'd not want to risk doing, as I've never messed with hot air, though. lol

 

[gangan]

I'll be honest. I thought we were checking for continuity. Though I was using the diode setting on my meter to check, and wasn't getting anything. I suppose I could have been checking backwards, as I never was thinking in terms of "diode" when I tried. I'll give it another shot when my new adapters get in.

I suppose I could have my meter set wrong as well. I do have some basic electronics experience, but I only mess with stuff like this once in a blue moon. This meter is set up correctly for diode testing, yeah? I may need to go see if I can find an LED and make sure it's working properly with something like that.

Also, totally off topic; but I'd forgotten how much more friendly and helpful folks in forums are after migrating to Reddit for most things years ago. Thanks for all of your input.

 

[gangan]

, from your first picture, I would say it should be a little bit more for the left side of the picture. I think the marking stripes that comes with the adapter should be slightly visible on both sides of the chip! Or does that golden adapter only have one guiding stripe?

Yeah, I'd moved it slightly left, right, etc. about 20 times or more and kept checking. I don't remember which lead I was using for each as I was just wrongly thinking "continuity" in my head. So I'm assuming (hopefully) I'd made contact and was just measuring wrong.

The golden adapter had 3 stripes. Probably just the lighting/angle. It was visible on both sides. Though I may have slightly had it off. My scope is one of those cheap ones on a bendable "gooseneck" so almost impossible to get it perfectly parallel to what you're viewing through it.

 

[gangan]

Just in case Google leads someone else here with the same issue... Check your meter. It dawned on me that I may manually need to select between continuity and diode mode on the meter by pressing that little "SEL" button after turning the dial to continuity/diode mode. Turns out that's true. So that's likely why I never got a reading.

 

[HelloShitty]

Just in case Google leads someone else here with the same issue... Check your meter. It dawned on me that I may manually need to select between continuity and diode mode on the meter by pressing that little "SEL" button after turning the dial to continuity/diode mode. Turns out that's true. So that's likely why I never got a reading.

Indeed, most DMMs have multiple function on the same selector. You need to press SEL to be able to select the other functions other than the default one. In my case, I have resistance and continuity and capacitance and diode mode.

My DMM is a Brymen 869s and is like this:

I have to press SELECT once, when I have the knob on Resistance mode to enable continuity and also press SELECT for diode mode too. In my case, my resistance mode, have 2 extra modes. Continuity and conductance.

About the image and the quality of my scope (not to confuse with oscilloscope, ), mine has a terrible image. And trying to change brightness, gamma, contrast and saturation seems to not improve anything at all.
Yesterday I had the very worse experience with it trying to solder the cpu ribbon cable. Reflections are the worse. One can't figure out how the solder joint is, if it even is soldered, colour is terrible, I had a really hard time with it. After adding flux and using the soldering iron, it's just a pure mess.

 

[urherenow]

Yesterday I had the very worse experience with it trying to solder the cpu ribbon cable. Reflections are the worse. One can't figure out how the solder joint is, if it even is soldered, colour is terrible, I had a really hard time with it. After adding flux and using the soldering iron, it's just a pure mess.

The CPU ribbon is actually the easiest part (provided you're using a microscope). It's designed so accurately that as long as you don't see a bridge, but still have continuity, you know you're good to go.

 

[HelloShitty]

The CPU ribbon is actually the easiest part (provided you're using a microscope). It's designed so accurately that as long as you don't see a bridge, but still have continuity, you know you're good to go.

Yeah, but a part from my inexperience (it's my very first attempt), even the CLK point, which is supposedly the hardest point on the job, to me was the easiest, so far, along with the RST one.

The hardest to me were CMD, GND and these SP1 and SP2. CMD is because it is really a tiny piece of component. GND because the solder didn't really wanted to stick to the pad (I know now that we should raise temp to around 400ºC) and SP1 and SP2 by various reasons, like terrible image from this shitty scope, the ribbon cable moving sideways on the slightest touch, after putting flux and using the iron, reflections from the scope leds are terrible and everything looks like the same colour. I couldn't distinguish between solder, flux and the component itself (capacitor). It was really hard to even understand if the solder was making contact both on the capacitor and the ribbon pad.

For instance, when I tinned the pads, this is the image

The right side of this SP1 pad shows 2 very bright areas and this makes it even harder if you add flux.


SP2 terrible image too

This one seems to be a bit out of focus though.


In this picture, before starting the attempt to solder, things seems reasonable, but check the colours. CPU is green. Ribbon is pretty much black but in the image, colours are almost the same.

The next picture is already after soldering but again, colour are terrible and I'm not very happy with the outcome. Bare with me tough as this was my first attempt. I know it's bad and I'm not bad, but I know there is continuity to GND.
This one still have flux (already burned probably. this was after soldering) and reflections are terrible

Sorry to invade the thread with pictures of mine.

 

[urherenow]

The next picture is already after soldering but again, colour are terrible and I'm not very happy with the outcome. Bare with me tough as this was my first attempt. I know it's bad and I'm not bad, but I know there is continuity to GND.
This one still have flux (already burned probably. this was after soldering) and reflections are terrible

Sorry to invade the thread with pictures of mine.

Wait, what? You're not supposed to check continuity to gnd on those. Did you watch sthetix's video? (EDIT: looks like he doesn't even check his in the "updated" video. I'll have to find the other installer I watched...)

 

[HelloShitty]

Wait, what? You're not supposed to check continuity to gnd on those. Did you watch sthetix's video?

De9ed told me we should have continuity to GND from both side of each cap to GND!!! :0

 

[urherenow]

De9ed told me we should have continuity to GND from both side of each cap to GND!!! :0

Well he knows much more than I do. I watched a video that checked for continuity between both sides of the cap. If they both have continuity to ground (I did not realize that... and is it a cap? Why would a cap have continuity to gnd on both sides?) then I guess it does the same thing. That is, it makes sure your ribbon pads have continuity with the cap. Disregard what I said then. It looks ok to me.

 

[HelloShitty]

Well he knows much more than I do. I watched a video that checked for continuity between both sides of the cap. If they both have continuity to ground (I did not realize that... and is it a cap? Why would a cap have continuity to gnd on both sides?) then I guess it does the same thing. That is, it makes sure your ribbon pads have continuity with the cap. Disregard what I said then. It looks ok to me.

Well, I shall say I also overlooked the values of resistance in Sthetix video. I was misreading between 1 and 12 Mohm when it is in fact 1 and 12 Ohm. This said, I should have tested for resistance and not continuity, as the DMM might see a short due to very low resistance. I'll measure for resistance later today.

I also asked him what would a shorted cap would be doing there. It would make not much sense:

This was yesterday in Discord, or better, today, but after mid night!

 

[urherenow]

Well, I shall say I also overlooked the values of resistance in Sthetix video. I was misreading between 1 and 12 Mohm when it is in fact 1 and 12 Ohm. This said, I should have tested for resistance and not continuity, as the DMM might see a short due to very low resistance. I'll measure for resistance later today.

I also asked him what would a shorted cap would be doing there. It would make not much sense:
View attachment 306135
View attachment 306134
This was yesterday in Discord, or better, today, but after mid night!

This still doesn't make sense. if the ribbon cable is already pulling it to gnd, when the ribbon cable isn't plugged into the chip (and while the chip is operating), then how exactly does it do any timing with it?

I'm genuinely curious now and have no idea whatsovever...