Hacking Is My 3DS Bricked?

[The Real Jdbye]

Actually it will be my first time soldering. The experience with XL was actually assisting a friend doing so. I know it is quite risky. But I can't expend much on this 3DS, I still want to sell it for some profit. It is not my main system. My main system is a XL with full original stuff and no hacking. Anyway, I already wanted to buy a soldering kit and start doing mods, so this will be a big reason to try and learn it.

I live in brazil, so even if it is reasonably priced, the giant expense in shipping (sending and receiving), the ridiculous dollar conversion (courtesy of our govern's policies destroying our economy) and the absurd waits for the shipping (my last international package arrived 60 days late), make it a big no-no...

Anyway, as I am not willing to expend money I don't have on this hardware, then it is literrally a brick to me now. I can try soldering it myself, and any progress I get would be pure profit.

Ah.
Well, then just make sure to have a steady hand, be really careful to avoid touching any of the chips or other components on the board with the soldering iron. Even if you fuck up the soldering, as long as you don't accidentally melt/destroy any of the components on the board by touching them, and you make absolutely sure there is no solder bridging any of the pads before you plug the battery back in, you can't break your 3DS any further.

Worst case scenario then is that you'll lift one of the solder pads off the board and then you'll probably be unable to do the mod unless you can put some solder in the hole and get it to make contact with the trace. I haven't heard of that happening with anyone on the 3DS, but it happened with quite a few people who tried to install a modchip on their Wii, I guess that is a possibility when you have such small solder pads.

Your biggest problem might be avoiding bridging solder pads, that tends to be a problem for me when they're very close together. Make sure to have desoldering braid or a solder sucker on hand so you can remove the solder if that happens. I find that removing solder is much harder than applying it, so be careful to not use too much.

I haven't attempted any console modding yet myself, I just don't trust my soldering skills enough. I have done a bit of soldering though and I repaired my headphones not long ago which went well.

Maybe you can get some help from your friend?

 

[Migoma]

GO! you can do it! We are Brazilians! We never give up!

your avatar confirms that

 

[Gadorach]

I've been soldering and modding consoles for a good 8 years now, and I can confirm that your first time is not the time to try modding a console, especially if you intend to sell it. Find an old VCR or something, and practice soldering as much as possible. You'll want a 30w to 40w iron, as anything less has to be held on points for too long, and that increases the chances for errors to occur. These points are flipping tiny, so don't think you can do it on your first try. I remember ruining an Xbox (original) my first go, but it wasn't so bad as they were a dime a dozen anyway. Use good flux, preferably liquid rosin flux in a pen-brush, and leaded solder. And make sure you can change the tip on the iron you get, as you'll want a really fine tip (pen-tip sized) for most of the soldering you'll be doing on these consoles. Weller makes great irons, and if you're planning to do this a lot, you should get a soldering station with adjustable temperature. Anyway, good luck, and try not to break your 3DS, ha ha

 

[DeathUriel]

Thanks for all the tips. I had read Hitachi was a good soldering iron company. Isn't that right? From all you said I believe the only thing I won't have is the station that gives me the privilege of changing temperature. Like said, I don't have much money to spend (just noticed why every time I wrote expend, something felt funny) and that would increase the price. At first I thought I had nothing to try soldering, but after I read that about VHS I remembered I do have some old broken pieces of hardware laying around. Will try them before just for the heck of practice.

Edit: I meant Hikari.