Hardware Nintendo 2DS Kiosk unit to retail conversion - spoiler alert you move a resistor.

[Matthew_P]

Hi there, I've been repairing a couple of 2DS consoles over the last couple of days and one of them refused to work without being permanently plugged in. Thanks to this forum I discovered that one of them was in fact a kiosk unit.
Since it had a sticker on that said hardware modified and I had another unit in pieces to compare to i went on a hunt for the modification.
Thankfully Nintendo were kind enough to forget to clean up the flux from the mod so I was able to find the spot fairly quickly.
What they had done was remove a resistor from one spot and put a resistor to bridge some pads next to it.
I measured the resistor that had been put in and it came in at 100ohm the one that was on the original retail motherboard was 10k.
I figured it would't do any harm as long as there was some kind of resistance so I moved it from where it had been placed to make it look like the retail unit.
I powered it up and it works just like a normal unit.
It's an "easy" fix in that you only need to move one single resistor, but it IS a tiny tiny resistor so a good soldering iron and a steady hand is needed.
I hope this helps. I've attached a visual guide.
Oh and one more thing the Start and Select buttons had been disabled by replacing the rubber pads underneath the buttons with non moving ones. So to return it to full functionality you need to source some replacements. Sadly you'll probably have to buy a complete set of button pad replacements but I'm sure the other parts would be useful for other repairs.

 

[GreatCrippler]

Kinda cool, but seems like it would tank the value. I imagine kiosk pieces are worth more than standard units.

 

[Kubas_inko]

Kinda cool, but seems like it would tank the value. I imagine kiosk pieces are worth more than standard units.

well then, make them

 

[RedBlueGreen]

Does it work without being plugged in now?

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Hi there, I've been repairing a couple of 2DS consoles over the last couple of days and one of them refused to work without being permanently plugged in. Thanks to this forum I discovered that one of them was in fact a kiosk unit.
Since it had a sticker on that said hardware modified and I had another unit in pieces to compare to i went on a hunt for the modification.
Thankfully Nintendo were kind enough to forget to clean up the flux from the mod so I was able to find the spot fairly quickly.
What they had done was remove a resistor from one spot and put a resistor to bridge some pads next to it.
I measured the resistor that had been put in and it came in at 100ohm the one that was on the original retail motherboard was 10k.
I figured it would't do any harm as long as there was some kind of resistance so I moved it from where it had been placed to make it look like the retail unit.
I powered it up and it works just like a normal unit.
It's an "easy" fix in that you only need to move one single resistor, but it IS a tiny tiny resistor so a good soldering iron and a steady hand is needed.
I hope this helps. I've attached a visual guide. View attachment 114245

That's going to be very useful to some people. I've seen a bunch asking about this before but no one had figured out a solution.
I wonder if this mod will have any long term effects, I'd imagine there's a reason the original resistor is 100 ohm. I personally wouldn't feel comfortable using the 10 ohm resistor for that without knowing exactly what the resistor is used for. Long term it might burn something (a chip leg, a fuse or something like that)
But getting a 100 ohm one in the same form factor shouldn't be much of a problem. Even if you might have to buy like 10 or 100 of them. They're only a few cents a piece anyway.
It's entirely possible that the power management chip is just sensing the resistance and switches between kiosk and normal mode depending, and it won't have any long term effects to use the wrong value resistor at all, but it's hard to tell if that's the case.

 

[driverdis]

Nice, I doubt any long term damage will occur by doing this but if it does a 100ohm resister does not cost much to use instead. Next up, people should do this to the other kiosk models also as some people resorted to external battery solutions since the internal was disabled. This would fix and would make the Kiosk models more valuable since they can actually function with a battery.

 

[Matthew_P]

Does it work without being plugged in now?

It functions exactly the same as a retail unit. I'm currently playing Super Smash Bros on it right now.

 

[Karas288]

Thats awesome glad to hear the kiosk model can be converted back to retail i just got a new 3ds that turns out is a kiosk model do you think the 3ds might be able to be converted to retail and run off the battery in a similar manner Im currently in the process of modding mine to cfw but cant finish it atm due to the home button not working lol Im going to get a retail 3ds soon and have a look at the resistors to see if its the same i will let you all know if i find anything

 

[Mark McDonut]

awesome work, thanks for sharing

 

[gorgyrip]

Is it possible to do the same for the old 3ds xl?
I've compared the boards and couldn't find any differences,

 

[smileyhead]

Kinda cool, but seems like it would tank the value. I imagine kiosk pieces are worth more than standard units.

Would that mean you could convert some retail units to kiosk ones and sell them at a higher price? :thinking:

 

[Dannz]

Hello Matthew,
really big thanks to you for posting solution of 2DS kiosk demo unit.
I have had an old 3DS XL kiosk demo unit, allways wanted to repair and fix the problem that it only works with a power adapter or a power bank.
Unfortunately I only found solutions for the New 3DS XL on the Internet, but unfortunately no pictures regarding the Old 3DS XL.
I orientated myself on your pictures and found out that the Old 3DS XL has similar names for the resistors as in your pictures.
I soldered the R38 (100 ohms) to the free space of the R35.
Result:
The Old 3DS XL kiosk demo unit now runs entirely on its own battery. Yippieh!
I attach two more pictures of the finished result.
It was really very small everything and a bit difficult to solder.
I hope it continues to work well.
Thanks again for your good tip and the good pictures.
Many Greetings,
Daniel

 

[Ottoclav]

Does anyone have a photo of new Nintendo 2DS logicboard? Specifically of side B? I think I may have a kiosk version, but I would like to verify the differences between my board and someone else’s? Mine has a jumper wire connecting two pads.

 

[GMan2k21]

Does anyone have a photo of new Nintendo 2DS logicboard? Specifically of side B? I think I may have a kiosk version, but I would like to verify the differences between my board and someone else’s? Mine has a jumper wire connecting two pads.

I read on another forum that they just cut that blue wire off and it works. Though I cannot verify, other than I checked a teardown of a working retail unit 2DS XL and noticed there is no blue wire in any of the 2DS XL working retail units. Only the demo/kiosk versions have the blue wire, think its safe to say remove that blue wire and should be good to go

 

[Ottoclav]

I read on another forum that they just cut that blue wire off and it works. Though I cannot verify, other than I checked a teardown of a working retail unit 2DS XL and noticed there is no blue wire in any of the 2DS XL working retail units. Only the demo/kiosk versions have the blue wire, think its safe to say remove that blue wire and should be good to go

I now CAN verify that only cutting the blue wire will not reverse the hard-mod. AND it is only a hard-mod! Although I snipped the wire beforehand, it might not have been necessary. Located in the middle of the jumper wire are three locations for small resistors (I believe they are resistors). The retail 2DS XL has a resistor in each location, and no jumper wire. The kiosk 2DS XL is missing the resistor closest to the board edge, and has the jumper wire.
After removing the blue jumper wire, I used some 30 gauge enamel-coated wire and jumped the missing resistor's pads. This reversed the kiosk hardmod, and I am now enjoying my first ever 2DS XL and all the cool games that I never knew I had missed!

 

[JSalgado19]

I now CAN verify that only cutting the blue wire will not reverse the hard-mod. AND it is only a hard-mod! Although I snipped the wire beforehand, it might not have been necessary. Located in the middle of the jumper wire are three locations for small resistors (I believe they are resistors). The retail 2DS XL has a resistor in each location, and no jumper wire. The kiosk 2DS XL is missing the resistor closest to the board edge, and has the jumper wire.
After removing the blue jumper wire, I used some 30 gauge enamel-coated wire and jumped the missing resistor's pads. This reversed the kiosk hardmod, and I am now enjoying my first ever 2DS XL and all the cool games that I never knew I had missed!

Hi Ottaclav, thanks for your research. Could you please help me? So basically You put (replace) a 10k ohm resistor on the missing part? Second, How did you fix the home button?

Thanks a lot