Hardware Where to buy standalone emmc module (without memory chip)?

[MatinatorX]

Are you telling me all the ppl selling homemade 256gb and 128gb modules on these forums buy the entire module with the 32gb NAND?

The guy who made a tutorial on upgrading emmc recommended 390c-400c, but it looks like my hot air station is more powerful/more accurate than his.
Ooopsies

You might want to ask @MatinatorX if he has any suggestions. On his DragonInjector discord the other day he was talking about making an eMMC <-> microSD adapter, to make eMMC upgrades easier. The idea was that you could use the adapter to plug the upgraded eMMC into the microSD slot, use a payload to clone the existing eMMC to the new one, and then just open the Switch and swap eMMCs. Complete eMMC upgrade without needing a PC.

This was all mentioned in the chat around July 8th, I have no idea what progress, if any, was made on it. But if anything, I'm sure it's a project he'll get back to after the DragonInjector starts shipping, which should be really soon.

Ouch, that board has certainly seen better days. 390c to 400c is WAY too hot. The solder balls on those eMMC chips are designed to have a melting point of 217c. Anything above 260c can cause damage to the chip and/or board. I would not trust it enough now to attempt a repair.

In the future, it's best to just preheat the top and bottom of the board until the chip comes off. I wouldn't set your hot air rework station above 300c, and keep the tip close and the air speed around 30% when removing. If you're ever soldering a new eMMC module yourself, make sure the BGA pads on the PCB are super clean with all the solder wicked away, and use a good flux paste like amTech.

As for the missing component, there doesn't seem to be any resistors on the board, just 5 capacitors. I'm planning on designing and open-sourcing a replacement unpopulated eMMC board, as well as selling populated boards on my Tindie page, both with or without 256GB eMMC modules pre-soldered. I'll be getting to that in the next week or so, just waiting on my capacitance testing tweezers to arrive so I can get the values. The components on the OEM eMMC board are rather tiny, at 0402 and 0201 package sizes. My FOSS board will use 0603 so it's easier to solder.

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Also, not sure if it's helpful but here's some high-res shots of an AliExpress eMMC module. It's more or less identical to the OEM board.

One image is horizontally flipped so I could overlay them to map the traces.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

The guy who made a tutorial on upgrading emmc recommended 390c-400c, but it looks like my hot air station is more powerful/more accurate than his.
Ooopsies

Or you left the heat on for too long, or you didn't leave it for long enough and ripped the pads off as the solder wasn't fully melted.
Considering how that board looks I think your chances of successfully putting the chip onto a new board are low, assuming the chip is not fried... But if you have a NAND backup I guess you don't have much to lose.

 

[MatinatorX]

Or you left the heat on for too long, or you didn't leave it for long enough and ripped the pads off as the solder wasn't fully melted.
Considering how that board looks I think your chances of successfully putting the chip onto a new board are low, assuming the chip is not fried... But if you have a NAND backup I guess you don't have much to lose.

If I were them, I'd just throw that board out. It's delaminating on the corners, the traces were melted into curled little wires, and I can actually see the the bare FR4 on some areas of the board. The majority of the pads are outright on vacation. It's beyond dead.

BGA153 eMMC chips like these usually have two voltages - 3.3V for VCC and 1.8v for VCC(Q) for the IO bus. I'm not 100% sure how the Switch routes the eMMC traces after the B2B connector, but best case scenario, nothing happens. Worst case scenario you send 3.3v from VCC up one of the data lines or bridge it to VCC(Q), and if it's not tolerant to that voltage, something might fry and your Switch would never be able to read any eMMC module ever again without a motherboard replacement.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

If I were them, I'd just throw that board out. It's delaminating on the corners, the traces were melted into curled little wires, and I can actually see the the bare FR4 on some areas of the board. The majority of the pads are outright on vacation. It's beyond dead.

BGA153 eMMC chips like these usually have two voltages - 3.3V for VCC and 1.8v for VCC(Q) for the IO bus. I'm not 100% sure how the Switch routes the eMMC traces after the B2B connector, but best case scenario, nothing happens. Worst case scenario you send 3.3v from VCC up one of the data lines or bridge it to VCC(Q), and if it's not tolerant to that voltage, something might fry and your Switch would never be able to read any eMMC module ever again without a motherboard replacement.

Yes, was going to say that too but forgot to write it.
It might be repairable by a pro... but it's not worth it for a part like that unless replacements are hard to come by.

Also, is the pinout the same for all eMMC chips? Otherwise that's something he would have to be careful of as well.

 

[MatinatorX]

Yes, was going to say that too but forgot to write it.
It might be repairable by a pro... but it's not worth it for a part like that unless replacements are hard to come by.

Also, is the pinout the same for all eMMC chips? Otherwise that's something he would have to be careful of as well.

The power, clock, reset, and data lines should all be the same across all eMMC 5.1 BGA153 chips. Sometimes there are slight differences between manufacturers but these are normally unused pins that add extra features or debugging interfaces that aren't important to the Switch.

 

[velli]

As for the missing component, there doesn't seem to be any resistors on the board, just 5 capacitors. I'm planning on designing and open-sourcing a replacement unpopulated eMMC board, as well as selling populated boards on my Tindie page, both with or without 256GB eMMC modules pre-soldered. I'll be getting to that in the next week or so, just waiting on my capacitance testing tweezers to arrive so I can get the values. The components on the OEM eMMC board are rather tiny, at 0402 and 0201 package sizes. My FOSS board will use 0603 so it's easier to solder.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Also, not sure if it's helpful but here's some high-res shots of an AliExpress eMMC module. It's more or less identical to the OEM board.

One image is horizontally flipped so I could overlay them to map the traces.

I've already got the schematic for this done (i think, i havent finished laying out the pcb yet) if you want some help on this project, i was going to make some boards myself. I'd be happy to send you a copy of the schematic you can use to get started, the required cap values are listed in the emmc datasheet, as well as the pinout.