Hardware Wiimote capacitor replacement

[xonn]

I have an old wiimote that is completely dead now, even with new batteries. Sometimes it starts and then, it can be perfectly used until batteries run out of energy, and when them are replace, the problem starts again. I have read that it could be a problem in capacitor, but it's impossible for me to find another one on Internet. I'm searching a 3300uF and 4V with no success.
Could be replaced using another one with less/more capacity (F) and the same voltage (V).
Thanks for your help!

 

[Creeper0k]

Hello!
It is advisable to change capacitors with the same characteristics as they were originally. But if you can't find one, then you can put a capacitor with a slightly increased rating (10-20%). You can also replace conventional capacitors with solid (polymer) ones, they are more reliable. But never use smaller capacitors! They will deteriorate faster than the previous ones.

 

[xonn]

Hello!
It is advisable to change capacitors with the same characteristics as they were originally. But if you can't find one, then you can put a capacitor with a slightly increased rating (10-20%). You can also replace conventional capacitors with solid (polymer) ones, they are more reliable. But never use smaller capacitors! They will deteriorate faster than the previous ones.

Thanks @Creeper0k
It's really difficult to find a replacement capacitor for a wiimote >.<

 

[Jayro]

You can always use a higher voltage cap, but don't go below 4v, if that's what it came with. A 5v, 9v, etc should work fine, just keep the capacitance the same.

 

[Jose64141]

Hi
I got a Wiimote which doesn't turn on. I opened it and saw some broken components. Capacitor C5 was destroyed and diode D10 looks broken too. I didn't find any model reference on the board, but I know it's an RVL-003 with RVL (F)-2 marking (I really don't know what that is but is the only thing that differs between the Wiimotes I have besides serial numbers ;p)
So if anyone could help me figure out what I need exactly for a replacement I'd appreciate it very much.

There it is the lower part where the C5 is (pretty obvious I think XD)

And on the upper right side is the D10. Hopefully, this could help someone with more knowledge identify the parts ;p

 

[john1578]

You can always use a higher voltage cap, but don't go below 4v, if that's what it came with. A 5v, 9v, etc should work fine, just keep the capacitance the same.

Are you sure about that? Like, if I use a 3300uf 6,3V capacitor, wouldn't it fry my board or something? I'm pretty much ignorant about this.

Btw, I have the same issue as @xonn : my wii remote seems to be dead, but sometimes it'll turn on, as if it had its own will, and stay working as long as I don't remove the batteries. If I remove the batteries, even if they're 50% charged, the wii remote just won't turn on again if I reinsert the same batteries it was working with moments prior, which seems really odd. I have no idea about what could cause this issue, so maybe replacing the capacitor will help me, according to this thread.
Interestingly, whenever my wii remote turns on by some miracle, it only happens when I put 100% charged batteries on it or fresh batteries I just bought, but even doing that doesn't guarantee it'll turn on.

 

[john1578]

I have an old wiimote that is completely dead now, even with new batteries. Sometimes it starts and then, it can be perfectly used until batteries run out of energy, and when them are replace, the problem starts again. I have read that it could be a problem in capacitor, but it's impossible for me to find another one on Internet. I'm searching a 3300uF and 4V with no success.
Could be replaced using another one with less/more capacity (F) and the same voltage (V).
Thanks for your help!

Where did you read it could be a problem related to the capacitor? Do you have any trustworthy source?

Edit: also, did you replace the capacitors and it turned on again normally? From what I can tell, there isn't any update from you here.

 

[Jayro]

Are you sure about that? Like, if I use a 3300uf 6,3V capacitor, wouldn't it fry my board or something? I'm pretty much ignorant about this.

Btw, I have the same issue as @xonn : my wii remote seems to be dead, but sometimes it'll turn on, as if it had its own will, and stay working as long as I don't remove the batteries. If I remove the batteries, even if they're 50% charged, the wii remote just won't turn on again if I reinsert the same batteries it was working with moments prior, which seems really odd. I have no idea about what could cause this issue, so maybe replacing the capacitor will help me, according to this thread.
Interestingly, whenever my wii remote turns on by some miracle, it only happens when I put 100% charged batteries on it or fresh batteries I just bought, but even doing that doesn't guarantee it'll turn on.

6.3v is how much the capacitor can take in, not how much it puts out to the board.

 

[john1578]

6.3v is how much the capacitor can take in, not how much it puts out to the board.

hm... so that's why a higher voltage cap is fine... Thanks a lot for the info!

 

[Jayro]

hm... so that's why a higher voltage cap is fine... Thanks a lot for the info!

Yep. It's basically the highest amount of voltage the cap can withstand, so if your board is 5v, then you'd probably want a cap that can do more than 5v, like a 6v or a 9v cap would be just fine. You just want the farads to match up as close as possible, give or take 10%. Like if 3300 pico-farads is your target, then try to stay within 3200 to 3400 for tolerance reasons. But matching it perfectly is your goal, if you can.

 

[john1578]

Got some capacitors here. Any cautions I should take? I mean, it seems pretty straight forward: I just have to desolder the old capacitor and then solder the new one in, but I've heard about accidents with capacitors, so I'm afraid I'm missing something here.

 

[CMDreamer]

Got some capacitors here. Any cautions I should take? I mean, it seems pretty straight forward: I just have to desolder the old capacitor and then solder the new one in, but I've heard about accidents with capacitors, so I'm afraid I'm missing something here.

Most accidents with capacitors, are related with the electrolytic ones, which do have polarity and connecting/soldering them wrong can make them explode once electricity is turned on.

They do have a marking (a colored band most of the time) on their body for you to know that marking is the negative pin.

 

[john1578]

Well, replacing the electrolytic capacitor didn't work. This following image shows the old cap. The three following images show the new cap I soldered onto the board. Maybe I did something wrong? I tried soldering it just like the old one was. If I did everything correctly, then the issue lies somewhere else, but I can't find much information about my wii remote model, which seems to be the last one, with motion plus built-in, so I'm pretty much in the dark here. Also, I can't see any corrosion on the metal parts that connect to the batteries, so I just can't explain why this controller would turn on sometimes and sometimes not. Again, if I did everything correctly, then at least this capacitor issue is discarted.

The next images show the new electrolytic capacitor I soldered. Thanks @CMDreamer for the help with avoiding accidents and bad stuff. One interesting thing is the new cap barely fit on the board, bc it was just too large compared to the old one. As the first one had the positive lead soldered, from what I could tell, I soldered it. Tried soldering the negative lead, but with no success, but it didn't have any solder originally, so maybe no problem here.

3300uf 6,3V is the cap I used:

This is the back side of the board. I soldered the cap leads here:

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Well, replacing the electrolytic capacitor didn't work. This following image shows the old cap. The three following images show the new cap I soldered onto the board. Maybe I did something wrong? I tried soldering it just like the old one was. If I did everything correctly, then the issue lies somewhere else, but I can't find much information about my wii remote model, which seems to be the last one, with motion plus built-in, so I'm pretty much in the dark here. Also, I can't see any corrosion on the metal parts that connect to the batteries, so I just can't explain why this controller would turn on sometimes and sometimes not. Again, if I did everything correctly, then at least this capacitor issue is discarted.

View attachment 299089

The next images show the new electrolytic capacitor I soldered. Thanks @CMDreamer for the help with avoiding accidents and bad stuff. One interesting thing is the new cap barely fit on the board, bc it was just too large compared to the old one. As the first one had the positive lead soldered, from what I could tell, I soldered it. Tried soldering the negative lead, but with no success, but it didn't have any solder originally, so maybe no problem here.

View attachment 299090

3300uf 6,3V is the cap I used:
View attachment 299092

This is the back side of the board. I soldered the cap leads here:View attachment 299093

The old cap definitely had solder on it. There's no way it would work with just one leg soldered. That looks like a ripped pad. The other side appears to still have a pad on it, you can try soldering it on the opposite side, and hope that it's still making connection to where it needs to go. With multi layer PCBs it can be difficult to do trace/pad repairs if you can't see where the trace goes off to.

 

[CMDreamer]

If you can't solder the capacitor to the pad itself try creating a bridge to the trace using some copper wire (left side of first image, right to the capacitor's anode leg (the negative one)).

 

[john1578]

The old cap definitely had solder on it. There's no way it would work with just one leg soldered. That looks like a ripped pad. The other side appears to still have a pad on it, you can try soldering it on the opposite side, and hope that it's still making connection to where it needs to go. With multi layer PCBs it can be difficult to do trace/pad repairs if you can't see where the trace goes off to.

I'm pretty sure the left leg in the picture didn't have any solder on the upper part of the board (the one where you can see the cap), iirc. It was just like a copper pad with no tin in it whatsoever, which leads me to believe the solder joints in the bottom part are the only ones that matter, bc it wouldn't make sense for the controller to work for 9+ years with a solder joint missing if it was necessary. But I'm pretty much positive the left leg of the old cap had no solder on that upper part. I was looking at other wii remote boards online and it seems the upper part is very frequently not soldered, but the bottom always is, which could maybe support what I said. Anyway, since I have nothing to lose, since the controller was already malfunctioning, I might as well try what you said. IRL stuff is getting on my way, but I'll try to get it done.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I'm pretty sure the left leg in the picture didn't have any solder on the upper part of the board (the one where you can see the cap), iirc. It was just like a copper pad with no tin in it whatsoever, which leads me to believe the solder joints in the bottom part are the only ones that matter, bc it wouldn't make sense for the controller to work for 9+ years with a solder joint missing if it was necessary. But I'm pretty much positive the left leg of the old cap had no solder on that upper part. I was looking at other wii remote boards online and it seems the upper part is very frequently not soldered, but the bottom always is, which could maybe support what I said. Anyway, since I have nothing to lose, since the controller was already malfunctioning, I might as well try what you said. IRL stuff is getting on my way, but I'll try to get it done.

Are you sure you didn't rip the pad off without realizing? The bottom side looks a bit mangled. But maybe it's just flux that hasn't been cleaned up.

 

[john1578]

Did it again. Looks a lot better now (as you guys can see in the pictures), but still no power, even with brand new good quality batteries. How can I make sure the new electrolytic capacitor is in fact working without having to desolder it (the upper solder joints are very close to the cap, both very small and hard for me to desolder)? I've heard about using a multimeter for checking stuff like this, but I don't have one and most important don't know how to use one (lol), but maybe I can borrow it from some friend of mine,

@The Real Jdbye I'm not 100% sure whether or not I damaged any solder pad, but considering I wasn't messing with that copper pad I mentioned most of the time and used a 25W soldering iron, I find it hard to have harmed it while working on the board. Based on the pictures below, I don't think I ripped any pads, but might be wrong idk.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Did it again. Looks a lot better now (as you guys can see in the pictures), but still no power, even with brand new good quality batteries. How can I make sure the new electrolytic capacitor is in fact working without having to desolder it (the upper solder joints are very close to the cap, both very small and hard for me to desolder)? I've heard about using a multimeter for checking stuff like this, but I don't have one and most important don't know how to use one (lol), but maybe I can borrow it from some friend of mine,

@The Real Jdbye I'm not 100% sure whether or not I damaged any solder pad, but considering I wasn't messing with that copper pad I mentioned most of the time and used a 25W soldering iron, I find it hard to have harmed it while working on the board. Based on the pictures below, I don't think I ripped any pads, but might be wrong idk.

View attachment 299202

View attachment 299203
View attachment 299204

In that picture it looks like there's a pad there. In the previous one it looked like there wasn't. Is the lighting just playing tricks on me?
Anyway, there's plenty of solder now, and it looks like the connection is probably good.
It's highly unlikely for a brand new capacitor to be bad. In any case, the only way to test a capacitor in circuit is with an ESR meter (some multimeters might have an ESR meter function built in)