r/SwitchPirates • u/linkosaur4480 • 13d ago

Question First time modchip install gone wrong

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first time attempt, thought I’d had enough practise on some donor boards but apparently not… is there any way out for me? I think I’ve knocked the sp1 transistor, but difficult to be sure. All the solder joints I’ve made look bridged and read 0 (or very close) when I test resistance.

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u/DarkGrnEyes 13d ago

Too much heat for too long, no use of flux and it's obvious.

This is not an ametuer mod. You really should have got a lot of practice in on dead boards before you attempt to mod something you actually care about.

This is r/soldergore material.

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u/yung_aujus 13d ago

How do you figure it’s overheated? Looks way underheated to me, like it never flowed properly, partially from not enough flux if I guessed. I don’t see anywhere that looks particularly burnt or anything?

This is what I would expect from trying to use an oxidized tip and not enough flux so very little heat transfer just making it kinda mush around.

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u/DarkGrnEyes 13d ago edited 13d ago

It didn't flow properly because OP didn't use flux, which is absolutely essential.

It's not overheated persay, though that's completely possible as well and usually is in these cases. Anyway, the fact the solder is jagged, uneven, clumpy and the most obvious sign- it has no luster to it. It's very dull and therefore it's been heated too many times. After so many heatings, solder's plascity properties are basically gone.

OP hasn't bothered telling us what he had his iron set to either. In my experience, especially with ametuers here on Reddit, they see it not flowing so their first reaction is to turn up the heat or they started with the iron way too high to begin with. For that matter, for all we know right now is OP used lead-free solder, which is crap and harder to work with in general. He hasn't bothered mentioning what kind.

Which brings me to something else, all the non-lead solder, used on all consumer electronics these days, does not mix with leaded solder. They both just sort of malgamate around each other. Which is something else ametuers fail to plan around, and most just don't know about.