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May 31, 2016 • 01:35 Profile Photo Sbeehive

Hey all,

So I bought a project virtual boy to practice the solder fix on since I didn’t want my first attempt to be on my original.

Needless to say, things went wrong on my first attempt at this.

I attempted to peel back some of the laminate with a fiberglass brush at first with absolutely no luck. I used a small scalpel to peel back some of it with success, but those damn copper wires are incredibly easy to strip (I lost a few in the process, but just went above where I lost and soldered from there). I ended up using some 600 grit sandpaper to help, and with a combination of the three got it to copper in a few hours. I used a low temp Metcal iron and used a soldering wick to grab the excess. I was not happy with this first attempt.

My second attempt I followed this video:

I thought it went a lot better than the first.

Ironically enough both displays look equally terrible with scanlines when I put them in the VB. I cleaned the contacts, but still no luck. I was expecting the first one to be a lost cause, but the fact the second looks as bad is troubling.

This took me about 5 hours in all. Any suggestions on how to improve this? I’d like to salvage what I can if its possible. A few years back I saw that someone did away with the cable all together and used wires… I cannot find pictures of this anymore.

Thanks!

Reference Pic:

12 Replies
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May 31, 2016 • 04:31 Profile Photo HP Lovethrash

Hey- not bad for a first attempt! I did my first without flux or a good soldering iron, and it shows 🙂

Here are some tips I’d recommend for troubleshooting:

-sometimes just reseating the cables in the socket can fix lines that appear after soldering. The connection when you put them back in the system may not be quite right at first.

-Make sure to clean up the soldered areas after your work. If everything is secure, I drop a little 91% rubbing alcohol on the area and rub gently with a toothbrush. Don’t put too much alcohol down or it may go into the throughholes to the actual LEDs. You may consider running the tip of a pushpin down each row between the traces first to scrape up gunk that’s stuck there.

-Did you verify that there are no shorts between all the traces? You can do it the “right” way with a meter or whatever, but honestly I think it’s easier to just hold the PCB up to a bright light after cleaning. Then you can see really clearly if they’re all in place.

Good luck, let us know if you make any progress!

Also- I’ve been having better luck exposing the contacts by running a needle or pushpin semi-gently around the perimeter of the area I’m going to expose. Then, use the needle to gently pry the plastic off the traces starting from the middle of where the cable/PCB meet. Hard to explain without pictures, I’ll try to upload some to show what I mean soon…

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May 31, 2016 • 17:08 Profile Photo TheForce81

They both look repairable still, but the right one looks to be way easier than the left one. The left one has very short copper wires left on the board and that can be a bit of an issue when cleaning it up with desoldering wick.

It could be the way the cables are not completely connecting with the sockets as HP Lovethrash mentioned, though I am assuming you tried that.

If you just use the solder ball method (just burning away a bit of the plastic), do you get immediate bridges? If so, it is going to be a harder job to finish correctly, if not, it should be quite doable to solve.

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Jun 02, 2016 • 00:00 Profile Photo Sbeehive

Thanks for the advice guys. I’m going to dive back into this during the weekend and try and salvage things.

What happened on the left was I took out some freshly exposed copper wire with my fingertip by accident (it was practically perfect, so it was insanely frustrating when I did that). I could not get any abrasion method to reliably whittle the adhesive down. In hindsight, I should have been more selective. I was shocked by how long it was taking me to expose the wire.

I definitely used a bit of rubbing alcohol to clean the flux involved in the soldering, even on a cue-tip it spreads a lot faster over the PCB than I thought. The lens doesn’t seem to be open from the back, although I could be wrong. Hopefully that’s not the cause of the issue.

In the meantime, if anyone has a high resolution picture of what the finished product is supposed to look like, that would be immensely helpful.

Thanks!

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Jun 06, 2016 • 05:02 Profile Photo Sbeehive

Dove back into it today and worked on the worse of the two.

I checked everything via meter. Found a few shorts that I fixed. I tested the ends of each lead both in and out of the virtual boy and everything seemed ok. Unfortunately, I’m not really noticing a big different in the picture. In fact, oddly enough, both sides of the Virtual Boy have pictures that have large red lines every few sprites (the issue after solder fixing)… which makes me wonder if I could have damaged something when I took the console itself apart.

I’m probably over thinking it and missed a short or ten. When I gather enough sanity again I’ll take some more pictures.

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Jun 06, 2016 • 10:29 Profile Photo HP Lovethrash

My browser won’t load the pictures right now, but I think I had posted a close-up of a finished display I did in this thread:

http://www.planetvb.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?post_id=33715#forumpost33715

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Jun 06, 2016 • 14:49 Profile Photo TheForce81

You should try to use only one display, if you have a short on the wrong pair, it also transfers over to the other display, even if that one is a 100% perfect.
If it still gives you problems, I would recommend you to use desoldering wick and use it to push the traces down (using a downward motion). This will ensure the traces really press down on the board and really connect.

I hope I am clear enough for you to understand what I mean, always tough to explain how to do certain things with only words.

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Jun 06, 2016 • 15:53 Profile Photo Sbeehive

Thanks for the updates guys. Those pictures really help.

As for the displays shorting each-other that’s really interesting. Had no idea that would happen. Unfortunately, the display still looks about the same level of terrible with the other one disconnected.

I have been using a desoldering wick to push the traces down.

Going to go at this again in the next few days.

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Jun 10, 2016 • 04:48 Profile Photo Pre10der

Sorry to piggy back and not contribute but as I don’t have enough confidence in my soldering. I was wondering if there was anyone who could do the soldering service for me? YouTube video brought me here but the recommended user no longer does the service. If Im better off starting a new thread on seeking repair, then I would gladly appreciate some guidance from the senior members

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Jun 12, 2016 • 17:25 Profile Photo Sbeehive

About to take a stab at fixing the better of the two displays.

As for the first one, I have some questions:

1) Would you guys recommend peeling what’s left of the plastic off of the display and trying to solder down what’s left of the copper?

2) Does it make any sense that I’m testing no shorts between traces yet the picture still looks like garbage?

3) Is there any validity to testing the connections from the leads to the pin connector on the VB itself? When I did this everything tested out as it should, but it makes no sense that the picture is still garbage.

I get the sense that the original copper wire isn’t making contact on some of the leads. I just don’t understand how I can get a good readout via multimeter from the very bottom of the PCB to the edge connector if there’s no connectivity. My only other two working hypothesis is that I somehow damaged the ribbon cable, the pcb itself, or the VB unit.

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Jun 12, 2016 • 18:12 Profile Photo RunnerPack

Sbeehive wrote:
About to take a stab at fixing the better of the two displays.

As for the first one, I have some questions:

1) Would you guys recommend peeling what’s left of the plastic off of the display and trying to solder down what’s left of the copper?

I would only do that if you see a trace without a wire soldered to it (meaning the end of the wire is up under the plastic).

It’s possible that there is some contaminant under there shorting something out. I used to let a little isopropanol wick under there and use a popsicle stick (sanded smooth into a kind of chisel tip) as a scraper/squeegee to try to squeeze stuff out from under it.

2) Does it make any sense that I’m testing no shorts between traces yet the picture still looks like garbage?

Only if there are certain wires not making contact with the board (i.e. not soldered)

3) Is there any validity to testing the connections from the leads to the pin connector on the VB itself? When I did this everything tested out as it should, but it makes no sense that the picture is still garbage.

By “leads” do you mean the traces on the display PCB itself?

If every trace on the PCB connects to its corresponding pin on the VB mainboard, and only that pin, the picture should be perfect.

You should also make sure they’re making good contact with the socket. Here’s a post about it.

I get the sense that the original copper wire isn’t making contact on some of the leads. I just don’t understand how I can get a good readout via multimeter from the very bottom of the PCB to the edge connector if there’s no connectivity. My only other two working hypothesis is that I somehow damaged the ribbon cable, the pcb itself, or the VB unit.

It is possible that a crease caused by a failed strain-relief has caused one or more wires to break, due to work-hardening of the copper. The heat of the iron and the surface-tension of the solder usually cause the broken ends to get pulled out from under the plastic, but not always.

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Jun 13, 2016 • 17:00 Profile Photo HP Lovethrash

Did you check the end of the ribbon cable that goes into the VB socket? Sometimes those leads get bent down, especially if they have been plugged and unplugged a bunch of times. That happened to me in a couple of systems where the lead had bent in a way that it was making a short in the socket.

Can you post pictures of the system’s displays while running a game to show the actual issue?

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Jun 27, 2016 • 03:04 Profile Photo Sbeehive

Hey guys, sorry for the radio silence on my end.

Tried a bunch of the suggestions -> cleaned up things a bit. Fixed some shorts. Getting closer but still not good enough.

Here is where I am at as far as the better of the two:

Here is what the screen looks like:

I cleaned it well with isopropyl alcohol but I didn’t try the toothpick and alcohol method just yet. I don’t like the way some of the copper looks towards the left of the PCB. It looks like it is shorting but according to my meter its not. Despite looking much cleaner the picture doesn’t look all that better than the other PCB (it is hard to see, but there are lines going through the picture horizontally). The end of the cable seems sound when it plugs into the connector (no copper is folding up in the wrong direction).

 

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