I love the classical music and the start Vince. And the video I really enjoyed it.

I've been watching your vids for about that year and a half time and can say with certainty that your skills are so much more refined now! Been great to watch the journey. Well done! I bet you've inspired many to keep at it

Hey Vince, when you using wick, put flux on place you wicking, it makes this process 100 times easier. Flux helps to reduce melting point of solder oxide layers + it's helps to create faster bound between wick and solder, same as in regular soldering.

Loving the intro music. I’ve got so addicted to this channel I’ve been repairing all sorts of gadgetry from around the house. New tools and electronic components delivered regularly. I now feel I am on the downward slope heading towards buying tat off ebay. I’d forgotten how much fun it was so a big thank you to My Mate Vince for reigniting my enthusiasm for getting stuff working again.

Good video man👍, I find it strangely relaxing watching you examine & fix stuff, lol.

Hi Vince. Thanks for the very helpful and informative videos. I really enjoy watching and learning from you. Keep up the good work.

Vince. You are an inspiration. Your dedication to fixing these items is awesome and I like best that even if you do fix or break something you still try to diagnose what was wrong in the first place. I try to fix literally anything that breaks around the house now because of you, your building confidence with harder tasks has inspired me to do the same. There are projects that i would not have attempted before i found you. Thank you.

I recently soldered a led christmas tree circuit board kit and loved every minute of it and am planning to get some more kits to solder. Seeing you solder made me want to get back into soldering again. Used to do it as a job nany years ago.

I watch your videos before I got to sleep and honestly I find them very interesting

Seeing Vince get excited with an improvised solution to a pointed tip issue: NOOOOOOICE

Excellent Vince! Less solder under the centre part is always a good idea! Love the bending of the iron tip =D Glad you went with chip quik flux! It's fantastic stuff (as I keep saying to people lol). All you need now is to find a source for those replacement connectors! They are hell to deal with when the flaps come off on things like that =/

How did I miss this one? Oh well, more great Vince content to watch whilst waiting for the next update :)

Thanks for the revisit Vince. Another win and job well done.

Yes! Just in time. Great stuff, Vince.

Good to see you getting more and more confident and more like a Pro :)

After soldering, leave the solder on the iron to shield the tip from oxidizing. Clean the tip when you are ready to solder again and it will be nicely tinned.

glad you got it fixed I found that if haveing a tough job putting it down and comeing back to it works out best nice one.

Yes, new My Mate Vince video.

I once put one of these grey clips on by just laying it on top of the connector and pushing it down.

Congratulations on another successful repair. Nintendo has stopped claiming videos as of a few months ago, so you don't have to worry about showing gameplay anymore. They ended their partner program as well, so people are free to monetize gameplay videos of Nintendo games now.

Watching your videos have led me to buy a Xbox, PS3, Wii, Wii U and a PSP.

Not sure how this slipped past me.... Keep up the good work fella!

Yeah, having the same problem with my friend's Wii U Gamepad, gonna have to order a new motherboard cause the U18 chip was sold out on the only site that was selling it. Great video as always Vince 👍

Don't be afraid to use flux on the braid, Vince! It works a treat!

I actually enjoyed the WiiU a friend of mine when I was stationed in South Korea had one with ZombieU. So much damn fun playing that game.

WiiU is fantastic but arrived a tad too late but an obvious stepping stone to the switch and the library is good considering standout titles have been ported to the switch and currently shops like cex are selling wiiU titles at very reasonable prices and most are well worth picking up

Thanks for this and all the viddy vids you do. Have you ever considered using solder paste? A lot of SMD work goes a lot easier with the paste.

bro i saw this channel like 2 years ago with almost 100k now u have 500k

Leaded solder is the only kind to use. I work for the DOD in the US and we did extensive study on solder and discovered high failure rates from non leaded solder which developed ‘whiskers’ over time and bridged contacts. We now fluoroscope all circuit boards and replace all non leaded solder connections. Non leaded solder is no longer used in military equipment.

Hi Vince. In my very cheap USB Microscope I screw the lens fully and it's add me like 30 cm of work area! Video about upgrade is called "2MP USB Digital Microscope {follow up distance adjustment}" and it's really work, maybe your build is similar so you can do that also. If you get some focus adjustment knob turn it on maximum - when the lens is all the way down to the table ( in my case lens come out off the body ) - then gently try to screw it - if it's turn, that mean that you got thread, so try to screw it all the way in. Lens looks like black plastic cone inside that transparent cover around LED lights. Hope it will help you :)

I love that excited "yes!!" that Vince let's out on a win! Know that feeling well.

yet another brilliant fix vince, since i started watching you, youve inspired me to have a go at fixing faults on things. so keep up the good work and thank you for the awesome content

I got one of those tip cleaners in black, best thing ever.

Very good video. I had similar experiences kid you I changed the main board.

FINALLY!... A youtube site ahead of the curve, that realizes marching band music is going to be the next big thing...too cool!

Hey Vince would love to know what heat gun you use in your videos! Much obliged.

The us gamepad has a different message for could not to connect to Wii U console below at what to do to pair it

Here we march again..!! Region locked hard- or software is such a stupid idea... thanks god that the Switch is region free - Nintendo finally got it.

thanks to your videos i am going to attempt a soldering repair on my car stereo myself. just soldering in some new bulbs but will be satisfying and hopefully stop my ocd on the fact that they dont work lol.

Good to know the chipquik tacky gel flux is good! I was disappointed with their liquid flux. For gel/paste flux I've always used the MG Chemicals 8341 that they sell on Amazon in the US, but I don't know if you can buy it as easily overseas.

Oh sorry for the comment spam, but something to consider: On rare occasions I've actually tinned the pad on the bottom of the chip itself rather than the pad on the board. It's a pain though so I only do that when it's really being uncooperative. I think this way the solder will go molten quicker since it's only thermally attached to the chip which has much less thermal mass. It might also make it easier to sit on the board sometimes.

Hi there where did you acquire the uk motherboard, thanks and great video 👍

Great video Vince. I knew you could do it. You should join a Rossmann board repair stream sometime and chat with us. I'm sure Louis would love to have you in a stream sometime. Great community. Another channel you may also want to check out is Paul Daniels. He also does a lot of repair. HE is also the person who wrote the Flexbv software that the repair community uses. Once again great video and keep them coming please!

Congrats on the fix and tip. The 'copper wool' is much better than the wet sponge pad.

Hi Vince, loving the videos as ever and you've actually inspired me to get some old broken stuff back up and running. List so far is a Game Gear Cap replacement, Original Gameboy Screen Replacement/Mod and an Gameboy Advance SP IPS screen mod. I'm not selling or anything just more of a hobby. Wondered mate would it at all be possible for you to send me some recommendations of kit to get me started eg soldering iron, hot air station, work mat, magnifying glass, flux etc. Now that you've been doing these for a while I'm sure you're up on the best gear for the job! You've probably not got a tonne of spare time on your hands but any help/advise would be greatly appreciated! Keep up the good work pal!

On typical integrated circuits, the exposed pad is usually ground, but on power components like transistors it is often the only contact for one of the power terminals, which isn't necessarily ground! We used an "ideal diode" component on one of our boards and if I remember correctly the exposed pad was actually the power in , and the ground connection was just through the pins on the side.

I loved Wii U! Hope for both Zelda games for Switch!

Hi mate well done just to let you know about 12 months ago Nintendo changed there copyright infringement settings and now you can show gameplay and music from them online without the worry about being claimed anyway more to the point well done on the fix

Hey good work vince

Nice one Vince 👍

Great revisit, in the end there were some 'beginner's mistakes". Now everything works fine thanks to your new knowledge. I was looking for some flux from Amazon, (i couldn't find the real Amtech Flux)and i have found this CHIPQUIK (10cc version for 13 euros here in Italy). After this video i will buy it, thanks for your review. P.S: It's amazing to see this kind of fix. I have studied a lot of electronics theory at university but i've never seen the practise part of it. My adventure of fixing stuff starts now! Thanks!

Vince would you ever do a video on what you would need to do repairs, list a list of things you use such a soldering iron and solder and where you buy from

I was struggling with the same plastic hinges on 3DS and 2DS but found a way to get them back. So what I do, I lift the contacts up from the motherboard and push the plastic in a way that would look like it is fully open. So those clipping parts first. After you close it, contacts will bend down and that is it. 4 test - all successful.

Vince, one more thing to consider about flux is if it glows in UV. It allows you to easily check if you cleaned all flux or not. Also, sometimes you can flash UV light at a board and see if it was touched by anyone before you and if yes, then where exactly. It is not a 100% guarantee (some fluxes do not glow in UV, some people clean flux well) but it takes only a few seconds and does nothing wrong while can provide you with useful info. Obviously, it is not a super important thing, but a nice thing to have in my opinion.

Solder wick/braid does come with some flux on it but I find it's never enough and I want to add more. I've also heard one person recommend having a little bit of solder on your iron tip so that it makes better thermal contact with the braid--also, touching your iron tip to the solder and the braid instead of putting the braid in between the iron tip and the solder. Still haven't mastered solder wick though, I often find myself struggling to use it successfully.

I'm excited if you want to work on more wii u consoles. Such a overlooked system.

I really enjoyed my WiiU

Hi Vince, first of all: Great video as always, love your british accent 🗣! I‘ve got a question: you‘re using some kind of small (grey?) notebook (or convertible?) in your videos, showing how much you paid for your „trying to fix“ items. I‘d like to know which brand/model it is?! Thank you and keep on fixing! 👍🏻 greetings from 🇩🇪

Thats awesome u found the problem

What microscope are you using, been looking to get one myself, cheers

Hello there , hi Vince , greetings... Nice job with a bit strange tablet like console GamePad....interesting peace of tech

Can you put the link to the first repair video of this pls

Vince upload? Excited to see how you solve this one

Sets chip* Let me just keep tapping it. Me: 🤦‍♀️ You gotta learn when to stop Mate. 😞

I replaced the motherboard in my gamepad, but when resembled, the game pad still does not charge and light does not come on. The only part I couldn't reconnect were the speakers. The original board had them soldered and new board had the connectors. Do the speakers need to be plugged in to finish circuit? Or could it be another problem such as the battery or the ac adapter?

I just realised vince... you have the same screw driver kit i got for Christmas but mines blue!

Hi what do you search for, or where can you order a uk motherboard from?

Hey Vince ! Would you be so kind and will tell me which soldering station and hot air gun you are currently using ? Greetings from Austria.

Thanks, love you :P

A few sheets of wet kitchen roll folded flat and wring it out so it's not dripping with water. (Home made solder iron cleaner) glass blowers use same principle to mould glass Don't press down on chips when placing on boards. If you find you're having to do that then you've far too much solder on the ground plane to make contact around the chip. Before taking chips off the board place a bead of leaded solder around the chip Ideally the board should be heated before desoldering/reflowing. Doesn't have to be baking hot just enough to minimise flex and damage

Where can I buy a UK region board because I can only seem to find US region boards online?

the copper will dissolve through the scratches. It will work, for a while. But it will dissolve. The plating is the only thing keeps tips from dissolving.

I had guessed that chip had an exposed pad on the bottom by the difficulty you were having. For chips with contacts on the bottom I have so far gotten the best results by using a nozzle that's close to the size of the chip (which it looks like you did) and just pointing it straight down on the chip and holding it as close as I can without touching. By the time you get the solder on the exposed pad to flow, the leads will likely have melted as well. Ideally you want to concentrate your heat on the leads, but given the choice, it's definitely better to heat the chip than the board. Worst case you overheat the one chip instead of the board and all of the components nearby. And with an exposed pad or BGA/LGA chips, you really don't have a choice as the solder joints are inaccessible. Chip packages are designed to withstand soldering temperatures and you will melt the solder well before the chip heats up to a dangerous level, as that black epoxy they're made of is not a very good heat conductor so the heat doesn't easily reach the actual chip inside. If you want to get really fancy you can get hot air nozzles that are shaped to direct air at the leads of a specific chip package type, but I've never had the luxury of using one and I've gotten by without just fine. Probably better for high-volume work though. Also be aware that with a big exposed pad like that on the bottom, the surface tension will make it difficult to lift the chip up as you would with a normal QFP or SOIC, you will likely have to twist or slide it. This can be problematic when there are other components nearby as you might knock them out of place. I've so far mostly worked with a particular SOIC chip with an exposed pad, and I've found I can grab the sides with a pair of broad tweezers, give it a little twist back and forth and lift it up.

Nice Video. Sometimes you need to make your own tool so it can make it easier to work.

When soldering a chip with an exposed pad on I find it quite difficult to do the whole thing at once with hot air reliably. I've got the video paused but maybe your luck is better than mine :) I usually tin only the exposed pad, use hot air to flow that and then go in with the iron to solder the leads on the outside. People do say you can do the whole thing at once, though, so I might just be bad at it. Seems like this would be a great candidate for solder paste though!

well done !!! :) :) excellent !!!

Hello, I have a Wii U Gamepad that when I go to turn it on, the blue light comes on for a second and then fades out. No video ever shows up on the screen. Do you know what is the likely cause? What steps would you take to troubleshoot that? Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.

I love the WiiU, especially with custom firmware - best gamecube emulator and even better if you use the switch GC adapter and GC controllers!

The NOR flash probably contains the bootloader. It could be that one chip has a newer version of the bootloader than the other and the mismatch between the bootloader and main software works in one direction but not the other (e.g. it's backward compatible but not forward compatible or vice-versa). In general Serial NOR Flash is most commonly used to store firmware for chips (including bootloaders for CPUs, the BIOS/EFI on PCs etc) and configuration for FPGAs, so if you find one that's most likely what it's being used for, especially if it's SPI (as opposed to I2C).

29:50 WEiLL, HELLOW THERE CAP'N HOOK.! :'D (y)

Tuve que poner los subtitulos en español, muchas gracias por hacer el video, supongo que mi GamePad tiene el problema en el Chip u18 tambien, no carga y tampoco enciende aunque la bateria tenga carga pero supongo que esto paso por que yo le conecte un cable con mayor voltaje y amperaje del que entregaba el cargador AC y probablemente arruine el Chip u18 ya que antes cargaba pero no completamente y tampoco se mantenia cuando estaba conectada (se descargaba aunque estuviese conectada y el LED indicaba que se desconectaba y conectaba, un falso contacto por eso puse un cable directo). Ahora tengo que comprar un placa de repuesto para hacer el cambio por que esta consola es de mi hermano menor lol. De nuevo el video muy genial muy bien explicado y me ayudo mucho.

Would a dab of hot glue perhaps hold the ribbon cable in? It wouldn't necessarily be permanent, but it would hold the cable in it's place. Just a thought!

Awsome work! This is my favorit console (have no switch) but a ps4. Do anny one have anny sugestion how to clean a wiiU screen? Is it ipa or just soapy water?

Hi Vince it would be really interesting if you could get something gas powered and try to fix something like Mustie1 (not eccentrically cars or motorcycles).

do you have trouble getting leaded solder in the UK because of RoHS?

hey vince here's a tip that works great for me, when cleaning up flux on a board i use acetone then ipa

Do you know how to use joy-cons on xbox one

OMG VINCE, I had the same exact problem with my 3ds xl, the one at the end with that god damn grey clip. Ive broken through 5 of them trying to reattach them, i thought i was incompetent, i was so excited to see how you would do it but alas it seems to be a spawn of devil himself XD hahaha, in the future if you figure out a best solution for it please share it, and i had to do it without a microscope XD

Soldering iron tips are generally plated, and if the plating is compromised, the tip won't last as long. You probably cracked the plating by bending the tip like that, but if it's a cheap tip and you don't mind it maybe not lasting as long, then it's no problem.

I don't think you have to worry about Copyright claims anymore. I sometimes do gameplay videos and a few years ago they were all claimed, but the claims have been lifted since Nintendo has changed their ways to make it easier for people to release videos about their games.

I recommend solderpaste and heatgun for this kind of work :-)

Had to stop and go back and watch the other 2 videos

Great one! Vince, i have a new 3ds xl with a strange charge issue where it has to have the charger plugged in and shuts off if you remove it possible bad ic chip. Im selling it and figured you may want to make a video of it. Selling, so i dont need it back. Would you be interested in it for a video?

normaly a multilayer pcb has some where in the corner a number and on the back a higher number that gives you the layers

i don't think Nintendo is claiming videos anymore. yes, they did that a lot until somewhere last year (dont know when exactly), but what they said basically is that if you play their games and have commentary over the game your video will not be claimed

quería preguntarte si has reparado o has topado con el fallo de la Wii U cuando el gamepad ya no carga, yo desarmé mi control(gamepad) , primero la batería, la abrí y la pila me marca 4vcd, pero en el conector que llega a la pila al medir entre los 4 pines no hay voltaje que llega del cargador, sea por el puerto en la parte superior del gamepad o sea por la base de carga, el cargador es original y entrega los 5.25vcd correctos,llegan dentro de la consola en varios circuitos,pero al conector donde se conecta la pila se supone que entre al menos 2 de ellos debería aparecer el voltaje que llega del cargador y no es así, no hay voltaje, de igual forma al desconectar el conector de la batería entre ellos(son 4 cables) no aparece ningún voltaje al abrir la pila o su carcaza(viene bien sellada) la bateria por dentro, midiendo directo en sus polos marca el voltaje correcto, está cargada, de allá pasa a una tarjetita me imagino de control o regulación de la carga(hay un micro de los que están como sellados) y bueno, de alla llegan los 4 cables q van a la consola a traves del conector,alli en esos cables no hay presencia de voltaje, en la pila sí, como 3.5vcd, bueno mi principal duda es cómo se alimenta este gamepad? hay una especie de conmutacion desde que esta conectada la bateria para que active le circuito y deje pasar el voltaje de la batería al gamepad? debería de haber presencia de voltaje en el conector o los pines donde se conecta la bateria a la gamepad? ya llevo varios días con este problema y no sé si en definitiva la gamepad ya no se puede arreglar(nota que el led de carga nunca ha vuelto a encender aún con el voltaje alimentando sea a la base o al puerto). Te agradezco de antemano si tienes alguna ayuda al respecto.Saludos.

Great vid but too much to do for someone without the tools, experience or extra motherboards to swap pieces out. It will cost more than just a replacement I think. Guess I’ll just buy a new game pad :( I believe mine has a bad u18 chip too

Why do device boot times feel like they treble with first boot after a fix? :o)

im sitting here just saying to myself - TURN THE BLOODY HEAT UP VINCE - lol

I have a question my has no charge but a wireless charger works what is the problem?