If you put your soldering iron straight into rosin it will evaporate quickly from the tip, instead of place the desoldering wick in rosin and place the soldering iron top of it. It will absorb the rosin after that you can use for desoldering it will make the desoldering job easier.😊
There's actually different models of the GameCube controller, specifically different in the stickbox. Later revisions used the Type 3 box, which is also the best one out of the three. These ones are sadly only really found in the Wii Pro controller or the Wii Classic controller. The one in the video looks like either a type 1 or type 2. Edit: 7:51 oh well, looks like I was too early
Hi, I’ve serviced a lot of GameCube controllers and the non interchangeable stick boxes are I believe specifically the T3 ones, which are basically all plastic. You actually are able to use those on older boards, you just have to melt down the two white plastic bits very carefully with the soldering iron, or just sand them down with sanding paper. I did this with a T3 stick box from a Wii Classic Controller and it works so well now. Hope this helps anyone hoping to do this! Just don’t lift any pads, it’s a bad adrenaline rush.
I've noticed that white PCBs (or PCBs where the silk screen covers most of the board) are pretty common when translucent shells are likely to be involved. Given when the GameCube released it makes sense that they would consider translucent shells as a potential option (though in the end I don't believe there were ever any stock controllers with translucent shells for the GameCube)
Good ass video! Love seeing a good story behind a repair. Love seeing people try new repairs and push their comfort zones to learn about new categories of repair. Keep it up man!
Why do you use a solder wick from the middle? Use the correct soldering iron tip. Add flux or new solder to the old joints before desoldering. Use flux with the solder wick. Clean the board before resoldering the components. Use flux again when soldering. Clean it at the end again.
Nintendo had a thing for white PCBs back with the GBC and GBA. I assume you noticed the rather funny "engineering" bit nintendo did with the analog stick's skirt that touches the PCB when tilted, a very strategically made cut to accommodate the support solderjoint of the left trigger slider.
Some tips with desoldering the joysticks incoming. For whoever reads this. First, add some flux and some fresh solder to the joystick. The fresh solder helps the old solder flow easier. Use the tip of your wick and cut it off as it gets filled up. Put the flux on your wick, then press the side of the tip of the iron to the wick. Or better yet, get a C3 or a C4 tip. The ST-J Bent tip for your iron should sit with the bend down and your tip shouldn't poke holes through your wick. Use the side of the tip, not the tip tip of your tip. Putting the tip of your iron doesn't do what you think it is doing. Get some liquid flux, or a little brush that you can use to apply the solder right onto the board. The flux helps everything flow, so you want to apply a decent amount. Just don't go overboard with it. Clean everything with IPA - Isopropyl Alcohol (Rubbing Alcohol), the higher the percent the better, and Q-Tips. Before you desolder, after you desolder and before you resolder, and after as well. You want a clean metal surface for the solder to bond to. Flux helps with that as well, but you need it clean. Get a fan to suck the fumes away from you, It doesn't have to be a big one, but flux fumes aren't good for you. Excellent job man! I love seeing this stuff get repaired rather than thrown out. There are some great videos on YT about soldering. There's and old one for NASA that is fantastic. It's called "Above and Beyond" on PeriscopeFilm YT channel.
3:30 I got an electric all-in-one solder sucker. When using it, you don't need a soldering iron or a solder wick to remover through hole components, just some flux and voilà ✨️
the stick boxes being swappable make sense! the Wii controllers were made first on GameCube hardware as prototypes and they used a lot of existing parts from the GameCube and the GBA SP. neither stick box has a click button and the only difference between the actual sticks is that the nunchuk has less grip and is taller than the GameCube one
I think microsoldering or soldering in general ist pretty easy. I am now 13 and began soldering when I was 12 on my old Switch that was defective. I learned it by myself. I love your Videos and I belive in you. Greetings from Austria 🇦🇹
Soldering is fairly easy so long as you have a decently steady hand but there are proper techniques to it you have to learn... He failed to do a number of them here. You flux the wick not the tip of the soldering iron for one. Plenty of rosin while slightly messy will make things cleaner in the end. Also if you are just learning you started with something rather hard (well maybe depending on the fix on the switch) but I started soldering at 6 just taking apart my RC cars and eventually learning to do it to fix my PC (Welcome to 80's tech where capacitors blew)
I knew the stick on the gamecube looked definitely similar to the Nunchuk when i swapped my Gamecube Controller with a third party shell. Since i experienced myself with the Nunchuck and really recognize the controller part inside. (yes it does work swapping a third party shell with the OEM GCN controller but you need to do some bit sanding, also use cutting wire to cut off the plastic part of the rumble shell and sometimes maybe few pipe, because it will push the board.)
Awesome job. Didn't realize they were the same part either. Highly recomend you getting, or building a fume extractor though. Burning flux fumes is incredibly bad for your health. They are simple devices that can be made quiet and don't cost much.
One tip i will give you my friend to make de-solder process easier first put a bit of fresh solder on each solder joint and put some flux to the solder wick braid, the sucker or soldapullt is not a bad tool at all, just need a little practice to become good using it and will help you to save a huge length of solder wick braid if you use it and then use the wick, long ago I had years of experience during the vacuum tube and the transistor age, when we had to make our own flux, etching chemicals for making pcbs, liquid cold thinning and even solder mask heat resistant paint (almost 40yrs ago) and sorry if my english no so good amigo.
They are interchangeable because Nintendo does this all the time. They always use their older hardware as much as they can in their newer console. It's apart of their philosophy.
I’m no expert in this, but can’t it be interchanged for some new joystick? A newer one with non stick drift tech or a Hall effect stick etc? So it would last longer?
Use Amtech flux next time. You can get it from Northridge Fix. They ship from Cali and you don't even need to clean them off. It also doesn't leave that awful brownish red residue. I would highly recommend you try it out next time and not go by the cheap rosin or flux.
Wouldn’t it have been better to swap the potentiometers on the GameCube controller instead of taking the nunchuck one? The right stick is usually underused and the loose stick is perfect for smash attacks since people normally flick it.
I tried to repair xbox one controller, but replaced unit was way off center. And no, anti drift board doesn't fix it, it's still way of, no matter how i twisted resistor adjustments
It's still the same. some use the T1 T2 T3 like gamecube. (without micro switch in other controllers they use the common RKJX thumb pointer/stick amd they are still the same for every analoge controller ... I've been fixing these since PS1....😅 The best quality ones are used by Microsoft in their controllers. i should know who provides microsoft with these RKJXV & RKJXP pointers. the PS joustick drift and fail alot.... used to buy them in sets and change them. . there are other types of these analoge pointers with micro switches. like the ones used in PSP (rkjxu & rkjxs) and Nintendo Switch joycons (rkjxy). still though . the rkjxv/rkjxp are the best.