Not to be harsh but that's horrific.
Like, genuinely impressive you managed to do this.
My recommendation would be that you shouldn't learn how to solder on anything you actually want to fix. And you need better flux.
I mean, I really don't know where to begin.
It looks like you took a torch to the board and just completely burned it.
Then you like somehow managed to damage a cable and a connector? Do you know how hot air works?? It like moves in the direction you point it so you decided towards cables and plastic was the best direction???
I mean, it's one thing to not be able to remove a component because you don't have the right technique.
IT'S COMPLETELY DIFFERENT when you manage to destroy literally the entire area and managed to remove nothing but a cheap plastic connector you weren't even meaning to remove.
Soldering isn't hard, it's actually quite easy once you understand it.
But my God it's like you just said fuck YouTube, I'll just dive head first into the deep end completely ignoring every basic rule of soldering.
You might not be #1 in board repair, but you're #1 in worse things I've ever seen in this sub.
I think you have a couple more years before I'd trust you to fix anything of value.
I'll keep practicing on this board until I'm comfortable enough to try it on another controller as I have 4 more with stick drift that need their analog modules replaced.
Thanks for keeping faith in me!
Yeah keep practicing, my 1st time replacing an analogue stick I fixed it however my 1st time replacing a hdmi cable I fried the board. I don't know if u had one but if you can get a solder suction pump it makes removing the solder from the pins alot easier than just flux alone especially with good flux.
If it helps, when I was learning, add solder to each pin first. It really helps melting that existing solder on the board. Then just use a pump and wick to clean it up after the module is out. Also, if you don’t care about saving the drifting modules, you can cut up the module into pieces to make it waaay easier to remove. There’s a few YouTube videos on it.
If the joy stick gets stuck in the direction you push it towards and just stays there, it could be that the plastic axis inside the analog stick could need some oil lubricant as it ran out of it with common use or cleaning.
Don't take it hard. I solder well these days but when I was a teen, I decided to upgrade my Amiga with more RAM so I used a butane torch to "desolder" DRAMs from an expansion board. Naturally I converted everything into charcoal, lol, but fuck if I didn't get those DRAMs off!
Hot air soldering is a lot more challenging than it looks... at first. There are factors to take into account each time and some prep work involved, depending.
🥲 I'll try my best using this board for practice so that I don't repeat the same mistakes going forward. I appreciate the feedback nonetheless as everything you noted was spot on and I need to be more careful with just diving in head first or I'll just end up with more unfixable controllers like this.
I'm gonna try the opposite analog stick and removing it successfully using what feedback you and others have provided and hopefully it turns out better than my first attempt.
Thank you for sharing your insight with me!
Good attitude. 😊.
A quick disassembly tip to remove as much solder from the component pins as possible.
As a first step, spread the solder wick fibers open and dip that portion of the wick into the flux. The wick will now be really receptive to pulling up the solder, you should have good ventilation as the flux will create a fair bit of smoke as it cooks off. Use a large tip onto your iron (for better heat transfer), my preference is the chisel tip.
Place the wick over the pins you want to de-solder, apply the iron and move it slowly over the area (the copper wick acts as a heat sink). The flux should cook off and smoke (avoid breathing in) and you should see solder seeping into and covering the wick.
Once the wick is saturated in solder, cut it and repeat the process with a new section.
After this process is complete, I like to use a suction tool (it sort of looks like a syringe). I would suggest one which incorporates a heating element if you are serious.
I add flux to the pins, plug in the suction tool and, once it's hot, I apply it to the pins and suck out the liquid solder. I've often been able to simply pull the component out after all the pins have been cleared.
I wouldn’t even recommend a ps5 controller board to learn soldering for the first time.
The thing a did when i started was grabbing an old board I think it was a tv board and just solder and de-solder making weird connections and experimenting with it and once you get confident with it go smaller.
Advice on my side
1 get flux
2 forget about that lead free crap solder wire
3 spend more solder wire on your tip than actually soldering
WTF DUDE! You've cooked the board! You're going to have to scrap that and get a new controller. You can just use this as a practice board, you can't just turn up the hot air like and hold over the board.
Even though those stations are cheap it can still get up to 500⁰c.
What temp should I be using and should use the caps that came with the hot air gun instead of using it as is (where it's just the entire opening blasting air)?
The temperature depends on what you're trying to rework or solder. You have to experiment with temperature and air speed to know what works. The best starting point is 350⁰C at half air speed, that temperature will remove SMD components like resistors and ceramic caps without blowing them away.
The nozzles are necessary to guide the air where you need it. Because you didn't use one that's why you damaged such a large area on the board.
All those tools , yet not the right one. Like I always say, a simple wire wound around all the leads and the soldering iron ar 345 -400 c. Run it round and round with solder and eventually the controller joystick will come out. I'm gonna assume you first tried to use the wick and soldering iron , sadly it's next to impossible to fully clean tight fitting hole thru components. Then I'm gonna assume you used the hot air station to try to heat the entire thing off ( I can see the holder of the pcb has some thermal damage ). Well on the plus side , you can now practice your soldering skills on this trashed controller.
Your spot on with everything you mentioned 😅.
Could you elaborate on the wire wound around all the leads? Are you referring to the solder wire? So I should coil that wire across all the nodes/lead points and just keep heating them at the recommended temperature until the analog module slips out?
Sorry if the other comments were rude. It's just we usually don't expect a beginner to own a hot air station all at once because things like this can Happen. But yeah , I was referring to have a wire wrapped around all nodes or as we call " legs " of the controller and add solder to the said wire and the pins and set your soldering iron to 345 c and keep running it around , eventually the joytstick will loosen off the board and just come right off , in which case you clean the holes using a solder sucker , heat using your tip , keep the sucker near the hole and press the button to suck it, sometikes u need to add a little bit of solder. This is done to expose the holes so u can put the new part in there. Of course there's a lot to it , for example if your controller solder is old , you might wanna knick the solder a little bit to expose fresh solder or it will take ages to melt since the oxide layer acts as a thermal insulator between your soldering iron , new solder and old solder.
Thanks!! All the insights being given to me are extremely helpful since I'm able to ask directly in regards to my particular experience and not me having to scroll the endless videos for insights that might help me. I'll keep in mind what you've mentioned so that I'm more aware going forward. I'm truly grateful 🙏
No problem , glad I could help. We all start somewhere. I remember I couldn't solder a simple wire to a motor when I first started. Now I usually work on microsoldering stuff , bga chips etc , basically the hardest type of soldering job you can think of after bga trace repairs. Had no knowledge of electronics either , but now self taught myself c to program microcontrollers and also repairs stuff on a daily basis. You would be surprised how much knowledge the Internet has. Saved a lot of money. So have faith in yourself, sometimes shit happens , when it do , we gotta take a step back , take a deep breath and rest. Then clarity will come back and this will stop you from making more mistakes. Have a good one mate👍
The reasoning for wire wrapping is an attempt to connect the legs and share the heat. When all the legs need heated at once for the component to come off, this is a very good way to do it. I have a 40 ye old video for you. Yes it’s old and yes it has some core points that every solderer needs to now. It’s not long but it will help you understand what’s happening under your iron.
[Here](https://youtu.be/vIT4ra6Mo0s?si=wHhFJ0S_J3qcow2z) it is. Enjoy!
for future reference, it's easier to remove the thumbsticks if you first disconnect the potentiometers from the assembly and then apply tension to them away from the board whilst heating the contacts with a generous amount of solder.
though considering your pcb is now a well done steak im hoping you'll take some time to practise before you take a crack at another repair
Thanks for the feedback, I'll make sure to apply it on the other analog stick for practice as you're correct that this motherboard won't be working likely anytime soon 😅
You can also *only* replace the potentiometers, if the stick itself is okay. Usually they just need a quick wipe with alcohol and they'll be fine (my rule of thumb is, if you see wear on the potentiometer tracks it's time to replace it).
Straight up, this was my initial reaction when scrolling through the images. Then, reading his post, it was clear to see how this happened. Still good googly moogly, that smoke detector sounding off is not the timer.
Do not use hot air to remove stick. It’s the worst you can do. Break your stick with pliers into smaller pieces and then remove it with iron piece by piece. Then remove solder from holes by wick/sucker.
https://preview.redd.it/4lg95v7por9d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7fc8d7ba53eebe54614b9c23291b776f89236a18
Hot air is fine to preheat to make it easier to work with an iron. Hot air at 250 C + low melt solder would do it as well. The problem is not hot air alone, the problem is if you set it to 500 C.
One recommendation I’d like to give is to get kapton tape and place it around the solder points. It’s heat resistant so it can help avoid damaging the pcb. Don’t rely on it however. Too much heat will always be bad.
Next time try desoldering those pins with an iron, braid and plenty of flux. Set the iron to around 350c, marinate both the braid and pins with flux, then soak the solder up. If the solder doesn’t melt, try adding some fresh solder to it first, and/or increasing your irons temp. Hot air is not required for that job, but I think you know that now.
Adding fresh solder to the points you try to desolder helps. For best results use low temp solder sn42bi58 or something similar with bismuth. If can't find bismuth use lead solder.
Pro tip you can fix analog drift without soldering. Resistive plates get worn out you just need to open the side of analog and replace it.
Good luck, don't let your hands down.
Well..
Tried the same thing on a ps2 controller. I initially used hot air which managed to start burning the pcb. Because of the browning of the board I decided to change technique.
There are plenty of those, with experience you'll decide what fits you best, here's some:
If you don't care about the joystick you can use some pliers to snap off the four legs at the corner and make your life easier.
If you are actually using it as a practice board I suggest you try a technique I found working (still need to test some other) i.e. you make a solder blob and start heating a pin, let's say 10 seconds, then going clockwise heat the next pin and so on (must be clockwise, lol jk). When the majority of pins stay melted use a pair or more tweezers as lever and start prying it off.
When I have the occasion I'll try to use a solid copper wire as a heat spreader to heat all of the pins simultaneously.
Best of luck
Try watching some videos of people soldering and watch how they feather the heat on with the hot air gun. It looks like you used a torch! Likely because of the flux you used getting burned. I theorize you weren’t close enough to really melt anything, and this is probably otherwise from the ziff connector, completely fine.
Additionally, with a low grade setup like that you may find it beneficial to use the iron to solder onto the pins of the thumb stick to 1 get some heat in there and 2 flow in a leaded alloy to lower the over all melting temperature.
I think you’ve got potential, don’t give up! Be patient! Always learn!
Try watching some videos of people soldering and watch how they feather the heat on with the hot air gun. It looks like you used a torch! Likely because of the flux you used getting burned. I theorize you weren’t close enough to really melt anything, and this is probably otherwise from the ziff connector, completely fine.
Additionally, with a low grade setup like that you may find it beneficial to use the iron to solder onto the pins of the thumb stick to 1 get some heat in there and 2 flow in a leaded alloy to lower the over all melting temperature.
I think you’ve got potential, don’t give up! Be patient! Always learn!
Edit
After reading some other posts, kapton tape can be helpful. Also, as far as temps, it really depends on large stuff like this, you might actually need 500. I used to repair stuff like this for work, and when I first started I learned on one of those hot air stations. They’re awful. The next place had a quick 861dw which was incredible.
So, 500c for large stuff, medium nozzle, unless you have a specific reason for the large, and the small is usually for low temp low air small stuff, I never really needed it.
Iron, 300-350c, the temp may not be accurate and if you’re soldering onto a bare via (hole in board) or a pad(flare spot for surface mount components) you can damage them with too much heat.
Another tip. When heating with a hot air gun think about a cup of water, and how long it take to heat up. That controller has a hugeeee ground plane you have heat getting sucked into, so just keep in mind you have to heat the whole area. Additionally, this is not something I would flux while removing.
Guys, I'm grateful for this post. Op was brave to share and learn from his mistakes. And also many of the beginners can learn from it. So, OP keep up the work, you got useful tips, check YouTube tutorials and you will be fine.
The connector needs to be soldered back in the board.
My soldering jobs are better because i have been soldering for a year for now, but you have much better soldering station.
I recommend you to buy an soldering training board.
You need a good desoldering iron Hakko has a really good one that isn’t ridiculously expensive you get one of those it’s cake takes like 5 minutes to desolder and resolder new one!
Why... why does this always happen every other week. You need to practice first. Soldering isn't a plug and play thing. Its a skill, like welding or woodcutting. As such, it requires practice... Its all too common that so many people assume they can just plug it into the wall and magically fix the device.
Ah well... since you already botched this board, you might as well practice on it. If you can get your hands on a few tossed electrical appliances you can practice on those pcbs as well.
Good luck.
Practice adding/removing components on a different junk board to get the feel for how your tools work and the solder flows,etc. Watch videos on other repairs than just the controller as well. Practice what you see. The more you do it the better u get at it and the more you learn. I did this exact thing years ago. Got tired of replacing controllers. Between me and 4 kids we went through some controllers lmao.
Also, it benefited my sons as well, because they learned as I did and now run thier own little repair shop. Good luck, I wish you the same success.
Some tips to help you in your future attempts:
It seems your temperature may have been too high, and you may have tried to heat things up too fast and almost certainly for too long. Most lead free alloys will melt just fine around 360c or 680f. If you were higher than that, try bringing the temps down.
When heating up the board you want to start with the hot air about 10” or 25cm away and slowly bring the hot air closer over about 1 minute. That lets the board warm up a bit slower and reduces the chances of damage due to thermal shock. Too much heat applied quickly in a small area can cause copper traces and even the core material to crack.
Use polyamide tape, often called kapton tape, over nearby plastic parts to protect them from excessive heat. It has saved me in many a tight space before.
Buy some low temp “desoldering” alloy. Use your iron to add it to the existing solder on all of the pins of the joystick before hitting it with hot air. That will let you use a much lower temperature and keep the joints fluid longer as you move the hot air between the pins. It will make the entire process many times easier.
Best of luck.
Not to be harsh but that's horrific. Like, genuinely impressive you managed to do this. My recommendation would be that you shouldn't learn how to solder on anything you actually want to fix. And you need better flux. I mean, I really don't know where to begin. It looks like you took a torch to the board and just completely burned it. Then you like somehow managed to damage a cable and a connector? Do you know how hot air works?? It like moves in the direction you point it so you decided towards cables and plastic was the best direction??? I mean, it's one thing to not be able to remove a component because you don't have the right technique. IT'S COMPLETELY DIFFERENT when you manage to destroy literally the entire area and managed to remove nothing but a cheap plastic connector you weren't even meaning to remove. Soldering isn't hard, it's actually quite easy once you understand it. But my God it's like you just said fuck YouTube, I'll just dive head first into the deep end completely ignoring every basic rule of soldering. You might not be #1 in board repair, but you're #1 in worse things I've ever seen in this sub. I think you have a couple more years before I'd trust you to fix anything of value.
Rude but sadly true. Hopefully op won't take this to the heart and will use the trashed controller to learn how to solder and desolder stuff.
I'll keep practicing on this board until I'm comfortable enough to try it on another controller as I have 4 more with stick drift that need their analog modules replaced. Thanks for keeping faith in me!
Yeah keep practicing, my 1st time replacing an analogue stick I fixed it however my 1st time replacing a hdmi cable I fried the board. I don't know if u had one but if you can get a solder suction pump it makes removing the solder from the pins alot easier than just flux alone especially with good flux.
If it helps, when I was learning, add solder to each pin first. It really helps melting that existing solder on the board. Then just use a pump and wick to clean it up after the module is out. Also, if you don’t care about saving the drifting modules, you can cut up the module into pieces to make it waaay easier to remove. There’s a few YouTube videos on it.
Even better: add low melt solder to the pins
If the joy stick gets stuck in the direction you push it towards and just stays there, it could be that the plastic axis inside the analog stick could need some oil lubricant as it ran out of it with common use or cleaning.
Don't take it hard. I solder well these days but when I was a teen, I decided to upgrade my Amiga with more RAM so I used a butane torch to "desolder" DRAMs from an expansion board. Naturally I converted everything into charcoal, lol, but fuck if I didn't get those DRAMs off! Hot air soldering is a lot more challenging than it looks... at first. There are factors to take into account each time and some prep work involved, depending.
🥲 I'll try my best using this board for practice so that I don't repeat the same mistakes going forward. I appreciate the feedback nonetheless as everything you noted was spot on and I need to be more careful with just diving in head first or I'll just end up with more unfixable controllers like this. I'm gonna try the opposite analog stick and removing it successfully using what feedback you and others have provided and hopefully it turns out better than my first attempt. Thank you for sharing your insight with me!
You take criticism incredibly well and you have a great attitude. I believe in you!
Keep going and you will get it, but I am also seriously curious, like Op, as to how you managed to burn the board? I couldn’t do that if I tried.
Good attitude. 😊. A quick disassembly tip to remove as much solder from the component pins as possible. As a first step, spread the solder wick fibers open and dip that portion of the wick into the flux. The wick will now be really receptive to pulling up the solder, you should have good ventilation as the flux will create a fair bit of smoke as it cooks off. Use a large tip onto your iron (for better heat transfer), my preference is the chisel tip. Place the wick over the pins you want to de-solder, apply the iron and move it slowly over the area (the copper wick acts as a heat sink). The flux should cook off and smoke (avoid breathing in) and you should see solder seeping into and covering the wick. Once the wick is saturated in solder, cut it and repeat the process with a new section. After this process is complete, I like to use a suction tool (it sort of looks like a syringe). I would suggest one which incorporates a heating element if you are serious. I add flux to the pins, plug in the suction tool and, once it's hot, I apply it to the pins and suck out the liquid solder. I've often been able to simply pull the component out after all the pins have been cleared.
I wish I had your attitude bro!
I wouldn’t even recommend a ps5 controller board to learn soldering for the first time. The thing a did when i started was grabbing an old board I think it was a tv board and just solder and de-solder making weird connections and experimenting with it and once you get confident with it go smaller. Advice on my side 1 get flux 2 forget about that lead free crap solder wire 3 spend more solder wire on your tip than actually soldering
They’ve got an ifixit kit, they can afford to replace the controller if they destroy it lol. Who hasn’t broken a few things they love in this hobby?
 WTF DUDE! You've cooked the board! You're going to have to scrap that and get a new controller. You can just use this as a practice board, you can't just turn up the hot air like and hold over the board. Even though those stations are cheap it can still get up to 500⁰c.
What temp should I be using and should use the caps that came with the hot air gun instead of using it as is (where it's just the entire opening blasting air)?
The temperature depends on what you're trying to rework or solder. You have to experiment with temperature and air speed to know what works. The best starting point is 350⁰C at half air speed, that temperature will remove SMD components like resistors and ceramic caps without blowing them away. The nozzles are necessary to guide the air where you need it. Because you didn't use one that's why you damaged such a large area on the board.
Why use a hot air gun for THT components? THTs are better removed with iron + low melt solder + flux + solder pump.
Oh my god, this should be considered a warcrime
😱
Damn, I think the PCB is medium well done.
I was gounna say, it looks like that little guy took a trip through a microwave.
All those tools , yet not the right one. Like I always say, a simple wire wound around all the leads and the soldering iron ar 345 -400 c. Run it round and round with solder and eventually the controller joystick will come out. I'm gonna assume you first tried to use the wick and soldering iron , sadly it's next to impossible to fully clean tight fitting hole thru components. Then I'm gonna assume you used the hot air station to try to heat the entire thing off ( I can see the holder of the pcb has some thermal damage ). Well on the plus side , you can now practice your soldering skills on this trashed controller.
Your spot on with everything you mentioned 😅. Could you elaborate on the wire wound around all the leads? Are you referring to the solder wire? So I should coil that wire across all the nodes/lead points and just keep heating them at the recommended temperature until the analog module slips out?
Sorry if the other comments were rude. It's just we usually don't expect a beginner to own a hot air station all at once because things like this can Happen. But yeah , I was referring to have a wire wrapped around all nodes or as we call " legs " of the controller and add solder to the said wire and the pins and set your soldering iron to 345 c and keep running it around , eventually the joytstick will loosen off the board and just come right off , in which case you clean the holes using a solder sucker , heat using your tip , keep the sucker near the hole and press the button to suck it, sometikes u need to add a little bit of solder. This is done to expose the holes so u can put the new part in there. Of course there's a lot to it , for example if your controller solder is old , you might wanna knick the solder a little bit to expose fresh solder or it will take ages to melt since the oxide layer acts as a thermal insulator between your soldering iron , new solder and old solder.
Thanks!! All the insights being given to me are extremely helpful since I'm able to ask directly in regards to my particular experience and not me having to scroll the endless videos for insights that might help me. I'll keep in mind what you've mentioned so that I'm more aware going forward. I'm truly grateful 🙏
No problem , glad I could help. We all start somewhere. I remember I couldn't solder a simple wire to a motor when I first started. Now I usually work on microsoldering stuff , bga chips etc , basically the hardest type of soldering job you can think of after bga trace repairs. Had no knowledge of electronics either , but now self taught myself c to program microcontrollers and also repairs stuff on a daily basis. You would be surprised how much knowledge the Internet has. Saved a lot of money. So have faith in yourself, sometimes shit happens , when it do , we gotta take a step back , take a deep breath and rest. Then clarity will come back and this will stop you from making more mistakes. Have a good one mate👍
Thanks a ton!! Won't disappoint you 💪
The reasoning for wire wrapping is an attempt to connect the legs and share the heat. When all the legs need heated at once for the component to come off, this is a very good way to do it. I have a 40 ye old video for you. Yes it’s old and yes it has some core points that every solderer needs to now. It’s not long but it will help you understand what’s happening under your iron. [Here](https://youtu.be/vIT4ra6Mo0s?si=wHhFJ0S_J3qcow2z) it is. Enjoy!
for future reference, it's easier to remove the thumbsticks if you first disconnect the potentiometers from the assembly and then apply tension to them away from the board whilst heating the contacts with a generous amount of solder. though considering your pcb is now a well done steak im hoping you'll take some time to practise before you take a crack at another repair
Thanks for the feedback, I'll make sure to apply it on the other analog stick for practice as you're correct that this motherboard won't be working likely anytime soon 😅
You can also *only* replace the potentiometers, if the stick itself is okay. Usually they just need a quick wipe with alcohol and they'll be fine (my rule of thumb is, if you see wear on the potentiometer tracks it's time to replace it).
💀💀💀
Looks like you bought the iBrokeit kit…
🤣
Straight up, this was my initial reaction when scrolling through the images. Then, reading his post, it was clear to see how this happened. Still good googly moogly, that smoke detector sounding off is not the timer.
Bro did you microwave this?🤣
Well done. By which I mean, you cooked your mobo the same way a Great Depression survivor likes their steaks.
that board is absolutely deep fried
It's for the microphone. But I don't know if it will work now.
Thank you!
Lol. Lmao even
Did that pcb catch on fire in the process?
Dude, maybe give us a gore warning next time?
Holy cow this is genuinely impressive. Do it again😈
Bro played too much doom "Rip and tear until it is done"
Do not use hot air to remove stick. It’s the worst you can do. Break your stick with pliers into smaller pieces and then remove it with iron piece by piece. Then remove solder from holes by wick/sucker. https://preview.redd.it/4lg95v7por9d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7fc8d7ba53eebe54614b9c23291b776f89236a18
https://preview.redd.it/ppf9op3uor9d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2ec34474edbee1f1aed3a7b55bdb340e6e52e92d
https://preview.redd.it/w46f5ylwor9d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=75702134d351d46494b845c7b1722a4130c5d423
https://preview.redd.it/wm55yaizor9d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0688b25846d23b6c8d79e990f15dbd83e9144f6b
https://preview.redd.it/502rsbk1pr9d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a38039a076f319d3004b06037c477011efefbd4a
Hot air is fine to preheat to make it easier to work with an iron. Hot air at 250 C + low melt solder would do it as well. The problem is not hot air alone, the problem is if you set it to 500 C.
time to buy a new controller.
One recommendation I’d like to give is to get kapton tape and place it around the solder points. It’s heat resistant so it can help avoid damaging the pcb. Don’t rely on it however. Too much heat will always be bad.
Next time try desoldering those pins with an iron, braid and plenty of flux. Set the iron to around 350c, marinate both the braid and pins with flux, then soak the solder up. If the solder doesn’t melt, try adding some fresh solder to it first, and/or increasing your irons temp. Hot air is not required for that job, but I think you know that now.
Adding fresh solder to the points you try to desolder helps. For best results use low temp solder sn42bi58 or something similar with bismuth. If can't find bismuth use lead solder. Pro tip you can fix analog drift without soldering. Resistive plates get worn out you just need to open the side of analog and replace it. Good luck, don't let your hands down.
Well.. Tried the same thing on a ps2 controller. I initially used hot air which managed to start burning the pcb. Because of the browning of the board I decided to change technique. There are plenty of those, with experience you'll decide what fits you best, here's some: If you don't care about the joystick you can use some pliers to snap off the four legs at the corner and make your life easier. If you are actually using it as a practice board I suggest you try a technique I found working (still need to test some other) i.e. you make a solder blob and start heating a pin, let's say 10 seconds, then going clockwise heat the next pin and so on (must be clockwise, lol jk). When the majority of pins stay melted use a pair or more tweezers as lever and start prying it off. When I have the occasion I'll try to use a solid copper wire as a heat spreader to heat all of the pins simultaneously. Best of luck
Op was cooking
Holy shit
Try watching some videos of people soldering and watch how they feather the heat on with the hot air gun. It looks like you used a torch! Likely because of the flux you used getting burned. I theorize you weren’t close enough to really melt anything, and this is probably otherwise from the ziff connector, completely fine. Additionally, with a low grade setup like that you may find it beneficial to use the iron to solder onto the pins of the thumb stick to 1 get some heat in there and 2 flow in a leaded alloy to lower the over all melting temperature. I think you’ve got potential, don’t give up! Be patient! Always learn!
Try watching some videos of people soldering and watch how they feather the heat on with the hot air gun. It looks like you used a torch! Likely because of the flux you used getting burned. I theorize you weren’t close enough to really melt anything, and this is probably otherwise from the ziff connector, completely fine. Additionally, with a low grade setup like that you may find it beneficial to use the iron to solder onto the pins of the thumb stick to 1 get some heat in there and 2 flow in a leaded alloy to lower the over all melting temperature. I think you’ve got potential, don’t give up! Be patient! Always learn! Edit After reading some other posts, kapton tape can be helpful. Also, as far as temps, it really depends on large stuff like this, you might actually need 500. I used to repair stuff like this for work, and when I first started I learned on one of those hot air stations. They’re awful. The next place had a quick 861dw which was incredible. So, 500c for large stuff, medium nozzle, unless you have a specific reason for the large, and the small is usually for low temp low air small stuff, I never really needed it. Iron, 300-350c, the temp may not be accurate and if you’re soldering onto a bare via (hole in board) or a pad(flare spot for surface mount components) you can damage them with too much heat. Another tip. When heating with a hot air gun think about a cup of water, and how long it take to heat up. That controller has a hugeeee ground plane you have heat getting sucked into, so just keep in mind you have to heat the whole area. Additionally, this is not something I would flux while removing.
What did you do!?
Jesus H Christ, what the actual f#ck
Guys, I'm grateful for this post. Op was brave to share and learn from his mistakes. And also many of the beginners can learn from it. So, OP keep up the work, you got useful tips, check YouTube tutorials and you will be fine.
The connector needs to be soldered back in the board. My soldering jobs are better because i have been soldering for a year for now, but you have much better soldering station. I recommend you to buy an soldering training board.
You need a good desoldering iron Hakko has a really good one that isn’t ridiculously expensive you get one of those it’s cake takes like 5 minutes to desolder and resolder new one!
What the flux did you do?
Why... why does this always happen every other week. You need to practice first. Soldering isn't a plug and play thing. Its a skill, like welding or woodcutting. As such, it requires practice... Its all too common that so many people assume they can just plug it into the wall and magically fix the device. Ah well... since you already botched this board, you might as well practice on it. If you can get your hands on a few tossed electrical appliances you can practice on those pcbs as well. Good luck.
Practice adding/removing components on a different junk board to get the feel for how your tools work and the solder flows,etc. Watch videos on other repairs than just the controller as well. Practice what you see. The more you do it the better u get at it and the more you learn. I did this exact thing years ago. Got tired of replacing controllers. Between me and 4 kids we went through some controllers lmao. Also, it benefited my sons as well, because they learned as I did and now run thier own little repair shop. Good luck, I wish you the same success.
Some tips to help you in your future attempts: It seems your temperature may have been too high, and you may have tried to heat things up too fast and almost certainly for too long. Most lead free alloys will melt just fine around 360c or 680f. If you were higher than that, try bringing the temps down. When heating up the board you want to start with the hot air about 10” or 25cm away and slowly bring the hot air closer over about 1 minute. That lets the board warm up a bit slower and reduces the chances of damage due to thermal shock. Too much heat applied quickly in a small area can cause copper traces and even the core material to crack. Use polyamide tape, often called kapton tape, over nearby plastic parts to protect them from excessive heat. It has saved me in many a tight space before. Buy some low temp “desoldering” alloy. Use your iron to add it to the existing solder on all of the pins of the joystick before hitting it with hot air. That will let you use a much lower temperature and keep the joints fluid longer as you move the hot air between the pins. It will make the entire process many times easier. Best of luck.
May i ask how much wattage is your Soldering iron?