PS3 Trying to diagnose a dead Dualshock 3 PCB. Any advice?

[NMZeke]

Long story short, I damaged a Dualshock 3 PCB beyond repair (several torn traces). I bought a working donor controller, and confirmed that it works. However, the donor PCB stopped working a few minutes after final assembly. I prefer not to buy another donor if it's possible to diagnose the issue.

The PCB in question is a VX5 0.06. There's no LED response with pressing the home or reset button. Zero response connecting it to a PS3 via USB. Tried swapping with a known good battery. Through the test points, I am able to confirm that there's 5V USB, working ground, battery power, and 2.8V standby power. There's continuity with the USB data lines going to the BT controller, but there's no communication happening. No switched 2.8V power. There's 2.8V going to the LEDs, but it seems to be held high by the microcontroller. I tried digging through the PSDevWiki, but there doesn't seem to be any info on repairing controllers. I verified that there's switched power and USB data communication on the broken PCB when I plug it in. It's a VX4 PCB, so I'm not sure if anything are interchangable.

 

[indig0]

Oof, it's always the worst when a project stops working just after final assembly >.<

So the original/broken was a VX4 and the new/donor board is VX5 0.06?

I'm the farthest thing from an expert, but from taking a quick glance around, it seems that the ribbon PCBs changed from VX4 (SA1Q189A) to VX5 (SA1Q194A) and are not compatible (see https://www.psdevwiki.com/ps3/DualShock_3#Ribbon_Circuit_Boards ).

It says that the PS button lines have been changed/repurposed in the VX5 revision, but I couldn't find a pinout to see exactly what was different. If you're using the original VX4 ribbon with the new VX5 board, that might be something to explore.

 

[NMZeke]

Oof, it's always the worst when a project stops working just after final assembly >.<

So the original/broken was a VX4 and the new/donor board is VX5 0.06?

I'm the farthest thing from an expert, but from taking a quick glance around, it seems that the ribbon PCBs changed from VX4 (SA1Q189A) to VX5 (SA1Q194A) and are not compatible (see https://www.psdevwiki.com/ps3/DualShock_3#Ribbon_Circuit_Boards ).

It says that the PS button lines have been changed/repurposed in the VX5 revision, but I couldn't find a pinout to see exactly what was different. If you're using the original VX4 ribbon with the new VX5 board, that might be something to explore.

The ribbon boards are electrically identical.The only difference is that the VX4 has a hole in the middle of the home button for structural support. The VX5 removes that. Swapping them is fine as long as the white inner structure and the center membrane buttons are swapped with the ribbon board.

Update 1: I tried to resolder the pins between the main PCB and the BT controller. Unfortunately, I don't have any micro soldering tools, but I went ahead and touched up the pins with a regular iron with a large knife tip. After two attempts, the controller mostly works. Both Bluetooth and USB connects, but there's now a weird issue where the controller completely hard locks when disconnecting the USB cable while the controller is awake. The LEDs would stay on, but the controller would be completely unresponsive. Pressing the reset button returns the controller back to normal. Reconnecting the USB cable seems to also force reset the controller after a few seconds.

I'll try more diagnostics tomorrow. If it's not caused by a voltage drop on the entire PCB, I'll just resolder the BT controller again.

 

[indig0]

The ribbon boards are electrically identical.The only difference is that the VX4 has a hole in the middle of the home button for structural support. The VX5 removes that. Swapping them is fine as long as the white inner structure and the center membrane buttons are swapped with the ribbon board.

Ah, good to know; thanks! (Sorry for the dumb suggestion; still not super familiar with PS3 hardware!)

Glad to hear you were able to get it somewhat working, at least
For the transplant, did you do anything more complicated than swap the PCBs from the donor shell to the recipient? I'm guessing maybe you kept the old sticks and motors, but beyond those was any soldering required? I guess I'm confused as to why reflowing the leads on the BT controller (ALP603?) would have helped if the donor controller was known-working.

Again, sorry if these are dumb questions ^^; Just interested/curious.

 

[NMZeke]

Ah, good to know; thanks! (Sorry for the dumb suggestion; still not super familiar with PS3 hardware!)

Glad to hear you were able to get it somewhat working, at least
For the transplant, did you do anything more complicated than swap the PCBs from the donor shell to the recipient? I'm guessing maybe you kept the old sticks and motors, but beyond those was any soldering required? I guess I'm confused as to why reflowing the leads on the BT controller (ALP603?) would have helped if the donor controller was known-working.

Again, sorry if these are dumb questions ^^; Just interested/curious.

I just swapped over the PCB from the donor to the recipient. The rumble motors were soldered on, and the way they are attached does not allow the PCB to be removed from the inner frame without desoldering. Desoldering should affect the ICs, as the pads for the rumble motors are far away from all the small components.

The donor controller was sold as "for parts or repair." I shouldn't be surprised that things are wonky.

Update 2: After resoldering the BT controller again, the Texas instruments IC, and the EEPROM, the controller almost works perfectly. One issue is that it seems to shut off when the USB cable is unplugged, while my other controller would stay on and reconnect via BT. I'm just going to ignore that one.

But there's now an issue with a phantom input on the D-Pad. The donor controller was advertised with button input issues, but I thought that it's just a ribbon board connection issue. However, it has the same issue with a known working ribbon board, and the ribbon board works with my damaged controller PCB. Probing the microcontroller pins indicates perfectly fine inputs and output voltages, along with no no unusual resistances. If repeated resoldering doesn't fix it, I'll just consider the donor PCB as bad. I don't have the tools to desolder the known working microcontroller from the damaged PCB.

Update 3: Completely forgot to give you guys an update. For whatever reason, the VX5 PCB only seems to work with the VX5 ribbon board, while the VX4 PCB is fine with either ribbon board. Swapping the ribbon board fixed the phantom button issue. The BT controller also seems to work perfectly after resoldering the microcontroller (again), the power controller, and various random components on the board. No more weird hard locks.

However, I got cocky with my desoldering and tore off the L3 pads during a joystick replacement... Another controller in the graveyard.