STEP ⭐✨

I fell asleep while this unit was stress testing, and it survived a full eight hours of docked idling in the splatoon 2 tutorial. it's affirming to see that I am capable of such an intensive repair that also holds up to intensive use 🦊👍

today's fox fix is a water damaged switch that was failing to initialize the system storage; I removed the emmc chip from its module and found a lot of corrosion underneath. I cleaned up the pads, reballed the chip, and reflowed it back onto the module, and that got it booting again 🦊👍

*for clarity, with an exploited console the OS can be regenerated on a blank/mismatched EMMC module, but without the factory information present that identifies it as a unique and valid console, it can never connect to nintendo's servers again, essentially being permanently banned

extremely lucky fox fix tonight.. the switch's system storage is encrypted with per-console keys *and* detachable... a switch without its paired emmc is basically unfixable. one of my units had an emmc/key mismatch, and on a hunch I swapped its module with another from that lot.. and it worked 🦊🙏

of course; you never know how you might have touched someone's life 🦊🐾 thank you for all the happy times you helped me and others to have

oh! I also remembered you made switch-fightstick, which was eventually forked into the splatoon post printer! I also used it to play the rhythm game in splatoon 2 itself. you had such a hand in little 2014 step's day to day enjoyment hehe

I still have one such particularity hehe, I remember seeing it in the shirt design contest thread and really liking it. on a related note I am also the person who made the universal pop'n marquee site logo hehe

I was splicing some wires today and remembered that diagram, and then reflected on how high of a period that was for me, learning about AC data and being able to play those styles at home. you helped put a lot of joy into my life, including a wiring diagram so good it stuck with me for a decade lol

it's so lovely, such a pleasant place to walk around and seeing all of the fursuits is incredible, I wholeheartedly recommend going if you can 🦊🫶

unfortunately not; that would make travel a lot easier haha. I am from the united states, but have gone to sweden for nordic fuzz con the past two years with a friend who lives there

reminiscing about how the first place I saw proper wire splicing visualized was in the gorgeous install manual for the USBemani, a usb conversion board for the PS2 beatmania IIDX controllers by @jaesond.cc. this is my own install from 2014 🦊💿🎹

I picked up some protein bars at the store on a whim; aside from being rather tasty, they also are taking me back to the only time I usually get them, which is for the flights to/from sweden for nordic fuzz con. I'm feeling very motivated and looking forward to seeing my friends 🦊🐺🐶🐱

today's switch repair is a video! 🦊🎥 a video about a unit with no video..

unfortunately the console's keys are needed for nxnandmanager to read the device ID for mkey generation, so the target console itself has to be modded in this instance (though I was hoping I was mistaken and double-checked with an empty keyset :P)

a modchip can be a tool; this switch had parental controls, which means it could not be formatted for reuse even after repair. an unlock code can be generated, but it requires dumping the console's encryption keys and retrieving a device ID. one temporary mod and this console is now fully working 🦊👍

low energy fox fix.. I wasn't feeling well and planned to use this unit's housing for a working board instead of troubleshooting it. I saw the fuel gauge was damaged, so I replaced it and now it works. that orange parental controls icon on a non-hackable switch is a story for another post though..

uh oh

it's straightforward, but a little involved; there are 23 screws that need to be removed to access the fan, as well as three components (the SD card reader, the heatsink, and the game cart reader). it's a very accessible repair as long as you take your time and have the right tools

dreadful time, yeah.. a repair lot I got recently had some replacement dust gaskets, so the screen on this one is secured.. just slightly off where it should be. I do wish the LCD fit snugly in the housing, so you know it is correctly aligned and can't wiggle about (much as we like wiggling 🦊)

I think I did an acceptable job on this one, there is minimal dust and the misalignment, while noticeable, is uniform and not skewed. but as someone who likes to do the cleanest and nicest job they can.. I reeeaally do not care for doing these

my least favorite "simple" repair on the switch is replacing a scratched digitizer or cracked LCD.. between the absurd adhesive on the digitizer, the LCD floating in the housing with no firm alignment, and needing zero dust or fingerprints on either.. it's near impossible to get a factory result

it's time for vket again, a virtual creator marketplace/exhibition and one of my favorite events in vrchat! I wonder what fun worlds I will scamper and what cool things I will see 🦊🐾

that fifth unit also had no charging or docked video output, one USB port and charging chip replacement and it is now in line with the other four, which also all passed stress testing. five consoles sorted before breakfast is a pretty good start to a fix fox friday 🦊👍

a promising start to this lot; out of the six fully assembled units, one had a dead CPU, but four just powered on fine with full functionality. the last one I correctly identified damage on the CPU voltage regulator and replaced it, getting that one working as well. not a bad fix fox thursday 🦊👍

I'm sorry, I wasn't notified of this response.. the first image is a mock-up of the desired third layer with the surface of the board overlaid, there were two ground planes on the layers above the third one that had that line running through it, so I had to drill through them to expose it

unclaimed baggage gaming!!! this is the second unit from this lot to power on to the initial setup screen and have docked video output!

and then the next one was just.. fine? instead of being dead or completely uncharged it was in sleep mode on the initial setup; I cleaned the joy-con rails and it just works?? docked video output and all??? the circle of life......

I'm not too fussed, it's always a shame to find a board is unsalvageable but I am at least glad it took me half an hour to figure that out instead of several days. plenty more boards to fix 🪛🦊

no fox fix on the first unit of this lot.. thought I could start with an easy USB port replacement until I saw the USB data line filter had literally exploded.. guessing since the port was mangled (no relation to the fnaf girlie) that 5-15V was sent through the data lines directly to the CPU

launching my new twitch channel