Last night a bat flew in my room (yes, this really happened) and I was playing something on my PC. Anyway, I got startled and pulled the cable and ripped two wires from the gamepad's panel.

So, I took my soldering piece and tried to fix it up, but it got messy. All in all, I did it in the end, I put back all the pieces where they were, but now when I plug the gamepad in my PC, the area where the wires were soldered gets really hot. Not the whole panel, just that little area gets increasingly hot and gamepad doesn't appear to work, though its light is blinking as if it's working.

Provided that all the wires are in the right place, would this mean that the gamepad is broken and I can throw it away?

Thanks for caring enough to read.

 

Sounds like you're admitting to a sloppy soldering job. I would try cleaning that up. If your copper wires aren't contacting the copper pads of the circuit board, but are instead separated by a thick glob of solder, then you have a resistance there the shouldn't be, and its acting like a small heater. Solder isn't meant to be a current carrying conductor; it's resistance is much higher than that of copper. Copper parts should be touching, and the solder is just there to hold them in place.

 

Thanks for the info. But all in all, the gamepad isn't dead, right? I mean, the heating isn't an indication that it is an unsolvable problem?

 

It will be unsolvable if you use it before fixing the solder joints. You will also kill the batteries very quickly.

 

Yeah, I imagine I'd have to re-solder the whole thing, as this was done really awfully, I'm just wondering if any permanent damage has been done? This is what the area affected by my sad soldering skills looks like.

Is it salvageable?

 

What wattage soldering iron are you using?

You will need some desoldering wick (or other desoldering technique).

Try running your soldering iron along the gaps between the metal circuit traces. Hopefully, the stray solder will get collected and any short connections will be cleaned up.

The real danger is that a short circuit on the controller could damage your game console.

If you managed to overheat your board with a soldering iron that is too hot (too high wattage) or because you held the iron in place too long), then you may have some permanent damage that cannot be fixed. I won't know how many layers this board has but, once assembled, only the two outside layers can be accessed. Good luck. It may be easier and cheaper to buy a new device.

 

What wattage soldering iron are you using?

You will need some desoldering wick (or other desoldering technique).

Try running your soldering iron along the gaps between the metal circuit traces. Hopefully, the stray solder will get collected and any short connections will be cleaned up.

The real danger is that a short circuit on the controller could damage your game console.

If you managed to overheat your board with a soldering iron that is too hot (too high wattage) or because you held the iron in place too long), then you may have some permanent damage that cannot be fixed. I won't know how many layers this board has but, once assembled, only the two outside layers can be accessed. Good luck. It may be easier and cheaper to buy a new device.

Actually, what happened was that after my poor soldering, I connected the gamepad and then it started heating on that place where I did the soldering, not cause of soldering iron. I'm just curious what would cause such behavior? Overheating in a specific area (the area which I worked on). Is poor soldering causing this or have I damaged it in some other way which can't be reverted?

Btw, thanks for all the feedback, didn't expect this much help. I really appreciate it.

 

The heating when you try to use it is because you likely made a "solder bridge". The bridge is allowing the + and - of your batteries to connect directly (without going through resistors or chips). This direct connection gets hot surprisingly fast.

The other topic was answering your question regarding the chances that you destroyed your controller. My answer was, if you over heated the circuit board (or any chips on the board while soldering), then it is very likely that it is destroyed.

My third comment was, if you plugged your controller into your console and you had a short-circuit in your controller, then you may have damaged your game console.

Plug a second controller that is known to function correctly into your game console and make sure it works. Then plug into the second, third and forth ports to see if they all function.

If your game console works, then go buy a new controller. A wireless controller may be a good idea if you have not removed the bat from your house yet.

 

Btw, thanks for all the feedback, didn't expect this much help. I really appreciate it.

Be careful, if you keep asking questions - we will keep answering. Eventually, you will know so much that you will start building your own electronics creations from scratch.

 

Alright, I guess I can throw it away, as I've became certain that it's broken at this point.

Again, thanks for the feedback.