Hardware Japanese 2DS has no wifi board

[ABigRock]

I bought a Japanese 2DS secondhand, and I'm baffled. It has no wifi board -- and moreover, it has no port for one. Is this normal? The unit is totally unresponsive as of now. Fuses are good, so I'm sort of at a loss.

 

[IC_]

I bought a Japanese 2DS secondhand, and I'm baffled. It has no wifi board -- and moreover, it has no port for one. Is this normal? The unit is totally unresponsive as of now. Fuses are good, so I'm sort of at a loss.

It's a newer revision of the 2DS that has the entire wireless board in a single chip on the motherboard.

 

[ABigRock]

It's a newer revision of the 2DS that has the entire wireless board in a single chip on the motherboard.

Wonderful, thank you! Now if I can only figure out why it's bricked. Is there a way to test if the battery port is functional?

 

[IC_]

Wonderful, thank you! Now if I can only figure out why it's bricked. Is there a way to test if the battery port is functional?

You could try connecting a voltmeter to the battery power contacts and see if there is any voltage on them when you connect the charger. If the charging is broken and you just need to know if the battery contacts are making any connection at all, you can check it with a multimeter in continuity mode. For the negative contact you can check it against any grounded metal shield in the system like the cartridge slot. For the positive contact there should be some test point nearby, or you can probe directly into the power input of the power regulator that the battery power would normally go to.

 

[ABigRock]

You could try connecting a voltmeter to the battery power contacts and see if there is any voltage on them when you connect the charger. If the charging is broken and you just need to know if the battery contacts are making any connection at all, you can check it with a multimeter in continuity mode. For the negative contact you can check it against any grounded metal shield in the system like the cartridge slot. For the positive contact there should be some test point nearby, or you can probe directly into the power input of the power regulator that the battery power would normally go to.

Forgive me, I'm totally self-taught and I'm still a beginner in terms of electrical work. What is continuity mode? And to test the continuity of the battery port, it sounds like one of the terminals has to be grounded, which makes sense. Is that just to create a circuit that the meter can register?

 

[IC_]

Forgive me, I'm totally self-taught and I'm still a beginner in terms of electrical work. What is continuity mode? And to test the continuity of the battery port, it sounds like one of the terminals has to be grounded, which makes sense. Is that just to create a circuit that the meter can register?

The continuity mode is the mode that makes the multimeter beep and/or light up when both probes are connected to each other, it is used to test if there is a connection between two points in a circuit.

When I was talking about the ground in the previous post, I meant that you need to connect to a ground to test the ground/negative contact of the battery connector. You don't need to have it grounded when testing the positive contact, you just connect one probe to the positive battery terminal, and the other one to a point where the positive terminal should be connected to.

Even if you are unable to test the connection for the positive battery terminal, it's still very unlikely that the problem is in the connection from the battery terminal to the motherboard. I would worry about other things like the power management circuitry.

 

[ABigRock]

The continuity mode is the mode that makes the multimeter beep and/or light up when both probes are connected to each other, it is used to test if there is a connection between two points in a circuit.

When I was talking about the ground in the previous post, I meant that you need to connect to a ground to test the ground/negative contact of the battery connector. You don't need to have it grounded when testing the positive contact, you just connect one probe to the positive battery terminal, and the other one to a point where the positive terminal should be connected to.

Even if you are unable to test the connection for the positive battery terminal, it's still very unlikely that the problem is in the connection from the battery terminal to the motherboard. I would worry about other things like the power management circuitry.

Thank you, that makes sense! How would you recommend I proceed as far as the power management? I've tested the F1 and F2 fuses and they seem to be functioning.

 

[IC_]

Thank you, that makes sense! How would you recommend I proceed as far as the power management? I've tested the F1 and F2 fuses and they seem to be functioning.

It's in some small ICs on the board, you could try looking up the datasheets of them to see the functions of all their pins, and then you could check if some specific power pins have the expected voltages on them. If you do find a damaged power IC, you'll unfortunately probably get stuck there because replacing those tiny things requires very good soldering experience and tools, if you can even find the right replacement part.

 

[ABigRock]

It's in some small ICs on the board, you could try looking up the datasheets of them to see the functions of all their pins, and then you could check if some specific power pins have the expected voltages on them. If you do find a damaged power IC, you'll unfortunately probably get stuck there because replacing those tiny things requires very good soldering experience and tools, if you can even find the right replacement part.

I'll give that a go! Even if I cant fix it, it's still been a really good learning experience, and I mostly got it for the shell anyway!