sudomod

Disclaimer: I'm a super noob. I wanted to get better with electronics and learn how to solder, so I chose the Game Boy Zero as a beginner project.

I've been following wermy's tutorials and today I made my attempt at removing the regulator from the control board of the Adafruit 3.5" display (https://www.adafruit.com/product/913). It went well enough, but when I went to solder the wires to the spots that were left behind, it kind of looked like I pulled more off of the control board than I was supposed to. I'm not sure how this happened. I didn't pull hard or anything. Once it got loose, the regulator came off pretty easily. Did I totally screw this up?



Also, I think I'm still really bad at soldering. I can't for the life of me get wires to attach to those two spots. I can't get solder to flow off onto the wire itself. I think part of it might be that the wire I'm using is 24 AWG and is just too thick for this. But even then, it just isn't clicking for me. The solder either all flows onto the solder tip itself or it just goes onto the top of the wire and stays there. It doesn't attach to the control board. I tried heating up the wire and touching the solder to that, but it takes too long to heat up and the insulation starts to melt. I know, I suck!

Does anyone just sell modded versions of this control board? I know that would be cheating, but I don't think I can afford another $45 screen!

I appreciate any feedback any of you can provide. Thanks!

You have completely burned/torn off the copper pads that the SMD IC was soldered to. You can't solder to the board material itself you need to solder to the copper pads.
I'd try to find the trace that was attached to the pad that you want to solder to and then follow it for an alternative solder point.
And turn the heat down on your soldering iron and use some flux.

Looks like everything got pulled out straight to other components, so there's no place else to solder it. I'll just have to see if I can buy just tge control board and try again. I figured I was going to screw something up, but it sucks it was on the most expensive part!

Thanks for the help.

Which pad/pin spot were you meant to solder the wire to? It looks like most of them have alternative points that could be used.

OK just took a look at the adafruit instructions, looks like you could use any of the following.
I'd pick 1 has the primary choice (large area and near the edge of board).
If you use 3 you'll want to make sure you have continuity between 3 and 1, it looks like there is a little trace left at 4 connecting between the two (you could even use that point, but its small and could cause more damage going forward).

For the ground connection you can just pick any ground on the board. In fact I suspect it wont even be needed if you wire the ground on the signal side of things. I know when I wire all my screens I just use a common ground for both power and the ground side of the signal.