[Solved] Poor Button Responsiveness

[Pentium]

So I followed Helder's advice and remelted the pads.
Well, I kind of just held (heh) the iron to the pads for a few seconds, and it seemed to have worked for right, left, up, down, b, but not a. I can't confirm x and y, because my a button still doesn't work. I remelted the pad twice, but it still didn't work for me there. It's not that I had to hold the button, it doesn't seem to be responding at all!
Any other tips?

[dryja123]

I wicked up all of the solder on the A and B button pads and laid down a new thin layer of good quality solder. I noticed that the new layer is much more shiny then the layer that I replaced.

I also put a thin layer of glue inside of the A and B button to lessen the travel. The B button still has a good tactile feel but the A button now requires very little effort to push and kind of feels mushy now. I couldn't care less about that because now both buttons are responding well, for now.

I'll post back after I let everything rest for a few hours. That's when the issues seemed to resurface.

Edit: gave it 2 hours and the buttons held up, they're responsive! Also, helder pointed out that I had too much solder on my button pads. The picture was a WIP picture and I thinned and evened it out before I buttoned it together.

20170930_104358.jpg (3.09 MiB) Viewed 6728 times

[Pentium]

How did you apply the solder?
Did you just melt it right along the surface? and what would happen if you put down too much?

[dryja123]

The button pads are nothing more than copper pads covered with a very thin layer of solder. I used a solder wick and wicked up the solder until it was copper. Once I got down to bare copper I applied solder to the pad the same way you normally apply solder to pads.

Helder told me on discord that you can apply some flux and run a clean tip on the existing solder to remove oxidation, which is what's causing the issue.

I'm guessing you shouldn't use too much solder because you'll make uneven contact with the button membranes.

Try flux first before you remove and add solder.

[Pentium]

Still didn't work for me...
This is really frustrating for me. I've been working on this one mintypi for months already, and I still can't get past the controls part, because of all buttons, the most important one isn't working, which is the A button.

I'm basically giving up on trying to fix the A button, I've wasted so many hours trying to figure out why. Can someone tell me how to remap the buttons? I can't even do it in the menu because I can't select it. Change some code in the sd card?

[dryja123]

Still didn't work for me...
This is really frustrating for me. I've been working on this one mintypi for months already, and I still can't get past the controls part, because of all buttons, the most important one isn't working, which is the A button.

I'm basically giving up on trying to fix the A button, I've wasted so many hours trying to figure out why. Can someone tell me how to remap the buttons? I can't even do it in the menu because I can't select it. Change some code in the sd card?

I know this may sound dumb but I'm just asking, have you tried soldering a wire from the GPIO port to the test pad on the board? You're getting solid continuity, right?

Can you attach a picture of the PCB and the Pi?

Edit: this is how I wired the GPIO ports to the test pads

20170919_124802.jpg (1.31 MiB) Viewed 6641 times

[Pentium]

sorry for the late response. I've been so busy this week.
I have it wired near identicle to the way you have it, but I've given up on the a button.
I'm thinking of wiring the y-pad to the a-pad, that way whenever I press y, it will correspond to a.
I'd give up playing any Super Nintendo Games, but it's better than having a glitch a button.

I could also wire a tactile switch to a and Ground, select the configure input in the retropie menu, and just map it that way.
Would these ideas work?

[dryja123]

sorry for the late response. I've been so busy this week.
I have it wired near identicle to the way you have it, but I've given up on the a button.
I'm thinking of wiring the y-pad to the a-pad, that way whenever I press y, it will correspond to a.
I'd give up playing any Super Nintendo Games, but it's better than having a glitch a button.

I could also wire a tactile switch to a and Ground, select the configure input in the retropie menu, and just map it that way.
Would these ideas work?

If the PCB is is legitimately defective I could see you working out a deal with Helder to replace the PCB. I can't speak for Helder but maybe send him a PM.

Do you mind sharing some pictures of the button pad and your soldering work? Just want to see if I can see something amiss. Have you checked to see if you bridged any connections? You can test this by checking for continuity of the A GPIO port and near by ports.

[Helder]

Might be a bad trace or via, have a look at the trace to see if it's broken. Post pictures of the area.

[Pentium]

Here are some pics: