Re: Random earape and loud interference from USB C audio
Posted: Fri Jul 12, 2024 7:51 pm
I did as you said, on Wednesday I resoldered the ribbon cable for the USB C audio. I melted the solder, removed the cable, and looked at the contacts. I didn't see any bridges from my recollection, rather there were some contacts that were not tinned, while others were insufficiently tinned. Guess that's what I get for trying to solder the ribbon cable on without tinning the contacts first.
I ordered a fine j tip iron and after some practice, was able to tin the contacts without bridging, pretty much did it perfectly. I soldered the ribbon cable on without much difficulty, and after over 6 hours of capture card testing, there is no sign of audio anomalies. Granted I still want to do more testing so I can be absolutely sure, but I think it's safe to say that soldering fixed the issue like you said.
Thing to note: When my USB C audio connector was improperly soldered, depending on the pressure I put on the backplate of my 3DS, the audio passing through the capture card to the computer would often get wonky. Usually it would introduce some background static, in extreme cases it would cause the volume going to absurd levels. Now this didn't always cause the issue, it sometimes happened with no pressure at all. I'm just including this information if you are at all interested. (And by the way, adding pressure to the backplate now doesn't introduce the problem anymore)
It also seems like a whole new band of sound was unlocked to me after I fixed up the soldering. Before, the sound of the virtual number pad on the 3DS (when I was prompted to enter the parental controls password) did not pass through the capture card whatsoever. Now, whenever I tap a number on the number pad, the sound fully passes through. Another example was the sound of exiting the virtual DS interface. Whenever I pressed the home button, and the window popped up asking if you wanted to exit DS mode and go back to the 3DS home menu, I never got the sound of the window popping up through the capture card. Now, I get the sound passed through to the computer. Seems like the earape wasn't the only thing the soldering fixed.
Thank you for your guidance.
I ordered a fine j tip iron and after some practice, was able to tin the contacts without bridging, pretty much did it perfectly. I soldered the ribbon cable on without much difficulty, and after over 6 hours of capture card testing, there is no sign of audio anomalies. Granted I still want to do more testing so I can be absolutely sure, but I think it's safe to say that soldering fixed the issue like you said.
Thing to note: When my USB C audio connector was improperly soldered, depending on the pressure I put on the backplate of my 3DS, the audio passing through the capture card to the computer would often get wonky. Usually it would introduce some background static, in extreme cases it would cause the volume going to absurd levels. Now this didn't always cause the issue, it sometimes happened with no pressure at all. I'm just including this information if you are at all interested. (And by the way, adding pressure to the backplate now doesn't introduce the problem anymore)
It also seems like a whole new band of sound was unlocked to me after I fixed up the soldering. Before, the sound of the virtual number pad on the 3DS (when I was prompted to enter the parental controls password) did not pass through the capture card whatsoever. Now, whenever I tap a number on the number pad, the sound fully passes through. Another example was the sound of exiting the virtual DS interface. Whenever I pressed the home button, and the window popped up asking if you wanted to exit DS mode and go back to the 3DS home menu, I never got the sound of the window popping up through the capture card. Now, I get the sound passed through to the computer. Seems like the earape wasn't the only thing the soldering fixed.
Thank you for your guidance.