BDM-010 no power, usb or ext port.

[MCorgano]

I have a BDM 010 that doesn't show any signs of life through regardless of how it's powered - tried usb on back, the front ext port, and a separate battery. I'm wondering if there's anything I should check / try fixing before relegating it to the parts bin forever.

[RDC]

The USB 5v, External 5v and Battery power each have their own Inductor before going into the DA9087, but for all 3 of those to be missing, that would have to either be deliberate, as 2 of those are on the bottom side and one is on the top side, or there would be obvious signs of components that were knocked off the board.

Could be a Capacitor or some other IC is shorted and not letting the DA9087 turn on also, since it seems to be the PMIC for this board.

Plug up the USB, check pins 4 and 5 of the DA9087. If you have 5v there, then check pins 16 and 17 of it for 1.8v

[MCorgano]

I don't exactly have the best tips to probe those points, but with a steady hand I was able to see 5v on pin 3/4 but got nothing out of pin 16/17. Does that mean dead pmic?
Looking around the board I don't see anything that looks like it's missing or damaged. I also used a power meter on the usb when it's plugged in - shows 0ma no power whatsoever, when if I try to slowly move it around in the usb C port. Doesn't seem like a port issue...

[RDC]

If no other components are missing and the board looks good, that's what I would lean toward. There are also 15 or so lines going from the PMIC to the MCU, but if that 1.8v isn't there then they aren't really doing anything.

[MCorgano]

Ok so dumb idea, what if I bodged some wires and injected 1.8V? Assuming the pmic is ded, could I expect the rest of the controller to turn on? At this point I am not expecting to fix it, but theoretically would that get it to boot?

[RDC]

It wouldn't hurt, but assuming the PMIC is dead, that's the thing that makes all of the other voltages the controller needs to run, so all you'd be doing is injecting the standby voltage the MCU needs to watch the PS button. If just that bit of the PMIC was bad, then it could fire up, but the PMIC makes like 7 different voltages for things in there. So if injecting the 1.8v on pins 16/17 and hitting the PS button did nothing, then you'd have to get in there more to figure it out.

[MCorgano]

Welp thankyou for your time. I'll probably find a controller with a trashed shell and swap the guts to get a working one.

As an aside, have you ever thought of contributing to repair.wiki? They're looking to be an open source of information how to fix a wide variety of electronics. Louis rossmann has submitted a lot of info on fixing macbooks already, and even has some funding set aside for giving something back to people who make significant contributions. I can't guarantee any kickbacks personally, but your inside-out knowledge of ps4/5 controllers would be super useful to be documented, and it could even be used as a resource for the more common issues to help people find solutions faster without you replying to every thread (which is still very appreciated)