{"id":155,"date":"2024-01-19T09:24:52","date_gmt":"2024-01-19T09:24:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/madgyver.de\/?p=155"},"modified":"2026-08-15T11:03:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T11:03:08","slug":"wifi-pineapple-mark-v-reparatur","status":"publish","type":"project","link":"https:\/\/madgyver.de\/en\/projects\/wifi-pineapple-mark-v-reparatur\/","title":{"rendered":"WiFi Pineapple Mark V Repair"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently got a WiFi Pineapple Mark V from eBay, for about 15\u20ac or so. Although the Mark V has since been superseded by a superior model, that is still a very good price. The main reason for this is that it has a defective power connector and can now only be powered by USB. Since that didn’t sound like a big deal to me, I decided to give it a try. I figured that it can’t be that hard to fix, and even if I couldn’t, I could hotwire 5V to the USB port somehow.\n\nAt first I thought it might be a damaged connector or a PCB trace that had burnt through. But at a first glance I couldn’t see anything wrong. So I just plugged it into a weird adapter cable and played a few days with my new, slightly broken WiFi Pineapple V. As far as I could tell, everything worked perfectly, so at least I got a working Pineapple out of it.\n\nAfter I was done with testing and playing, I decided it was time to figure out what was actually wrong with it. Again, nothing looked damaged, but now that I was paying closer attention, I realized I couldn’t seem to find the voltage regulators. After following the PCB traces more carefully, it turned out that the power bus part of the Mark V is actually on the other side of the PCB. It’s hidden under a metal shield, so I originally thought it housed part of the RF circuit or something. Turns out there’s a bunch of SMPS hidden under the shield, and will you look at that: I found the defect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Close-up<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It is a little bit hard to see, but the chip is a Fitipower FR9888, a step-down converter. Weirdly enough, the damage looks like rapid overheating, although the chip can tolerate up to 23V while supplying 2.3A. It also has short-circuit and thermal protection. So I can’t even guess what the previous owner attempted to do in order to fry that poor little step-down converter. I’d also never heard of that chip or that company before, but the available datasheet<\/a> looked pretty promising. Especially the PCB layout recommendation, which looked like the figurative grandfather of the circuitry on the Mark V PCB. Luck seemed to be on my side, since I not only identified the problem but was also able to find the chip on eBay, for about 3\u20ac \u2014 for 5 pieces, the smallest quantity I could find. I guess the FR9888’s most important function in this circuit is cost reduction. But hey, whatever works, I don’t judge.\n\nI used my rework station to exchange the chip, which was more difficult than I thought, because pin number 2 was literally welded to the PCB trace \u2014 not entirely surprising, since this is the pin where the external power supply connects. I still have no idea what the previous owner was messing around with; guess we’ll never know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Close-up<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But hey, I have a fully functional Pineapple!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/figure>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently got a WiFi Pineapple Mark V from eBay, for about 15\u20ac or so. Although the Mark V has since been superseded by a superior model, that is still a very good price. The main reason for this is that it has a defective power connector and can now only be powered by USB. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":267,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"project_type":[22],"technology":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madgyver.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project\/155"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madgyver.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madgyver.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/project"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madgyver.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madgyver.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"project_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madgyver.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project_type?post=155"},{"taxonomy":"technology","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madgyver.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/technology?post=155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}