In my quest to 'consolize' a switch into a Switchn't I wanted to remove the requirement for a battery.

Not much has been done to figure this out but I did find a thread on shmups in which user fwannmacher had over time figured it out after their battery failed.

First step, there are two test points next to the battery connector (on V1 and V2 switches, yet to confirm lite or oled) that are for the Sense line and GND. Putting a 10k ohm resistor across those pads makes the switch think the battery is fully charged, and will no longer try to charge it.


Next step, the switch requires voltage into the batt circuit or it will not turn on. A DC to DC buck converter from the 15V rail on the switch dock motherboard is a perfect solution for this.
Before connecting the buck converter to the battery input on the switch motherboard, I set its output voltage to 4.22v on my digital multimeter and then connected the output wires to the switches battery input.


Now with buck voltage output at 4.22v on meter I then dialed it in to 4320mv in Hekate (4.30v on meter), hekate has battery info under Console Info/Battery.
This screen unfortunately doesn't auto refresh, so I was making very minute adjustments on the buck converters adjustment screw, then closing and reopening the battery screen to check the new value.
(I got the value of 4320mv from a second fully charged switch I had on hand, but I recommend you check what your console is before beginning modification)



With all this complete the switch now boots completely without a battery, both into OFW and CFW.


Thanks to fwannmacher for their work. I just wanted to do a complete writeup thats a little easier to follow for people in the future and hopefully extending the lifespan of some switches.

 

[fwannmacher]

This is a nice solution; more convenient than manually updating the time everytime you start up the system. Is there also something like this for the 3DS?

It looks like Luma3DS does that

 

[ertaboy356b]

It doesn't. So we have to use things like https://github.com/nedex/QuickNTP

What if you wanted to indefinitely turn the console offline?

 

[fwannmacher]

What if you wanted to indefinitely turn the console offline?

Then you have to set the clock manually.

 

[Dinofly]

Hello! I just got a 20$ broken OLED Switch (broken screen, broken cartridge slot, the rest seems to be working) and i would like to consolize it. I am planning to replace the internal fan with a bigger one so it will be controlled by the console and not always on like when plugged on USB. I am currently checking what type of ribbon cable i have to buy to plug into the motherboard connector but i also have a question: will a bigger fan use more power, and if so is there a risk to blow up the voltage regulator on the motherboard ?

Another question: since i don't have a screen, i suppose i won't be able to use hekate once i mod it. Is there another way to create an emuMMC ?

 

[IamRysing]

Your work saved me so much headache!
I did figure out the fan pinout a few weeks ago as I do plan to eventually make another revision and try to make it smaller again using maybe a low profile GPU cooler. Anything from a card over 35W should work.

No, you would start a lithium fire.

A lot can be done and an oled dock version would be pretty cool as I did kill the wifi during some prototyping of coolers. (the 100nf caps left the chat)

I was looking into integrating the joycon rails into a shell design but it was a bunch of stuffing around since I already have a charge stand for them on my controller display shelf.

This is my finalized version for the moment. Max overclocks stable at 40c in BOTW.
The power button is discrete and you just press on the shell lid lightly to activate the button on the original ribbon which made this quite a sleek design.
View attachment 370115View attachment 370116

View attachment 370118View attachment 370119


Cooling is simply two stock coolers stacked on eachother, the second held on with cable ties and a gentle sweeping bend in the heatpipe.
I used the motherboard backplate (albeit cut down) from the original chassis to mount the mainboard to as it also provides the screw points for the heatsink, fan and cart slot.

Sorry to come to this thread super late, do you still have the files to print out this shell design? It’s just so when I decide to do this mod in the future it’ll save me a headache of creating a shell design for it

 

[Compi]

Would like the files as well.

 

[FueledSamantha]

These are the latest variants of shell and lid (attached zip, contains two STL files). I used some of the chassis from a damaged switch as a motherboard tray, just cut out the part I needed and glued it down. Drilled some holes manually and added screws to hold down the lid. Positioning the power switch was difficult but I got there in the end.

I dont know how this will work for other people, as I did a lot of recycling. But feel free to give it a try and share it. If I ever improve it in the future I will share that.

Hello! I just got a 20$ broken OLED Switch (broken screen, broken cartridge slot, the rest seems to be working) and i would like to consolize it. I am planning to replace the internal fan with a bigger one so it will be controlled by the console and not always on like when plugged on USB. I am currently checking what type of ribbon cable i have to buy to plug into the motherboard connector but i also have a question: will a bigger fan use more power, and if so is there a risk to blow up the voltage regulator on the motherboard ?

Another question: since i don't have a screen, i suppose i won't be able to use hekate once i mod it. Is there another way to create an emuMMC ?

I did post a fan pinout in another thread, here is a screenshot.
If you provide the 5v from a strong switched 5v source on the dock then you can rely on the pwm to control its speed.

You do need to setup the FW with a working lcd, digitizer and joycon rails.

Sorry to everyone who posted and waited, I'm not active here unless I'm working on a project.

 

[Ondrashek06]

Wait, it does not have the capability to bypass the battery? That's a technology that even the PSP had. Amazing how backwards Nintendo can be with hardware.