Hacking N2DSXL Hardmod & pinout findings & progression

Bo7amada

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Hi all,

After the recent west release of N2DSXL & the high demand of hardmod or hacking guides in general, I thought it would be helpful to start a thread for all the hardmodders to share knowledge, experiments, findings, progression and information to hopefully achieve the goal quicker.

I personally believe hardmodding is the cleaner/swiftier way to hack the console and it is more entertaining, it also have the advantages of not needing another device, nor a flashcart+action replay like the upcoming NTRboothax.

So I got my self an N2DSLL, opened it up, but nothing more than that. I've got decent skills & knowledge in electronics, but not sure where to start and how to identify the pinouts (data0, clk, cmd). I can have access to an oscilloscope & multi-meter for all signal viewing and measuring stuff. So please, if anyone could suggest something to work on we can start doing trial and error (I don't mind risking the console).

It's worth noting that Nintendo in the past tried many different tricks, like hiding pinouts under the cartridge cage & on the other side of the board, and in some cases people had the obvious clk pinout not working so they had to use an alternative. So I would not imagine they're going to be easy or readily exposed, but we'll see.

I'm also worried that Nintendo would do something to make the card readers incompatible with the nand chip? in that case I'm not sure how's the workaround.

Anyway, I've added a PCB img to point or mark stuff (credit to youtuber "H H").

PCB.jpg

I've also googled this chip code number, and I found it strange that it belongs to texas instrument, where in previous 3DS models nand chips were Samsung/Toshiba made. is that the nand chip to begin with?
 

mitroux

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once i get one of those n2dsxl , i can remove the nand and confirm the pinout of each of the nand solder points
 

Bo7amada

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pbanj

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Someone claims to have successfully found it



I'll try it later & confirm

i gave it a try. got a blue screen. pc didnt see it, tried the anker and the tek republic reader. so i started checking points. with just clk and gnd hooked up the system should blue screen, it boots right to the home menu
 

Bo7amada

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I unfortunately stripped 2 screws of excitement.. Couldn't open it up.

Will get a reverse drill bit later today & try out at night.
 

Bug_Checker_

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mitroux

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At least you didn't get everything done to find out it doesn't work lol

d157a2148f6135a901454b4676967187.jpg
the point you soldered the GND wire to is not connected anywhere , change the gnd point and it should work

also i would like if you can check if those points has alternatives on the other side of the motherboard (surely there are one test point of each of the cmd and data0-3)
 
Last edited by mitroux,

pbanj

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the point you soldered the GND wire to is not connected anywhere , change the gnd point and it should work

also i would like if you can check if those points has alternatives on the other side of the motherboard (surely there are one test point of each of the cmd and data0-3)
I already changed to a different ground. That was one of the first things I tried.
 

pbanj

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I'm using an Anker card reader, no success yet.. Do U think that is the issue?
give me a few min ill check with my anker. i got it working by switching the ground for a third time. i posted in the other thread with the ground i used

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

ya it seems it doesnt like the anker. one of the ones i have blue screens but doesnt show on pc, the other one doesnt seem to trigger a blue screen at all(im betting that one is just broken)
 

mitroux

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I'm using an Anker card reader, no success yet.. Do U think that is the issue?
use any normal sd car reader , power on the n2ds , once you get the 0400 statut remove the normal sd card and plug the anker(don't power off the nds) and it should work
 

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