Hacking Hardware Picofly - a HWFLY switch modchip

[Dee87]

Today I tried to do a reball using solder paste.
I made a small "reballing jig" based on @Dee87 idea (thank you).
Used a small cutting board to cut out a frame for emmc and then drilled 4 small holes for magnets (fixed in place with glue).
After the stencil is positioned on top of emmc i place 4 more magnets on top of the ones fixed onboard and the stencil is secured.
My first attempt failed because I did 2 mistakes: 1st I did not "dry out" the solder paste (you have to do this), and 2nd i did not apply pressure on stencil while applying heat. This resulted in quite a mess that I had to clean up and redo everything.
The second attempt was a success.
*this was done as an exercise using a old emmc pulled from a phone. No Switch was harmed in the making of this video

nice looking good .
at the beginning i did also dry out the solderpaste, but nowadays i just us as is and add solderpaste to the stencil set hot air to 100 (lowest temp) and blow the past a bit till i see its dried out a bit then i add a little bite more paste and then i do the reballing.

i would set the magnet as close as possible to the emmc so u have a bit less warping on the the stencil.

but otherwise looks awesome , glad to see somany people learnign how to reball the more people can to it the better the installs get even if they take a bit longer they get done properly :-)

 

[Mr Skinner]

Today I tried to do a reball using solder paste.
I made a small "reballing jig" based on @Dee87 idea (thank you).
Used a small cutting board to cut out a frame for emmc and then drilled 4 small holes for magnets (fixed in place with glue).
After the stencil is positioned on top of emmc i place 4 more magnets on top of the ones fixed onboard and the stencil is secured.
My first attempt failed because I did 2 mistakes: 1st I did not "dry out" the solder paste (you have to do this), and 2nd i did not apply pressure on stencil while applying heat. This resulted in quite a mess that I had to clean up and redo everything.
The second attempt was a success.
*this was done as an exercise using a old emmc pulled from a phone. No Switch was harmed in the making of this video

How inspiring. Today, for me reballing is like rocket science, but I have to admit that I'm slowly moving towards surrendering to the process, mainly because most of the serious problems can be corrected with a good reballing.

Man, I love your stencil made on the meat board, it's so clever. I'm slowly buying everything to do my first reballing. Now I have an extra OLED board that I can play around with. Although I think the black screen is a defect in the CLK track that was grounded.

 

[Switxh]

Today I tried to do a reball using solder paste.
I made a small "reballing jig" based on @Dee87 idea (thank you).
Used a small cutting board to cut out a frame for emmc and then drilled 4 small holes for magnets (fixed in place with glue).
After the stencil is positioned on top of emmc i place 4 more magnets on top of the ones fixed onboard and the stencil is secured.
My first attempt failed because I did 2 mistakes: 1st I did not "dry out" the solder paste (you have to do this), and 2nd i did not apply pressure on stencil while applying heat. This resulted in quite a mess that I had to clean up and redo everything.
The second attempt was a success.
*this was done as an exercise using a old emmc pulled from a phone. No Switch was harmed in the making of this video

Nice job! I personally wasn't aware of drying the paste so I haven't been doing it but I haven't had any problems yet although the flux in the paste does make the stencils quite dirty so maybe thats why people dry the paste? Either way just do whatever works best for you I practised on a spares and repairs Switch Lite board. One of the things I learned from that was not to use too much flux when you mount the chip to the board because it can cause the chip to float too high and missalign so if possible I would recommend finding a board to practice mounting that EMMC because it helped me a lot

 

[QuiTim]

nice looking good .
at the beginning i did also dry out the solderpaste, but nowadays i just us as is and add solderpaste to the stencil set hot air to 100 (lowest temp) and blow the past a bit till i see its dried out a bit then i add a little bite more paste and then i do the reballing.

i would set the magnet as close as possible to the emmc so u have a bit less warping on the the stencil.

but otherwise looks awesome , glad to see somany people learnign how to reball the more people can to it the better the installs get even if they take a bit longer they get done properly :-)

Thanks for the input Dee, I will modify it and see the results. It seems that the solder paste i'm using has a bit more flux. I ordered a different one so I can compare.

How inspiring. Today, for me reballing is like rocket science, but I have to admit that I'm slowly moving towards surrendering to the process, mainly because most of the serious problems can be corrected with a good reballing.

Man, I love your stencil made on the meat board, it's so clever. I'm slowly buying everything to do my first reballing. Now I have an extra OLED board that I can play around with. Although I think the black screen is a defect in the CLK track that was grounded.

The process is not so difficult. I think the most important part is getting a good feel of how much heat are we transfering to emmc chip while removing it from the board (since that unleaded solder is hard to get rid of).
As for the stencil, this was just something i did for fun otherwise by the time things get serious and I do this on Switch i will probably use one of these https://a.aliexpress.com/_mLzsRCG or one of those magnetic ones.

Nice job! I personally wasn't aware of drying the paste so I haven't been doing it but I haven't had any problems yet although the flux in the paste does make the stencils quite dirty so maybe thats why people dry the paste? Either way just do whatever works best for you I practised on a spares and repairs Switch Lite board. One of the things I learned from that was not to use too much flux when you mount the chip to the board because it can cause the chip to float too high and missalign so if possible I would recommend finding a board to practice mounting that EMMC because it helped me a lot

I think this paste that I'm using has more flux then usual and it leeks quite easily under stencil.
I ordered this one and I will try it next
As for soldering the emmc chip back on the board I ordered this and this and I think It's a good way to see I emmc survives the process.
And thank you for the tip regarding the amount of flux during reflow.

 

[Switxh]

Thanks for the input Dee, I will modify it and see the results. It seems that the solder paste i'm using has a bit more flux. I ordered a different one so I can compare.

The process is not so difficult. I think the most important part is getting a good feel of how much heat are we transfering to emmc chip while removing it from the board (since that unleaded solder is hard to get rid of).
As for the stencil, this was just something i did for fun otherwise by the time things get serious and I do this on Switch i will probably use one of these https://a.aliexpress.com/_mLzsRCG or one of those magnetic ones.

I think this paste that I'm using has more flux then usual and it leeks quite easily under stencil.
I ordered this one and I will try it next
As for soldering the emmc chip back on the board I ordered this and this and I think It's a good way to see I emmc survives the process.
And thank you for the tip regarding the amount of flux during reflow.

Ahh I see that makes sense! My paste must be on the dryer side of things. The stuff I got was called "Mechanic XG-Z40" I got it on eBay. I'll keep that in mind though! I was looking at that USB EMMC board too! And yeah that will help you practice for sure. I think you can even plug it into the PC and check if the EMMC is soldered properly too. No problem and likewise, thanks for the info!

 

[R-Couto]

=*** I get this error code and then enter the official system

 

[lightninjay]

=*** I get this error code and then enter the official system

Then read the latest definitive guide or Rehius' firmware post that is pinned at the top of every page in this thread.

 

[R-Couto]

does anyone know how to solve this error =*** eMMC init failed

 

[lightninjay]

does anyone know how to solve this error =*** eMMC init failed

Not without seeing photos of your soldering job

 

[R-Couto]

Not without seeing photos of your soldering job

it was working perfectly until it gave orange light when i removed the chip i updated it to see the error codes then now it is giving this =*** and it starts in OFW

Post automatically merged: Jun 24, 2023

estava funcionando perfeitamente até que deu luz laranja quando tirei o chip atualizei para ver os códigos de erro então agora está dando isso =*** e começa em OFW

 

[AceCuba]

How long was it working for until you encountered this problem (time frame)?

Post automatically merged: Jun 23, 2023

So how did you fix the purple screen exactly? Sorry, just hard to follow what you did exactly.

Post automatically merged: Jun 23, 2023

If your console is fine with 2 67, why do you want to upgrade it if everything works and glitches fine? If it's not broken, don't fix it.

Post automatically merged: Jun 23, 2023

If your console is fine with 2 67, why do you want to upgrade it if everything works and glitches fine? If it's not broken, don't fix it.

Post automatically merged: Jun 23, 2023

These days not much can be done with just words to fix a problem such as yours. Do you have something to show us fine folks of this community?

ok sorry for my english , the console works for 5h no issues i restart it and power off several times and no issues like 10times no issues , the 11 the console boots to ofw every single time , i trie to get to hekake by power on and off , but ofw every single tiem until the purple screen happerns , i take the console apart disconect the battery and star messuring , 4.7kohm cmd ok , all 3 47ohm resstors of the pico ok , no shortss , so i plug the battery and everything working just fine . the console is working no more issues . very wierd

 

[lightninjay]

it was working perfectly until it gave orange light when i removed the chip i updated it to see the error codes then now it is giving this =*** and it starts in OFW

Post automatically merged: Jun 24, 2023

This area near your CMD and CLK pads looks suspect. They might even be bridging to each other.

 

[SQc04]

I say, if you still have hands on then yes you need to downgrade.
Although i personally waiting for hipotetical 2.75 with maybe 250mhz oc and disabled SDA/SCL feature. of course until i can compile the source code myself.

Post automatically merged: Jun 23, 2023

Any apparent changes in glitch time? or general stability if we compare with original pico instalation?

It is easier to solder, and even resistor misconfiguration does not cause boot0 errors, and faster boot speed than starting from hibernation

 

[Dee87]

it was working perfectly until it gave orange light when i removed the chip i updated it to see the error codes then now it is giving this =*** and it starts in OFW

Post automatically merged: Jun 24, 2023

I also would say short.

Why are u using a thicker wire for the CPU pin?
Use 0.1mm like u used everywhere else

One other thing u should use flux cause ur solder point sure don't look like u are using it , and I'm not talking about the flux in the solder cause that's not worth shi..

 

[bilalhassan341]

I also would say short.

Why are u using a thicker wire for the CPU pin?
Use 0.1mm like u used everywhere else

One other thing u should use flux cause ur solder point sure don't look like u are using it , and I'm not talking about the flux in the solder cause that's not worth shi..

What is the best soldering wire?...Because after using flux my joints still looks dry.

 

[Dee87]

What is the best soldering wire?...Because after using flux my joints still looks dry.

I use 0.1 enameled wire for everything except mostfet to apu

 

[QuiTim]

I use 0.1 enameled wire for everything except mostfet to apu

What is the best soldering wire?...Because after using flux my joints still looks dry.

I think Bilal ment best wire/alloy for soldering. I would say sn62pb36ag2 but sn63pb37 is very good as well.
If your joints still look dry after using flux I would suggest changing flux type.

 

[Dee87]

I think Bilal ment best wire/alloy for soldering. I would say sn62pb36ag2 but sn63pb37 is very good as well.
If your joints still look dry after using flux I would suggest changing flux type.

Oh yeah that might be true Xd I use low melt solder for everything on switches wichone exactly I'm not sure, but flux is not flux there are huge defferents there

 

[Browbon]

If you read the Pico Fly Guide you have all the info there. I had the same issue on V1 upatched. I added one more 47ohm resistor to dat0 and it was fixed.

It happens on my V2 one time, show slow emmc mode but after i restart, it become normal without issue. Do i need to put more resistor too?

 

[Alex_p]

second try