Hacking Hardware Picofly - a HWFLY switch modchip

[Dee87]

This friend of mine bought one of those "hwfly 2040" chips on aliexpress, so it's a rp2040 mounted on a flex. I don't think I can get those capacitor from it.

well this is no Hwfly support group this is for the picofly supported board and nothing else. we have no diagramms to say if they are on the board or not .

i would then order some of those caps and replace them specially since its a friends switch and not ur own. u would be a bad friend if u dont fix what u messed up .

i think those are 0.1uf caps

 

[FlowerFire]

well this is no Hwfly support group this is for the picofly supported board and nothing else. we have no diagramms to say if they are on the board or not .

i would then order some of those caps and replace them specially since its a friends switch and not ur own. u would be a bad friend if u dont fix what u messed up .

i think those are 0.1uf caps

Yeah, makes sense. I'll check the values on older replies and fix it.
However I just want to point out that it's called "hwfly 2040" on aliexpress but it's just an rp2040 custom board, not an hwfly.
Infact, it runs with Rehius' firmware

 

[Switxh]

Yeah, makes sense. I'll check the values on older replies and fix it.
However I just want to point out that it's called "hwfly 2040" on aliexpress but it's just an rp2040 custom board, not an hwfly.
Infact, it runs with Rehius' firmware

Yeah we know... They stole the firmware from Rehius and they're profiting from it. Also it's still a HWFLY board doesn't matter if it has an RP2040 on it or not.

 

[FlowerFire]

Yeah we know... They stole the firmware from Rehius and they're profiting from it. Also it's still a HWFLY board doesn't matter if it has an RP2040 on it or not.

Yeah I know. It's not like I'm encouraging this stuff. I've got a plain old rp2040 on both of my Switches.
It's just what my friend bought and so it's what I'm using at the moment. Just mentioned it because I can't get the capacitors from it.

 

[Switxh]

Yeah I know. It's not like I'm encouraging this stuff. I've got a plain old rp2040 on both of my Switches.
It's just what my friend bought and so it's what I'm using at the moment. Just mentioned it because I can't get the capacitors from it.

Why point it out then like it's some gotcha moment?

 

[deeps]

Fo the first time, i get an error with the CMD, i fix it and now i have this error...

Looks like you are missing a resistor next to the RST point on the motherboard

 

[FlowerFire]

Why point it out then like it's some gotcha moment?

You gotta chill, lol.
I pointed it out because it seemed like Dee87 thought I was talking about the "old" hwfly, while this one is a custom rp2040 that just use the same name. It's not like I wanted to sound smart or something. Just wanted to clarify it.
If you all already know that, it's just for the better. Why do you have to be like this lol

 

[Switxh]

You gotta chill, lol.
I pointed it out because it seemed like Dee87 thought I was talking about the "old" hwfly, while this one is a custom rp2040 that just use the same name. It's not like I wanted to sound smart or something. Just wanted to clarify it.
If you all already know that, it's just for the better. Why do you have to be like this lol

You're back peddling now but you were told this isn't a HWFLY support group and you came back with "ummm ackchually this isn't a HWFLY board".

 

[FlowerFire]

You're back peddling now but you were told this isn't a HWFLY support group and you came back with "ummm ackchually this isn't a HWFLY board".

Look, I don't know why you are so angry about it. The chip just says "Picofly Core" but it looks completely like an HWFLY and there are loads of clones all over aliexpress. I made a clarification and I already acknowledged that it wasn't needed and that you didn't like it at all. It's all fine by me and, at this point, I don't even really care anymore.
If you wanna keep on going with this madness, I won't keep you company.
Thank you Dee87 for the help.
Good day to you all

 

[jkyoho]

Looks like you are missing a resistor next to the RST point on the motherboard

And attempting jumper short the pads assuming would be a fix

 

[Switxh]

Look, I don't know why you are so angry about it. The chip just says "Picofly Core" but it looks completely like an HWFLY and there are loads of clones all over aliexpress. I made a clarification and I already acknowledged that it wasn't needed and that you didn't like it at all. It's all fine by me and, at this point, I don't even really care anymore.
If you wanna keep on going with this madness, I won't keep you company.
Thank you Dee87 for the help.
Good day to you all

Apparently I'm angry but this dudes writing novels lmao

 

[Dee87]

Hi, i know this issue was there before:

Ive installed a picofly (custom board from ali), i installed 3 of these so far. Now on this switch it boots to hekate but emmc init fails. Ofw gets straight to purple screen. Removed chip, all wires, dat0 adapter and still purple screen. So as far as i understood from others

- could be cmd resistor (it should not, it still shows the 4.6kO) and this thing looks like new

- bootloader fucked up by Pico. So some just installed a hwfly and fxed the issue with it.

Someone has suggestions? Is a hwfly required or can it be fixed also with another picoboard?

So its not a picofly Rp2040 Zero/tiny or any other boards that is officially supported by the firmware , clones like hwfly rp2040 or other ones are not officially supported by the firmware so check for the appropriate thread and ask there.

To ur purple screen most of the time its the cmd resistor.

Or maybe by ur clone rp2040 who know what they done firmware or hardware wise.

I never had a purple screen caused by the officially supported Rp2040 in 100+ switches 80 +- Oleds so I would guess its ur soldering or ur board u used.

 

[floxcap]

@rehius Is the picofly toolbox derived from the hwfly toolbox? Are you planning to release the source code for this also?

I've come across an issue while trying to do an update - it seems the picofly toolbox has limited the update.bin size to less than 64Kb (it seems the "other" toolbox allows up to 128Kb). This severely limits any extra functionality being added to the firmware as it's already very close to this size.

Can you please do a fix and/or release the toolbox code?

 

[Darkspade]

Fo the first time, i get an error with the CMD, i fix it and now i have this error...

RST on motherboard point. looks like resistor is off just below it? kinda looks like you just bridged it

 

[twins333]

Yes i mean i flashed the firmware again so it is 2.73 but still i think the chip is faulty then. I another thread the say installing the hwfly fixed the issue i will just try it. These custom pico boards are just cheaper thats why im going for it but this is really annoying if they have this issue sometimes. Will report later if it works afterwards with hwfly. It is also a shitty sk hynix emmc

From your posts it looks to me like you're searching for somebody to blame when things go wrong(sk hynix emmc, pico corrupting the emmc, bad pico, bad firmware). If sk hynix emmcs are bad, get some replacements from aliexpress and an emmc programmer and clone them before you attempt the modding. The pico cannot corrupt the emmc, this usually happens because of soldering errors or other external actions.
Redo all soldering points/wires, triple check for bridges/shorts, maybe stop posting custom hwfly/unsupported picofly questions on the picofly thread. Read the thread, all the info is here. I know this is a long one, but it will help you with whatever issue you have. If you want help and have the time, you can start by creating a knowledge base for all the issues people had in the past and share it here. You can also help the community this way.
Peace and I hope you sort out your hwfly problems.

 

[Dee87]

Yes i mean i flashed the firmware again so it is 2.73 but still i think the chip is faulty then. I another thread the say installing the hwfly fixed the issue i will just try it. These custom pico boards are just cheaper thats why im going for it but this is really annoying if they have this issue sometimes. Will report later if it works afterwards with hwfly. It is also a shitty sk hynix emmc

I Agree with @twins333 .

And to the "shitty" skhynix this has nothing to do with the emmc brand . over 80% of my oled had sk hynix emmc and like I said I never had a issue it's rather ur install gone wrongs or its the firmware oder hardware u installed.

How can a custom board be cheaper then the rp2040zero/tiny ?if u bit all peaces at Ali u pay under 10 bucks for the rp,MOSFET,resistor,wire

 

[twins333]

I Agree with @twins333 .

And to the "shitty" skhynix this has nothing to do with the emmc brand . over 80% of my oled had sk hynix emmc and like I said I never had a issue it's rather ur install gone wrongs or its the firmware oder hardware u installed.

How can a custom board be cheaper then the rp2040zero/tiny ?if u bit all peaces at Ali u pay under 10 bucks for the rp,MOSFET,resistor,wire

The custom board(that looks like the hwfly but has the pico 2040 chip) is about 12-13 euros with shipping included for me. maybe cheaper(10 euros) if I get them in larger batches. The mosfet+wire+resistor+rpi is 0.4+0.1+0.3+4.5=5.3 euros with shipping, again cheaper in higher batches. If you have a large number of switches to mod, then the custom one is better, time-wise. Double the price but half the time to install. It depends on the risk you want to take and how good are your soldering skills.
Note that all prices are taken from aliexpress with minimal searching effort.
Note2: The rpi price is for the tiny version, without the programming board. The standard rp2040 zero has a similar price, when you factor in the shipping cost. I considered that this clarification is needed.

 

[Dee87]

If you buy the flex, dat0 adapter separetly it would cost at the end the same/a bit more for me. And yes, i confirmed it is the boards fault. My install works great on the hwfly on both switches and this board fucked even up my old switch. The other switch had samsung emmc, so it is indeed no hynix fault

No its not hynix fault its the boards fault something is not correct with it I bet if u install a rp2040 zero/tiny or one off the supported boards its gonna work.

Like I said I never had a issue with any kind of emmc.
And if there would be a issue with the emmc or picofly firmware or board I would've noticed.

So it can only be the fault of your board that u bought

 

[Dee87]

Yes, but now i still have a little problem. Even though the hwfly chip works, and ofw boots with it connected, when i completely disconnect the whole chip, ofw boots still to purple screen. So something on the emmc must have been modified by this rp2040 china board (maybe boot tables overwritten or something). Does anyone know how i could solve this? I could create a backup of the emmc with the hwfly chip, but i think that would not help if the boot tables are anyway not there

For that check the correct thread since u haven't installed a supported board.

So ask in a hwfly rp2040 or normal hwfly thread otherwise like stated eather cmd resistor or emmc allegedly never had that issue before

But some people say its Pico's fault which have never been proven and there are only rare cases.
AFAIK this never happens with the supported picofly boards.
But I could be wrong.


Like I said I have done more then enough switches and the only times I ran into a purple screen was at the beginning and that was caused by me cause I damaged the cmd resistor.

 

[twins333]

Yes, but now i still have a little problem. Even though the hwfly chip works, and ofw boots with it connected, when i completely disconnect the whole chip, ofw boots still to purple screen. So something on the emmc must have been modified by this rp2040 china board (maybe boot tables overwritten or something). Does anyone know how i could solve this? I could create a backup of the emmc with the hwfly chip, but i think that would not help if the boot tables are anyway not there

First thing is to make a full backup with the hwfly and try to recover the prodinfo and boot0/boot1(if possible). See what can be recovered while backing up everything. You can use nxnandmanager. Here is a guide for the backup/restore procedure: https://rentry.org/BackupRestoreNAND .
Read this thread FULLY for more info before attempting anything: https://gbatemp.net/threads/blue-screen-of-death-installing-and-removing-hwfly-switch-v2.636248/

Side-note: I know this is not applicable to you, since hekate already works in your case, but for full disclosure you can also generate boot0/boot1 with EmmcHaccGen. With this you can boot hekate and try to recover the original emmc partitions.