Picofly AIO Thread

[A-Hacked-Soul]

Things I learned along the way.
Weller is not the best soldering iron brand. Went through three of them in two weeks.

Micro soldering is hard without a way to "enhance image!" Thankfully I have my light and magnifying lens I use for model painting.

DO NOT do what I did and use a special edition console for your first install. I had a few of these so I was fine with it.

Flux is your best friend.

Have two sizes of solder. I used .8mm and .3mm

Go slow, I can not stress this enough!
Take your time.

Watch YouTube videos and ask a ton of questions before starting. That saved me a lot of time. Read the guides multiple times over.

Fuck flex cables, the alt soldering point on it was easier to solder to than getting the middle two contacts.


This was my first time micro soldering, but not my first time soldering electronics in general. Don't let this be your first project in any sort of soldering. Get a practice kit off Amazon or AliExpress when you get your tools and stuff.

Post automatically merged: May 5, 2023

It was the 2040 that was bad.

Post automatically merged: May 5, 2023

Oh and take breaks, set it down and back away for a bit. Stress causes mistakes and dumb choices.

 

[789-Benny]

Looking for some guidance. Switch Lite - have marked the 2 things I am unsure on in red/purple 'circles'

Where does the 'G Mosfet' connection go to? and the same for the 'CPU pin on rp2040?
Has anyone got a better diagram like sthetix diagrams on github??????????

 

[Adran_Marit]

View attachment 369265

Looking for some guidance. Switch Lite - have marked the 2 things I am unsure on in red/purple 'circles'

Where does the 'G Mosfet' connection go to? and the same for the 'CPU pin on rp2040?
Has anyone got a better diagram like sthetix diagrams on github??????????

g is gate. They goto the rp2040

Post automatically merged: May 5, 2023

Things I learned along the way.
Weller is not the best soldering iron brand. Went through three of them in two weeks.

Micro soldering is hard without a way to "enhance image!" Thankfully I have my light and magnifying lens I use for model painting.

DO NOT do what I did and use a special edition console for your first install. I had a few of these so I was fine with it.

Flux is your best friend.

Have two sizes of solder. I used .8mm and .3mm

Go slow, I can not stress this enough!
Take your time.

Watch YouTube videos and ask a ton of questions before starting. That saved me a lot of time. Read the guides multiple times over.

Fuck flex cables, the alt soldering point on it was easier to solder to than getting the middle two contacts.


This was my first time micro soldering, but not my first time soldering electronics in general. Don't let this be your first project in any sort of soldering. Get a practice kit off Amazon or AliExpress when you get your tools and stuff.

Post automatically merged: May 5, 2023

It was the 2040 that was bad.

Post automatically merged: May 5, 2023

Oh and take breaks, set it down and back away for a bit. Stress causes mistakes and dumb choices.

Which flex cable are you talking about? t

 

[II_HamoudE_II]

Things I learned along the way.
Weller is not the best soldering iron brand. Went through three of them in two weeks.

Micro soldering is hard without a way to "enhance image!" Thankfully I have my light and magnifying lens I use for model painting.

DO NOT do what I did and use a special edition console for your first install. I had a few of these so I was fine with it.

Flux is your best friend.

Have two sizes of solder. I used .8mm and .3mm

Go slow, I can not stress this enough!
Take your time.

Watch YouTube videos and ask a ton of questions before starting. That saved me a lot of time. Read the guides multiple times over.

Fuck flex cables, the alt soldering point on it was easier to solder to than getting the middle two contacts.


This was my first time micro soldering, but not my first time soldering electronics in general. Don't let this be your first project in any sort of soldering. Get a practice kit off Amazon or AliExpress when you get your tools and stuff.

Post automatically merged: May 5, 2023

It was the 2040 that was bad.

Post automatically merged: May 5, 2023

Oh and take breaks, set it down and back away for a bit. Stress causes mistakes and dumb choices.

do you think it's better and esier to use the other component ? that will be my first time too

 

[A-Hacked-Soul]

do you think it's better and esier to use the other component ? that will be my first time too

I would highly suggest a ribbon flex cable for the CPU. I got two chances off of it and it was a life saver.

Post automatically merged: May 6, 2023

Just did another two today for friends. I think I am getting better.

Post automatically merged: May 6, 2023

g is gate. They goto the rp2040

Post automatically merged: May 5, 2023

Which flex cable are you talking about? t

The one that connects to the CPU. V2 model for the lite. The alt solder point you gave me was a life saver. It was easier to manage too. I just went with that for the other two I did today also.

 

[SiggiBartman]

Are there Switch Modells that are currently unsupported? Like what variations of emmc are on the market, is there an not working one?

 

[Arakon]

All of them work at this time.

 

[brecht6]

Hello
I found someone to install a picofly for me and he asks €100 is that a good price or should I keep looking for someone to do it cheaper?

 

[QuiTim]

Hello
I found someone to install a picofly for me and he asks €100 is that a good price or should I keep looking for someone to do it cheaper?

I think that is a fair price if he is experienced and does a clean job and maybe offer some kind of warranty on the work done.

 

[brecht6]

does this look clean to you

I think that is a fair price if he is experienced and does a clean job and maybe offer some kind of warranty on the work done.

 

[QuiTim]

Things I learned along the way.
Weller is not the best soldering iron brand. Went through three of them in two weeks.

Micro soldering is hard without a way to "enhance image!" Thankfully I have my light and magnifying lens I use for model painting.

DO NOT do what I did and use a special edition console for your first install. I had a few of these so I was fine with it.

Flux is your best friend.

Have two sizes of solder. I used .8mm and .3mm

Go slow, I can not stress this enough!
Take your time.

Watch YouTube videos and ask a ton of questions before starting. That saved me a lot of time. Read the guides multiple times over.

Fuck flex cables, the alt soldering point on it was easier to solder to than getting the middle two contacts.


This was my first time micro soldering, but not my first time soldering electronics in general. Don't let this be your first project in any sort of soldering. Get a practice kit off Amazon or AliExpress when you get your tools and stuff.

Post automatically merged: May 5, 2023

It was the 2040 that was bad.

Post automatically merged: May 5, 2023

Oh and take breaks, set it down and back away for a bit. Stress causes mistakes and dumb choices.

I second evereything that you said, emphasis on the "reading the guides" part.
Could you please share your experience with soldering irons? I would really appreciate that since i want to get a new one and the more I read the more indecisive I become

Post automatically merged: May 6, 2023

does this look clean to you

This looks like a job done by someone who puts some passion into his work.
You are good to go

 

[agus]

can using picofly dual boot? choose ofw and cfw like the old sx core? there are people who say that if you choose ofw it will damage it. Is it true?

 

[LogicalMadness]

I second evereything that you said, emphasis on the "reading the guides" part.
Could you please share your experience with soldering irons? I would really appreciate that since i want to get a new one and the more I read the more indecisive I become

Post automatically merged: May 6, 2023

This looks like a job done by someone who puts some passion into his work.
You are good to go

When I worked at a local game store, I used a Hakko station. Worked well enough but Hakko is just over priced.

When I started working from home, I used some cheap Chinese knockoff thing that I had gotten free. It soldered well enough but it was huge and falling apart.

I recently purchased a Pine64 and absolutely love it! Now I'm just looking for the best power supply and a J-tip.

 

[MXRD4K1LL4]

View attachment 369265

Looking for some guidance. Switch Lite - have marked the 2 things I am unsure on in red/purple 'circles'

Where does the 'G Mosfet' connection go to? and the same for the 'CPU pin on rp2040?
Has anyone got a better diagram like sthetix diagrams on github??????????

It goes to the pin 15 on rp2040 zero

 

[II_HamoudE_II]

Things I learned along the way.
Weller is not the best soldering iron brand. Went through three of them in two weeks.

Micro soldering is hard without a way to "enhance image!" Thankfully I have my light and magnifying lens I use for model painting.

DO NOT do what I did and use a special edition console for your first install. I had a few of these so I was fine with it.

Flux is your best friend.

Have two sizes of solder. I used .8mm and .3mm

Go slow, I can not stress this enough!
Take your time.

Watch YouTube videos and ask a ton of questions before starting. That saved me a lot of time. Read the guides multiple times over.

Fuck flex cables, the alt soldering point on it was easier to solder to than getting the middle two contacts.


This was my first time micro soldering, but not my first time soldering electronics in general. Don't let this be your first project in any sort of soldering. Get a practice kit off Amazon or AliExpress when you get your tools and stuff.

Post automatically merged: May 5, 2023

It was the 2040 that was bad.

Post automatically merged: May 5, 2023

Oh and take breaks, set it down and back away for a bit. Stress causes mistakes and dumb choices.

Bro, do you relly think that mosfet is better and easier than flex ? it's my first tim too.

 

[lightninjay]

Bro, do you relly think that mosfet is better and easier than flex ? it's my first tim too.

After doing a flex install, admittedly the mosfets can be easier if you are good at manipulating things with tweezers.
The flex can be easier, but you have to install it a very particular way with pre-tinning the solder pads on it, lining it up and anchoring it perfectly, not accidentally bridging across the capacitors, etc.

With the bare mosfets, you can choose to only solder to one side of the capacitors, and then solder the source of mosfet to any nearby ground instead of the ground on the capacitors.

 

[QuiTim]

When I worked at a local game store, I used a Hakko station. Worked well enough but Hakko is just over priced.

When I started working from home, I used some cheap Chinese knockoff thing that I had gotten free. It soldered well enough but it was huge and falling apart.

I recently purchased a Pine64 and absolutely love it! Now I'm just looking for the best power supply and a J-tip.

A couple of years back I bought a TS80p and it's great but the selection of tips is very limited.
I soldered my first SxCore with that one but it was not easy. After this mod came to light, i ordered a custom solder pen board from Tindie which uses Weller RTM/RTP tips and i've been using this one for last 2 months. At 50€ a piece for tip I must say i'm not impressed. It's very precise but they dont hold solder very well (I have 3 pcs currently and it's the same problem with all of them). Last week I ordered a Qianli which uses C115 tip fom JBC and I'm looking forward to see how this one performs.
Next step is to get a solder station so I'm doing some research on this subject. I currently have my eye on Aixun T3B but i'm not sure yet as the options on this range are huge.

 

[naldo29]

can i bridge these 2? this is ground on a V2

 

[lightninjay]

View attachment 369485 can i bridge these 2? this is ground on a V2

As long as you just mean the top two contacts, a little bridging shouldn't be an issue. Just don't bridge to the bottom of the pads. You can also solder to any other ground on the board for V2's

 

[naldo29]

As long as you just mean the top two contacts, a little bridging shouldn't be an issue. Just don't bridge to the bottom of the pads. You can also solder to any other ground on the board for V2's

i tried but for the life of me the solder wouldnt stick to the copper pads, it was impossible lol

Post automatically merged: May 6, 2023

As long as you just mean the top two contacts, a little bridging shouldn't be an issue. Just don't bridge to the bottom of the pads. You can also solder to any other ground on the board for V2's

and yeah i mean the top 2