Hacking Hardware Picofly - a HWFLY switch modchip

[lightninjay]

Sorry to bother you, is it possible to check with you what the daughter board does?

I accidentally damaged the ribbon cable from the main board to the daughter board. Now my switch lite does not turn on. (No sound, no display, nth) But the motherboard shows power when I press the power button @ 3.3v pt.
(Tested this with the picofly)

Could that ribbon cable to the daughter board be the issue or it is smt else?

I refer you to an earlier post I made, helping someone else with the same issue.

Try troubleshooting using this post

https://gbatemp.net/threads/sx-lite...he-screen-doesnt-turn-on.571362/#post-9172025

I had a similar issue when hacking my gf's switch lite, and though nothing was obviously damaged upon visual inspection, one of those points didn't have continuity for me. I run some magnet wire between the two that weren't connected and it brought the screen back to life.

 

[jordanbearbear]

I refer you to an earlier post I made, helping someone else with the same issue.

Hi, my values are very different. For 1,2, and 3 are OL. The capacitor directly below pt 2 is also OL. The component with

is 1.5V -> 1.8V -> OL. The capacitor below

is 1.2V -> 1.8V -> OL. Lastly, the diode pt is 1.25V.

The values are the same with/without the ribbon cable from the motherboard to the daughterboard. There is also connectivity for pt 1,2 and 3 b/w boards.

Thank you for your time.

 

[lightninjay]

Hi, my values are very different. For 1,2, and 3 are OL. The capacitor directly below pt 2 is also OL. The component with

is 1.5V -> 1.8V -> OL. The capacitor below

is 1.2V -> 1.8V -> OL. Lastly, the diode pt is 1.25V.

The values are the same with/without the ribbon cable from the motherboard to the daughterboard. There is also connectivity for pt 1,2 and 3 b/w boards.

Thank you for your time.

It looks like your first photo is of the LCD connector. The connector the points in your second photo are connected to should be located on top of the switch lite battery connector.

 

[jordanbearbear]

It looks like your first photo is of the LCD connector. The connector the points in your second photo are connected to should be located on top of the switch lite battery connector.

Yep I did took the voltage from the one above the battery connector. I mean I saw that the previous post posted a photo of that so I did the same.
My values are very weird. Even when I measure at the exact same points.

 

[Adran_Marit]

Just finished up my fourth picofly install, third switch lite. Technically this mod was done before the second switch lite, but I mangled the daughterboard connector from opening and closing it too much.

Thankfully, the connectors are available online from parts repair stores, so I ordered two and attempted the replacement myself with a lot of flux, a hot-air station, and at the recommendation of a youtube video I watched, I heated the bottom of the board to remove the connector and place the new one. I didn't get super large solder blobbing on every single pin, but she boots with a live and working screen plus touch and left joycon control!

I have a few more switches in the pipeline for friends that I plan to mod with picofly, but it will be a little before that happens. The next install is likely going to be a roadtrip with my tools to a friends', to perform an install in his living room with him present lol.

Frontside of the connector after replacement
View attachment 371184

Backside of the connector after replacement
View attachment 371183

have fun ahah

 

[Pesmerga]

Hello. I have an oled with picofly chip which has been working for 2 months. A couple of days ago, battery drained and I was too lazy to charge it right away and left it dead for about a day. I have a V1 so I thought it will be alright. Then it doesnt boot anymore. Left it charging for 5 hrs and overnight but still doesnt boot.

I returned it to the person who modded it and he said that I shouldn’t leave it with battery dead for too long. He was able to fix it afterwards.

Is this true for oled picofly?

 

[abal1000x]

Hello. I have an oled with picofly chip which has been working for 2 months. A couple of days ago, battery drained and I was too lazy to charge it right away and left it dead for about a day. I have a V1 so I thought it will be alright. Then it doesnt boot anymore. Left it charging for 5 hrs and overnight but still doesnt boot.

I returned it to the person who modded it and he said that I shouldn’t leave it with battery dead for too long. He was able to fix it afterwards.

Is this true for oled picofly?

I have test drained battery for lite with picofly. It worked. (At least until red battery icon)

My procedure:
1. Inside the HOS playing game, until it sleep.
2. Whenever the OS sleep, i wake it up again. I repeat this until suddenly its stopped (turn off).
3. I turn it on, boot cfw goes to atmosphere. Repeat number 2.
4. I do step 2-3 until the power on button doesn't goes to OS, but only shows red empty battery icon on left top, then turn off.
5. I repeat step 4 about 10x.
6. Then i charge it, then about 5 minute goes to cfw, atmosphere, etc

 

[A-Hacked-Soul]

Hello. I have an oled with picofly chip which has been working for 2 months. A couple of days ago, battery drained and I was too lazy to charge it right away and left it dead for about a day. I have a V1 so I thought it will be alright. Then it doesnt boot anymore. Left it charging for 5 hrs and overnight but still doesnt boot.

I returned it to the person who modded it and he said that I shouldn’t leave it with battery dead for too long. He was able to fix it afterwards.

Is this true for oled picofly?

DId you hold the + Vol and Power to do a hard reset on the console. That happens to switches normally.

 

[Pesmerga]

I have test drained battery for lite with picofly. It worked. (At least until red battery icon)

My procedure:
1. Inside the HOS playing game, until it sleep.
2. Whenever the OS sleep, i wake it up again. I repeat this until suddenly its stopped (turn off).
3. I turn it on, boot cfw goes to atmosphere. Repeat number 2.
4. I do step 2-3 until the power on button doesn't goes to OS, but only shows red empty battery icon on left top, then turn off.
5. I repeat step 4 about 10x.
6. Then i charge it, then about 5 minute goes to cfw, atmosphere, etc

Thanks for sharing! The repair guy said that it’s ok if left battery dead for a couple of mins but not for several hours

Post automatically merged: May 14, 2023

DId you hold the + Vol and Power to do a hard reset on the console. That happens to switches normally.

I didn’t know about this so I’ll try it next time (if it happens agai).

Although, I did charge it for several hours and tried pressing and holding the power button for up to 15 seconds but didnt work

 

[snaker]

Has anyone used this chip? Is it stable?

 

[Takezo-San]

Hey quick question guys. I am sure you all saw the threads with the massed produced hwfly 2048 pico editions. I got to talk to sthetix for a bit and he says that it is unreiable and causing people to burn the emmc chip and there are lots of bugs still around this. Do you think this is going to be the case with the mass produced version?

If people are using a hot air station to place their dat0 adapter under their Emmc chip, then yes its hit or miss depending on experience/chip manufacture type. However, I spoke to him sthetix and asked if using UV light to set it in place would be better and he agreed, even though one of his tutorials show him just placing the adaptor underneath the chip with no hot air or anything done to it. (UV Idea initially executed by ModsvilleUSA),

 

[doom95]

I've had dozens of cases where dat0 adapters secured only with uv mask came loose after some months. UV mask is notoriously weak. Glueing it down makes a lot more sense, e.g. with Ma-Ant D1 or so, but controlled reflow will be much better still.

 

[DesDeux]

No bridging, I solder rst wire to emmc. And soldering d0, cmd, clk to the motherboard doesn't help with my issue(blue->pink(purple)). Would be funny if it's just faulty rp2040 zero.

Replaced mosfet with another one, all wires with two twisted together 0.1mm wires, all resistors, result - same blue->pink(purple) lights. Ordered new rp2040, will try it with 2.65 firmware instead of 2.67

 

[Takezo-San]

I've had dozens of cases where dat0 adapters secured only with uv mask came loose after some months. UV mask is notoriously weak. Glueing it down makes a lot more sense, e.g. with Ma-Ant D1 or so, but controlled reflow will be much better still.

Oh. Never heard of Ma-Ant D1 before. Grinding pen!? And from research, yeah, reflow seems to be the best way to go for long term results. But still out of my realm of expertise...for now.

 

[doom95]

my bad, I meant Maant MY-F007
but the grinding pen is also real nice

 

[QuiTim]

Oh. Never heard of Ma-Ant D1 before. Grinding pen!? And from research, yeah, reflow seems to be the best way to go for long term results. But still out of my realm of expertise...for now.

Could you please share the Modville video with UV mask?
Also, why would we need a grinding pen to set permanent dat0?
I'm curious

Edit: nevermind the grinding pen part, @doom95 answered it

 

[Takezo-San]

V2 done (with a spare v2 hw cable I had). Works great, had a short that was giving me blue then purple but just checked all connections with multimeter in diode mode and had a short on my Pico board on the soldered CLK position. fyi, 30awg kynar wire was used. All done. Quick question, is it recommended to upgrade the ofw to newest fw version first and then pico, atmo and hekate fw and the rest or the other way around. Also thanks to this amazing community and Lightninjay for his comprehensive guide...Arigato Gozaimasuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!

Post automatically merged: May 14, 2023

Could you please share the Modville video with UV mask?
Also, why would we need a grinding pen to set permanent dat0?
I'm curious

Edit: nevermind the grinding pen part, @doom95 answered it

bollocks, I should have downloaded it before Nintendo got to him. Just checked his Youtube its off his page. But if I remember correctly, he literally slid the adaptor under the EMMC (as you do) and then stuck his UV lamp over the chip. Didn't use mask or anything, just cured it as is. Though, in hindsight, he could have masked it up off camera. Can't be 100% sure. Might contact him about it to double check.

Edit - email sent to Modsville. will update you if/when he replies.

Post automatically merged: May 14, 2023

my bad, I meant Maant MY-F007
but the grinding pen is also real nice

Oh, will look into that. thanks

 

[jacobtc]

Just received my resistors, so I'm slowly going through soldering it all. Is it okay to solder the two mosfets together like this? I don't see why not, but resistance of the wire could maybe affect it?

 

[lightninjay]

Just received my resistors, so I'm slowly going through soldering it all. Is it okay to solder the two mosfets together like this? I don't see why not, but resistance of the wire could maybe affect it?
View attachment 371365

View attachment 369482
Here is a composite image I just took of a double mosfet install I am doing on a switch lite. The circles are the general points of interest and where they need to be hooked up. I jumpered between the gate pins on the mosfets and ran a single wire to the rp2040 to keep wire clutter down, as has been suggested previously.

Here is one of my installs doing almost exactly the same thing. I just combined both the gate pins onto one wire.

 

[cgtchy0412]

Anyone knew what issue will be if the caps on red is not installed, as i missing it when cleaning the point.
Install is success and in fact now my kids playing on it. Only issue is touch screen is not working, it was working before of course. Any clue?