In my quest to 'consolize' a switch into a Switchn't I wanted to remove the requirement for a battery.

Not much has been done to figure this out but I did find a thread on shmups in which user fwannmacher had over time figured it out after their battery failed.

First step, there are two test points next to the battery connector (on V1 and V2 switches, yet to confirm lite or oled) that are for the Sense line and GND. Putting a 10k ohm resistor across those pads makes the switch think the battery is fully charged, and will no longer try to charge it.


Next step, the switch requires voltage into the batt circuit or it will not turn on. A DC to DC buck converter from the 15V rail on the switch dock motherboard is a perfect solution for this.
Before connecting the buck converter to the battery input on the switch motherboard, I set its output voltage to 4.22v on my digital multimeter and then connected the output wires to the switches battery input.


Now with buck voltage output at 4.22v on meter I then dialed it in to 4320mv in Hekate (4.30v on meter), hekate has battery info under Console Info/Battery.
This screen unfortunately doesn't auto refresh, so I was making very minute adjustments on the buck converters adjustment screw, then closing and reopening the battery screen to check the new value.
(I got the value of 4320mv from a second fully charged switch I had on hand, but I recommend you check what your console is before beginning modification)



With all this complete the switch now boots completely without a battery, both into OFW and CFW.


Thanks to fwannmacher for their work. I just wanted to do a complete writeup thats a little easier to follow for people in the future and hopefully extending the lifespan of some switches.

 

[fwannmacher]

This is a nice solution; more convenient than manually updating the time everytime you start up the system. Is there also something like this for the 3DS?

It looks like Luma3DS does that

 

[ertaboy356b]

It doesn't. So we have to use things like https://github.com/nedex/QuickNTP

What if you wanted to indefinitely turn the console offline?

 

[fwannmacher]

What if you wanted to indefinitely turn the console offline?

Then you have to set the clock manually.

 

[Dinofly]

Hello! I just got a 20$ broken OLED Switch (broken screen, broken cartridge slot, the rest seems to be working) and i would like to consolize it. I am planning to replace the internal fan with a bigger one so it will be controlled by the console and not always on like when plugged on USB. I am currently checking what type of ribbon cable i have to buy to plug into the motherboard connector but i also have a question: will a bigger fan use more power, and if so is there a risk to blow up the voltage regulator on the motherboard ?

Another question: since i don't have a screen, i suppose i won't be able to use hekate once i mod it. Is there another way to create an emuMMC ?

 

[IamRysing]

Your work saved me so much headache!
I did figure out the fan pinout a few weeks ago as I do plan to eventually make another revision and try to make it smaller again using maybe a low profile GPU cooler. Anything from a card over 35W should work.

No, you would start a lithium fire.

A lot can be done and an oled dock version would be pretty cool as I did kill the wifi during some prototyping of coolers. (the 100nf caps left the chat)

I was looking into integrating the joycon rails into a shell design but it was a bunch of stuffing around since I already have a charge stand for them on my controller display shelf.

This is my finalized version for the moment. Max overclocks stable at 40c in BOTW.
The power button is discrete and you just press on the shell lid lightly to activate the button on the original ribbon which made this quite a sleek design.
View attachment 370115View attachment 370116

View attachment 370118View attachment 370119


Cooling is simply two stock coolers stacked on eachother, the second held on with cable ties and a gentle sweeping bend in the heatpipe.
I used the motherboard backplate (albeit cut down) from the original chassis to mount the mainboard to as it also provides the screw points for the heatsink, fan and cart slot.

Sorry to come to this thread super late, do you still have the files to print out this shell design? It’s just so when I decide to do this mod in the future it’ll save me a headache of creating a shell design for it

 

[Compi]

Would like the files as well.

 

[FueledSamantha]

These are the latest variants of shell and lid (attached zip, contains two STL files). I used some of the chassis from a damaged switch as a motherboard tray, just cut out the part I needed and glued it down. Drilled some holes manually and added screws to hold down the lid. Positioning the power switch was difficult but I got there in the end.

I dont know how this will work for other people, as I did a lot of recycling. But feel free to give it a try and share it. If I ever improve it in the future I will share that.

Hello! I just got a 20$ broken OLED Switch (broken screen, broken cartridge slot, the rest seems to be working) and i would like to consolize it. I am planning to replace the internal fan with a bigger one so it will be controlled by the console and not always on like when plugged on USB. I am currently checking what type of ribbon cable i have to buy to plug into the motherboard connector but i also have a question: will a bigger fan use more power, and if so is there a risk to blow up the voltage regulator on the motherboard ?

Another question: since i don't have a screen, i suppose i won't be able to use hekate once i mod it. Is there another way to create an emuMMC ?

I did post a fan pinout in another thread, here is a screenshot.
If you provide the 5v from a strong switched 5v source on the dock then you can rely on the pwm to control its speed.

You do need to setup the FW with a working lcd, digitizer and joycon rails.

Sorry to everyone who posted and waited, I'm not active here unless I'm working on a project.

 

[Ondrashek06]

Wait, it does not have the capability to bypass the battery? That's a technology that even the PSP had. Amazing how backwards Nintendo can be with hardware.

 

[Sztrovacsek81]

No, you would start a lithium fire.

Hi!

I also have a switch with totally teared off charging port. So I decided to solder some wires to the battery port of the pcb and glue an extetnal type-c charging board on the backplate of the console. In this way I have succesfully burned a TP4056. Also tried with my imax b6 external charger: when the battery is not attached to the pcb I can easily charge it up, when attached the voltmeter goes straight to 4.2V and nothing happens after an hour

Now I have ordered a TP5100 for a try but I have a bad feeling about this. I think I'll burn it too this way.

Now I found this topic and I'm curious why the lithium fire is possible with a normal 1S external lithium battery charging board?

Do you have any idea how to manage this?

Thank you!

Post automatically merged: Mar 3, 2025

So, I decided about going for another direction and using the battery board instead and the result is pretty good. I set the buck converter voltage to 4.3v and now the battery is always full.
We still need a 10K resistor otherwise the battery board will tell the system that the battery's temperature is -32C. The resistor between the test points will tell the Switch that the temperature is 28C. But there is no need of extra resistors other than the 10K one - even with its error margin.
View attachment 371154View attachment 371164

That's interesting. You have removed the battery and left the BCM if I see well. What do you think if I open the battery and add an external 1S liion charging board between the BCM and the battery? It is possible to charge the battery externally in this case? (Right now I just soldered it to the battery port on the PCB but it won't charge the battery that way
Thank you!

PS: I'm on the totally opposite approach: with a teared off charging port (and video output) I only want to save this console for the kids as a handheld only unit.

 

[PickleMario]

Super Cool

 

[Batteryless]

We can have 4.6v as input and it will deliver 4.3v. So I'm trying to find a better voltage line than 15.35v - like using a 5v from usb - so we can ditch the buck converter completely.

"A power adapter with an output voltage of 4.6 V DC (0,9 A) is specific to certain models in the Nintendo DS family, such as the Nintendo DS, 2DS, 3DS, 3DS XL, DSi, and DSi XL."

"Booting needs less voltage: I wasn't aware of how much current the Switch needed to boot. So as I mentioned it only uses 0.4A and the voltage has to be between 3.3V and 4.2V." shmups. system11. org/viewtopic.php?p=1510622

I will test if a DS power adapter (wired to the battery management board of the battery) provides enough current to boot up my Switch1 without the battery when the Switch is connected to the dock.

Update: The first (non-original) DS power adapter I tested is providing 5.3 V!

"The output voltage of the Nintendo WAP-002 charger (DS, 2DS, 3DS) is 4.6 volts. The DS Lite uses the USG-002 which has an output voltage of 5.2 volts."

 

[Batteryless]

I will test if a DS power adapter (wired to the battery management board of the battery) provides enough current to boot up my Switch1 without the battery when the Switch is connected to the dock.

I was able to boot-up my two Switch1 devices (one from 2021/XKJ4=Mariko console revision and one from 2017) with this minimal solution (without a buck converter) with a 2A power adapter:

1. Non-SMD resistor added to the modified battery connector cable (I want to be able to connect a battery - without a permanent resistor between the test points of the mainboard):


2. 4.5V 0.7 A LED driver as battery replacement (works for 2021/XKJ4=Mariko console revision, but my Switch1 from 2017 boot-loops):

Post automatically merged: Dec 30, 2025

I was able to boot-up one of two Switch1 devices (the one from 2021/XKJ4=Mariko console revision, but the one from 2017 boot-loops) with this minimal solution (without a buck converter):

I was able to boot-up the Switch1 from 2017 with a stronger power adapter "24W Universal AC to DC 3V 4,5V 5V 6V 7,5V 9V 12V 2A DC"!

Voltage before BMS: 4.62 V


Voltage after BMS: 4.38 V

 

[Batteryless]

I was able to boot-up the Switch1 from 2017 with a stronger power adapter "24W Universal AC to DC 3V 4,5V 5V 6V 7,5V 9V 12V 2A DC"!

I was searching for a USB version and found a 3*AAA battery replacement with an 4.5V output!

Voltage before BMS: 4.5 V
Voltage after BMS: 4.29 V

3xAAA Dummy Adapter USB Power Supply Cable: