Hacking Hardware Picofly - a HWFLY switch modchip

[MrScopi]

What happens to these flux residues around the welding points? why don't you clean the motherboard with ipa?

Did you know that some flux's are energy conductors and can create interference in the operation of the console ?

Not to mention that some cause corrosion in the components. Take a cotton swab or an old toothbrush and clean that residue.

Why are you using the same type of wire for the grd and +3.3v? What about Ground Balance? These are points that require solid electrical stability for the RP2040 to work flawlessly. You didnt even remove the USB port?

Flux residues -- haven't bothered with a deep clean b/c I haven't been satisfied I'm done soldering.
Yes, I know that some can be, so I'll give it a wash and see if that changes anything.
Not sure what you mean about the grd and 3.3v wire. Should it be thicker?
Didn't bother with the USB port b/c I don't have the best hot air station for removing it, and didn't want to take the chance to mess up the pico and not know I had.

Let me know what you're implying with the grd and 3.3v wires, then I'll give it a good bath after addressing that and see what we see. Thanks!

 

[Viktorsilva]

Flux residues -- haven't bothered with a deep clean b/c I haven't been satisfied I'm done soldering.
Yes, I know that some can be, so I'll give it a wash and see if that changes anything.
Not sure what you mean about the grd and 3.3v wire. Should it be thicker?
Didn't bother with the USB port b/c I don't have the best hot air station for removing it, and didn't want to take the chance to mess up the pico and not know I had.

Let me know what you're implying with the grd and 3.3v wires, then I'll give it a good bath after addressing that and see what we see. Thanks!

Allways use thicker wire for ground and vcc. its a common rule in electric circuits.

 

[Hassal]

I don't know if Instinct can fix the problem.
Pink screen without modchip? If yes and it doesn't work with Instinct then the only solution is to install a real HWFLY chip. It was exactly the same with my Lite.
My guess would have been that the problem could have been prevented by this pulldown resistor on the mosfet. But that's just speculation.

This has nothing to do with the pull down resistors on the mosfets. It is a problem with the eMMC, some are just too sensitive resulting in unstable lines. The way to solve it is adding high enough resistance to stabilize the line. I think that's what the OG HWFLY are doing.

 

[Tom_]

I had the same problem 2 days ago with this chip got purple screen on boot when trying to boot to OFW even when I desolder the picofly completely, i also tried old original sxlite and same problem , failed to init retry count is 5 but same problem and the last thing i did is changed the flex cable and it worked fine.

I tried Instinct V6S, but with the same result: purple screen on OFW, emmc init failed with 5 retries.
Although tried the instinct v6s with additional 220R on DAT0 and tried picofly with 47R+220R (Waveshare tiny) on DAT0. Everytime with same result. replaced the CMD resistor the fourth time. same result. Any other ideas? btw. thanks for your help.

 

[abal1000x]

I tried Instinct V6S, but with the same result: purple screen on OFW, emmc init failed with 5 retries.
Although tried the instinct v6s with additional 220R on DAT0 and tried picofly with 47R+220R (Waveshare tiny) on DAT0. Everytime with same result. replaced the CMD resistor the fourth time. same result. Any other ideas? btw. thanks for your help.

Seems like the emmc chip broken.

 

[Hassal]

I tried Instinct V6S, but with the same result: purple screen on OFW, emmc init failed with 5 retries.
Although tried the instinct v6s with additional 220R on DAT0 and tried picofly with 47R+220R (Waveshare tiny) on DAT0. Everytime with same result. replaced the CMD resistor the fourth time. same result. Any other ideas? btw. thanks for your help.

You still haven't showed what your partition table looks like. You think we are mind readers and know the condition of your console?

Purple screen resulting from corrupt NAND would be declared unfixable and would require a donor NAND if you have no backup. But like I said, keep increasing the resistance even if it takes 500ohm.

 

[ArnoNuehm]

Regarding the ofw part you need to change cmd and dat0 on the chip (point a and c on the modchip)
Se this thread and post #158.

Ok thank you - I read through the Thread. Is it certain that when I´m changing both Resistors to 100 OHM that it will work ? In the Thread people also were arguing that it´s kind of a gamble - and you sometimes have to consider other Resistors.
I´m willing to try - but on the other Hand - EmuNAND works fine. I was able to dump my NAND and made a backup. In the NAND-Section everything is "green" - I did not run a Speed-Test though (Should I ?)
Are there disadvantages using my Switch as it is ? Can I simply stick to the EmuNAND ?
I also have one Question regarding my second Issue (please dont laugh when it´s a silly Question - I just want to understand ) Why am I able to Boot correctly into OFW when for example I had this weird Issue with my DAT-0-Error (aka Picofly not working) - but on the other Side I cant boot into OFW (or SysNAND for that matter) when the Glitch works. Shouldn´t it be the same Issue when the Resistors are wrong?

Look like you are having problems witch Dat0 adapters . Classic . That is way many of us are choosing to do kamikaze.

I have seen the Method in Videos on Youtube - Thats something out of my League I think. But is the Adapter that unstable ? What are you Guys using to Grind into the Board ? For now my Switch works - but just in Case in the Future it´s becoming more of an Issue.

 

[Tom_]

You still haven't showed what your partition table looks like. You think we are mind readers and know the condition of your console?

Purple screen resulting from corrupt NAND would be declared unfixable and would require a donor NAND if you have no backup. But like I said, keep increasing the resistance even if it takes 500ohm.

I´m sorry, but I couldn´t tell because eMMC didn´t init. Now I tried with 550R and eMMC could be init in hekate. eMMC info shows GPP (emmc user): Partition table is empty. Does it help to restore from my backup? Do I need to restore full RAW GPP?

 

[rull_bull]

Ok thank you - I read through the Thread. Is it certain that when I´m changing both Resistors to 100 OHM that it will work ? In the Thread people also were arguing that it´s kind of a gamble - and you sometimes have to consider other Resistors.
I´m willing to try - but on the other Hand - EmuNAND works fine. I was able to dump my NAND and made a backup. In the NAND-Section everything is "green" - I did not run a Speed-Test though (Should I ?)
Are there disadvantages using my Switch as it is ? Can I simply stick to the EmuNAND ?
I also have one Question regarding my second Issue (please dont laugh when it´s a silly Question - I just want to understand ) Why am I able to Boot correctly into OFW when for example I had this weird Issue with my DAT-0-Error (aka Picofly not working) - but on the other Side I cant boot into OFW (or SysNAND for that matter) when the Glitch works. Shouldn´t it be the same Issue when the Resistors are wrong?



I have seen the Method in Videos on Youtube - Thats something out of my League I think. But is the Adapter that unstable ? What are you Guys using to Grind into the Board ? For now my Switch works - but just in Case in the Future it´s becoming more of an Issue.

The solution is to change resistors 100%
It’s the most common problem and there is LOTS of post about not being able to boot ofw.

The resistors is there to keep the electric noise low, thats why it wont work when the modchip is active. To much electric inteference.
Change them and it’s going to work.

Regarding why it wont glitch sometimes is your install.
Show us some pictures of your soldering and maybe we could pinpoint the problem.

 

[Hassal]

I´m sorry, but I couldn´t tell because eMMC didn´t init. Now I tried with 550R and eMMC could be init in hekate. eMMC info shows GPP (emmc user): Partition table is empty. Does it help to restore from my backup? Do I need to restore full RAW GPP?

You can restore your NAND from backup, in fact that's what you should be doing. Your other option is rebuilding NAND from scratch which I presume you won't like.

 

[MrScopi]

Well, I upped the gauge of the 3.3v and gnd wires and gave a good IPA bath to every connection and still ==*. I'm going to redo the RST/CLK/DAT0/CMD connections but after that I'm kinda running out of ideas.

4. Somehow the CMD line is unstable. Theres check on CMD line voltage, in the beginning. And its passed (OK). Theres also reading CMD line bytes when first upload the loader to the emmc through Dat0 (white led), it also passed. So the probability that this is the cause of the error is low.
5. The picofly (rp2040) problematic cant send the gate signal.

I'll look at this now.

EDIT: Redid the resistored lines and still ==*. Going to swap pico boards for another one tomorrow.

 

[Tom_]

You can restore your NAND from backup, in fact that's what you should be doing. Your other option is rebuilding NAND from scratch which I presume you won't like.

Yeah! Switch (OLED with SK Hynix) came back to life! Solution after purple screen:
- replace CMD resistor
- added 550R on DAT0 (47R CMD, 47R CLK)
- GPP restore from backup

Boot to hekate and boot to OFW now possible. Glitchingtimes with 550R much faster than with 47R or 100R
Thanks for help!

 

[Viktorsilva]

Yeah! Switch (OLED with SK Hynix) came back to life! Solution after purple screen:
- replace CMD resistor
- added 550R on DAT0 (47R CMD, 47R CLK)
- GPP restore from backup

Boot to hekate and boot to OFW now possible. Glitchingtimes with 550R much faster than with 47R or 100R
Thanks for help!

Howwww, that was a great tip from @Hassal

Post automatically merged: Feb 20, 2024

Well, I upped the gauge of the 3.3v and gnd wires and gave a good IPA bath to every connection and still ==*. I'm going to redo the RST/CLK/DAT0/CMD connections but after that I'm kinda running out of ideas.



I'll look at this now.

EDIT: Redid the resistored lines and still ==*. Going to swap pico boards for another one tomorrow.

Did you try to swap Mosfet from under side to cpu capacitor ?it must have to be with something related to capacitor

 

[MrScopi]

Did you try to swap Mosfet from under side to cpu capacitor ?it must have to be with something related to capacitor

Does the front method require dual mosfets? Or can I run two wires to the drain? Do I need to re-cover the cpu before testing with power?

 

[bvang913]

Does the front method require dual mosfets? Or can I run two wires to the drain? Do I need to re-cover the cpu before testing with power?

Not my photo, but no you don't need two. Some people have mentioned they had to add two mosfets, but you can use one like this. I just did an install over the weekend like this and it works perfectly.

 

[Moneyforthecash]

Yeah! Switch (OLED with SK Hynix) came back to life! Solution after purple screen:
- replace CMD resistor
- added 550R on DAT0 (47R CMD, 47R CLK)
- GPP restore from backup

Boot to hekate and boot to OFW now possible. Glitchingtimes with 550R much faster than with 47R or 100R
Thanks for help!

I'm really glad to hear that.
I had increased the resistance to only 200 ohms back then. That was probably too little.
Learned something again

 

[Crung]

Can you post some pictures of it? Is the console rebooting to ofw without Picofly installed ?

I did a reflow and it fixed it. For some reason, my solder balls always crack after 1 month or so. Sometimes less. I dont know what i did wrong. I have reballed this emmc chip twice ,and 2x reflows. The solder balls still crack

 

[ThiagoDaruma]

i haven't even touched this component. but it looks chipped, i'll try to replace it.

i replaced the MAX77812 but i was unsuccessful. now i no longer have a blue screen, only a blank screen and the upper memory gets hot. i tried removing and fitting a new MAX77812, apparently the soldering was fine, but i have the same result.

 

[thesjaakspoiler]

I did a reflow and it fixed it. For some reason, my solder balls always crack after 1 month or so. Sometimes less. I dont know what i did wrong. I have reballed this emmc chip twice ,and 2x reflows. The solder balls still crack

Overheating, letting it cool too quickly or maybe some less than optimal materials.
What tool/materials/procedures are you using?

 

[Viktorsilva]

I did a reflow and it fixed it. For some reason, my solder balls always crack after 1 month or so. Sometimes less. I dont know what i did wrong. I have reballed this emmc chip twice ,and 2x reflows. The solder balls still crack

This is way i chosse Kamikaze and avoid to increasing the risk of thermal Stress doing Reflows

Post automatically merged: Feb 21, 2024

Does the front method require dual mosfets? Or can I run two wires to the drain? Do I need to re-cover the cpu before testing with power?

This issue has already been mentioned several times. No, you don't need to use 2 Mosfets!
No, it is not necessary to have 2 wires to drain, 1 is enough.

This is a real image from one of my latest installation :

And yes, it is working good with instant glitch.Just follow the image above and you will be good. Dont forget to isolate with kapton tape in the end. Then, thermal past only on CPU and you can close the cpu shield. Dont forget to bend the metal to run the Gate wire from mosfet to Picofly.


Good luck with that