Hacking Hardware Picofly - a HWFLY switch modchip

[detilmalala]

check your 3.3v stepdown chip if it was blow by leaving it short to ground.

Can you point out what that reducing chip would be?

 

[jkyoho]

Can you point out what that reducing chip would be?

next to the 2 big cap you took 3.3v from

 

[detilmalala]

next to the 2 big cap you took 3.3v from

Can you point it out in the image for me?

Post automatically merged: Jun 28, 2025

Can you point it out in the image for me?

Update: I have made measurements and I have a low diode drop in the points marked in red, I removed the coil and on the marked side it measures 50 in diode drop, I don't know which part of the board that end is connected to, I would appreciate help

 

[jkyoho]

Can you point it out in the image for me?

Post automatically merged: Jun 28, 2025

Update: I have made measurements and I have a low diode drop in the points marked in red, I removed the coil and on the marked side it measures 50 in diode drop, I don't know which part of the board that end is connected to, I would appreciate help

" it measures 50 in diode drop" in picture1?

 

[detilmalala]

" it measures 50 in diode drop" in picture1?

no no, in figure 2, I removed the coil and the side that is marked in red measures 50 in diode drop. what should i do? I already injected 1 volt at that point and there is no consumption

 

[jkyoho]

no no, in figure 2, I removed the coil and the side that is marked in red measures 50 in diode drop. what should i do? I already injected 1 volt at that point and there is no consumption

those 4 coil around max77812 is for CPU power and low resistance/impendence is normal

 

[detilmalala]

those 4 coil around max77812 is for CPU power and low resistance/impendence is normal

compared to a functional oled board, it gives me half the value, that's why I ask, I will have to change that ic max 77812 and try

 

[NW11]

.

 

[jkyoho]

Help identifying OLED components values​

View attachment 515607

if you measure resistance to ground and get around 20 ohm, that is normal

 

[thesjaakspoiler]

Help identifying OLED components values
View attachment 515607

Big ones are 1uH coils and the middle one is a 37uF capacitor according to this info :
https://files.zzattack.org/img/console/switch/oled/Components/bottom.jpg

 

[NW11]

.

 

[RatchetRussian]

I recently stumbled into a system which fails to boot (*== error) only if it doesn't have 5 seconds to rest between reboots.

To elaborate: The system boots successfully 100% of the time as long as I wait more than 5 seconds from the time I turn it off and turn it back on. If I don't wait 5 seconds, I get the error. Has anyone exhibited this before?

EDIT: This was fixed by shortening the CLK wire. Weird shit

 

[thesjaakspoiler]

Thank youf for your reply. Which ground resistance is measured? OLED is currently missing the components on the right side of the picture

Post automatically merged: Jul 10, 2025

Thank you so much. 1uh 1008 2A coils?
Can't seem to find 37uf chip capacitors.

I think the person who made that document just measured the values so there might be some slight errors.
Just take something close to that value.

 

[gener21839]

Seeking help. Condensed story. Excuse the fibers--I'll clean that when I move forward with your advice.


I have experience soldering, not micro. A buddy asked if I could help, and I was real excited.

First go around, I noticed the bad solder on SP1, but it just wouldn't bead up, and I gave it shot.

I got ==* (old.jpg) even though the multimeter looked good (11.9 ohm each). I went back and tried again (new.jpg) multimeter still good. It worked for about 5 hours. Froze while I stepped out--thought was the home brew.

Nope (error.jpg). OFW blue screens.

I finangle with other things and it would work intermittently--it was confusing. Moving around the SD card reader/pressing the extended part of the ribbon cable, and outright disconnecting the sd card reader seemed, at that moment, to be reliable. Works without, crashing with.

I thought(.jpg) that little circle part might have been it because the cover looked to be making contact with that capacitor and it worked a for about 20 minutes after pinching in the cover.

Eventually, I think about that bad solder joint. I may as well put a bit extra nice leaded solder and wick some off with the iron, and I add some and dab it off until I noticed that the capacitor ma be gone. I might have picked it up with the iron and jabbed it into a copper mesh. I remove the ribbon cable to find it, and it's gone (current.jpg -- imaged).

My friend calls to ask about progress while I'm stretching apart the mesh to look for the capacitor. They're surprisingly cool about it, but I really want to fix this.



Advice?
I decided to set it down, put it on hold, and ask for advice before moving forward.

If nothing else, I read that I can just go without the capacitor and solder the pad directly to the ribbon cable--particularly the right pad (where I measured the resistance). Also. I'm worried that it's in the system and might short something. I tried to rattle it, but nothing was especially apparent. I heard some shifting, but not like a little bead of metal plinking around.

For testing, I could just assemble it without the mod and see if it still boots or BSoD.

 

[Danook28]

any one know why emummc in 20.1.5 give error pkgl the cfw working fine. sd is sandisk 256. any fix for this erorr.

 

[thesjaakspoiler]

If nothing else, I read that I can just go without the capacitor and solder the pad directly to the ribbon cable--particularly the right pad (where I measured the resistance). Also. I'm worried that it's in the system and might short something. I tried to rattle it, but nothing was especially apparent. I heard some shifting, but not like a little bead of metal plinking around.

Yes, in my experience you can do without that capacitor.
It is there to smooth the voltage line and there are multiple capacitors so missing one should be no problem.

As far as the missing capacitor, try to find it.
Sometimes they stick elsewhere to the PCB due to the flux.
I wrecked my notebook once with a tiny screw that got loose inside.

By the way, testing connections/points is done in diode mode (Except maybe for full shorts).
Then you can compare your measurements with the measurements mentioned here.

 

[gener21839]

Yes, in my experience you can do without that capacitor.
It is there to smooth the voltage line and there are multiple capacitors so missing one should be no problem.

As far as the missing capacitor, try to find it.
Sometimes they stick elsewhere to the PCB due to the flux.

By the way, testing connections/points is done in diode mode (Except maybe for full shorts).
Then you can compare your measurements with the measurements mentioned here.

Okay, so I'm thinking that I'll test the unit without the mod to see if it still boots and works fine and isn't messed up with something else.

Are you saying that the cap could be under the APU? Because I'm shaking and rotating this thing trying to hear for a loose piece, and I'm not hearing it. I shined a super bright LED flashlight, and there's no sign of it around the edges of the APU or near it (or the rest of the board). As pictured, it certainly isn't on top of the APU.

Is it possible that I lifted it with the iron and stuck it in the copper mesh for cleaning solder off of the tip? That was what I thought happened. Does that sound realistic to you?

Anyway, I'm thinking that I should tin the bottom of the connector on the ribbon cable for that missing cap on just the right side of SP1 and press it in, and then do it normally on SP2.

Still, the original (old.jpg) soldering looked better than other guides even though it didn't flow as nicely as it could've. It makes me think that maybe I had reflowed under the APU, but I was using a super low temp of 375F.

I'll have to test without the mod and see what happens. Thanks for confirming my thoughts.

ofc, if anyone has ideas, by all means, I'm all ears


EDIT: I took out the mod. I left the unit on for an hour or two by just tapping the screen when it faded, and it didn't seize. Then, I practiced a bit on my irons. I should've just stuck with the one I'm most used to the first go instead of trying the TS JL02. I thought that the sharp tip would be nice, but nope. Anyway, it worked nicely (I think) this time. Here's some pics.

How does it look?

EDIT: I left it on overnight and all day today, and it's still working well.

 

[YoNoid]

I'm using the Hwfly Clones from AliExpress with a fw_2.73 Firmware. Is there a newer version of the firmware available, and is it worth updating the chip?

I bought those devices as well and updated them to 2.80 without issue.

Look for the rehius/usk/releases on GitHub

 

[Bigdrago]

Where is picofly_toolbox?
Where to put firmware.uf2 ?

 

[cowboy619]

Where is picofly_toolbox?
Where to put firmware.uf2 ?

Toolbox is in payload - put the uf2 file in the root of sd card