Hacking risks to using tin foil for rcm?

[xXxSwagnemitexXx]

I use tin foil, first time it had stuck on pins. Luckly I ejected via a knife and retried with sandwich method (squeeze between joycon and rail) and worked!

exactly what happened to me

 

[Deleted-355425]

Try that bitch on some fillings in your mouth.

 

[Girtana1]

Why are people bugging out so much about this? I used tinfoil for about a day before I got my jig, just fold a piece of foil up, stick it down at the 10th pin, make sure its long enough so you can still pull it out, and don't keep removing it and putting it back in, put it in once and leave it in, and I recommend only using 1 piece 1 time.

TL;DR just get a jig lol

 

[Hyokai]

Is it really bad to use tinfoil now or not? I used it now for 2 days. Is there any Report that a Switch got broken with it?

 

[The Real Jdbye]

The safest of all is the more simple : SOLDERING SOL-DE-RING.

Do it one time and never touch it again. It work flawlessly and awesome to your console safety.

Paperclip can damage some pins after an occasional use and let's not talk about screwdriver, you can damage very badly the pins very easily. JiG contact aren't that good and you need a precise printed JiG. A lot of them dosen't take his right place (souce : eBay).

Don't bother my friend, just buy a solder kit from Amazon for like 10 bucks.

I disagree with that. Soldering, if you're not experienced with it, is risky business, especially SMD soldering. I would not recommend to someone to just buy a cheap soldering iron and attempt to modify small electronics. Practice on something that's already broken or something it doesn't matter if you break. And then once you feel confident in your ability to solder small (SMD) components without breaking anything, then you can consider hardmodding.
Also, by physically modding the JoyCon you're voiding its warranty so if something goes wrong now or in the future you have to fork out the cash for a new one.

Jigs are cheap, easily available (now that multiple people have started selling premade ones), and at least with the wire-based jig, there is nearly zero chance of breaking the pins, the jig only fits in the right way and the wires are soft enough that even if somehow it was inserted wrong or the wires are out of place it's not going to damage the pins. The only way you could damage anything with a jig like that is if you managed to bridge the power rail to something else, but as the jigs usually use pin 1 and 10, and the power rail is on pin 4, that's very unlikely to happen. It's far more likely to happen by jamming paperclips, needles, tin foil etc. in there (plus the much higher chance of physically damaging the pins), so it should be obvious to anyone that that's a bad idea.

But it can be slightly less reliable, I'll give you that. Still not a big problem, just adjust the wire when needed to keep it working. Better that than a broken JoyCon.
Also, according to this: https://reswitched.tech/hardware/joycon
The JoyCon will not function when pin 10 is low (such as when it's bridged to ground with a hardmod), I haven't heard anyone mention this yet, but that essentially means that you are going to be sacrificing a JoyCon if you do a hardmod and that's another thing you'll have to carry around with you whenever you take the Switch with you.

Is it really bad to use tinfoil now or not? I used it now for 2 days. Is there any Report that a Switch got broken with it?

Tin foil is fairly soft, you are probably not going to physically damage the pins unless you jam a ball of it down there hard. What you have to worry about is accidentally bridging something that shouldn't be bridged, such as pin 4 (5V) to basically any other pin, which could damage whatever in the Switch is handling power delivery to the JoyCons, could damage whatever the other pins you bridged go to, and could even damage the battery. The damage could happen immediately or over time if you accidentally bridge pin 4 multiple times on separate occasions.
Also, you also have to be careful that a piece of tin foil doesn't break off and get stuck in there without you noticing, otherwise once you connect the JoyCon and the piece is moved around it could bridge multiple pins.
I really recommend you get a jig from the person I mentioned above, you won't have access to the trading section yet since you have less than 100 posts but you can PM him directly once you have 10 posts (https://gbatemp.net/members/subcon959.149494/), it's dirt cheap. Or get one off eBay or whatever, it doesn't really matter other than it costing more. I wouldn't get one of the paperclip based jigs, cause they seem like they wouid be far more likely to damage the pins over time, as they are much harder than wires. But that might just be my paranoia.

 

[hippy dave]

Is it really bad to use tinfoil now or not? I used it now for 2 days. Is there any Report that a Switch got broken with it?

At least one person has already posted about having to open up their Switch to recover tinfoil fragment(s) that broke off and got stuck in there. You don't want to have to do that. You also don't want those fragments shorting something they shouldn't and causing problems/damage.

There's any number of things made of solid metal that you could stick in there (I'd still rather use a properly made jig than jam things blindly at the pins and risk damaging them, but whatevs), I don't get why you'd use something that comes apart as easily as tinfoil.

 

[LightOffPro]

Jesus christ people, just shell out a couple of bucks for a proper jig.

I don't know how people prefer to risk a 300€ console by going the cheaper way in terms of modding.

Yea a paper clip works, yea a small pin works, yea a piece of tinfoil works. Is it optimal? Nope.

Buy or make your own proper jig. You can find them on ebay and such for a cheap price.

 

[Draxzelex]

Jesus christ people, just shell out a couple of bucks for a proper jig.

I don't know how people prefer to risk a 300€ console by going the cheaper way in terms of modding.

Yea a paper clip works, yea a small pin works, yea a piece of tinfoil works. Is it optimal? Nope.

Buy or make your own proper jig. You can find them on ebay and such for a cheap price.

I don't know if the jig is more optimal if there's a new thread almost everyday about how someone can't boot into RCM if they're using it. I will admit that there is still some possibility for user error with a jig such as not pushing it in far enough or the metal part not positioned properly. I think using a wire to ground pin 10 to the Switch grill on the top or even the rail itself is probably the safest and best solution

 

[weatMod]

i am going to try and construct a labo style jig from dense thin cardboard glued together in layers and then use heavy duty aluminum foil.
i can not believe we have not seen such a jig yet
print out a nice labo logo and slap it on there, cut the cardboard to be shaped like the 3d printed jig cut a nice neat trace out of the heavy grade aluminum foil sand the edges nice and smooth
glue the foil trace to the cardboard jig with a generous amount of evenly spread glue shiny side out (glue will adhere to the dull side of the foil better)
profit$$

some good suitable cardboard sources, old deck of playing cards or old gift boxes sweaters come in, it is thin and dense

 

[Kioku]

I don't know if the jig is more optimal if there's a new thread almost everyday about how someone can't boot into RCM if they're using it. I will admit that there is still some possibility for user error with a jig such as not pushing it in far enough or the metal part not positioned properly. I think using a wire to ground pin 10 to the Switch grill on the top or even the rail itself is probably the safest and best solution

The thing about Jigs is there are tons of people doing the same thing. The same jig print with a paper clip. It takes but a minute. I got one from etsy and it was crap. Then you've got people like subcon who bends copper wire a specific way. You can't buy the "straight" jigs.

 

[Draxzelex]

The thing about Jigs is there are tons of people doing the same thing. The same jig print with a paper clip. It takes but a minute. I got one from etsy and it was crap. Then you've got people like subcon who bends copper wire a specific way. You can't buy the "straight" jigs.

So moral of the story is to buy a jig from a trusted source? Maybe we should make a review site so users can rate jigs Or have the creators report success rates of RCM with their products

In all seriousness, I don't have a jig so I don't know how much flexibility there is in moving the metal wiring inside. If you've got any suggestions that I could pass onto others who are struggling with RCM using a jig, that would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Kioku]

So moral of the story is to buy a jig from a trusted source? Maybe we should make a review site so users can rate jigs Or have the creators report success rates of RCM with their products

In all seriousness, I don't have a jig so I don't know how much flexibility there is in moving the metal wiring inside. If you've got any suggestions that I could pass onto others who are struggling with RCM using a jig, that would be greatly appreciated.

I'm trying to find a nice jig that ships within the US.. :X

 

[weatMod]

The thing about Jigs is there are tons of people doing the same thing. The same jig print with a paper clip. It takes but a minute. I got one from etsy and it was crap. Then you've got people like subcon who bends copper wire a specific way. You can't buy the "straight" jigs.

another idea i just got
why not someone make a 2d printed jig template you can print out, make the outline of the 3d printed jig
have it repeated a bunch of time so it fills up a whole 8 1/2x11 sheet of paper
repeated outline in tightly fit rows /coulums ( not to waste any paper )
then you cut them all out and glue them together on top of each other in layers with a glue stick
the top layers can have the middle notched out like the 3d printed versions
and then the last top layer can have an outline on where to glue the tin foil
if not 1 sheet of paper then 2 sheets worth ought to be enough to get it to the right thickness
labo jig , or paper mario jig
these things could be easily made if we had a properly measured template

if someone has a real 3d printd jig and a pair of calipers then they could easily measure everything out and figure it out down to a science so all you would need to do is print the sheets ,cut them out, glue the paper together, and then glue the foil trace on

 

[Draxzelex]

I'm trying to find a nice jig that ships within the US.. :X

Lemme know when you do. I'll probably put it in my sig since its not doing anything else useful. Its also kind of funny a country that prides itself on homemade goods can't make a decent jig.

 

[gallymimu]

another idea i just got
why not someone make a 2d printed jig template you can print out, make the outline of the 3d printed jig
have it repeated a bunch of time so it fills up a whole 8 1/2x11 sheet of paper
repeated outline in tightly fit rows /coulums ( not to waste any paper )
then you cut them all out and glue them together on top of each other in layers with a glue stick
the top layers can have the middle notched out like the 3d printed versions
and then the last top layer can have an outline on where to glue the tin foil
if not 1 sheet of paper then 2 sheets worth ought to be enough to get it to the right thickness
labo jig , or paper mario jig
these things could be easily made if we had a properly measured template

if someone has a real 3d printd jig and a pair of calipers then they could easily measure everything out and figure it out down to a science so all you would need to do is print the sheets ,cut them out, glue the paper together, and then glue the foil trace on

ok, so you want to print layers that are 0.002" thick, and stack them up to... what.. 1/16" maybe 1/8" so that's 30 to 60 layers thick. You must be a wiz with xacto knife or scissors. I'd kill myself if I had to cut out that much paper.

That sounds like an asinine amount of work. Why not just download the step files from thingiverse, and order one or two from shapeways for $2 ea plus shipping.

 

[Evictor]

I saw the title for this thread and I lost all hope for normies

 

[weatMod]

ok, so you want to print layers that are 0.002" thick, and stack them up to... what.. 1/16" maybe 1/8" so that's 30 to 60 layers thick. You must be a wiz with xacto knife or scissors. I'd kill myself if I had to cut out that much paper.

That sounds like an asinine amount of work. Why not just download the step files from thingiverse, and order one or two from shapeways for $2 ea plus shipping.

my priginal idea was to use cardboard though
the paper one is just more of a POC
also maybe balsa wood like th ekind toy planes are made of
also you could use scissors to cut most of it
maybe someone could even come up with an oragami jig so more folding less cutting

 

[gallymimu]

my priginal idea was to use cardboard though
the paper one is just more of a POC
also maybe balsa wood like th ekind toy planes are made of
also you could use scissors to cut most of it
maybe someone could even come up with an oragami jig so more folding less cutting

Have you ever seen people make small connectors and mechanical items with moderately precise dimension out of paper, or cardboard, or balsa?

Balsa and cardboard will be awfully flimsy. I would not expect they would be able to apply consistent force to the contacts.

The laminated paper approach is going to be a bit of a mess in my opinion given the number of layers and attempting to get glue between each and all the layers aligned.

It's hard to articulate in definitive terms. But, as someone who earns a living designing and prototyping products and systems. It just doesn't sound like a smart approach vs the other options. (I'm not a fan of the tinfoil idea, not a fan of paper clips or anything harder than the pins or that gets forced against the relatively soft gold plated contacts). Jig with thinner copper wire that is bent to apply some spring force, or opening the joycon to add a jumper would be my preferred approach for things that are likely to work and least likely to cause immediate or downstream damage to the switch).

Certainly if your approach works, please post about it so we can all learn the techniques!! There are a million perfectly good ways to get things done.

 

[jimmyj]

Ordered a jig so yay

 

[weatMod]

Have you ever seen people make small connectors and mechanical items with moderately precise dimension out of paper, or cardboard, or balsa?

Balsa and cardboard will be awfully flimsy. I would not expect they would be able to apply consistent force to the contacts.

The laminated paper approach is going to be a bit of a mess in my opinion given the number of layers and attempting to get glue between each and all the layers aligned.

It's hard to articulate in definitive terms. But, as someone who earns a living designing and prototyping products and systems. It just doesn't sound like a smart approach vs the other options. (I'm not a fan of the tinfoil idea, not a fan of paper clips or anything harder than the pins or that gets forced against the relatively soft gold plated contacts). Jig with thinner copper wire that is bent to apply some spring force, or opening the joycon to add a jumper would be my preferred approach for things that are likely to work and least likely to cause immediate or downstream damage to the switch).

Certainly if your approach works, please post about it so we can all learn the techniques!! There are a million perfectly good ways to get things done.

well the device does not have to be all that precise
people are just jamming foil in between the rain and the joycon itself
wood is just as sturdy as 3d printed plastic and cardboard can be made to be almost as strong as wood
you are worried about hard materials such as paper clips bending the delicate pin well then paper/cardboard coated in heavy duty foil would be much more forgiving on the pins
i mean this is not exactly rocket science here we only need to ground one pin
people have made all kinds of much more complex things from paper/cardboard
even more complex than the labo projects even