New major updates made in the $3 Pikofly Nintendo Switch modchip project

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Late last year, a homebrew developer made a massive announcement: there was a new Nintendo Switch modchip coming soon, and it would support not just launch units, but also more modern OLED and Mariko Switch revisions (though not Erista). The icing on the cake was that the modchip to hack the Switch only cost $3. and consist of a RP2040-Zero unit, which hugely contrasted with the only other available modchip--the HWfly--which went for over $100 at the time. Dubbed the Pikofly chip, it would, in theory, be able to install custom firmware on your Switch.

Scene members quickly took notice, as many began working on breaking down how the chip functioned, with lots of information available in the Pikofly discussion thread. And now, thanks to their hard work, you can now take advantage of it, in order to get the Pikofly modchip working on your Switch. GBAtemp user Rehius has published a GitHub project page that has a firmware file and further documentation, while Flynnsmt4 managed to decrypt parts of the code, even creating a cycle-accurate emulator that further explains how the chip works. With these new milestones, people are already discussing techniques to solder the chip to their consoles.

If you're curious to see more, and how this unfolds, head on over to the Pikofly thread to see the latest discussion and updates.
 

linuxares

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I always wondered why use a Pi at all. This seems like massive overkill to me, seems like something the average microcontroller should handle, something along the lines of an AtMega. Then again, I don’t know exactly what code this is running, so I may be entirely off-base and that cortex is doing voodoo on the Switch. I suppose availability of resources and big community make it more attractive.
I guess its just because its cheap and already have pinouts
 

raxadian

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I am so glad I nabbed an old model Switch when I could. Now if I wasn't ao afraid of bricking it and just hacked it already.
 

tech3475

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I am so glad I nabbed an old model Switch when I could. Now if I wasn't ao afraid of bricking it and just hacked it already.

Isn't the RCM Switch hack practically brick proof from a software perspective so long as you have a good dump? Possibly going further and using emunand to avoid the sysnand entirely?
 

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I always wondered why use a Pi at all. This seems like massive overkill to me, seems like something the average microcontroller should handle, something along the lines of an AtMega. Then again, I don’t know exactly what code this is running, so I may be entirely off-base and that cortex is doing voodoo on the Switch. I suppose availability of resources and big community make it more attractive.

The RP2040 has a special PIO hardware, which lets you execute very deliberate instructions in a single clock cycle. It's a compromise between bitbanging stuff with a CPU, or a very expensive CPLD/FPGA. It's small yet powerful, letting you even drive displays in real time, even unattended if you can program the DMA chain, for absolute 0% CPU usage.

To my knowledge, you need very short pulses to glitch the hardware (reverse-engineering the dumped firmware says it overclocks to 333MHz!), so I highly doubt a pity ATMega could handle this job. Or at least, definitely not an 8bit one.
 
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hippy dave

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I always wondered why use a Pi at all. This seems like massive overkill to me, seems like something the average microcontroller should handle, something along the lines of an AtMega. Then again, I don’t know exactly what code this is running, so I may be entirely off-base and that cortex is doing voodoo on the Switch. I suppose availability of resources and big community make it more attractive.
I believe I read that it's the RP2040's PIO support that allows it to be used for the various modchip-type applications that we've been seeing, from GameCube to PSX to Switch.
 
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yarib

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This is missing some information, following the success of flynnsmt4 in decrypting the first firmware. The developer of the other firmware released the full release https://gbatemp.net/threads/pikofly-a-hwfly-switch-modchip.622701/page-78#post-10090767 so there's no need to wait. The full thing is out.

He also says its Picofly noy pikofly and has no idea where the k came from.

Vittorio merged the files to make it more convenient and easier to use here:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/pikofly-a-hwfly-switch-modchip.622701/post-10105119
 
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Sono

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I believe I read that it's the RP2040's PIO support that allows it to be used for the various modchip-type applications that we've been seeing, from GameCube to PSX to Switch.

You've linked the wrong PIO!

RP2040 datasheet, section 3.1

Exerpt:
PIO is programmable in the same sense as a processor. There are two PIO blocks with four state machines each, that can independently execute sequential programs to manipulate GPIOs and transfer data. Unlike a general purpose processor, PIO state machines are highly specialised for IO, with a focus on determinism, precise timing, and close integration with fixed-function hardware.
 

Centrix

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This is awesome news, however, I'll wait until tell someone makes a CFW for the OLED switches, or all Switches. I'm sure in time it will happen.
 

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