Hacking Hardware McFly - an RP2040 board compatible with Picofly

Saliciae · Mar 22, 2023

Raw

kylaris said:
If it was going to be removed, why not just have 90 bent pins? or no pins at all and use a printed pin clip for programming?

Raw pin header approach allows you to do both of these if you want, it's just not the approach I envisioned.

slaphappygamer said:
This is really nice looking. One thought about the break away usb section. I never use my game cart slot and have a digital only library. Wonder it would be feasible to fit the game cart slot and place the usb in there. Probably use some type of ribbon cable to connect it. Maybe that would never work, but just a thought.

You definitely could do this with some flat cable. The pinout is marked on both boards to make creative implementations like this easy

jkyoho · Mar 22, 2023

Assuming data line soldering sit at top edge of pcb by default. I think the CPU FPC connector locates at top left will be a dedicated location. For instance, OLED and V1/V2 HWFLY flex routes from clockwise from CPU bottom cap to top shield, and they eventually connect to fpc at DRAM shield top edge.

LogicalMadness · Mar 22, 2023

BREAKAWAY! This is my favorite kind of genius, simple and efficient AF.

Donnie-Burger · Mar 22, 2023

Amazing work! I'm in!

Saliciae · Mar 23, 2023

jkyoho said:
Assuming data line soldering sit at top edge of pcb by default. I think the CPU FPC connector locates at top left will be a dedicated location. For instance, OLED and V1/V2 HWFLY flex routes from clockwise from CPU bottom cap to top shield, and they eventually connect to fpc at DRAM shield top edge.

other people have suggested the opposite to me so I'm not sure which way is best tbh.

chrisrlink · Mar 23, 2023

hippy dave said:
Does this board have a hover feature at all?

late to the movie puns again i see?

gokuz · Mar 23, 2023

Saliciae said:
other people have suggested the opposite to me so I'm not sure which way is best tbh. Fortunately the hwfly flex pinout is symmetrical and I'm using a double sided connector giving lots of flexibility in routing and connections

I think you should add the required mosfet for the CPU points on this board, making the flex cable obsolete. There's plenty of space for it.

Also, gerber file would be great.

eseldiem · Mar 23, 2023

gokuz said:
I think you should add the required mosfet for the CPU points on this board, making the flex cable obsolete. There's plenty of space for it.

Also, gerber file would be great.

The mosfets work better when they are close to the caps. Not saying it wouldn’t work (it might work just fine), but for better consistency and reliability you want them close.

Also, reading OP’s post regarding the release would be fine.

gokuz · Mar 23, 2023

eseldiem said:
The mosfets work better when they are close to the caps. Not saying it wouldn’t work (it might work just fine), but for better consistency and reliability you want them close.

Also, reading OP’s post regarding the release would be fine.

wdym, the original flex cable has the mosfets quite far apart.

Saliciae · Mar 23, 2023

gokuz said:
wdym, the original flex cable has the mosfets quite far apart.

Putting the mosfets on the board may well cause them to not work as well because of the long power wires. The flex cable uses thick traces and still keeps them relatively close

Dee87 · Mar 23, 2023

Hey if ur still looking for tester send me the files so i can order i have a v2 here where i installed the rp204 would like to give this one a shot
also if u dont wand to release the files im more then willing to pay for the board and parts or just the board

micp · Mar 23, 2023

The breakaway board is a great idea.

I'll keep an eye on this. I need to get hold of a few flex cables.

Saliciae · Mar 23, 2023

micp said:
The breakaway board is a great idea.

I'll keep an eye on this. I need to get hold of a few flex cables.

Flex cable isn't a requirement,if you want to use this for picofly you can solder a mosfet like a conventional install too

DawnWorkout · Mar 23, 2023

I'm glad that a lot of new things came out.
It is difficult to implement due to my lack of skills, but I am looking at the information well.
In addition, the price of the official hwfly has been lowered today. It's about $20 down.

Saliciae · Mar 23, 2023

EDIT: I've been reliably informed this is a pointless waste of time, nvm

rehius · Mar 23, 2023

I have imagined the best picofly custom board as 0.4-0.5mm thin (flex, or not) PCB that is soldered directly onto the CPU caps (somehow compatible with both v1/v2) and rp2040/flash/quartz on the back side hiding within CPU / RAM free space. Of course with solder points on the top side in the place where CPU / RAM cover has a vertical hole.

here you would have a single, universal board that fits everywhere, perfectly hiding all the hardware under the heatsink

Saliciae · Mar 23, 2023

I love the sound of this but it sounds like a real challenge to make work. I might start with this simple device to prove out my concept, see if people are willing to fund a broken motherboard i can use for development. Do you know if mounting the mosfet remotely on the rp2040 board is doable if thick wires are used? or will the wires be too long. My intuition tells me it wont work but i'm not sure

ghjfdtg · Mar 23, 2023

That's a really good idea if you can fit it all under the SoC shielding. But even if you have to remove the top half it would still look great.

Dee87 · Mar 23, 2023

Saliciae said:
I love the sound of this but it sounds like a real challenge to make work. I might start with this simple device to prove out my concept, see if people are willing to fund a broken motherboard i can use for development. Do you know if mounting the mosfet remotely on the rp2040 board is doable if thick wires are used? or will the wires be too long. My intuition tells me it wont work but i'm not sure

i could offer u a v1 if that helps

pm me if interested

KingMo5h · Mar 23, 2023

Sounds interesting with all the components on the cpu/ram side but i dont have a switch to measure. Maybe someone can measure it and post or send it to me? So iI can design a pcb for it.

Hacking Hardware McFly - an RP2040 board compatible with Picofly

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