Hacking Hardware Picofly - a HWFLY switch modchip

RiotRetroGaming · Mar 29, 2023

Just a quick one... I managed to find a place where the chip sits low enough so it doesn't bulge the case out...

I cut the top half of the ram shield off, left the APU side.
Took off the side rail the ram shield clips down onto. This leaves just enough space for the IC on the bottom of the Picofly to sit in between the group of Switch IC's in that area.

I then insulated the bottom of the Picofly PCB with a double layer of kapton tape.

The top part of the shield was cut away and kapton tape placed over to hold wiring and chip in place - and to insulate any top casing from coming into contact with the chip...

Just in case you need USB one day.
Up to you if you want to remove, but hey...

LogicalMadness · Mar 30, 2023

RiotRetroGaming said:
Just a quick one... I managed to find a place where the chip sits low enough so it doesn't bulge the case out...

I cut the top half of the ram shield off, left the APU side.
Took off the side rail the ram shield clips down onto. This leaves just enough space for the IC on the bottom of the Picofly to sit in between the group of Switch IC's in that area.

I then insulated the bottom of the Picofly PCB with a double layer of kapton tape.

The top part of the shield was cut away and kapton tape placed over to hold wiring and chip in place - and to insulate any top casing from coming into contact with the chip...

Just in case you need USB one day.
Up to you if you want to remove, but hey...

Pics of the internal cuts please, I was thinking of doing this same thing.

SorataVP69 · Mar 30, 2023

Dee87 said:
hey what fw did u flash ? i hab almost the same issue with the compressed fw2.5+ulock from @vittorio if u are also using this do me a favor and try to flash the fw2.5nw.uf2 and after that the unlock.uf2 after that everything worked fine for me

here my post about it click me

hello, after crying and calming down I decided to disassemble the chip and start from 0 first flashing the 2.5 firmware and then the unlock and then soldering everything from 0 and to my surprise and joy EVERYTHING WORKED PERFECTLY THANK YOU VERY MUCH TO ALL WHO HELPED ME

Post automatically merged: Mar 30, 2023

Adran_Marit said:
tried a different sd card?

Post automatically merged: Mar 28, 2023

tried a different sd card?

cowboy619 said:
Copy boot0 and boot1 into the restore folder then restore it in hekate. I’ve done it and it worked with the same issue

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

hello, after crying and calming down I decided to disassemble the chip and start from 0 first flashing the 2.5 firmware and then the unlock and then soldering everything from 0 and to my surprise and joy EVERYTHING WORKED PERFECTLY THANK YOU VERY MUCH TO ALL WHO HELPED ME

cowboy619 · Mar 30, 2023

SorataVP69 said:
hello, after crying and calming down I decided to disassemble the chip and start from 0 first flashing the 2.5 firmware and then the unlock and then soldering everything from 0 and to my surprise and joy EVERYTHING WORKED PERFECTLY THANK YOU VERY MUCH TO ALL WHO HELPED ME

Post automatically merged: Mar 30, 2023

hello, after crying and calming down I decided to disassemble the chip and start from 0 first flashing the 2.5 firmware and then the unlock and then soldering everything from 0 and to my surprise and joy EVERYTHING WORKED PERFECTLY THANK YOU VERY MUCH TO ALL WHO HELPED ME

Awesome glad you got sorted

vampitech · Mar 30, 2023

Hello guys, first of all, thanks for the amazing job and all contributions on this matter. Maybe some question have already been answered, I apologize for causing duplicate answers.

So, Here are mi questions

- I have a Switch v2 (Red Box) ready for install Picofly. i've seen diagrams posted here but some people wire RP2040 pinouts to eMMC module solder points and other does it right to the mainboard ON THE V2. Soldering RP2040 pinouts to eMMC module makes any difference instead mainboard points?

- My eMMC is THGBMHG8C2LBAILl. I've read in previous pages that is a Kioxia (rebranded Toshiba). Do i need to flash toshiba fix uf2 in order to make it work?

- 47ohm resistors are mandatory for OFW boot?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Donnie-Burger · Mar 30, 2023

vampitech said:
Hello guys, first of all, thanks for the amazing job and all contributions on this matter. Maybe some question have already been answered, I apologize for causing duplicate answers.

So, Here are mi questions

- I have a Switch v2 (Red Box) ready for install Picofly. i've seen diagrams posted here but some people wire RP2040 pinouts to eMMC module solder points and other does it right to the mainboard ON THE V2. Soldering RP2040 pinouts to eMMC module makes any difference instead mainboard points?

- My eMMC is THGBMHG8C2LBAILl. I've read in previous pages that is a Kioxia (rebranded Toshiba). Do i need to flash toshiba fix uf2 in order to make it work?

- 47ohm resistors are mandatory for OFW boot?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Use points not on emmc as its safer (The points on diagram has 2 points and they are already connected so a bridge is fine)
Use toshiba fix then use unlock all on pc first
47ohm some boot ofw some dont but you get slow mode so use it for sure

vampitech · Mar 30, 2023

Donnie-Burger said:
Use points not on emmc as its safer (The points on diagram has 2 points and they are already connected so a bridge is fine)
Use toshiba fix then use unlock all on pc first
47ohm some boot ofw some dont but you get slow mode so use it for sure

That was fast! Thanks a lot!

Xocide · Mar 30, 2023

leerz · Mar 30, 2023

vampitech said:
Hello guys, first of all, thanks for the amazing job and all contributions on this matter. Maybe some question have already been answered, I apologize for causing duplicate answers.

So, Here are mi questions

- I have a Switch v2 (Red Box) ready for install Picofly. i've seen diagrams posted here but some people wire RP2040 pinouts to eMMC module solder points and other does it right to the mainboard ON THE V2. Soldering RP2040 pinouts to eMMC module makes any difference instead mainboard points?

- My eMMC is THGBMHG8C2LBAILl. I've read in previous pages that is a Kioxia (rebranded Toshiba). Do i need to flash toshiba fix uf2 in order to make it work?

- 47ohm resistors are mandatory for OFW boot?

Thanks in advance for any help.

1. resistors are best left installed as advised by the developer.
2. using mb pinout is better, soldering to the module will make removal of the emmc more troublesome and you risk ruining the module.
3. yes, BUT it will make non toshiba emmcs boot a little slower

Xocide · Mar 30, 2023

JackFrostSMT · Mar 30, 2023

Xocide said:
Will these work? https://www.aliexpress.us/item/2251832697708533.html?algo_exp_id=19284af4-7d86-4977-aaaf-6fd7507d9aec-0&pdp_ext_f={"sku_id":"65693436900"}

Yes but if you're USA based I know of a domestic seller thats just as cheap and fast, only difference in cost is shipping will be a tad bit more. Digikey is where I got my stuff from

jkyoho · Mar 30, 2023

Xocide said:
Looking to buy kapton tape roughly the same size as this area in red. Does anyone have rough dimensions?

18.9mm roughly

Xocide · Mar 30, 2023

Jarmenti · Mar 30, 2023

linuxares said:
Imagine those who bought it this monday.
Never the less 50$ for a proven chip and all cables etc included aint to bad.

I bought an oled chip a few weeks ago for $100. Installed it this morning. Still don't care... Switch games are $100 a piece (CAD w/ tax). Still well worth it. The installation is a hell of a lot cleaner than the spaghetti rpi2040. Some quick solder designs need to come out for the homebrew mod.

JackFrostSMT · Mar 30, 2023

Jarmenti said:
I bought an oled chip a few weeks ago for $100. Installed it this morning. Still don't care... Switch games are $100 a piece (CAD w/ tax). Still well worth it. The installation is a hell of a lot cleaner than the spaghetti rpi2040. Some quick solder designs need to come out for the homebrew mod.

They will, but tbf if you route your wires neatly it really doesn't look that bad, and the console will get closed up anyway.
Check out old PS2 Matrix modchip installs, the ones that people show off that are all nice n tidy are mesmerizing to look at

Xocide · Mar 30, 2023

JackFrostSMT · Mar 30, 2023

Xocide said:
Side question, can I use a NS V2 flex on a switch lite, or does it HAVE to be a switch lite flex?

The shielding is the same around the apu/ram, and the mosfets are the same for all mariko, so the only difference would be which end the connector comes out from. And you'll be running a wire to that anyway so that doesn't matter

Xocide · Mar 30, 2023

JackFrostSMT · Mar 30, 2023

Xocide said:
Again thank you! Gona get the V2 since I like there it comes out better.

For resistors, I'm assuming the tolerance doesn't really matter? I'm looking at digikey

1% or 5% is probably fine. Wouldn't personally go any higher, haven't seen enough test results from other people to reach a conclusion. I've also seen some use 70-75 ohm resistors just fine so who knows the full range that switch will handle

Ragna666 · Mar 30, 2023

the real question is.
can i use rp2040-one instead of zero?
and can i use resistor like this with shrink tube?: https://projectpoint.in/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=500389536143

or instead of desoldering the type c connector and the buttons, cut a little pieces out of the metal plate?

i can do it like desoldering it after testing but if i got problems later and need to reflash the rp2040 firmware i want to make it easy.

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