Hacking Hardware Picofly - a HWFLY switch modchip

QuiTim · May 28, 2023

cicci084 said:
Hi guys.
I have this problem.
I wrote here

If you are on the new fw I guess it's saying ==* so you need to check mosfet, you might have a loose connection

Xoloth · May 28, 2023

This is my second picofly install and its now with raspberry pi pico and mosfets. The ground point on the apu was not sticking to the wire so i used the apu shield as the ground point.

Ganesha0112 · May 28, 2023

Anyone know if I can use this mosfet for the CPU? It’s a “IRFHS8342TRPBF”

HackMan37 · May 28, 2023

Adran_Marit said:
please do not use your v1 backup on your lite.

It's to rebuild the firmware.

Xoloth · May 28, 2023

Ganesha0112 said:
Anyone know if I can use this mosfet for the CPU? It’s a “IRFHS8342TRPBF”

You can use it. I also used this one.

simplerules · May 28, 2023

Hi everyone,
First of all I'm sorry for my English, but I need your help, because during the installation of the picofly I had a problem, two soldering points have been jumped by moving the wires.

I wanted to ask you if you know any alternative soldering point for a Switch Lite from point D0 or if you know any technique to try to repair the points, I attach a photo so you can see in more detail.

Any help would be wonderful

Thank you very much

Ganesha0112 · May 28, 2023

Xoloth said:
You can use it. I also used this one.

Thanks I’ll try it

Warbeast · May 28, 2023

Like with the oled clk point if your not careful and short the pad you can end up with bsod so it does sound like the issue some have had with lite installs is to do with killing the emmc.
To avoid it I like to cover all points unused around the area with uv solder mask before I solder just to help rule out any accidents. I even cover the middle caps on the soc before doing the mosfet and check with a meter before connecting the battery.

Dee87 · May 28, 2023

Xoloth said:
View attachment 374518

This is my second picofly install and its now with raspberry pi pico and mosfets. The ground point on the apu was not sticking to the wire so i used the apu shield as the ground point.

u need to heat it up long enough so it sticks to the ground apu ;-)

lightninjay · May 28, 2023

simplerules said:
Hi everyone,
First of all I'm sorry for my English, but I need your help, because during the installation of the picofly I had a problem, two soldering points have been jumped by moving the wires.

I wanted to ask you if you know any alternative soldering point for a Switch Lite from point D0 or if you know any technique to try to repair the points, I attach a photo so you can see in more detail.

Any help would be wonderful

Thank you very much

View attachment 374529

Follow my post that I made about soldering in Switch Lites

lightninjay said:
I figured I would document my process of how I approached soldering in the tiny and tight areas of the switch lite, along with the close proximity of the pads to each other.

The main philosophy was "if it can be masked with Kapton during soldering, DO IT. Then flux it, solder it, clean it, and cover it in UV-cure resin."

This seemed to be pretty effective, and my only issues were this being my first flex install, I had to make sure I had good contact on the caps and no bridging.

View attachment 365360
Here's my V2 flex cable secured to a piece of lumber with electrical tape and kapton to do the finer masking.
View attachment 365361
It tinned easily, and soldered easily without worrying about bridging to the side pins.
View attachment 365366
Then I cleaned it, demasked it, and covered it in resin.
View attachment 365363
Here is the Lite's 3.3v points as called out by the definitive guide. I masked off the small component nearest them with Kapton, tinned the pads...
View attachment 365364
soldered my 30awg Kynar to it...
View attachment 365365
and then also covered it in resin!
View attachment 365367
This is the GND point that has been masked off and soldered to.
View attachment 365368
Here is the RST point (I opted for a single pad since I'm using 40awg magnet wire)
View attachment 365369
Here's that RST point covered in yet more resin
View attachment 365370
Masking off and tinning the DAT0 made things much simpler
View attachment 365371
Here's CMD masked out and tinned
View attachment 365372
and here's DAT0, CMD, and CLK all soldered in and resin'd
View attachment 365362
here's the flex pre-tinned
View attachment 365373
This was one of my first attempts at soldering the flex (possibly the very first) but ultimately I got it all cleaned up and functioning properly.

So I learned that doing a switch lite is slightly more difficult than doing a full-size switch, but with the right approach it doesn't have to be impossible or terrifying.

Also, fun side-note, be very careful when trying to remove the battery connector on the switch lite, because you have to disturb a jumper cable that runs the front LCD. If any of these traces are interrupted, you will have to trace which ones have lost continuity and bridge the appropriate pins with magnet wire (ask me how I know)

The short and sweet of it, is that my household now has two hacked switches (which is a 100% success rate on 100% of the consoles in the house) and I feel more confident in my micro-soldering skills

Danook28 · May 28, 2023

I think the multimeter in diode mod is fine me be. Dat point 0.590 v and cmd 0.623 v and clk 0.767 v if wrong read multimater or there are bridge it well be beep.!!! I use magnate copper 0.2 mm size.

Takezo-San · May 28, 2023

LogicalMadness said:
@Takezo-San I know it was a long post, but I did leave a tldr

https://gbatemp.net/threads/picofly-a-hwfly-switch-modchip.622701/post-10165522

"TLDR, I fixed a BSOD by successfully restoring a backup in Hekate. Maybe the emmc somehow gets corrupted during installs? And, yes, there's actually plenty more to that story, like how mine was actually a 256gb emmc upgrade XD"

So been at it since yesterday and little good and lot of bad. Good news is, that my mosfet soldering is fine (even soldered on a 10k pull down and it glitches fast) BUT the bad news is the picofly logo is all that i can get on the screen. Pressing volume buttons gets me blue screen and putting in my SD card to get into Hekate produces a black screen!? I'm starting to think that fw2.7 (that i used intially that got me into this mess) does indeed brick the system. Currently on 2.67 and I don't know for sure but i think the emmc is gone. Can this be rectified? Anyone?

abal1000x · May 28, 2023

Takezo-San said:
So been at it since yesterday and little good and lot of bad. Good news is, that my mosfet soldering is fine (even soldered on a 10k pull down and it glitches fast) BUT the bad news is the picofly logo is all that i can get on the screen. Pressing volume buttons gets me blue screen and putting in my SD card to get into Hekate produces a black screen!? I'm starting to think that fw2.7 (that i used intially that got me into this mess) does indeed brick the system. Currently on 2.67 and I don't know for sure but i think the emmc is gone. Can this be rectified? Anyone?

https://gbatemp.net/threads/picofly-aio-thread.628951/post-10170289

Thanks to @floxcap theres a clue about your cases.

Try check your dat0 solder, i am pretty sure the reason emmc cannot initialized its because the dat0 short circuit with other dat. Theres also possibility on cmd and clk, also the resistor.

cicci084 · May 28, 2023

QuiTim said:
If you are on the new fw I guess it's saying ==* so you need to check mosfet, you might have a loose connection

FW 2.73

I have send The images of installation.

I have attached 2 videos, first when all ok. Other video is only boot on OFW.

QuiTim · May 28, 2023

cicci084 said:
FW 2.73

I have send The images of installation.

This point might have disconnected
Also, if the wire used here is not copper, the power rating might be different so it might not support the current load
*Edit: I looked at the photos, everything else looks great

deeps · May 28, 2023

FreeLander said:
What do you guys think?

it looks like your solder balls on top of the caps are building a bit much height wise. If they are taller than the apu core the shield will press against them which might make them snap off or come loose. Try to look from the side and compare height against apu core

cicci084 · May 29, 2023

QuiTim said:
This point might have disconnected
Also, if the wire used here is not copper, the power rating might be different so it might not support the current load

First of all thanks for the replies.
I think it's copper as tin clings very easily.
It is the self-stripping cable (photo attached) used precisely for modchip playstation 1/2.

These photos that I have inserted are from the installation, as I have already written, the console started up with the classic no sd card screen.
I started hekate and made backups successfully.
I also installed some roms, after creating Emummc.

The console has been stationary, it hasn't taken any bumps. It simply now only boots into OFW after rp2040 flashes.

I mean without shock how can a cable come off? Too much heat generated by the load/amperage?

lightninjay · May 29, 2023

cicci084 said:
First of all thanks for the replies.
I think it's copper as tin clings very easily.
It is the self-stripping cable (photo attached) used precisely for modchip playstation 1/2.

These photos that I have inserted are from the installation, as I have already written, the console started up with the classic no sd card screen.
I started hekate and made backups successfully.
I also installed some roms, after creating Emummc.

The console has been stationary, it hasn't taken any bumps. It simply now only boots into OFW after rp2040 flashes.

I mean without shock how can a cable come off? Too much heat generated by the load/amperage?

I actually am currently experiencing this with one of my Nephew's switch lites that I recently modded. The last few days both nephew's switch lites have been glitching and booting to CFW fine (albeit a bit slower than I might like) but they were also my first consoles to have XIAO 2040's in them. One still seems to be fine, but the other boots straight to OFW, as if there is no glitch occurring.

Both are on 2.73 firmware, and after letting it sit for a while (read as several hours) I tried turning it on and got it to glitch successfully one time. Turned it off, then back on again and it booted to OFW.

I plan to swap out the XIAO 2040 with a Waveshare 2040-tiny once it comes on Tuesday, till then, I guess the XIAO might be failing?

QuiTim · May 29, 2023

lightninjay said:
I actually am currently experiencing this with one of my Nephew's switch lites that I recently modded. The last few days both nephew's switch lites have been glitching and booting to CFW fine (albeit a bit slower than I might like) but they were also my first consoles to have XIAO 2040's in them. One still seems to be fine, but the other boots straight to OFW, as if there is no glitch occurring.

Both are on 2.73 firmware, and after letting it sit for a while (read as several hours) I tried turning it on and got it to glitch successfully one time. Turned it off, then back on again and it booted to OFW.

I plan to swap out the XIAO 2040 with a Waveshare 2040-tiny once it comes on Tuesday, till then, I guess the XIAO might be failing?

I would not bet on it, I mean what are the chances of Xiao failing while doing almost nothing for most of the time..
Could it be that the mosfet gate isn't closing?
Does Xiao give same set of error codes (never had one so I don't know)?
At least it's not bsod

lightninjay · May 29, 2023

QuiTim said:
I would not bet on it, I mean what are the chances of Xiao failing while doing almost nothing for most of the time..
Could it be that the mosfet gate isn't closing?
Does Xiao give same set of error codes (never had one so I don't know)?
At least it's not bsod

This is one of my double mosfet installs. What are the chances both gates aren't closing?

Hacking Hardware Picofly - a HWFLY switch modchip

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