Hacking Discussion [HOWTO] Another joycon mod. Ill call it erm... ScrewHax

mattytrog

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Righty o ladies and gents.

Nice and simple this one... Made a thread as it seems to have got buried in one of the other threads.

What you will need:

  • Soldering iron - mine has a .5mm conical tip, but anything should do it. Keep the watts down. 30w maximum...
  • Triwing (stupidest screw ever) driver. Or some other method to undo your joycons.
  • 3 inches (7cm ish?) wire. Stranded. And another 6 or 7 inch for a grounding lead. So a foot of speaker wire?
  • Double sided tape (optional)

1) Undo joycon (right one, thats the red one.) {[ ]} < this one...


2) Gently lift rail out. Don`t pull on the ribbon cables!!! I removed the rail completely for photo purposes. But there is NO NEED TO REMOVE THE RAIL. Just slide her out...


3) Solder one end of your wire to pin 10 like so...

20180426_224652.jpg


4) Stick down with tape to secure if you wish. Post through a screwhole

20180426_224908.jpg 20180426_224915.jpg


5) Make grounding cable - wrap one stripped end around your USB-C connector... I use a micro-usb to USB-C adapter. Cost about £3 for 5 off ebay. Use any cable you wish as long as it plugs into the switch

20180427_092935.jpg


6) Screw back together with the wire strands coming through the hole. Trim the excess before you screw the screw in. It will hide then. No sharp spiky bits! I put the screw in first, trimmed, took screw out and stuffed oddments into hole. Remove the double sided tape from the outside if you used it. Result.


7) RCM mode: plug your USB-C into your switch, hold wire on the screw, press vol+ and power. There.

Easy wasnt it? Just dont kill the ribbon cable as you solder it. No pully pully or melty melty...

There we have it. This is ideal if you are not too technical, something easily undoable if needed. And if you are poor. Like me. Doesnt cost anything because we should all have these items. Yes even you. Ask your dad if you dont have them...

Not my fault if it goes wrong. But it wont.

Good luck peeps

20180531_191817.jpg 20180531_191603.jpg - I changed the triwing to something less "Apple"ish... A normal philips screw from a 3DS XL ive butchered. It will however work fine with the triwings too...
 
Last edited by mattytrog,

RHOPKINS13

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Hmm, as a variation of this, I might try taking one wire from pin 10 to one screw hole, and another wire from pin 1 to another screw hole. Then any time I want to boot RCM I could just hold a small jumper cable between the screw holes, and hold volume up while turning the system on.

Or I could just do pin 10 to one screw and run the wire from the screw to the heat sink for ground.

I really like this idea.
 

mattytrog

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Hmm, as a variation of this, I might try taking one wire from pin 10 to one screw hole, and another wire from pin 1 to another screw hole. Then any time I want to boot RCM I could just hold a small jumper cable between the screw holes, and hold volume up while turning the system on.

Or I could just do pin 10 to one screw and run the wire from the screw to the heat sink for ground.

I really like this idea.

Yeah you could do it with GND (pin one too) on another screw. I just thought for ease of holding it to trigger RCM, might be easier to go straight from USB ground.

Thanks for the input!
 

RHOPKINS13

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Yeah you could do it with GND (pin one too) on another screw. I just thought for ease of holding it to trigger RCM, might be easier to go straight from USB ground.

Thanks for the input!

Yeah, I originally used a paperclip and was worried about damaging my pins, then I set up AutoRCM. I've already had one instance where my battery drained completely (I think I left it turned on in RCM mode with the blank screen by mistake) and I couldn't turn the Switch back on, even after leaving it on the charger for a while. I tried all the tricks, holding the power button for 12+ seconds, etc. but it would not come on. Finally had to open the Switch and disconnect the battery, then plug it back in.

Switch works fine now, but with AutoRCM I can't use sleep mode at all (even when Hekate is booted into "Stock" sleep mode still freezes). So I think I'll uninstall AutoRCM and use this, at least until Atmosphere is released with a working sleep mode, so I don't have to worry about accidentally draining my battery, and plus I'll actually be able to turn my Switch on without my PC / Laptop nearby... :rofl2:
 
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Dust2dust

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Thank you, @mattytrog
I was looking for a way to mod the joycon since the idea of using a jig or a paperclip was unappealing to me. Your method seemed to be the best option for me. Nothing too complicated and no special hardware switches to buy online. I just realized tonight that I suck at soldering. :sad: I was really wishing I had tiny soldering guy besides me to help me out. And it was just ONE freaking wire to solder! I kept bridging 10 and 8! I had to fix that like 4 times in a row. Not exactly as easy as installing the old modchip in the PSX. I even managed to burn my finger with the iron! :cry: But in the end, I succeeded! Tested, and it works flawlessly. Much better than using a jig, Again, thanks a lot for the great idea! :grog:
 
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The0919

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Righty o ladies and gents.

Nice and simple this one... Made a thread as it seems to have got buried in one of the other threads.

What you will need:

  • Soldering iron - mine has a .5mm conical tip, but anything should do it. Keep the watts down. 30w maximum...
  • Triwing (stupidest screw ever) driver. Or some other method to undo your joycons.
  • 3 inches (7cm ish?) wire. Stranded. And another 6 or 7 inch for a grounding lead. So a foot of speaker wire?
  • Double sided tape (optional)

1) Undo joycon (right one, thats the red one.) {[ ]} < this one...


2) Gently lift rail out. Don`t pull on the ribbon cables!!! I removed the rail completely for photo purposes. But there is NO NEED TO REMOVE THE RAIL. Just slide her out...


3) Solder one end of your wire to pin 10 like so...

View attachment 127580


4) Stick down with tape to secure if you wish. Post through a screwhole

View attachment 127582 View attachment 127581


5) Make grounding cable - wrap one stripped end around your USB-C connector... I use a micro-usb to USB-C adapter. Cost about £3 for 5 off ebay. Use any cable you wish as long as it plugs into the switch

View attachment 127590


6) Screw back together with the wire strands coming through the hole. Trim the excess before you screw the screw in. It will hide then. No sharp spiky bits! I put the screw in first, trimmed, took screw out and stuffed oddments into hole. Remove the double sided tape from the outside if you used it. Result.


7) RCM mode: plug your USB-C into your switch, hold wire on the screw, press vol+ and power. There.

Easy wasnt it? Just dont kill the ribbon cable as you solder it. No pully pully or melty melty...

There we have it. This is ideal if you are not too technical, something easily undoable if needed. And if you are poor. Like me. Doesnt cost anything because we should all have these items. Yes even you. Ask your dad if you dont have them...

Not my fault if it goes wrong. But it wont.

Good luck peeps

View attachment 127600 View attachment 127601 - I changed the triwing to something less "Apple"ish... A normal philips screw from a 3DS XL ive butchered. It will however work fine with the triwings too...


Screwsée Gelée
 
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mattytrog

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You could use a logic gate to make it a button combo.

You could. I did a similar thing a while ago with the home button. But as soon as you press the key combo, it "unplugs" the joycon, stopping play. Didn't bother me as the last game I played to completion was metal gear solid in 1998. But had one unhappy little lad. Even thought about putting a switch in there too turn the keypresses function on or off. But pointless as you may as well just use a switch in the first place. Never mind!
 

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