Buy a working mouse, scroll down until you see the picture with switcmee install.
Finally hacked the Switch I've had collecting dust for a couple of years a while ago. Time to do something about having to tether it to the computer every reboot.
The Trinket M0, which I would have preferred due to the lower voltage requirement, was out of stock at my regular electronics supplier due to COVID-19. They still had a few Gemma M0:s, so ordered one of those instead, despite its higher voltage requirement and thus needing two CR2032 batteries. The onboard power switch is nice though. Desoldered the JST power connector to save some space, and designed/3d printed an enclosure with a built in holder for two batteries.
Butchered a couple of USB cables, and soldered together a Micro - C adapter. At some point I'll probably replace the onboard Micro female with a C male, to get rid of the adapter.
Happened to have white filament loaded, so printed the first prototype with it. Everything worked at first try, turned out quite well overall actually, even though I had to measure and guess the physical dimensions, there's no dimensional drawing of the Gemma M0 to be found anywhere... The white plastic allows the LEDs to shine through. At some point I might print it in black, and use pieces of transparent filament as light tubes for the LEDs.
Didn't turn out too shabby if I may say so myself:
As for software, I used sam-fusee-launcher. Converted the latest Hekate ctcaer mod (5.2.1) using the included binConverter tool, worked perfectly. I'm aware there's more advanced stuff available nowadays, but wanted to keep it simple, only need Hekate anyways.
Edit: did some tests. The Gemma M0 doesn't need the specified 4-6 VDC after all, perhaps it's only needed if you want full functionality with 3.3VDC regulated output etc? 3 VDC seems to be enough for the controller at least. Single battery version of the enclosure printing as I'm writing
The Trinket M0, which I would have preferred due to the lower voltage requirement, was out of stock at my regular electronics supplier due to COVID-19. They still had a few Gemma M0:s, so ordered one of those instead, despite its higher voltage requirement and thus needing two CR2032 batteries. The onboard power switch is nice though. Desoldered the JST power connector to save some space, and designed/3d printed an enclosure with a built in holder for two batteries.
Butchered a couple of USB cables, and soldered together a Micro - C adapter. At some point I'll probably replace the onboard Micro female with a C male, to get rid of the adapter.
Happened to have white filament loaded, so printed the first prototype with it. Everything worked at first try, turned out quite well overall actually, even though I had to measure and guess the physical dimensions, there's no dimensional drawing of the Gemma M0 to be found anywhere... The white plastic allows the LEDs to shine through. At some point I might print it in black, and use pieces of transparent filament as light tubes for the LEDs.
Didn't turn out too shabby if I may say so myself:
As for software, I used sam-fusee-launcher. Converted the latest Hekate ctcaer mod (5.2.1) using the included binConverter tool, worked perfectly. I'm aware there's more advanced stuff available nowadays, but wanted to keep it simple, only need Hekate anyways.
Edit: did some tests. The Gemma M0 doesn't need the specified 4-6 VDC after all, perhaps it's only needed if you want full functionality with 3.3VDC regulated output etc? 3 VDC seems to be enough for the controller at least. Single battery version of the enclosure printing as I'm writing
Last edited by kaputnik,
So the RCM Loader (all in one external) can be had on aliexpress for 11.90 with free shipping on aliexpress. Has anyone come up with a DIY way to put this together for less than that? Components are cheap, so I would think that buying a switch me up is not the right way to go.... Just wondering if there's a more cost effective way to DIY one. CAPs seem to be the way to go over batteries.
I should have caveated this to say, I'm only interested in EXTERNAL Dongles at this point vs an internal one. Just trying to see if there's a cheap way to do this. I've repaired a bunch of these recently and have about 8 sitting on my desk already setup that i'm giving to some friends and family with an eMMU CFW, but I don't want to have to explain or be the IT guy for troubleshooting or trying to walk them through using a jig and RCM mode, and using the computer with Tegra and all that.
All of them are already set to AutoRCM, and i'd rather just build a dongle and give it to them and explain how to use it.... job done. So, I'm just asking if there's a cheaper and clean way to DIY an external dongle for less than $11.90. I like microelectronics, so I prefer to build my own vs buying other peoples stuff.
Here's my Prototype unit I made for software testing:
It's rechargeable, from a standard phone charger, the switch or any usb socket - has over/under voltage protection etc. If has an on/off switch so it can sit for a couple of years without needing charged, Battery lasts a long time and only really powers 2 leds - as software turns the chip of after payloads are sent. RX/TX pins are accessible for debugging software. Has a reset switch accessible from outside, can switch payloads via a pushbutton switch. Has status leds fitted for charging - green when charged, red when charging, on/off led, and led to show payload status.
It's rechargeable, from a standard phone charger, the switch or any usb socket - has over/under voltage protection etc. If has an on/off switch so it can sit for a couple of years without needing charged, Battery lasts a long time and only really powers 2 leds - as software turns the chip of after payloads are sent. RX/TX pins are accessible for debugging software. Has a reset switch accessible from outside, can switch payloads via a pushbutton switch. Has status leds fitted for charging - green when charged, red when charging, on/off led, and led to show payload status.
Here's my Prototype unit I made for software testing:
It's rechargeable, from a standard phone charger, the switch or any usb socket - has over/under voltage protection etc. If has an on/off switch so it can sit for a couple of years without needing charged, Battery lasts a long time and only really powers 2 leds - as software turns the chip of after payloads are sent. RX/TX pins are accessible for debugging software. Has a reset switch accessible from outside, can switch payloads via a pushbutton switch. Has status leds fitted for charging - green when charged, red when charging, on/off led, and led to show payload status.
this is freaking awesome! good job on it. what board is running this? i might try to build something similar for myself
It's using a trinket m0, but any board based on that chip will works. I've also added a payload switch since then so I can swap between payloads which are sent depending on whether or not a switch is pushed.
im pretty new when it comes to this kinda thing, and when you say chip, do you mean the main processor? i know a lot of the Arduino stuff uses the atmega86(?) but thats not compatible with rcm loaders cuz reasons. or do you mean chip as in the whole board.
The board is just a trinket m0, soldered onto some perf board, the board that controls the charging is a basic lipo charging pcb (cheap from ebay. I added some switches, status leds and a couple of resistors for the leds.
Here's some other views:
Toggle switch is for on/off - for the trinket (battery can still be charged in either position)
Blue led switch - this is just a reset switch which can re-push the payload, or pressed twice to put the box into programming mode. (led shows if trinket is powered up)
Other push button if not held pushes payload 1, if held pushes payload 2.
Front led Next to usb port - green/red - green shows fully charged, red shows charging.
Front led Next to edge - blue led, blink once when payload 1 is sent, blink twice when payload 2 is sent.
Last edited by mrdude,
Hi! So I was looking at this to not spend a quadrillion years waiting for a chinese RCMLoader to get to me, so I want to build my own. Has anyone tried doing it with an ESP32 WROOM?
P.S.: I don't really care that the size will be enormous if it works.
P.S.: I don't really care that the size will be enormous if it works.
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