Hacking 3DS Hardmod

[OsemGuy]

Basically, method is the same for all 3DS. The only difference is the pinout.

This link give all the pinouts versions : http://3dbrew.org/wiki/Hardware#NAND_pinout

In your situation, here's the one you need (New 3DS XL) :

Basically, it's just to solder a 4-pins cable to the 3DS (DAT0, CMD, CLK and the ground) and the other part depend of your choice.

Some peoples sold a SD Card Reader directly to the cable, some others add a port to the 3DS, and then do a separate cable.

Here's a video :



It's for the 3DS XL but the method is the same.

And the second part :



This one talks about the dumping/writing nand part.

Thanks for that explanation.


Question 1:
There's 4 CLK points. Are all 4 points referring to the CLK? Do i get to choose any one point to solder the wire?

Question 2:
Whats the best route (least invasive) to place the female adapter? What tools do people use to cut the shell?

Question 3:
My soldering skill is a bit hit and miss. I always have problem with pointy alloy leftover when pulling off the soldering iron
How to avoid having pointy leftover when soldering at points especially with smaller points?
My technique: 1) Apply flux on board 2) Heat and apply a bit of alloy to the soldering tip and wire tip 3) solder the point

Can anyone attach some pictures of final result on N3DS XL hardmod just before shell closure. want to see the position of the wires, and female adapter. please =)

 

[grubgrub]

I came across this site which shows the mod on the new 3ds xl.

http://www.infinitydream.com/newsdesk_info.php?newsPath=102&newsdesk_id=164

 

[mrbits]

I came across this site which shows the mod on the new 3ds xl.

http://www.infinitydream.com/newsdesk_info.php?newsPath=102&newsdesk_id=164

That looks pretty neat

 

[Dr.Mundo]

Thanks for that explanation.


Question 1:
There's 4 CLK points. Are all 4 points referring to the CLK? Do i get to choose any one point to solder the wire?

Question 2:
Whats the best route (least invasive) to place the female adapter? What tools do people use to cut the shell?

Question 3:
My soldering skill is a bit hit and miss. I always have problem with pointy alloy leftover when pulling off the soldering iron
How to avoid having pointy leftover when soldering at points especially with smaller points?
My technique: 1) Apply flux on board 2) Heat and apply a bit of alloy to the soldering tip and wire tip 3) solder the point

Can anyone attach some pictures of final result on N3DS XL hardmod just before shell closure. want to see the position of the wires, and female adapter. please =)

https://gbatemp.net/threads/n3ds-nand-backup-possible-i-hope.381506/page-13

This thread might help I suppose?

and for question 2 I saw a guy using a heated scalpel to melt the plastic

 

[mrbits]

Where is the best place for a connector? I am thinking of hard modding my 9.0 n3ds xl to make sure I can revert to 9.0 whenever I need to. I am ideally looking at having it under the battery cover so it is discrete. Any suggestions?

 

[eXpired]

My 3DS XL is bricked... turning it on shows blue led, but no screen activity whatsoever. I was planning on doing the SD card mod to reflash a backed up NAND, but am I reading this right that I'll need to use a Raspberry Pi or Arduino instead?

 

[milerwan]

I came across this site which shows the mod on the new 3ds xl.

http://www.infinitydream.com/newsdesk_info.php?newsPath=102&newsdesk_id=164

You can find all the installation diagrams for 3DS/3DS XL and New 3DS/3DS XL from my signature.

If some people want to send me their console for perfect installation, it's a service I offer too.

 

[mrbits]

You can find all the installation diagrams for 3DS/3DS XL and New 3DS/3DS XL from my signature.

If some people want to send me their console for perfect installation, it's a service I offer too.

How do you make such a nice cut into the case?

 

[milerwan]

I used

How do you make such a nice cut into the case?

I used Swiss precision files, exact same product as this one in picture :http://www.priceminister.com/offer/buy/328092669/veritables-limes-suisses-de-precision.html
These are tools which I kept from the time when I was in jewelry... ^^

No cut done, only work with files to avoid deformation of the shell.

 

[mrbits]

I used

I used Swiss precision files, exact same product as this one in picture :http://www.priceminister.com/offer/buy/328092669/veritables-limes-suisses-de-precision.html

No cut done, only work with files to avoid deformation of the shell.

Very interesting. Every time I try cutting plastic things they shatter or snap horribly. Thanks for the info!

 

[hippy dave]

My 3DS XL is bricked... turning it on shows blue led, but no screen activity whatsoever. I was planning on doing the SD card mod to reflash a backed up NAND, but am I reading this right that I'll need to use a Raspberry Pi or Arduino instead?

No, afaik the raspberry pi thing was only really relevant to the great Brickway scandal of yore. The sd adapter mod should be what you need.

 

[eXpired]

So I'm an idiot. I rarely solder and thought this hardmod looked easy enough on the 3DS XL, so I attempted it myself. I lifted one of the solder pads on the board. Am I now completely hosed, or is there another way to do this? An alternate point maybe?

 

[mrbits]

So I'm an idiot. I rarely solder and thought this hardmod looked easy enough on the 3DS XL, so I attempted it myself. I lifted one of the solder pads on the board. Am I now completely hosed, or is there another way to do this? An alternate point maybe?

Were you using lead free solder? Last time I tried that stuff I ruined a board as it has to be a higher temperature. I guess it depends on what the damage is, if it is a test point you might be able to find another point on the board to solder to, or you could carefully scrap some of the solder mask off the track to the point and solder it to there, but that's a bit risky.

 

[gamesquest1]

So I'm an idiot. I rarely solder and thought this hardmod looked easy enough on the 3DS XL, so I attempted it myself. I lifted one of the solder pads on the board. Am I now completely hosed, or is there another way to do this? An alternate point maybe?

only really exposing the traces and soldering directly to those, but if you messed up the contacts, i would suggest sending it off to someone who has more experience doing them, PM @hundshamer and see if he is ok to do it, i know im not to keen on doing them after someone has already had a crack at it as its often more complicated and you find other stuff that have been messed up that needs to be addressed too....but as long as its still booting you should be ok

 

[Sliter]

With mine, I don't use USB, because of the confusion of people plugging it directly in to the PC. With mine you get 2 options on the original 3DS. They look like this:

If someday come the need to make it o mine, I plan to try like the purple one, looks the best way for me xD

 

[hundshamer]

only really exposing the traces and soldering directly to those, but if you messed up the contacts, i would suggest sending it off to someone who has more experience doing them, PM @hundshamer and see if he is ok to do it, i know im not to keen on doing them after someone has already had a crack at it as its often more complicated and you find other stuff that have been messed up that needs to be addressed too....but as long as its still booting you should be ok

He actually contacted me before attempting as it was already bricked. According to what I can see in the other thread he posted, I would have to remove some epoxy to get to the trace.

 

[gamesquest1]

He actually contacted me before attempting as it was already bricked. According to what I can see in the other thread he posted, I would have to remove some epoxy to get to the trace.

yeah i had to do one like that once, the epoxy isn't too hard to get off but depending on how far it was pulled you might only have a tiny bit of the trace left free to solder to....that's why i said just check with you if you where happy to do it, as the one i got the person hadn't even mentioned they had tried so it was a bit annoying to be left to clean up the mess too without any warning

 

[mrbits]

Possibly a dumb question, but can you restore a nand backup taken from running the gateway launcher via this method? Or does the nand backup have to be taken via the computer?

 

[gamesquest1]

Possibly a dumb question, but can you restore a nand backup taken from running the gateway launcher via this method? Or does the nand backup have to be taken via the computer?

gateway nand backup is fine, top tip though is to backup what you already have before restoring anything, especially if its a downgrade rather than unbrick as you can never guarantee that there wasn't a f**k up somewhere and your nand backup is corrupt or you got a different nand backup mixed up from a different console, so if you have something working, back it up before restoring your yet to be confirmed good old backup

 

[mrbits]

gateway nand backup is fine

Awesome thanks. I am waiting to get the connectors from china so it may take a while. Didn't want to ruin my chances if I had to wait to dump it from the computer.