3DS Unbricking Possible!

[bkifft]

Might be able to offer an unbricking service in the UK; I'm setting up my Raspberry Pi now. If the tools seem to be working OK on an SD card, I'll try and brick my 3DS and test this for myself.

currently my code will only work on (e)MMC devices. so if you want to test it first, you'll have to use an oldschool MMC card.

edit: oh, and as all it does is init the card, give some debug output and send the force erase command nothing will happen unless the card is already locked.

 

[YoshiInAVoid]

currently my code will only work on (e)MMC devices. so if you want to test it first, you'll have to use an oldschool MMC card.

edit: oh, and as all it does is init the card, give some debug output and send the force erase command nothing will happen unless the card is already locked.

OK, thanks, I didn't know that. I just ordered a 64Mb MMC card from eBay (was only £1 or so). Could you provide me with some code to lock the card?

 

[Ryukouki]

What you guys are doing has some real merit. Congratulations on the efforts thus far, and as of now you guys have a spot on the front page.

 

[bkifft]

OK, thanks, I didn't know that. I just ordered a 64Mb MMC card from eBay (was only £1 or so). Could you provide me with some code to lock the card?

sure, i can cobble something together for you. i'll just need some distance to this whole thing, spent nearly all my spare time this week on it.

you might be able to speed up my recovery by fulfilling the request i stated in the project readme *wink wink nudge nudge*

 

[MopSec]

Just a question, with this progress going on I guess that there will be some unbricking services on here soonish but will those be available to Non-XL 3DS models too? I don't really understand much of this but AFAIK the XL doesn't need to be soldered because you can use Pogo-Pins (I don't know what this is but I think I get the gist) and the non-XL has some awkwardly positioned pins, so is there any hope for normal 3DS users who can't mod the hardware themselves, too? The brick didn't affect me (yet), but knowing that somebody could help me should my system brick would make me feel better ^^

 

[bkifft]

Just a question, with this progress going on I guess that there will be some unbricking services on here soonish but will those be available to Non-XL 3DS models too? I don't really understand much of this but AFAIK the XL doesn't need to be soldered because you can use Pogo-Pins (I don't know what this is but I think I get the gist) and the non-XL has some awkwardly positioned pins, so is there any hope for normal 3DS users who can't mod the hardware themselves, too? The brick didn't affect me (yet), but knowing that somebody could help me should my system brick would make me feel better ^^

I think i remember reading in the nand backup mod thread a few tempers offering their service to do the mod even on regular 3DSes. Heck, as there is nothing illegal involved you can even ask your local smartphone repair store if they'd be willing to do it.

 

[MopSec]

I think i remember reading in the nand backup mod thread a few tempers offering their service to do the mod even on regular 3DSes. Heck, as there is nothing illegal involved you can even ask your local smartphone repair store if they'd be willing to do it.

So I'd have to send them a tutorial on how to do the soldering and then just tell them, "yeah just hook a Raspberry Pi onto that" and to run the unbricking code? Or is it possible that I can run the code with my PC too?

 

[krisztian1997]

So I'd have to send them a tutorial on how to do the soldering and then just tell them, "yeah just hook a Raspberry Pi onto that" and to run the unbricking code? Or is it possible that I can run the code with my PC too?

They have to run the unbricking code using a raspi. For those who dont really understand, all what the code does is to do some low-level communication with the controller, then after the controller is initialized send CMD42 with 0x08 argument, wait some cycles untill the DAT0 line is not held low anymore and then reflash the NAND backup

 

[bkifft]

So I'd have to send them a tutorial on how to do the soldering and then just tell them, "yeah just hook a Raspberry Pi onto that" and to run the unbricking code? Or is it possible that I can run the code with my PC too?

Well, i was talking about the HW mod mainly. But if you can convince them that there may be a market in unbricking 3DSes I'm sure they'd be willing to spend the 30ish € on a raspberry.

Or just ask around your friends and family, the Raspberry is quite wide spread.

Or you could just buy a Raspberry Pi and use it for something else after the unbrick. It works great as a media player or a downloader client (torrent/jdownloader) for example and runs at 5Watt.

 

[krisztian1997]

Well, i was talking about the HW mod mainly. But if you can convince them that there may be a market in unbricking 3DSes I'm sure they'd be willing to spend the 30ish € on a raspberry.

Or just ask around your friends and family, the Raspberry is quite wide spread.

Or you could just buy a Raspberry Pi and use it for something else after the unbrick. It works great as a media player or a downloader client (torrent/jdownloader) for example and runs at 5Watt.

I wish I had got an raspi instead of my arduino... my arduino is booring compared to what your raspberry can do

 

[MopSec]

Well, i was talking about the HW mod mainly. But if you can convince them that there may be a market in unbricking 3DSes I'm sure they'd be willing to spend the 30ish € on a raspberry.

Or just ask around your friends and family, the Raspberry is quite wide spread.

Or you could just buy a Raspberry Pi and use it for something else after the unbrick. It works great as a media player or a downloader client (torrent/jdownloader) for example and runs at 5Watt.

I was actually thinking of getting one anyway

 

[bkifft]

I wish I had got an raspi instead of my arduino... my arduino is booring compared to what your raspberry can do

well, the arduino is smaller, runs without an sd card that sticks half out from the board, consumes even less energy (good luck on running a raspberry on battery power), doesn't take as long to boot up, etc.

they both are good at what they are meant to do: the raspberry is a small PC style computer, the arduino is a microcontroller you can use without having to have a degree in electrical engineering.


edit: I am not affiliated with Farnell or any other raspberry distributor, I'm just a fan/addict (got six in total, four in permanent use).

 

[Xzi]

Good work guys! Looks like a Raspberry Pi/Arduino will run about $30 to $40, is that right? Still a pretty cheap method of unbricking, and lots of other uses for those components.

 

[krisztian1997]

Good work guys! Looks like a Raspberry Pi/Arduino will run about $30 to $40, is that right? Still a pretty cheap method of unbricking, and lots of other uses for those components.

Arduino is much cheaper, but no one tested my code so far so go for the raspi method. Because Arduino is an opensource project anyone can take an atmega, flash the unlocker code and make an unbricker device for around $10

 

[bkifft]

Arduino is much cheaper, but no one tested my code so far so go for the raspi method. Because Arduino is an opensource project anyone can take an atmega, flash the unlocker code and make an unbricker device for around $10

well, i keep refreshing the the r4i page but they don't seem to be ready for release yet

 

[gamesquest1]

bear in mind if people do buy one they can always resell it if they dont want to keep hold of it, shouldnt be too much of a loss if you buy second hand in the first place

just depends on if people want to recover without waiting for cheaper solutions to be found

 

[Xzi]

Arduino is much cheaper, but no one tested my code so far so go for the raspi method. Because Arduino is an opensource project anyone can take an atmega, flash the unlocker code and make an unbricker device for around $10

Alright, I'll keep that in mind. I don't have a bricked 3DS *fingers crossed*, but I'm glad you guys managed to create a solution so quickly for those that do have one, and for peace of mind for the rest of us.

 

[Sheimi]

Nice work guys. Hope you do solve everyone brick problems.

 

[Ennea]

*snip*

Thanks for your hard work on the RasPi code. I have a question regarding what you've done: on GitHub, you're writing not to run the code with a kernel with the SD/MMC subsystem enabled. Could you explain that further? So far, I have no experience with the RasPi, and not a whole lot with Linux kernels.

 

[YoshiInAVoid]

bkifft what are you compile flags?

I tried:

gcc main.c -std=c99

And get implict declaration of functions, "usleep", "sd_issue_command", as well as unknown type "useconds_t". I presume I am supposed to link to another library.

-lm not helping either...