Aluminum Switch - WIP

[binkinator]

The one I got is perfect, no issue at all. Installation is easy, just need to use double sided tape to glue the screen to your new front bezel (tape isn't included with the screen). If you do want to get one, try buying from a store with more reviews like this one:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003027582486.html

You’re an awful person, you know that, right? You just delayed my front and back shell project by 2 weeks…
(on its way)

update: currently in the next city over. Should be in hand in the next coule of days. I’m all atwitter!

 

[Jem13]

I actually also did this a little while ago! I went for an upgraded fan unit , new thermal paste , new battery , custom theme ! It's super dope and my friends think it's crazy aha

 

[binkinator]

I actually also did this a little while ago! I went for an upgraded fan unit , new thermal paste , new battery , custom theme ! It's super dope and my friends think it's crazy aha

Love it! Thanks for posting pics. Looks friggin awesome.

What theme is that? I like that you let the colors “bleed over” into your joycon LEDs.

What fan did you upgrade to? Since I have it open…might as well.



e: got me all jazzed…here’s a more detailed update.

my one piece/gapless screen shows it will be here today! waiting intensifies

(e2)
it’s here! I was hiding behind the blinds watching the mailman walk up breathing all heavy and feeling all creepy. Me, not the mailman, with the creep thing. Whatever.


(Neighbors think I’m selling dope…)

Haaaaaaaaaa.




I picked up some Kryonaut yesterday along with a Qi coil for wireless charging (It‘s dumb but I’m going all out so why not.)



I just finished soldering in a 256G eMMC chip (old 32G in the picture above)



I chopped it up with a larger partition for Sysnand and then put Android and Ubuntu on their own fast memory partitions using the left over space.



hoping to put it all together this weekend…

 

[Jem13]

Love it! Thanks for posting pics. Looks friggin awesome.

What theme is that? I like that you let the colors “bleed over” into your joycon LEDs.

What fan did you upgrade to? Since I have it open…might as well.



e: got me all jazzed…here’s a more detailed update.

my one piece/gapless screen shows it will be here today! waiting intensifies

(e2)
it’s here! I was hiding behind the blinds watching the mailman walk up breathing all heavy and feeling all creepy. Me, not the mailman, with the creep thing. Whatever.

View attachment 319861
(Neighbors think I’m selling dope…)

Haaaaaaaaaa.

View attachment 319866


I picked up some Kryonaut yesterday along with a Qi coil for wireless charging (It‘s dumb but I’m going all out so why not.)

View attachment 319850

I just finished soldering in a 256G eMMC chip (old 32G in the picture above)

View attachment 319845

I chopped it up with a larger partition for Sysnand and then put Android and Ubuntu on their own fast memory partitions using the left over space.

View attachment 319851

hoping to put it all together this weekend…

DAMN now you got me jealous!
I also have the laminated screen , it's actually awesome and the difference is more than I expected from it . Especially in sunlight !

There's fans available on AliExpress that are labeled update, it has a different fitting which I think makes it a little quieter ,

the theme I built myself using a combination of a few different layouts , my own background with 2 colours to match the led and custom app icons.


I was looking at doing a nand upgrade myself but I didn't find much info about them here other than one part number that works? SDIN model iirc , Would be interested in finding out your process.

I would think the wireless charging may not work out ? As your switch backplate are aluminium? Unless I've misread

I'm very interested in the hardware hacking side of the switch and it's potential , also very new to the scene and glad to find someone with like minded ideas!

 

[binkinator]

DAMN now you got me jealous!
I also have the laminated screen , it's actually awesome and the difference is more than I expected from it . Especially in sunlight !

great! This was a last minute add I wasn’t even aware existed before I started this thread and @randy_w mentioned it. Glad to hear your positive experience with it as well. (Might try to squeeze it in during work today.)

There's fans available on AliExpress that are labeled update, it has a different fitting which I think makes it a little quieter ,

I couldn’t bear to wait another 2 weeks for an AE shipment. I went ahead and paid the Amazon tax on one of these (10% faster and balanced blades..or so they say…we’ll see.)

the theme I built myself using a combination of a few different layouts , my own background with 2 colours to match the led and custom app icons.

Very nice work! I’ve not built a theme yet. The layout editor seems a little intimidating. I think a custom theme will have to be my next foray. I absolutely love the animated themes NSX didl. Some of the pages will break soon I’m sure as he’s kindof abandoned ship so I’m hoping I can revive his Carbon theme and maybe even make some of my own customizations to it.

I was looking at doing a nand upgrade myself but I didn't find much info about them here other than one part number that works? SDIN model iirc , Would be interested in finding out your process.

Heres the thread I jumped in to where several smart folks chimed in along the way and really helped out!

https://gbatemp.net/threads/switch-oled-256gb-nand-upgrade.608377/

I learned how to reball a bga chip in the process (screwed up my first one.)

I soldered my own Trinket and have to say eMMC was my scariest mod yet but it all worked out in the end!

I would think the wireless charging may not work out ? As your switch backplate are aluminium? Unless I've misread

I had to come up with something to hit the reset button on my Trinket M0. Normally you flex the plastic back panel to push it. That won’t be happening on an aluminum shell! There are some trucks with aluminum panels that people have resorted to gluing magnets Inside the door panels to hang sings on the side of the door so I bought a reed switch and it seems there‘s enough magnetism passing through to trigger the reed switch sooooo I’m hoping Qi will pass through as well. I think there are some aluminum phones that do it too. I could be wrong.

Bah…You have me defending wireless charging. I think wireless charging is dumb because you STILL have a wire going to your charger so it’s not really wireless now, is it? I’m just doing it for the flex.

It only cost me $12 and I have it sitting right on top of the battery so if it’s dumb, I can rip it right back out.

I'm very interested in the hardware hacking side of the switch and it's potential , also very new to the scene and glad to find someone with like minded ideas!

Likewise! Feel free to tag me on any future mods you do!

 

[Jem13]

great! This was a last minute add I wasn’t even aware existed before I started this thread and @randy_w mentioned it. Glad to hear your positive experience with it as well. (Might try to squeeze it in during work today.)

I couldn’t bear to wait another 2 weeks for an AE shipment. I went ahead and paid the Amazon tax on one of(10% faster and balanced blades..or so they say…we’ll see.)

Very nice work! I’ve not built a theme yet. The layout editor seems a little intimidating. I think a custom theme will have to be my next foray. I absolutely love the animated themes NSX didl. Some of the pages will break soon I’m sure as he’s kindof abandoned ship so I’m hoping I can revive his Carbon theme and maybe even make some of my own customizations to it.

Heres the thread I jumped in to where several smart folks chimed in along the way and really helped out!


I learned how to reball a bga chip in the process (screwed up my first one.)

I soldered my own Trinket and have to say eMMC was my scariest mod yet but it all worked out in the end!

I had to come up with something to hit the reset button on my Trinket M0. Normally you flex the plastic back panel to push it. That won’t be happening on an aluminum shell! There are some trucks with aluminum panels that people have resorted to gluing magnets Inside the door panels to hang sings on the side of the door so I bought a reed switch and it seems there‘s enough magnetism passing through to trigger the reed switch sooooo I’m hoping Qi will pass through as well. I think there are some aluminum phones that do it too. I could be wrong.

Bah…You have me defending wireless charging. I think wireless charging is dumb because you STILL have a wire going to your charger so it’s not really wireless now, is it? I’m just doing it for the flex.

It only cost me $12 and I have it sitting right on top of the battery so if it’s dumb, I can rip it right back out.

Likewise! Feel free to tag me on any future mods you do!

Yeah that fan is basically what I have , also I totally understand it's just the flex , it's just cause you can , I was actually thinking about doing an MacBook style glowing Nintendo logo , and made a Reddit post about it but no one seemed to have an idea aha

 

[binkinator]

Yeah that fan is basically what I have , also I totally understand it's just the flex , it's just cause you can , I was actually thinking about doing an MacBook style glowing Nintendo logo , and made a Reddit post about it but no one seemed to have an idea aha

Glowing logo on the Dock? Or actually embedded in the shell? That would be sick!

 

[Jem13]

Glowing logo on the Dock? Or actually embedded in the shell? That would be sick!

The logo In the shell! I was talking to extremerate about making one but they wouldn't :/ was also talking to boxy pixel about it and he has just released a backplate !

 

[aoikurayami]

Love it! Thanks for posting pics. Looks friggin awesome.

What theme is that? I like that you let the colors “bleed over” into your joycon LEDs.

What fan did you upgrade to? Since I have it open…might as well.



e: got me all jazzed…here’s a more detailed update.

my one piece/gapless screen shows it will be here today! waiting intensifies

(e2)
it’s here! I was hiding behind the blinds watching the mailman walk up breathing all heavy and feeling all creepy. Me, not the mailman, with the creep thing. Whatever.

View attachment 319861
(Neighbors think I’m selling dope…)

Haaaaaaaaaa.

View attachment 319866


I picked up some Kryonaut yesterday along with a Qi coil for wireless charging (It‘s dumb but I’m going all out so why not.)

View attachment 319850

I just finished soldering in a 256G eMMC chip (old 32G in the picture above)

View attachment 319845

I chopped it up with a larger partition for Sysnand and then put Android and Ubuntu on their own fast memory partitions using the left over space.

View attachment 319851

hoping to put it all together this weekend…

Ohh shiny !

Uwait.
Android off the sys emmc ?!

Eitherhow. This thread is dangerous (For my wallet). But my V1 is busted anyways
(Also it is no OLED, so I'm good)

Since everything relies on wireless communication (Joy-Cons with Bluetooth, Switch with WiFi) I'm not so sure how wise it is to use a metal shell. Anything I'm overseeing here?

Don't worry. BT Audio and wifi tru multiple walls still work.
Unless thick plated (probably isn't), it should be fine.

Worst case they could still play in handheld mode anyways.

 

[binkinator]

Ohh shiny !

Uwait.
Android off the sys emmc ?!

yeah…check it out:

https://wiki.switchroot.org/en/Documentation/EMMC

it might be placebo effect but both Android and L4T feel a bit peppier on eMMC.

Eitherhow. This thread is dangerous (For my wallet).

Indeed!

But my V1 is busted anyways
(Also it is no OLED, so I'm good)


Don't worry. BT Audio and wifi tru multiple walls still work.
Unless thick plated (probably isn't), it should be fine.

it’s thin and they route the antennae outside the frame underneath the front glass, so yeah, I think it will be fine.

Worst case they could still play in handheld mode anyways.

 

[binkinator]

The logo In the shell! I was talking to extremerate about making one but they wouldn't :/ was also talking to boxy pixel about it and he has just released a backplate !

I’ve searched high and low and can’t find the BoxyPixel backplate. This is going to cost me, isn’t it. :-/

 

[binkinator]

wife’s out of town. have the whole house to myself. Time for lots of sex. no wait.

Gimme a spoon…I’m diving in!



See ya’ll on the other side…

 

[binkinator]

So I jacked up my Trinket while removing the motherboard. The (Vol +) was hanging by a thread and fat-fingers over here didnt have the skills to pay the bills and he bumped it and knocked it loose. Delay of game while I pondered my will to live for a bit and then realized that since I have the mobo out I can try out soldering to the alt points.

OMG! Sooooo much better than the “hand-jobs for insects” option on the front! Highly recommended.

Read up on what cc1 and cc2 do for USB-C and eliminated the wireless charging option as a result. I would have to hard wire a connection to CC which would mean it would always be in charging mode and would interfere with the Trinket and possibly even UMS and MTP mounting. Not a trade off I’m willing to make.

https://community.silabs.com/s/article/what-s-the-role-of-cc-pin-in-type-c-solution?language=en_US

Wasn’t that exciting of a mod anyway…wireless charging is a joke really.

So going to clean up my soldering and then I’m back under way to button everything up.

Have a couple of surprise mods that I added…will show them in the pics.
Hope they’re cute…might delete later.

 

[binkinator]

Whew…at long last I’m finally done! what a journey!

I jacked up my original board trying to notch a pass through for my Trinket M0 wires to get from the front to the back. Long story short, multi-layered boards do NOT like this.
Bought a donor board off eBay to swap out the battery circuit components that I undoubtedly fried in the “notching” process…ended up letting the smoke out of that one by simply plugging it in to the battery. Not sure if my fault or the board was bad to begin with since it was parts-only.
Finally broke down and bought a Fair Condition V1 off eBay and swapped out all the guts.

Here’s what’s new:

• all aluminum shell (front and back)
• Replaced all screen components with one piece digitizer/LCD
• Reed switch (magnetic) Trinket reset “button” (aluminum doesn’t flex, yo!)
• upgraded the fan
• new thermal paste and thermal pads...everywhere!
• boxy pixel aluminum joycons

aluminum dpad and abxy buttons​

metal slide locks​

new thumb sticks (white)​

• Extremerate stuff (all together so this doesn’t look like an advertisement)

illuminated trigger buttons (white)​

firefly kit (white)​

screen protector (with white border)​

Overall, impressions, everything has a bit more heft to it. Feels very nice in the hands. The look is just out of this world!

All that said it now feels a bit like a museum pice. I’m scared I’ll scratch it. It’s made of metal but i feel like I’m going to break it because I know the bodges I put in to make it all work. I’m always hyper-critical of my own work and every little bulge or .25mm gap drives me nuts. The kickstand pops off a little too easy for my tastes. I had to replace the internal button on one of the triggers and it’s way clicker than all the other buttons now. The aluminum buttons are a bit wobbly (going to try the double sided tape fix). I liked it when it was all Ninty’s fault. Now all issues are mine alone! I know I’ll get over it with time.

Bottom Line: Would I do it again? Hells yes!

Anyway, without further ado, here’s some glamour shots of the finished product!



(circular magnets are to trigger the reset switch on the Trinket)


(the white knight rider lights are nuanced...nobody is ever going to see them but me.)

side project: while my V1 system was down I bought a cheap V2 and chipped it. HWFLY prices are <$80 on aliexpress now so timing was right. This project was super easy in comparison. I was probably being more careful and making fewer mistakes. Almost everything is second hand off eBay or slow boated in from Aliexpress so while it looks like a lot, it really wasn’t.

Here she is in all her glory:




white binbok slim controllers
white dock is just an aliexpress faceplate.
was going to swap out the dpad with the aluminum PlayStation one but binbok changed their sizing. :-(

Fortnite Edition underneath…



10000mAh battery extender that‘s too fat to work with the dock mounted joycon charger which also doesn’t fit the binbok joycons.

(Custom mods are hard to get right ya’ll)




I think that’s going to be it for hardware mods for a while, fellas…

e: ohhhh. What’s this?


(Knock off Pro controller and 3500mAh LiPos from AE just arrived…back to the workbench?)

 

[peteruk]

@ Binki - that's an absolute thing of beauty, I absolutely love it and I'm honestly quite jealous!!

stunningly good looking bit of kit

 

[binkinator]

@ Binki - that's an absolute thing of beauty, I absolutely love it and I'm honestly quite jealous!!

stunningly good looking bit of kit

Aww shucks.

Thanks mate!

 

[evil_santa]

Congrats mate really really nice work.

 

[binkinator]

Congrats mate really really nice work.

Thank you kindly!

QQ…I’m moving my 256G eMMC over to this switch (literally copying data as I type).

I was wondering if Switches have been banned for swapping out/expanding the NAND chip?

I use my 100% clean Sysnand to play Online.
Is it a bad idea to go Online with a 64G NAND partition?
Would it be better to do a 32G NAND and just increase the size of my L4T or Android partition?
Or is going Online with a different NAND going to be a ban no matter what I do and strongly discouraged?

 

[evil_santa]

I played online with the sysnand right from the start and I haven't been banned to this day. but I haven't enlarged it, nor would I recommend it. you don't know if they will ban you for a larger user partition.
Probably not but who knows.
leave the user partition at 32gb and you're safe.

 

[randy_w]

Congrats! That's beautiful, good job!

3500mAh LiPos from AE just arrived…

I've also looked into that battery mod thing a few months back, apparently there are aftermarket 5000mah batteries available, as drop-in replacement:

But wait I found something more interesting here from a modshop on taobao:

Seems like they will cut through the mid-frame and put the battery right against the lcd screen. They will also dremel down the back cover so they can fit a thicker battery inside. Pretty wild stuff but damn a 11000mah battery that's almost 3 times the original capacity. Wonder what's the battery's model and I might try it myself..