Notice: I am not receiving notifications for this thread. I didn`t realise people were still posting in it.

Please please accept my apologies if I haven`t replied to tags etc... I have no idea what is happening. I`m subscribed to this thread but I am not receiving notifications. Please inbox me if possible. Or tag me in another thread.

Its amazing that people are still checking all of this out. I thank you for all of the help and support I have received in this thread over this year.

Cheers. Matty.


A video showing a modchip in action. Thank you once again to @metaljay for providing this. This is what you can achieve by fitting a chip!

Section 1. Gather your software.

Get your chip software from THIS THREAD.
Follow the flashing instructions there...

Section 2. Removing USB port and unneeded LEDs. (Adafruit chips only)

• Next, we need to remove the USB port from the modchip. I recommend a heatgun or a rework station. Heat up until the USB port just lifts off the modchip.

• Do the same for the LED just to the right of the USB port.

See picture:

You are now ready to fit your device. Proceed to Fitting section.

Section 3. Fitting modchip to your Switch.
New Universal Method. All SAMD-based internal chips. If your chip is not supported and you cannot work it out, PM me.

Trinket M0.
Solder as laid out in the following picture

==================================================
Rebug SwitchME M0. Use Trinket files.
Solder as laid out in the following picture

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RCMX86 - Internal modchip version.
Solder as laid out in the following picture

==================================================
Gemma M0. Use Gemma files.
Solder as laid out in the following picture

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ItsyBitsy M0 Express. Use ItsyBitsy files.
Solder as laid out in the following picture

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Feather M0 Express. Use Feather files.
Solder as laid out in the following picture

BUILD YOUR OWN FROM A QFP ATSAMD21E18. Trinket equivalent pins.
Flash Trinket bootloader using OpenOCD via serial pins SWDIO / SWDCLK. Fit a reset switch somewhere... Or going to power / wake (aka method 2). If building for external use, it is good practice to fit a third capacitor between 3V & GND. This is deliberately vague and ambigious, as this needs research and you need to know what you are doing.

Link for setting the Pi up with OpenOCD: HERE
Raspberry Pi OpenOCD image in downloads section or HERE

Alternative Solder Points

Credit to @consolex for original pic. I`ve added alternative points to solder to:

Credit to @pyorin for this much tidier version showing the same info as the above one!

Replacement Parts List

Spoiler: Parts

Ok... So you have damaged your switch soldering your chip in. Not to worry.

First things first, DO NOT BRIDGE THE CONTACTS HOPING TO REVIVE YOUR SWITCH. With resistors, you may possibly get away with this, but with the capacitors listed below, if you jump these points, you will make a nice short-circuit to the PMIC and / or the M92T36, killing them instantly. Don`t do it.

OK... I`ll list these parts with METHOD 2 & 3 TRINKET PIN NUMBERS and the values of the components they solder to.

TRINKET 3V (POWER SUPPLY) - 2.2uF 0402 size MLCC capacitor. Voltage unimportant as long as it is over 6.3v
TRINKET PIN 2 (POWER ON RESET - goes to pin 5 on M92T36)- 4.7uF 0402 size MLCC capacitor. Voltage unimportant as long as it is over 6.3v
TRINKET PIN 0 (VOL+) - 150R (150 ohms) 0201 Thick Film resistor. 50mW
TRINKET RESET (SWITCH POWER BUTTON) - 150R (150 ohms) 0201 Thick Film resistor. 50mW

I recommend RS components.

FAQ

Q - How do I boot the switch into APX (RCM) mode?

A - You need to short out pin 10 on the right joycon rail to GND with a jig or modded joycon or paperclip (not recommended... Buy a jig you cheap-ass gyppo). Once shorted out, hold down vol+ and power. The switch screen should be off... Plug into your PC and it should recognise a APX device. Well done. You are in RCM.

Q - What glue should I use?
A - Only glue if necessary! Ideally if your soldering is of sufficient quality and your wire is thin enough, you don`t need glue. I use a bit because I am OCD. Anyway, use Epoxy. It`s what I use. Gives you some working time, is solid. Superglue makes a mess DO NOT USE SUPERGLUE. The only thing super about it is how it melts things. Epoxy won`t stick to the shield long-term, so bear that in mind. Pure Acetone will remove epoxy. Acetone tends to remove / melt anything to be warned. CHECK YOUR GLUE WON`T GO CONDUCTIVE OVER TIME - LOOKING AT YOU SCAMSUNG! The combination of heat cycles and absorbing of moisture can turn adhesive into a high-impedance connection!

Q - What size wire should I use?
A - I use AWG40 magnet wire or AWG30 Kynar. AWG40 goes onto components easier... And if you snap it, chances are the wire will snap and not the trace / component.
A2 - You can also use AWG30. I recommend Kynar wrapping wire but any will do. Looks nice, good resistance to elements, tidy. Nothing thicker than AWG30. You are just causing yourself more headaches. Trust me.

Q - Is AWG40 thick enough?
A - Yes. AWG40 is good for around 90mA.

Q - which methods do you recommend?
A - Connect all the straps...

Q - how do you recommend to set it up?
A - Fusee Suite. Search for Fusee Suite or go to link at top of this OP.

Q - My switch is flat and won't turn on.
A - Have you got the charger connected? Disconnect it or your switch won't boot! Boot to a payload (SX loader/Hekate), reconnect charger and leave on the payload menu and charge. Leave for 15 minutes and switch will start normally. It will continue charging one booted.

Disclaimer:
You have only yourself to blame. This voids warranty. This may or may not get you banned from online services. If it does, you got yourself banned. I`m not responsible if you kill your switch / your first-born with any of this in this post. I`m not infalliable. I`m partly senile. Do your own research. Kids, get bill payers permission before you attempt even using a screwdriver.
NUTSHELL: Don`t come having a go at me because you fooked your £300 console up. I`ll do my best to help you though if you do, Just don`t blame me.

Credits to Quantum-Cross, Atlas44, @Ninoh-FOX , @jcrorxp , @tecfreak, @mooglazer, @subcon959, @64Dp128k, @mikeleuskaldunak, @M-O-B, CTCaer, @evilsperm, @consolex and everyone else for valuable input.

IF YOU REQUIRE SUPPORT, IF YOUR CONSOLE ISN`T WORKING CORRECTLY... PLEASE POST A HIGH RESOLUTION PICTURE OF YOUR INSTALL. You might think it isn`t your soldering, but in all cases with the new methods, it is bad soldering. So, please post a picture.

A BRIEF WARNING - PLEASE READ

Spoiler: READ THIS

THIS MOD IS NOT FOR THE FEINT OF HEART. WE ARE SOLDERING TO TRACES AND COMPONENTS ON THE FRONT SIDE OF THE BOARD TO SAVE HAVING TO REMOVE THE BOARD AND SOLDER TO TESTPOINTS. IF YOU ARE STRUGGLING, OR THINK YOU ARE GOING TO STRUGGLE, PLEASE PLEASE SOLDER TO THE TEST POINTS NOTED IN THIS AND OTHER THREADS (YOU WILL NEED TO REMOVE THE MOTHERBOARD). DOUBLE - TRIPLE CHECK EVERYTHING. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!
Good soldering skills are needed!
A magnifying glass is needed!
Good soldering iron needed - ideally with a 0.3 conical tip. No more than 30w!
SECURE YOUR WIRES PRIOR TO SOLDERING. Stick them down with double-sided tape.
Only use glue if you need to and glue wires after soldering. Don`t glue the solder to the component!
Put the tiniest amount of glue on the PCB mask only. Never on components. Use a cocktail stick for more glue control!!!
Take a look at alternative solder points to get you out of the sh*t if you do rip something off the board
If you aren`t the best at soldering, then think very carefully about connecting to pin 6 capacitor (the one in these new methods). If you rip this pad, you WILL NEED TO REMOVE YOUR BOARD and run from a testpoint.

 

[White_Raven_X]

View attachment 407701View attachment 407702View attachment 407703View attachment 407704
Thank you for the explanations. I sort of figured thats what it refers to, as the description is self explanatory. Ive attached a few screenshots of my admittedly noob attempts. I've worked on soldering for several years from time to time on personal projects. Components never this tiny, though pretty close. I tried to solder the wire to the pad and ended up accidently getting that glob onto the small resistor below it (at least what I believe is an SMD resistor). While frantically panicking and trying to get the glob of solder off the resistor, I had troubles, as it was like the solder turned into a glob of clay, and i essently had to slowly shape it to get it off the resistor. I feel like I may have burnt the resistor, but I assume not since the switch still powers on.

Everything works fine so far. The switch powers on, and I am able to booth into hekate, sysnand, emunand, atmosphere, etc, as well as get into the trinket boot menu by holding volume. When I go into Fusee_UF2 information however, I get the following for USB voltage (optional) - Not yet found. Reboot to check again.

View attachment 407706
I tried resoldering the wire the first time i saw that, which is actually how I ended up getting the glob of solder on the resistor in the first place, but even after finally getting it off, I'm still getting that message. Checked the wire with my multi-meter and still getting a connection from pin 2 on the trinket to the solder pad. Not sure why it still says not yet found.

Your blob of solder should be ok...although you could just go over it again with a clean iron to remove some of the blob to make it cleaner. I would make sure to solder all my connections to the front of the M0 and not the back side. Once you have cleaned up your connections, you can test it again and see if there's any difference. Your "USB disconnect strap" should be connected to #2 on the M0. It's not clear in your pictures as your going under other wires and it appears to be soldered under the board. Just try to tidy up your connections and see if that makes a difference. The picture of your 3V connection isn't clear on your motherboard, but it should only be on the top side of the smd capacitor.

 

[unvaluablespace]

Thank you for the help. Yeah I don't even know why but the #2 is the only one where I soldered to the backside. Should not be too difficult to solder to the front. I will give it a shot and let you know if that makes a difference. As for the mess of wires, I have double checked to the picture and verified they are wired where they should be. One other thing I should mention, I ended up super gluing the USB pin pads on the trinket itself (the area where I previously removed the microusb port). As I was soldering the wires on, I noticed the pad was moving, as if it was detached from the board, but it was obviously still connected, so I soldered everything down best I could, made sure the two soldered pads werent connected themselves, and after verifying it powered on, I applied glue to help keep it down.

 

[White_Raven_X]

Thank you for the help. Yeah I don't even know why but the #2 is the only one where I soldered to the backside. Should not be too difficult to solder to the front. I will give it a shot and let you know if that makes a difference. As for the mess of wires, I have double checked to the picture and verified they are wired where they should be. One other thing I should mention, I ended up super gluing the USB pin pads on the trinket itself (the area where I previously removed the microusb port). As I was soldering the wires on, I noticed the pad was moving, as if it was detached from the board, but it was obviously still connected, so I soldered everything down best I could, made sure the two soldered pads werent connected themselves, and after verifying it powered on, I applied glue to help keep it down.

It seems that you might have used too much heat or held your soldering.iron to the pad for too long and that's why it detached from the board. Glue is a bad idea. Why don't you just follow the trace a little further and solder it to something more solid instead.

 

[unvaluablespace]

It seems that you might have used too much heat or held your soldering.iron to the pad for too long and that's why it detached from the board. Glue is a bad idea. Why don't you just follow the trace a little further and solder it to something more solid instead.

I was referring to the pads on the microusb pinouts. I'm pretty sure that part is working fine though, as I would hazard a guess that the microusb pinouts are how it injects the payload. Also, following the trace further up goes directly to the chip above it, which is even smaller than the pads. Not sure if its worth the risk unless the pads are the reason for the usb voltage message saying its not working.

(Sorry for the crappy image. I know it looks like the wires are all soldered together there, but thats just due to bad image quality + the glue I applied after soldering.)

I flipped the wire of #2 from under to over but no dice. Curiously, while I was doing so, I got curious and removed the wire from #0, the one that leads to the top of the board, for the vol+ function. Even with the wire detached, the trinket menu states vol+ is still working and functional, yet usb voltage isnt.

Honestly, at this point, I give up. The mod seems to be working. I hope the usb disconnect doesnt drain the battery. I will have to test, but i am afraid to keep unsoldering/resoldering at risk of messing the entire switch up. Thank you for the help. I actually plan to sell my Switch, as I moved on to Steam Deck. I was just hoping to get the Trinket installed so whoever I sell it to doesnt have to jump through jig and payload hoops (until this, I was using switch jig (or AutoRCM), and my phone with a usb-c to usb-c, to inject the payload.

 

[White_Raven_X]

I was referring to the pads on the microusb pinouts. I'm pretty sure that part is working fine though, as I would hazard a guess that the microusb pinouts are how it injects the payload. Also, following the trace further up goes directly to the chip above it, which is even smaller than the pads. Not sure if its worth the risk unless the pads are the reason for the usb voltage message saying its not working.

(Sorry for the crappy image. I know it looks like the wires are all soldered together there, but thats just due to bad image quality + the glue I applied after soldering.)
View attachment 407867

I flipped the wire of #2 from under to over but no dice. Curiously, while I was doing so, I got curious and removed the wire from #0, the one that leads to the top of the board, for the vol+ function. Even with the wire detached, the trinket menu states vol+ is still working and functional, yet usb voltage isnt.

Honestly, at this point, I give up. The mod seems to be working. I hope the usb disconnect doesnt drain the battery. I will have to test, but i am afraid to keep unsoldering/resoldering at risk of messing the entire switch up. Thank you for the help. I actually plan to sell my Switch, as I moved on to Steam Deck. I was just hoping to get the Trinket installed so whoever I sell it to doesnt have to jump through jig and payload hoops (until this, I was using switch jig (or AutoRCM), and my phone with a usb-c to usb-c, to inject the payload.

If all else fails, you can take out the trinket, add a coin battery to it and solder a USB type c male on it to build your own external injector device. I used to use that before I ended up installing Team Xecuter's SX mod chip. In my opinion is one of the best chips. And no I'm not running their pay-to-use OS as it was garbage anyways. I push fusee. Anyways I own 3 Nintendo switch (2x v1's, 1x V2) and 2 Switch lites. They are all modified except for one Nintendo Switch which goes online.

 

[azazeldeath]

I know this is ancient, and sorry if I shouldn't reply. But THANK YOU so much, I seriously was having issues with finding anything on these old boards to wire up a picofly this should help alot. Your a legend amongst legends.

Having alternative solder points is a huge help too, along with all the information, I don't know why this isn't easier to find rather than using a Google search.

 

[lynyx]

Hi there! I wanted to install a trinket chip to my v1 and I kinda failed. I flashed part1 and part2 and then a settings file (SETTINGS_R_JVU_B3_3_MP.UF2). I installed the chip and I made sure all the connections are solid (they were). Upon pressing the power button the remaining led (power led I suppose) on the board flashed briefly red and then the switch booted to OFW. I tried booting while holding + or - or both and still it booted to OFW every single time. Then I tried to go into RCM the vanilla way (jig and injector while holding power and +). After holding power and + for a second or two (with the jig inserted), the main chip on the trinket started producing white magic smoke. I quickly pulled the battery connector and removed the jig. The switch now boots to OFW and the trinket is dead. I wonder why the trinket didn't do anything. I would like to know what I did wrong. I'm going to purchase another trinket and try again. I'm only going to flash part 1 and 2 this time and see where that gets me. Also what temperature should I use on my hot air station for desoldering the micro usb port, the led and the resistor. Thank you!

Edit: I soldered all the straps. I used the latest files available on github. When pressing the reset button after installing the trinket, the rgb led flashed red once and that's about all it did.

 

[foxadn]

Hi guys,

Just wanted to give a big THANKS to everyone who contributed to making this mod open and easy to make.

Finished installing a Trinket M0 on my NS yesterday, initially it didn't work, couldn't enter RCM anymore.. after troubleshooting I realized I busted the 150R for VOL UP (doh!!). Replaced the resistor with a huge TH connected via small wires.

After fixing this it works like a charm.
Eneded up cutting the RAM shield cover, as well as making cuts in the outer metal cover for the Trinket button, LED an the 150R TH resistor.

Here's a pic for sharing purpose -- I used a bit of hot glue here and there.

Cheers everyone!!

 

[BaamAlex]

Eneded up cutting the RAM shield cover

It is not needed to cut the ram cover. Just the metal shield is enough.

 

[Girtana1]

If you are planning to do 7 wires, you have to figure out which one is volume+ strap, joycon strap, and usb disconnect strap.

Thank you very much for this as I can't find an install diagram anywhere else for this newer rev of RCMx86, I just bought one that's not exactly the same but very similar, only thing I'm confused about is did you edit this post at some point? It looks like all 7 straps are present in the picture lol

 

[Hayato213]

Thank you very much for this as I can't find an install diagram anywhere else for this newer rev of RCMx86, I just bought one that's not exactly the same but very similar, only thing I'm confused about is did you edit this post at some point? It looks like all 7 straps are present in the picture lol

The picture the guy shown and the one in the guide is different.

 

[Girtana1]

The picture the guy shown and the one in the guide is different.

Right, I'm just confused on why you said "you have to figure out" when it's detailed in your diagram is all

(First response in 4 mins then no response afterwards lol, it's like you're purposely trying to confuse people but I'll stick with the schematic you posted once the chip arrives, then you got @impeeza over here acting like a bot)

 

[BaamAlex]

How do I solder this chip? I know its an rcm x86, but is this revision compatible with the schematic from the first page? And how do I flash a firmware to this one?

 

[Hayato213]

How do I solder this chip? I know its an rcm x86, but is this revision compatible with the schematic from the first page? And how do I flash a firmware to this one?

Im not 100% sure what pad #A and #B and the two between 3.3V and Ground is for, so you have to see if you have find datasheet. Anyway you have to figure out what other pad is for USB disconnect, Joycon strap, and Volume + strap.

 

[CowsRPog]

I’m considering this, but I’ve just got a few questions. Any help would be appreciated
Could you still boot into Hekate? If so, how?
What does it mean at Section 3 about only having dual boot if you don’t connect the Vol +? What is that added functionality past dual boot?

 

[BaamAlex]

Could you still boot into Hekate? If so, how?

It sounds weird, but when correctly installed, you put a payload.bin into the root of your sd and turn on your console. That's it. Technically, you can boot into every existing bootloader.

 

[CowsRPog]

It sounds weird, but when correctly installed, you put a payload.bin into the root of your sd and turn on your console. That's it. Technically, you can boot into every existing bootloader.

Is there a separate button configuration you can use for that then? I’d like to be able to boot into both OFW and CFW without it popping up, but still have access.

 

[impeeza]

Is there a separate button configuration you can use for that then? I’d like to be able to boot into both OFW and CFW without it popping up, but still have access.

You can boot Hekate and setup the Hekate_ipl.ini to disable autoboot, then you will be asked for the payload/config you like.

 

[BaamAlex]

Is there a separate button configuration you can use for that then? I’d like to be able to boot into both OFW and CFW without it popping up, but still have access.

Disable autoboot in hekate.

 

[BaamAlex]

I removed the USB port successfully. And then I removed carefully some excess solder with copper braid. Now it seems that I scratched off a bit from the black layer coating of the board. Could this be problematic? My wires wouldn't make any contact with this.