Hacking Hardware Picofly - a HWFLY switch modchip

[QuiTim]

Alright fellas, thanks for your inputs. I didn’t listen to some of your guys advice because I went back to my modder with the switch and it worked for a good minute. But when I went back home and fiddled around, it kinda crashed and rebooted back to OFW.

I opened it up, and the error codes gave me I think lost connection to D0 and RST again. Additionally, it seems like one (or two) of the resistor is touching that solder joint where the boot button used to be.

What do you guys think? Is this salvageable? Should I go back again? Third time the charm?

Bro, stay away from this guy please. No one in his right mind would place Pico like that without any insulation. This is a diaster waiting to happen.
If it is currently working try to put some kapton tape under the left part of the Pico all the way over the heatsink (something like in the photo).
The best would be to find some competent guy who knows what he is doing and let him redo the work correctly.

 

[twins333]

Asking the masters here, can we use only the actual rp2040 chip for this glitch? Something like: https://www.optimusdigital.ro/ro/co...2156-microcontroller-raspberry-pi-rp2040.html

According to the specs, it has everything needed for it to run as needed: https://datasheets.raspberrypi.com/rp2040/rp2040-datasheet.pdf
The whole board looks like it's there to expose the gpio/power pins, without any other components in between.

 

[abal1000x]

Asking the masters here, can we use only the actual rp2040 chip for this glitch? Something like: https://www.optimusdigital.ro/ro/co...2156-microcontroller-raspberry-pi-rp2040.html

According to the specs, it has everything needed for it to run as needed: https://datasheets.raspberrypi.com/rp2040/rp2040-datasheet.pdf
The whole board looks like it's there to expose the gpio/power pins, without any other components in between.

I don't think it can't.
The firmware will OC it to 200MHz. I don't think simple RLC could achived stable clock on that frequency. Usually use external quartz crystal resonator.

 

[twins333]

I don't think it can't.
The firmware will OC it to 200MHz. I don't think simple RLC could achived stable clock on that frequency. Usually use external quartz crystal resonator.

I don't see a quartz on the full board. it also has a quartz/internal oscillator for this. This was my initial thought as well, that's why I'm asking.
LE: also will the glitch/software fail if it cannot address the LED? while true we will not have feedback for the glitch without LED, this should be a minor inconvenience, gaining a LOT of freedom with decreased size of the components. This could mean the whole setup could be done on the back of the board (for non-oled at least).

 

[cgtchy0412]

I don't see a quartz on the full board. it also has a quartz/internal oscillator for this. This was my initial thought as well, that's why I'm asking.
LE: also will the glitch/software fail if it cannot address the LED? while true we will not have feedback for the glitch without LED, this should be a minor inconvenience, gaining a LOT of freedom with decreased size of the components. This could mean the whole setup could be done on the back of the board (for non-oled at least).

I can confirm that without led it will still glitch.

 

[QuiTim]

Just wanted to share an experience that i had yesterday.
My friend told me his Switch (v1 unpatched) is not glitching anymore so i took the switch and dived in.
This was my installation so I was pretty sure I did not fck something up but since this was the only Unpatched switch I did to this day I wanted to see why this happened and also him having 2 children that treat this poor thing like a piñata I was sure that some wire came loose (if not the whole chip)
The soldering was ok, nothing moved there (single irf8342 single wire 2 caps), the fw was 2.67 and it was showing yellow (CLK problem).
I took the Pico off, resoldered the usbc, flashed 2.73 and attached everything back but the problem persisted, now showing == CLK not connected (same error but different fw).
I tried also removing the voltage regulator (known to go bad sometime), changing the resistors, using a different 3v3 point and what not but there was no way to make it work.
In the end I replaced the Pico with a new one and it works normally.
I never touched the other soldered points on the pcb, they remain the same so there was no issue there.
My best guess at this point is that it might have been a bad crystal so I saved the old Pico and I will swap the crystal and give it one more go when I find time for it just to get to the bottom of it.
Anyone had a similar issue?

 

[abal1000x]

I can confirm that without led it will still glitch.

You mean you could glitch it only using the rp2040 microcontroller without any component?

Nvm, i assume what you means is, glitching without led on ordinary rp2040 board such as rp2040-zero.

 

[snaker]

Alright fellas, thanks for your inputs. I didn’t listen to some of your guys advice because I went back to my modder with the switch and it worked for a good minute. But when I went back home and fiddled around, it kinda crashed and rebooted back to OFW.

I opened it up, and the error codes gave me I think lost connection to D0 and RST again. Additionally, it seems like one (or two) of the resistor is touching that solder joint where the boot button used to be.

What do you guys think? Is this salvageable? Should I go back again? Third time the charm?

Ohh no no no i was wrond my friend. Can you forgive me. I changed my mind. Go back again and ask from him to fix it. He can do it!! Maybe in 10 years...

 

[abal1000x]

Just wanted to share an experience that i had yesterday.
My friend told me his Switch (v1 unpatched) is not glitching anymore so i took the switch and dived in.
This was my installation so I was pretty sure I did not fck something up but since this was the only Unpatched switch I did to this day I wanted to see why this happened and also him having 2 children that treat this poor thing like a piñata I was sure that some wire came loose (if not the whole chip)
The soldering was ok, nothing moved there (single irf8342 single wire 2 caps), the fw was 2.67 and it was showing yellow (CLK problem).
I took the Pico off, resoldered the usbc, flashed 2.73 and attached everything back but the problem persisted, now showing == CLK not connected (same error but different fw).
I tried also removing the voltage regulator (known to go bad sometime), changing the resistors, using a different 3v3 point and what not but there was no way to make it work.
In the end I replaced the Pico with a new one and it works normally.
I never touched the other soldered points on the pcb, they remain the same so there was no issue there.
My best guess at this point is that it might have been a bad crystal so I saved the old Pico and I will swap the crystal and give it one more go when I find time for it just to get to the bottom of it.
Anyone had a similar issue?

Hopefully its only the quartz.
What i am afraid is the rp2040 fried.

 

[QuiTim]

Ohh no no no i was wrond my friend. Can you forgive me. I changed my mind. Go back again and ask from him to fix it. He can do it!!

it still looks like the rp2040 is directly touching the cpu heatsink clamp (along the left side of the rp2040) which would short your connections and result in the errors you are seeing. Your installer sucks.

I mean it's not that his soldering skills are bad, we sure have seen alot worse here but what he lacks is a common sense.
Even the worst solder jobs that I've seen here at least put an effort to properly cover everything with kapton or solder mask but no, this guy no, he does not give a flying fck for that, it's like he is doing this on purpose. And don't even get me started on sideways soldered resistors from the first installation....

 

[abal1000x]

I mean it's not that his soldering sills are bad, we sure have seen alot worse here but what he lacks is a common sense.
Even the worst solder jobs that I've seen here at least put an effort to properly cover everything with kapton or solder mask but no, this guy no, he does not give a flying fck for that, it's like he is doing this on purpose. And don't even get me started on sideways soldered resistors from the first installation....

Maybe he got problems on his/her life.
If you got some problem in family, usually your professional work got affected.

Or maybe just maybe, he thinks the payment is not worth the job

 

[twins333]

You mean you could glitch it only using the rp2040 microcontroller without any component?

He meant it can glitch without the LED, just the LED missing. About the other components, whell, I guess it should be tested. I think I can have the modder do it, will ask him when I get another switch and will need modding

 

[ypeeLs]

Asking the masters here, can we use only the actual rp2040 chip for this glitch? Something like: https://www.optimusdigital.ro/ro/co...2156-microcontroller-raspberry-pi-rp2040.html

According to the specs, it has everything needed for it to run as needed: https://datasheets.raspberrypi.com/rp2040/rp2040-datasheet.pdf
The whole board looks like it's there to expose the gpio/power pins, without any other components in between.

Won't work, you need a flash chip to store the firmware at least

 

[RatchetRussian]

Alright fellas, thanks for your inputs. I didn’t listen to some of your guys advice because I went back to my modder with the switch and it worked for a good minute. But when I went back home and fiddled around, it kinda crashed and rebooted back to OFW.

I opened it up, and the error codes gave me I think lost connection to D0 and RST again. Additionally, it seems like one (or two) of the resistor is touching that solder joint where the boot button used to be.

What do you guys think? Is this salvageable? Should I go back again? Third time the charm?

It's a miracle you can still boot to ofw. I think the longer you allow this person to work on it, the more likely you'll get a broken switch in the end of it.

Do you trust someone who lied about their experience to do the right thing and buy you a new switch when they brick yours?

Take it to a real modder/technician while you still can.

 

[twins333]

Won't work, you need a flash chip to store the firmware at least

The chip already has internal memory to store the firmware. Again, the chip has everything needed, from what I can tell. My only concern is an additional oscillator/quartz that might be present on the full board.

 

[ypeeLs]

The chip already has internal memory to store the firmware. Again, the chip has everything needed, from what I can tell. My only concern is an additional oscillator/quartz that might be present on the full board.

it is present on the full board

 

[abal1000x]

I don't see a quartz on the full board. it also has a quartz/internal oscillator for this. This was my initial thought as well, that's why I'm asking.
LE: also will the glitch/software fail if it cannot address the LED? while true we will not have feedback for the glitch without LED, this should be a minor inconvenience, gaining a LOT of freedom with decreased size of the components. This could mean the whole setup could be done on the back of the board (for non-oled at least).

I once work as a designer on quartz crystal resonator. The heart of the oscillator circuit. My job is to reduce noise which we called spur at that time as much as we can. Usually every manufacture has their own 'recipe' on lapping, bevelling, shaping, until etching. And i also got my own recipe. 16MHz, 8Mhz usually result in a bad graphic. The best one as far as i know, is 12-13Mhz in the dimension of 7550 or 7050, or something similar. The graphic is clean, less spur. So if you use a multiplier frequency, the signal will be stable. Also in the market there is different crystal purposes. The worst is the one publicly sold. Better is in the automotive industry. And the best is in the space industry. So if you got crystal from automotive pcb, its far superior compared to tv, computer, or something similar.

And as far as i know, crystal is parametric to size. I can't imagine make a crystal so tiny that it could goes inside the microchip. The tiniest crystal i work is in the range of 3225 (3.2mmx2.5mm) and the last experimental job i've done is making a 2010 size. All in the range of mm. So to goes inside the microchip it need to shrink into the size of micrometer. The last time i work on this field, i've no news on someone could reduce the size until micrometer size of quartz crystal. Subjectively, i think its impossible.

When i read the datasheet, what i assume is not a quartz crystal resonator, but an oscillator circuit / functionality. Theres no crystal inside the chip. Only resistor, capacitor, and inductor, and some of transistor to flip flop the signal.

If you read on the datasheet page 222, its talking about ROSC or Ring Oscillator. I believe this is what the "Hardware Design" document refer to on the crystal. CMIIW.

 

[AceCuba]

Hey guys i want to impruve My work for future consoles . this uis my latest install. Any advice??

 

[QuiTim]

Hey guys i want to impruve My work for future consoles . this uis my latest install. Any advice??

Looks good bro, this is as good as it gets. You could try to solder the 3rd resistor tilted a bit (like in photo) then you don't need kapton at this stage.
Also you could try to remove the voltage regulator under the pico and then you can install it without cutting the shield. I have not done this myself yet but I have seen that it fits nicely.
Also, since you want to make improvements you could try to change the solder or flux since ideally the joints should look shiny but this depends on solder, flux and temperature used.

 

[AceCuba]

Looks good bro, this is as good as it gets. You could try to solder the 3rd resistor tilted a bit (like in photo) then you don't need kapton at this stage.
Also you could try to remove the voltage regulator under the pico and then you can install it without cutting the shield. I have not done this myself yet but I have seen that it fits nicely.

Ldo is out in every install . I'm cutting the shield becouse of the doble sidded tape i'm using is to thick You know cuba lol