Hacking Hardware Picofly - a HWFLY switch modchip

[lightninjay]

Not sure if anyone else has produced a design that is quick to solder on and nests inside the switch easier yet. I just finished this one today and it is intended to be a flexible PCB. It is just a prototype and will need some adjustments I'm sure, but I mapped the GPIOs the same as the original Waveshare board so I believe the original firmware will flash to this with no issue.

Anyone interested in this thing?

Based on the layout this particular flex is exclusive to the Lite variant, no?

Do you have plans to make V1/V2 normal variants?

 

[RecklessElectronics]

Based on the layout this particular flex is exclusive to the Lite variant, no?

Do you have plans to make V1/V2 normal variants?

That is correct. I only have a Lite and I had to do a ton of measuring to get this thing to line up. I wouldn't mind adapting it but I would have a hard time without a physical unit to measure.

 

[Tom8823]

So one notoriously difficult thing about Ground (which that point is a part of) is that by nature it is connected to all other ground points, and is therefor the first candidate as a passive heatsink. Heatsinks are designed to dissipate heat, so to solder to the ground plane, you have to be at a decently high temperature. Clean the spot with some iso, turn your iron to about 390, tin your iron, flux the spot, and then go in to get the pad shiny. It can take a few seconds since it's attached to ground but still a tiny point.

Yeah its pretty hard to get it to stick there , u can also just take it from the shield . u need to heat it good to get it to connection

Thank you @Dee87 and @lightninjay

I increased the temp to 396 and after 3 seconds it was applied.

But I also scratched the point a little bit with the end of my tweezers so it would stick better.

Anyway, 1 point done. Now the most important which is the cap. I'm already nervous about it

 

[RecklessElectronics]

Woooow now this is awesome .
Beautiful job !!!

Is this gone be open source or for sale?

I'm Very interested , hit me up

Thank you, I have been teaching myself electrical engineering and this seemed like a fun thing to work on. I don't intend on selling them due to the legal issues that other modchip makers have experienced. I will likely open source it once I get my hands on the test units to verify it functions as expected.

 

[sergiochendry]

Guys, first i do a mod in switch v2
I got blue - cyan and go to OFW
check my mosfet but i think is okay
i already press reset button when nintendo logo appears but the switch only reset and go to ofw again

 

[nico77]

Just opened my Lite and moved the Pico from #1 to #2, and can confirm that on the #2 position it's a perfect fit, no need to cut the shield and has enough room to fit everything without extra pressure. Just make sure to insulate nicely the Pico (top, bottom and sides) with Kapton tape.
The only thing that I don't like about #2 position, are the longer wires for GND and +3.3V, but it works good anyway.

View attachment 365343

so clean
purpect!!!


-did you remove the emmc cover ?

-can i remove the usb-c with only soldering iron? without heat gun/blower gun? i only have soldering iron for now.....

 

[Hayato213]

Guys, first i do a mod in switch v2
I got blue - cyan and go to OFW
check my mosfet but i think is okay
i already press reset button when nintendo logo appears but the switch only reset and go to ofw again

WHITE = eMMC write
BLUE = glitch
PURPLE = eMMC boot failure, check CMD / CLK
YELLOW = eMMC write failure, check D0 / unsupported eMMC
CYAN = no reaction to glitch, check mosfet wire
GREEN = success

Cyan color check your mosfet.

 

[nico77]

I figured I would document my process of how I approached soldering in the tiny and tight areas of the switch lite, along with the close proximity of the pads to each other.

The main philosophy was "if it can be masked with Kapton during soldering, DO IT. Then flux it, solder it, clean it, and cover it in UV-cure resin."

This seemed to be pretty effective, and my only issues were this being my first flex install, I had to make sure I had good contact on the caps and no bridging.

View attachment 365360
Here's my V2 flex cable secured to a piece of lumber with electrical tape and kapton to do the finer masking.
View attachment 365361
It tinned easily, and soldered easily without worrying about bridging to the side pins.
View attachment 365366
Then I cleaned it, demasked it, and covered it in resin.
View attachment 365363
Here is the Lite's 3.3v points as called out by the definitive guide. I masked off the small component nearest them with Kapton, tinned the pads...
View attachment 365364
soldered my 30awg Kynar to it...
View attachment 365365
and then also covered it in resin!
View attachment 365367
This is the GND point that has been masked off and soldered to.
View attachment 365368
Here is the RST point (I opted for a single pad since I'm using 40awg magnet wire)
View attachment 365369
Here's that RST point covered in yet more resin
View attachment 365370
Masking off and tinning the DAT0 made things much simpler
View attachment 365371
Here's CMD masked out and tinned
View attachment 365372
and here's DAT0, CMD, and CLK all soldered in and resin'd
View attachment 365362
here's the flex pre-tinned
View attachment 365373
This was one of my first attempts at soldering the flex (possibly the very first) but ultimately I got it all cleaned up and functioning properly.

So I learned that doing a switch lite is slightly more difficult than doing a full-size switch, but with the right approach it doesn't have to be impossible or terrifying.

Also, fun side-note, be very careful when trying to remove the battery connector on the switch lite, because you have to disturb a jumper cable that runs the front LCD. If any of these traces are interrupted, you will have to trace which ones have lost continuity and bridge the appropriate pins with magnet wire (ask me how I know)

The short and sweet of it, is that my household now has two hacked switches (which is a 100% success rate on 100% of the consoles in the house) and I feel more confident in my micro-soldering skills

should i use A or B point for 3.3v lite
or just use both A+B ?

 

[Tom8823]

should i use A or B point for 3.3v lite
or just use both A+B ?

Those points are already connected so go with A+B. Bigger spot to solder to

 

[abal1000x]

.

 

[RecklessElectronics]

Those points are already connected so go with A+B. Bigger spot to solder to

Am I reading correctly that this is an alternative solder point for 3.3v?

 

[abal1000x]

.

 

[RecklessElectronics]

Yes it is.

Awesome, I will check that out for version 0.1 of my new board.

 

[sergiochendry]

WHITE = eMMC write
BLUE = glitch
PURPLE = eMMC boot failure, check CMD / CLK
YELLOW = eMMC write failure, check D0 / unsupported eMMC
CYAN = no reaction to glitch, check mosfet wire
GREEN = success

Cyan color check your mosfet.

I check soldering wire on mosfet
I think is ok
I try to oled switch using cpu flex from aliexpres
But i got the same problem
blue - cyan

 

[Contra8bit]

YELLOW = eMMC write failure, check D0 / unsupported eMMC

Don't think so. I'm already installed rp2040 zero before (and have 100+ hwfly installs), but yesterday get yellow on 2 rp2040 (2.65 and maybe 2.61). And this definitely not dat0 issue. I used flex cable from v2. eMMC Samsung.
I'm tired of trying and just install hwfly and it works amazing.

 

[lightninjay]

I check soldering wire on mosfet
I think is ok
I try to oled switch using cpu flex from aliexpres
But i got the same problem
blue - cyan

try and deliberately resolder the CPU pin on the RP2040 side. Pull the wire out, make sure it has solid solder on it, and reattach it to the pad. I've experienced having good connection at the APU/flex before, but bad at the RP2040 with the thinner magnet wire due to the ceramic coating.

 

[Phantomas77]

You rock! Thanks. The link you shared is for Sthetix's HATS install. I've seen that video. He didn't mention any MOSFETs, did he? Couldn't find any related links in the description too.

Don't know how it got there, just corrected the link.

Post automatically merged: Apr 17, 2023

so clean
purpect!!!


-did you remove the emmc cover ?

-can i remove the usb-c with only soldering iron? without heat gun/blower gun? i only have soldering iron for now.....

The eMMC shield stayed on.
You can try with low-melt solder, it should help. Just make sure to clean the remains of that solder with a copper wick and use some good old Sn63/Pb37 alloy.

 

[FreeLander]

Hello. I removed the MOSFET off the flex cable, got a pretty got understanding of its pins and where everything should go, but I'm currently trying this on a V2 Hwfly installed on a Lite (still waiting for another batch of RPs).

If I choose the right cap, which CPU pin should I solder it to on Hwfly? Thanks.

 

[nico77]

my RP2040zero just arrive!!!
all parts !! Assamble!!!

soon ill do the mosfet first... ill do no rush...
but before that let me spelunky run first ~ whip whip~!!

 

[Adran_Marit]

Just opened my Lite and moved the Pico from #1 to #2, and can confirm that on the #2 position it's a perfect fit, no need to cut the shield and has enough room to fit everything without extra pressure. Just make sure to insulate nicely the Pico (top, bottom and sides) with Kapton tape.
The only thing that I don't like about #2 position, are the longer wires for GND and +3.3V, but it works good anyway.

View attachment 365343

HONESTLY THEY ARE THE WIRES THAT MATTE

I figured I would document my process of how I approached soldering in the tiny and tight areas of the switch lite, along with the close proximity of the pads to each other.

The main philosophy was "if it can be masked with Kapton during soldering, DO IT. Then flux it, solder it, clean it, and cover it in UV-cure resin."

This seemed to be pretty effective, and my only issues were this being my first flex install, I had to make sure I had good contact on the caps and no bridging.

View attachment 365360
Here's my V2 flex cable secured to a piece of lumber with electrical tape and kapton to do the finer masking.
View attachment 365361
It tinned easily, and soldered easily without worrying about bridging to the side pins.
View attachment 365366
Then I cleaned it, demasked it, and covered it in resin.
View attachment 365363
Here is the Lite's 3.3v points as called out by the definitive guide. I masked off the small component nearest them with Kapton, tinned the pads...
View attachment 365364
soldered my 30awg Kynar to it...
View attachment 365365
and then also covered it in resin!
View attachment 365367
This is the GND point that has been masked off and soldered to.
View attachment 365368
Here is the RST point (I opted for a single pad since I'm using 40awg magnet wire)
View attachment 365369
Here's that RST point covered in yet more resin
View attachment 365370
Masking off and tinning the DAT0 made things much simpler
View attachment 365371
Here's CMD masked out and tinned
View attachment 365372
and here's DAT0, CMD, and CLK all soldered in and resin'd
View attachment 365362
here's the flex pre-tinned
View attachment 365373
This was one of my first attempts at soldering the flex (possibly the very first) but ultimately I got it all cleaned up and functioning properly.

So I learned that doing a switch lite is slightly more difficult than doing a full-size switch, but with the right approach it doesn't have to be impossible or terrifying.

Also, fun side-note, be very careful when trying to remove the battery connector on the switch lite, because you have to disturb a jumper cable that runs the front LCD. If any of these traces are interrupted, you will have to trace which ones have lost continuity and bridge the appropriate pins with magnet wire (ask me how I know)

The short and sweet of it, is that my household now has two hacked switches (which is a 100% success rate on 100% of the consoles in the house) and I feel more confident in my micro-soldering skills

chefs kiss

Just opened my Lite and moved the Pico from #1 to #2, and can confirm that on the #2 position it's a perfect fit, no need to cut the shield and has enough room to fit everything without extra pressure. Just make sure to insulate nicely the Pico (top, bottom and sides) with Kapton tape.
The only thing that I don't like about #2 position, are the longer wires for GND and +3.3V, but it works good anyway.

View attachment 365343

Honestly those wires matter least afaik

my RP2040zero just arrive!!!
all parts !! Assamble!!!

soon ill do the mosfet first... ill do no rush...
but before that let me spelunky run first ~ whip whip~!!
View attachment 365468

flash the latest firmware before anything