Hacking Hardware Picofly - a HWFLY switch modchip

[CarlosGo]

Hello, yesterday I modified my Switch Lite with the hwfly v6 from the official store and everything worked perfectly. I was able to install games, Homebrew, etc. I turned it off with 100% battery and now waking up the battery was totally gone. Does anyone know how I can fix this? I am doing tests and the battery is low between 10 and 13% hourly only in standby. And I don't understand what the hell is going on. Someone help me.

fiexed I had updated hwfly to version 0.7.2 and apparently it has errors. So now I put version 0.7.1 and now everything works perfectly. I hope it helps someone.

 

[thequickbrownfox]

I need your help.
I'm installing Chinese modchip based on rp2040 in my Switch OLED.
All solder points show voltage drop 0,4-0,9V, but B (RST) shows nothing. Every source tells me it should be about 1.2V, yet even if I'm measuring RST point directly on board, it still shows nothing.

My Switch does not power on, modchip does not show any lights, very quiet repeating hiss can be heard a few times, but nothing besides that, console is dead. I've unsoldered 3,3V from modchip, console still does not turn on.

Do you have any ideas what could have happened?

Also a question about CPU flex soldering. If I measure capacitors I've soldered flex ribbon to (SP1 and SP2 points), my multimeter shows around 150uF on both. Is it correct?

USB current draw: 0,002A @ 15,36V after connecting charger, 0,021A @ 15,36V after pressing Power.

 

[bilalhassan341]

That would truly be unfortunate . Is there a way to confirm definitively?

Otherwise, I do have an extra picofly pcb board. Just that it’s currently flashed with 2.74 and my understanding is that firmware version is unstable.

Update it to 2.73, by using toolbox. 2.74 is removed due to unstablility. I tested this firmware, it never worked on my switch. I also rolled back. But I never tested on my other switches. Some people have this because 2.74 has faster glitch which some people said. But Rp2040 can be fried also, replace it if you have a good one with 2.73.

 

[Fibonacci]

Hello I manage to obtain No SD card but when I try to ressemble it I obtain *== error how can i fix that and what is the issue ?
I have an oled switch with picofly
It boot on the OFW by défaut
Thank you so much

 

[Jagovi]

yep 0201. if you need to replace them, you can steal from the rp2040-zero


2.74 is stable on 95% of rp2040's, so it should (probably) be fine.

Where can I get them from?

 

[FreeLander]

When working on OLED’s CLK. Do you guys push in the solder tip into the scarched via? Or just touching it? I did 15+ OLEDs and I still couldn’t do CLK smoothly. Always takes more than it should.
Between trying to put some solder and being fearful it may rip is a line I’m still trying to distinguish.

 

[deeps]

Where can I get them from?

 

[jkyoho]

They are 5.1k ohm from datasheet, to be cleared(should work IMO)

 

[deeps]

They are 5.1k ohm from datasheet, to be cleared(should work IMO)

the ones i've tested read 4.96k on my multimeter. close enough I think

 

[jkyoho]

Rp2040_tiny arrived. Let my fresh oled start picofly. LOL

 

[deeps]

Rp2040_tiny arrived. Let my fresh oled start picofly. LOL

did you use that stencil yet? If you're going to use solder paste, I think it's too thick. it will work for balls but not for paste. 0.15mm is recommended for paste

 

[jkyoho]

did you use that stencil yet? If you're going to use solder paste, I think it's too thick. it will work for balls but not for paste. 0.15mm is recommended for paste

I've been using this stencil with solder ball no issue. And I have both paste-use stencil and solder ball one by hand. prefer solder ball one for critical and precise stuff

 

[Jagovi]

But… if I take the resistors from the rp2040, it will stop working? Or it doesn’t need it?

 

[deeps]

But… if I take the resistors from the rp2040, it will stop working? Or it doesn’t need it?

Those resistors are for the usb port, which you probably have removed anyway

 

[superxoi]

I went all the way to removing the dat0 adapter, and unhooking the modchip. Still getting purple screen when booting up. So sounds like the emmc is destroyed? Replacing and rebuilding is definitely out of my comfort zone, so I think I'm back to trying to find a modder who would be willing to take this repair order for me.

Is anyone in this thread interested? Or can anyone recommend somewhere else to find a repair shop who would take this on? Thanks for the help everyone who's replied.

mine was the same as yours. the emmc failure happened after successfully installation ( my emmc was fine before that i can confirm because i booted it in ofw several time not knowing my sp1 sp2 not soldered correctly,). I left it for a day and now it boot in ofw without purple screen anymore(i disconnected the chip from the board, still keep the adapter DAT0 in place so i think it was not the problem), guess i was and am lucky. I will refrain from using this chip(hwfly rp2040 oled) for awhile.

 

[jefffisher]

Hey guys weird problem when I'm trying to reformat the switch I initialize data it takes like 15 minutes and then says error code: 2002-3540
An error has occurred
Please press the power button to restart the console. If you are
unable to restart the console, hold the POWER Button for 12 seconds
to turn off the console.
If the problem persists, refer to the Nintendo support Website.

The switch is on firmware 16.0.3
It's a v2 with picofly modchip just installed. I did not try formatting it before putting the chip in.
I'm booting it from the no SD card screen by pushing volume.

Just tried again in atmosphere this time same error but with the atmosphere logo and more info
Error code 2002-3540 (0x1ba802)
General purpose registers
PC: 00000078C37C534
Backtrace start address: 00000078C3C00000

 

[Takezo-San]

Interesting developments as of late it seems. But some queries arise though. Using the irfhs8342 mosfet on the back of the board seems like a real time saver and convenient placement indeed but my only buts are:

do i really wanna keep the Nintendo factory thermal paste on!? Can i trust them with good quality Soc paste or are they using budget paste.
The other gripe was the thickness of the mosfet, Does it stick out too much and cause potential 'poking out' from the rest of the components of the board. Will this do long-term damage down the line once the board is fitted back and resting the same direction the LCD is facing!?

Good stuff from @abal1000x for the discovery and the rest of the gang. Neato!

 

[abal1000x]

Interesting developments as of late it seems. But some queries arise though. Using the irfhs8342 mosfet on the back of the board seems like a real time saver and convenient placement indeed but my only buts are:

do i really wanna keep the Nintendo factory thermal paste on!? Can i trust them with good quality Soc paste or are they using budget paste.
The other gripe was the thickness of the mosfet, Does it stick out too much and cause potential 'poking out' from the rest of the components of the board. Will this do long-term damage down the line once the board is fitted back and resting the same direction the LCD is facing!?

Good stuff from @abal1000x for the discovery and the rest of the gang. Neato!

The 8342 have the same height as the capacitor.

I don't concern on the height. I am not convinced people talking about the height. The height is not an issue for me. But if people consider the height an issue, you could try to find a shorter mosfet, or place the mosfets pin down, or solder from the side. Theres lot of method you could use to slim the height down. I am waiting for people use their creativity on doing some mod, to their own taste.

This back mosfet is better than mod the cpu. Cpu is the brain, modding the brain could be disaster for an unexperienced people. Even for experinced personnel you need to more focus when doing it. Slightly unfocus might result on destroying the cap. worse destroying the cpu, or the trace between cpu and ram, etc. Also everytime you made a mistakes on it, you need to clean the paste, and when everything done you need to repaste. This unpaste-repaste step is easy but tedious. If i were a professional modder, i'll charge the customer for repasting the cpu thermal.

 

[karatefeet]

I've been using this stencil with solder ball no issue. And I have both paste-use stencil and solder ball one by hand. prefer solder ball one for critical and precise stuff

I bought both the stencils and curious how you use it with the solder balls? Any tips?
BTW, I tried with the magnetic jig and stencil with paste and it came out perfectly first try. I struggled so many times using paste and holding down the stencil with tweezers never worked.
Now I can mod my oled

 

[cgtchy0412]

Interesting developments as of late it seems. But some queries arise though. Using the irfhs8342 mosfet on the back of the board seems like a real time saver and convenient placement indeed but my only buts are:

do i really wanna keep the Nintendo factory thermal paste on!? Can i trust them with good quality Soc paste or are they using budget paste.
The other gripe was the thickness of the mosfet, Does it stick out too much and cause potential 'poking out' from the rest of the components of the board. Will this do long-term damage down the line once the board is fitted back and resting the same direction the LCD is facing!?

Good stuff from @abal1000x for the discovery and the rest of the gang. Neato!

I can confirm there is no mosfet height issue on Lite.
For lcd issue, there is a big metal (yes metal so it can function as a mosfet heatsink if any) frame that separate the board and the lcd unit, so no issue.
My main enemy for this to be easier is this lcd flex connector, its hard to reattach at least for me.
And for Lite this method of instalation will take more time than the default SOC solder.
For thermal paste i say if the unit is new then just leave it as this will also make the soc header cover still in perfect condition. Reminisce the time with PS2 modchip installs.