Hacking Hardware Picofly - a HWFLY switch modchip

[abal1000x]

Do you maybe know the behaviour of solder flux on that? maybe if there is some left, could it cause also such issues?

Post automatically merged: Aug 15, 2023

Post automatically merged: Aug 15, 2023

yes indeed, thats why i only talk about the clone ones. Still, my headline was just made by my experience, the second one you said is just more generalized and does not exclude mine

Not probable. Lets say some flux have a higher conductivity, and bridge the cmd resistor, then it will steal the power from the cmd resistor. It might broke the power ic, but not the cmd resistor.

Until now i have never met with solder flux that have a high conductivity. Logically it doesn't make a sense. Who're gonna buy a conducting solder flux?

 

[Hassal]

Not probable. Lets say some flux have a higher conductivity, and bridge the cmd resistor, then it will steal the power from the cmd resistor. It might broke the power ic, but not the cmd resistor.

Until now i have never met with solder flux that have a high conductivity. Logically it doesn't make a sense. Who're gonna buy a conducting solder flux?

Flux can become conductive if it absorbs moisture. Not all brands though at least that's what they claim.
I only use flux bought from amtech official store. I really don't trust any other source, for all you know they could just be sending you a tube filled with vaseline.

 

[abal1000x]

Flux can become conductive if it absorbs moisture. Not all brands though at least that's what they claim.
I only use flux bought from amtech official store. I really don't trust any other source, for all you know they could just be sending you a tube filled with vaseline.

At least i bought solder flux which is way cheaper than vaseline. So its not wise economically if they swap it with vaseline

 

[Dee87]

Do you maybe know the behaviour of solder flux on that? maybe if there is some left, could it cause also such issues?

Post automatically merged: Aug 15, 2023

Post automatically merged: Aug 15, 2023

yes indeed, thats why i only talk about the clone ones. Still, my headline was just made by my experience, the second one you said is just more generalized and does not exclude mine

Funny that u changed ur name Xd

Now in the other thread u say its the Picofly 2.73 Firmware

well if you dont know what you are talking about i would just stfu ^^ i installed the chinaboard with the fw 2.73 into two consoles, one had the hwfly installed and worked great. Both were screwed immediately after i swapped the china board into these switches. After i replaced the cmd resistor i've installed another chip with 2.74 and it worked.

if you insist that it is my fault, then please tell me what i did wrong, before just claiming stupid things

then u tell people to stfu if they dont know what they are talking about.
i think i know more then enough to talk like i do.

If u have this issue with the clone boards then its not the PicoFly Firmware 2.73 like @QuiTim also said
like i also said if u use the Supported Boards then u will not have this issue

And when u use unsupported board with preflashed firmware (who knows what firmware is on those board )
then its ur own fault and not the Picofly Firmwares .

So think twice bevor u start blaming it on a bug in the PicoFly 2.73 Firmware

 

[abal1000x]

To put an end to these claims that these adapters are the main cause of bridges I took a piece of transparent acrylic then reballed and seated the chip on top with a thin layer of adhesive film to hold it in place. And lo and behold, not once did I touch D1 even when doing it blinded. There is a case though when I pushed in aggressively it wrapped.

View attachment 388508View attachment 388509View attachment 388510View attachment 388511

This is a good prove if we ignore the cohesion of the tin to the pcb.

 

[Switxh]

To put an end to these claims that these adapters are the main cause of bridges I took a piece of transparent acrylic then reballed and seated the chip on top with a thin layer of adhesive film to hold it in place. And lo and behold, not once did I touch D1 even when doing it blinded. There is a case though when I pushed in aggressively it wrapped.

View attachment 388508View attachment 388509View attachment 388510View attachment 388511

Doesn't look rebelled to me. Just looks like bare pads with maybe a tiny bit of solder on some of them. Despite that you can clearly see the tab can bridge between any of the pads even without solder balls so not sure what you're trying to show here.

 

[twins333]

The thing here is that there is no reason for any firmware from this thread to work on any AliExpress boards.
This only goes to prove what has been said all along in this thread "they stole the firmware from here, made crappy clones and they dont give any support after sales" because how can they give support for something that they did not make...
On the supported boards (listed on this thread and the guide by lightninjay) the 2.73 works great and it's actually the 2.74 that had issues and that why it was pulled (by the developer).
So the headline here is not 2.73 has isues on aliexpress boards but it's AliExpress boards have random issues because they use a firmware that was not written for them - stay clear

On a semi-related note, don't buy from this seller:
https://a.aliexpress.com/_EymihbN
Tried the both I ordered and they would not glitch.

Later edit: It seems the tinies I ordered worked on a v2, with the original 47ohms resistors. they would not work with the additional 47ohms added(94ohms in total).

 

[snaker]

Guys this is the thread where all started and i am very grateful to rehius and all the people that helped to make this possible, but there are so so so many misleading posts at these pages that will frustrate so many people that dont have the experience on these stuff. All of us must have the responsibility and the knowledge to support our conclusions. We cant simply tell something that comes up to our minds.

First of all rp2040 clone chips dont burn resistors and other stuff. I have used all of them out there with no issue exept for some modifications on the boards adding or removing some resistors. If you dont know how to solder properly or you use very high heat on these tiny 0201 resistors you will partially damage them or burn them. This is the reason of damaged cmd resistors and nothing else. Different well known used rehius firmwares burning resistors is just ridiculous and dont even post that stuff.

Second the hight quality dat0 adapters which can be found only at the shop on ali that i mentioned before are the only high quality adapters in existence. On all the other shops you just gamble and prey for the correct ones to come. With these adapters there is no way to bridge dat0 with dat1 even if you are sadistic and want to burn your switch. The only thing i can not guarantee you is if this adapter will get loose in the future and lose connection to dat0( which i highly doubt) but i havent got any of them getting loose even after a year of intallation YET! If this dat0 adapter material is real capton then the temps that it can withstand are much much hinger that the temps that the emmc can withstand so bending possiblity is just impossible.

Lastly. As for the corruption on these emmc chips.

The first thing that you must do after a modchip installation is to make a backup of your emmc chip!
If no proper backup of your nand is made follow the sthetix level1 level2 and level3 guides.

If nothing of that works you might have a broken nand chip.
If you have a working boot0 boot1 backup from you nand, order a new emmc chip of the original size of your switch.
You just need this complete kit :
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003618552075.html
It is one of the cheapest kits available. If you have an oled you just desolder the emmc chip, reball and solder it on the adapter that you can find at the kit.
Download Ubuntu 20.04.1 and make a bootable flash drive to boot from it.
Connect the adapter with the emmc chip on the pc.
Open a terminal and press the command : sudo fdisk -l
This will make a list of all your disk drives. Find the 32gb or the 64gb oled emmc and remember the name!
Then use these commands :
sudo su
echo 0 > /sys/block/mmcblk0/force_ro
echo 0 > /sys/block/mmcblk0boot0/force_ro
echo 0 > /sys/block/mmcblk0boot1/force_ro
exit
This will give you superuser privileges and let you use the write commands on the emmc chip. I skipped the read commands because they are useless if you have a proper backup of your emmc chip made from hekate.
Copy the backup of your boot0, boot1 and rawnand to any folder of ubuntu oparating system. Browse to that folder and use these commands:

sudo dd of=/dev/mmcblk0boot0 if=boot0.bin where mmcblk0 must be replaced with your emmc name
sudo dd of=/dev/mmcblk0boot1 if=boot1.bin where mmcblk0 must be replaced with your emmc name
sudo dd of=/dev/mmcblk0 if=rawnand.bin where mmcblk0 must be replaced with your emmc name

The rawnand will take some time to finish. The writing speed times are not so good.
Solder the emmc chip back to switch if you have an Oled.
And you switch is back to life again. Like a virgin.

 

[WorfRB]

How do these emmcs get corrupted in the first place? incorrect chip install or user error in software side?

 

[snaker]

How do these emmcs get corrupted in the first place? incorrect chip install or user error in software side?

Bad quality dat0 adapters or incorrect reballings.

 

[WorfRB]

Would you like to share link for the high-quality dat0 adapters?

 

[Hassal]

Doesn't look rebelled to me. Just looks like bare pads with maybe a tiny bit of solder on some of them. Despite that you can clearly see the tab can bridge between any of the pads even without solder balls so not sure what you're trying to show here.

The chip is in fact reballed. It only looks like that because I heated the chip under its weight so balls looks flatten.

Despite undisputable proof you still insist you can bridge these points. Be my guest, if you can with this adapter I'll give you a million dollar granted you never force the adapter in.

Post automatically merged: Aug 15, 2023

Solder balls are larger in diameter than the pads on their own. This isn't something that needs proving. Everyone knows you can bridge dat1 and dat0 with the adapters. It's the cause of 90% of these purple screens you see in this thread. You should do some reading of the older pages and catch up on knowledge.

I never said the use of these adapters never caused problems. Read what I said earlier.

My verdict is, if you use the right adapter you're fine.
If you get fucked from this adapter then the adapter isn't at fault, its likely something else. And since you said nothing wrong with eMMC factory reballed, the burden of proof is on you to show that factory balls come perfect since I made my point about bridging using this adapter is impossible.

 

[snaker]

The chip is in fact reballed. It only looks like that because I heated the chip under its weight so balls looks flatten.

Despite undisputable proof you still insist you can bridge these points. Be my guest, if you can with this adapter I'll give you a million dollar granted you never force the adapter in.

Post automatically merged: Aug 15, 2023

I never said the use of these adapters never caused problems. Read what I said earlier.

My verdict is, if you use the right adapter you're fine.
If you get fucked from this adapter then the adapter isn't at fault, its likely something else. And since you said nothing wrong with eMMC factory reballed, the burden of proof is on you to show that factory balls come perfect since I made my point about bridging using this adapter is impossible.

This is so true...i wish it was wrong to get the 1 million

 

[Hassal]

This is so true...i wish it was wrong to get the 1 million

The adapter can only be inserted one way. If you try to force it any other way you will end up mangling the adapter. So I don't know how that person is going to bridge a point he cannot even reach.

 

[snaker]

The adapter can only be inserted one way. If you try to force it any other way you will end up mangling the adapter. So I don't know how that person is going to bridge a point he cannot even reach.
View attachment 388539

I completely understand what you are saying because i have installed a lot of these high quality ones. The pictures shows that clear as day.

 

[bilalhassan341]

How do these emmcs get corrupted in the first place? incorrect chip install or user error in software side?

sometimes getting crashed while updating software which happened to me. I had a switch which is updating and crashed. I installed the picofly just to restore the nand.

 

[QuiTim]

The adapter can only be inserted one way. If you try to force it any other way you will end up mangling the adapter. So I don't know how that person is going to bridge a point he cannot even reach.
View attachment 388539

I completely understand what you are saying because i have installed a lot of these high quality ones. The pictures shows that clear as day.

I've done 2-3 of these with quality adapters and it's all good even after more than a year.
The thing is that when this mod (picofly) started getting traction the quality adapters sold out quickly and a lot of newcomers ended up buying shitty ones since they did not have even a slightest clue of what they were doing (and all the good ones were sold out)
So i guess It's safe to assume that 99% of the emmc troubles were caused by these bad dat0 adapters.
Bottom line, if you are moding 1 switch and you just want to be done with it use a quality adapter and it should work but if you are getting paid to do this and you consider yourself a professional I think that it would be appropriate to set a permanent dat0, not to mention that it's also great to learn a new skill and be proud of your work after you've done it properly.

 

[FreeLander]

Guys this is the thread where all started and i am very grateful to rehius and all the people that helped to make this possible, but there are so so so many misleading posts at these pages that will frustrate so many people that dont have the experience on these stuff. All of us must have the responsibility and the knowledge to support our conclusions. We cant simply tell something that comes up to our minds.

First of all rp2040 clone chips dont burn resistors and other stuff. I have used all of them out there with no issue exept for some modifications on the boards adding or removing some resistors. If you dont know how to solder properly or you use very high heat on these tiny 0201 resistors you will partially damage them or burn them. This is the reason of damaged cmd resistors and nothing else. Different well known used rehius firmwares burning resistors is just ridiculous and dont even post that stuff.

Second the hight quality dat0 adapters which can be found only at the shop on ali that i mentioned before are the only high quality adapters in existence. On all the other shops you just gamble and prey for the correct ones to come. With these adapters there is no way to bridge dat0 with dat1 even if you are sadistic and want to burn your switch. The only thing i can not guarantee you is if this adapter will get loose in the future and lose connection to dat0( which i highly doubt) but i havent got any of them getting loose even after a year of intallation YET! If this dat0 adapter material is real capton then the temps that it can withstand are much much hinger that the temps that the emmc can withstand so bending possiblity is just impossible.

Lastly. As for the corruption on these emmc chips.

The first thing that you must do after a modchip installation is to make a backup of your emmc chip!
If no proper backup of your nand is made follow the sthetix level1 level2 and level3 guides.

If nothing of that works you might have a broken nand chip.
If you have a working boot0 boot1 backup from you nand, order a new emmc chip of the original size of your switch.
You just need this complete kit :
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003618552075.html
It is one of the cheapest kits available. If you have an oled you just desolder the emmc chip, reball and solder it on the adapter that you can find at the kit.
Download Ubuntu 20.04.1 and make a bootable flash drive to boot from it.
Connect the adapter with the emmc chip on the pc.
Open a terminal and press the command : sudo fdisk -l
This will make a list of all your disk drives. Find the 32gb or the 64gb oled emmc and remember the name!
Then use these commands :
sudo su
echo 0 > /sys/block/mmcblk0/force_ro
echo 0 > /sys/block/mmcblk0boot0/force_ro
echo 0 > /sys/block/mmcblk0boot1/force_ro
exit
This will give you superuser privileges and let you use the write commands on the emmc chip. I skipped the read commands because they are useless if you have a proper backup of your emmc chip made from hekate.
Copy the backup of your boot0, boot1 and rawnand to any folder of ubuntu oparating system. Browse to that folder and use these commands:

sudo dd of=/dev/mmcblk0boot0 if=boot0.bin where mmcblk0 must be replaced with your emmc name
sudo dd of=/dev/mmcblk0boot1 if=boot1.bin where mmcblk0 must be replaced with your emmc name
sudo dd of=/dev/mmcblk0 if=rawnand.bin where mmcblk0 must be replaced with your emmc name

The rawnand will take some time to finish. The writing speed times are not so good.
Solder the emmc chip back to switch if you have an Oled.
And you switch is back to life again. Like a virgin.

Thanks. This is much needed.
I'd like your advice on the emmc v2 module that comes with v1,v2. When I was reballing my OLED chip into it, the plug (that gets connected to the board got bent, too much heat maybe? How can I prevent this from happening in the future?

 

[abal1000x]

The adapter can only be inserted one way. If you try to force it any other way you will end up mangling the adapter. So I don't know how that person is going to bridge a point he cannot even reach.
View attachment 388539

Ignoring the cohesion between the tin and the pcb this is true.

Using the bad adapter circulating in the market you would.
Because the contacting pad is wider, and the locking size is not precise.

So the problem lay on the quality.
That is why i want to make kicad on it, make a good and open source design, so we could revise it when its bad.
Then everyone could order it themself on jlcpcb alike.

But its not a priority, since the clk pad in oled also problematic. I consider it a high risky operation.
So rather focus on this flex cable why not focus on the hwfly green adapter.
To solve both. But this will lead on reballing the emmc.

I want to hear your opinion on this.
What is the pro cons of using the green adapter, or the reballing method.

 

[sergiochendry]

I accidentally instaling picofly firmware to hwfly chip
LOL
And its works well