Hacking Hardware Picofly - a HWFLY switch modchip

[Sadeed]

I just installed a PicoFly on my Switch Lite and it shows a purple screen and the led show a long blue pulse followed by 2 short green pulses which I cant find much info on. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Nephiel]

I just installed a PicoFly on my Switch Lite and it shows a purple screen and the led show a long blue pulse followed by 2 short green pulses which I cant find much info on. Any help would be appreciated.

=* D0 is not connected

 

[Sendpie]

The mosfet jobs are literally short the vcc to the gnd.
So thats maybe the first thing to check.

how should i go about doing this? sp1 and sp2 show no resistance on gnd and 18 ohms on the other end, gonna desolder the connector and check the mosfets.

desoldered the sp connector, my A C D are still halved (400~)

 

[dibas]

A quick update on my problem of the left joy con not being recognized after a Picofly installation anymore:

View attachment 476449

I measured all the resistors of the left joy con IC shown in the quote above, the values match with what sthetix gives as correct resistance values as shown here (https://github.com/sthetix/DIAGRAM/blob/main/OLED-JOYCON-ERROR.jpg)

if your right side joycon working fine, just left side cant be detect when attached, check this resistor if it still in 100~200 ohm range.View attachment 476455

The resistor you mentioned has 100 ohm. I measured all of the resistors in the area, readings are as follows.

The only thing that looks out of place to me are the two resistors in the middle showing continuity without resistance at all. Maybe I got the readings wrong or it is supposed to be like this. In any case, I will try to check the continuity of the rail next.

EDIT: I checked the continuity of the pins from the rail to the connector and I did not find any continuity issues. I am all out of ideas at the moment..

I'd be really glad if anyone had more debugging ideas.

Thanks in advance

 

[Gladuin]

The 47 Ohm resistors came in and I put them on the DAT0 and CMD as suggested. The slow eMMC error disappeared!

I now have another issue though. If I hold vol + and - to boot into OFW, I get the *== (short, long, long) error. If I don't hold vol + and - it instantly boots into hekate, and everything works fine there.
I can boot into OFW through hekate just fine.

Not the biggest issue on the planet, but just strange since it glitches and boots fine into hekate. I was just wondering if you guys might know what's up.

 

[karatefeet]

The 47 Ohm resistors came in and I put them on the DAT0 and CMD as suggested. The slow eMMC error disappeared!

I now have another issue though. If I hold vol + and - to boot into OFW, I get the *== (short, long, long) error. If I don't hold vol + and - it instantly boots into hekate, and everything works fine there.
I can boot into OFW through hekate just fine.

Not the biggest issue on the planet, but just strange since it glitches and boots fine into hekate. I was just wondering if you guys might know what's up.

You should only press vol + and - at the no sd screen to boot into OFW. Sounds like everything is working fine otherwise.

 

[dibas]

if your right side joycon working fine, just left side cant be detect when attached, check this resistor if it still in 100~200 ohm range.View attachment 476455

I have to correct myself, you were probably right. After searching for the problem and retesting everything I now think that this resistor is the problem. When measuring its resistance it mostly shows 100 kOhm and only sometimes 100 Ohm. I thought that maybe some more solder on the right side of the resistor may be the solution, but it did not really help, so I guess I will have to replace it.

Do you know which size this resistor is and where I can get it? I do have a schematic whilch says it should be at 100 Ohm, but I do not know its size. I also accidentally soldered together some of the SMD components right below of it (I'm not used to soldering things this small...), so I will probably have to fix that as well.

At the moment it (sadly) looks like this:

I know it looks pretty rough. Would you recommed a hot air station or do you think it's doable with a soldering iron?

Thank you so much for the help again!

Update 1/25: I managed to replace the broken components and also the resistor that didn't work in the first place (the one in the top), now everything works again!

 

[Danook28]

I have to correct myself, you were probably right. After searching for the problem and retesting everything I now think that this resistor is the problem. When measuring its resistance it mostly shows 100 kOhm and only sometimes 100 Ohm. I thought that maybe some more solder on the right side of the resistor may be the solution, but it did not really help, so I guess I will have to replace it.

Do you know which size this resistor is and where I can get it? I do have a schematic whilch says it should be at 100 Ohm, but I do not know its size. I also accidentally soldered together some of the SMD components right below of it (I'm not used to soldering things this small...), so I will probably have to fix that as well.

At the moment it (sadly) looks like this:
View attachment 479321

I know it looks pretty rough. Would you recommed a hot air station or do you think it's doable with a soldering iron?

Thank you so much for the help again!

with nice soldering tip and very good flux you can do it easy reflow the resistor to move in place but microscope is need.

 

[dibas]

I ordered a new set of 0201 100 Ohm resistors now, I guess that should be the correct one.

I still have no clue on how I am going to remove the existing resistor with an iron though. I have a few good tips, but no hot air station, and with just a single tip I don't see the solder melting on both sides of the resistor. I also am not sure how to fix the mess with the components below. I tried it with flux and a soldering iron, but the resistor would not move.

 

[Danook28]

I ordered a new set of 0201 100 Ohm resistors now, I guess that should be the correct one.

I still have no clue on how I am going to remove the existing resistor with an iron though. I have a few good tips, but no hot air station, and with just a single tip I don't see the solder melting on both sides of the resistor. I also am not sure how to fix the mess with the components below. I tried it with flux and a soldering iron, but the resistor would not move.

You must have microscope tweezers and the melting point must be sufficient to allow the solder to move under the component you want to repair... with soldering skill.. only

 

[thesjaakspoiler]

I ordered a new set of 0201 100 Ohm resistors now, I guess that should be the correct one.

I still have no clue on how I am going to remove the existing resistor with an iron though. I have a few good tips, but no hot air station, and with just a single tip I don't see the solder melting on both sides of the resistor. I also am not sure how to fix the mess with the components below. I tried it with flux and a soldering iron, but the resistor would not move.

If you tip the left and right side repetitively, they will come loose after a while.
Consider also replacing the one on the right to get better access to the one that has rotated.

 

[snaker]

Another switch arrived with ripped cap pads on the CPU. I want to give a big thanks to abal1000x for sharing the alternate soldering points for the MOSFET. It's amazing how it continues to impress me with its instant boot times on v2 and oled consoles!

 

[macabreu]

Hey, I've been using HWFLY for some time now, played a ton using only the CFW, updated my Switch to 19.0.1 normally but when I decided to play with games from my physical collection it started to return the 2002-3540 error with times between 5~10 minutes.
I saw some posts talking about the Picofly version from Aliexpress, and it may be the problem, since I bought it in April last year.

What would be the possible solution?

 

[thesjaakspoiler]

Hey, I've been using HWFLY for some time now, played a ton using only the CFW, updated my Switch to 19.0.1 normally but when I decided to play with games from my physical collection it started to return the 2002-3540 error with times between 5~10 minutes.
I saw some posts talking about the Picofly version from Aliexpress, and it may be the problem, since I bought it in April last year.

What would be the possible solution?

sometimes the hwfly board goes bad, but that error can also mean a ton of other things like a failing emmc, bad cnnection to the modchip/emmc.sd card.
Does it also happen when you running the games from the emummc?
Physical games might have updates on the emmc so they don't strictly run of the cartridge always.

 

[macabreu]

sometimes the hwfly board goes bad, but that error can also mean a ton of other things like a failing emmc, bad cnnection to the modchip/emmc.sd card.
Does it also happen when you running the games from the emummc?
Physical games might have updates on the emmc so they don't strictly run of the cartridge always.

Games run normally when playing from CFW

 

[Dommc92]

Hi, a friend of mine recently attempted to install a picofly on my switch v1 patched, however in doing so it knocked off the sp1 sp2 caps.

Do i need these to install another picofly?

I have a hot air station here, if i was to try resolder some new caps what temp settings would you recommend due to its proximity to the apu?

 

[snaker]

Another switch arrived with ripped cap pads on the CPU. I want to give a big thanks to abal1000x for sharing the alternate soldering points for the MOSFET. It's amazing how it continues to impress me with its instant boot times on v2 and oled consoles!

Dont install in the front. If he knocked off them in the first place these is no way for him to be able to install new ones, he will make a bigger mess.

 

[Danook28]

Hi, a friend of mine recently attempted to install a picofly on my switch v1 patched, however in doing so it knocked off the sp1 sp2 caps.

Do i need these to install another picofly?

I have a hot air station here, if i was to try resolder some new caps what temp settings would you recommend due to its proximity to the apu?

with good tip and flux you dont need hot air if you want cap flow add soldering paste from both side not mutch and move tip from side to side smooth dont scratch cpu. hot air on cpu must be not much or you will damge cpu iron ball wile working.

 

[Dommc92]

with good tip and flux you dont need hot air if you want cap flow add soldering paste from both side not mutch and move tip from side to side smooth dont scratch cpu. hot air on cpu must be not much or you will damge cpu iron ball wile working.

Thank you for the response, I have covered everything else in kapton tape, my main issue it appears is getting a small enough amount of paste on the two soldering points. Even with my microscope it still end up with a large amount which bridges both pads.

With regards to using a soldering iron with the paste, what temperature would I set it to? I normally solder at around 360 Celsius. Also do I make contact between the paste and the iron? or just hold it close?

 

[Danook28]

Thank you for the response, I have covered everything else in kapton tape, my main issue it appears is getting a small enough amount of paste on the two soldering points. Even with my microscope it still end up with a large amount which bridges both pads.

With regards to using a soldering iron with the paste, what temperature would I set it to? I normally solder at around 360 Celsius. Also do I make contact between the paste and the iron? or just hold it close?

Using fine-tipped tweezers to move the capacitor when it floats with solder. Yes, the capacitor must be submerged in solder or you must make it float from both sides by touching the sides in a short time back and forth. Temperature: 380 or 390.