The Switch Flashcart Thread (Mig Switch/UnlockSwitch etc.)

[impeeza]

After they last message telling <<is the last message>> now the post an animated sand clock:

 

[TheStonedModder]

After they last message telling <<is the last message>> now the post an animated sand clock:
View attachment 469901

Gotta keep the rouse going

I really hope it ends up being real just for the dumper alone and I can put my foot in my mouth

 

[Mrgsm]

let me tell you how a scam can work! you send out 20/30 samples! to no one of importance! no one with a million YouTube hits say! that has tested the MiG SWITCH.... AND THE 20/30 ARE ALL CHIPS TAKEN OF THE MIG CARDS! & planted on there own boards that are easy to make! the nobody's come out and say it works! then all sales go live... then by the time you all get the cards ect the scam has being carried out! toooooooo lateeeeeeeee.... again I'm more than happy with my MiG switch & Dumper working great! to even wait on these fools!

 

[linuxares]

let me tell you how a scam can work! you send out 20/30 samples! to no one of importance! no one with a million YouTube hits say! that has tested the MiG SWITCH.... AND THE 20/30 ARE ALL CHIPS TAKEN OF THE MIG CARDS! & planted on there own boards that are easy to make! the nobody's come out and say it works! then all sales go live... then by the time you all get the cards ect the scam has being carried out! toooooooo lateeeeeeeee.... again I'm more than happy with my MiG switch & Dumper working great! to even wait on these fools!

Yes, yes, we know. We still wait for confirmation at all if they work with their own boards.

 

[TheStonedModder]

Yes, yes, we know. We still wait for confirmation at all if they work with their own boards.

Random question since I assume you’d have insight on this

Unlock said they havnt posted here directly because they can’t make an account on gbatemp. Do you have a guess as to why?

My first guess is that they were banned in the past. Unless gbaemp blocks certain region IPs?

 

[linuxares]

Random question since I assume you’d have insight on this

Unlock said they havnt posted here directly because they can’t make an account on gbatemp. Do you have a guess as to why?

My first guess is that they were banned in the past. Unless gbaemp blocks certain region IPs?

Hmm no? We don't block any regions at all. They can try again to register with a name that very obvious its them and we can check. Sometimes people try to register with VPNs that get super stopped by the the forum board and we manually need to approve it. But if it looks way to fishy a mod, super or admin might denied it because rather safe than sorry approach.

EDIT: If they can provide you with the user name, and you PM me it. I can get it approved.

 

[lwiz]

After reading through all the 85 pages out of general interest, not even owning a Switch nor thinking of getting a card... There is quite big GDPR issue against Nintendo in Europe if it can be proven that console history is retained after factory reset.

I can perfectly understand WHY Nintendo wants to keep the history, but they are at the same gray area here as the people who want just make legal copies of their game collection. At least the buyers of previously used consoles should be told about it openly by Nintendo.

(Not to mention that if the buyer mods the Switch, the telemetry is then available with quite a lot of information concerning the previous owner also, gray are for both of the modder and the ninja company itself.)

 

[SecureBoot]

After reading through all the 85 pages out of general interest, not even owning a Switch nor thinking of getting a card... There is quite big GDPR issue against Nintendo in Europe if it can be proven that console history is retained after factory reset.

I can perfectly understand WHY Nintendo wants to keep the history, but they are at the same gray area here as the people who want just make legal copies of their game collection. At least the buyers of previously used consoles should be told about it openly by Nintendo.

(Not to mention that if the buyer mods the Switch, the telemetry is then available with quite a lot of information concerning the previous owner also, gray are for both of the modder and the ninja company itself.)

I hadn't even considered GDPR. That only applies to personal information though right? Bans are based on the serial of the switch. They wouldn't have to retain any user information to do that

 

[lwiz]

I hadn't even considered GDPR. That only applies to personal information though right? Bans are based on the serial of the switch. They wouldn't have to retain any user information to do that

If the telemetry is as complete as we're informed it could contain identifiable information like IP-addresses, WLAN names, NNID's etc. Of course, proving the case could be difficult. GDPR basically covers everything that could be in some way or another be tied to an individual.

 

[F4had]

After using the Mig Switch/Flash and completing two games on it, I give it 9 out of 10. Keep in mind that I’m not interested in online play whatsoever, and I haven’t updated any games played on the cart, so I haven’t been banned yet.

 

[linuxares]

After reading through all the 85 pages out of general interest, not even owning a Switch nor thinking of getting a card... There is quite big GDPR issue against Nintendo in Europe if it can be proven that console history is retained after factory reset.

I can perfectly understand WHY Nintendo wants to keep the history, but they are at the same gray area here as the people who want just make legal copies of their game collection. At least the buyers of previously used consoles should be told about it openly by Nintendo.

(Not to mention that if the buyer mods the Switch, the telemetry is then available with quite a lot of information concerning the previous owner also, gray are for both of the modder and the ninja company itself.)

GDPR is not a bullet that all data is not allowed to be collected. This is a common misconception.

Some data that can't be connected to a user can be saved for up to X amount of days from last usage. We know Nintendo collect less for Europeans but they still collect data. You can ask Nintendo for what they got on you with the help of GDPR.

 

[TheStonedModder]

After using the Mig Switch/Flash and completing two games on it, I give it 9 out of 10. Keep in mind that I’m not interested in online play whatsoever, and I haven’t updated any games played on the cart, so I haven’t been banned yet.

Updating games or not doesn’t matter

If you played a downloaded game in general even for 2 seconds you are flagged for ban

 

[impeeza]

Updating games or not doesn’t matter

If you played a downloaded game in general even for 2 seconds you are flagged for ban

You even do not need to play it, with only install it you are mark for a ban

 

[F4had]

Updating games or not doesn’t matter

If you played a downloaded game in general even for 2 seconds you are flagged for ban

I have a friend who updated the same games I have on my cart, he was banned after 2 days might be less.

 

[TheStonedModder]

I have a friend who updated the same games I have on my cart, he was banned after 2 days might be less.

Ban time is random

If anything that’s just more proof that you have a ban coming your way

 

[F4had]

Ban time is random

If anything that’s just more proof that you have a ban coming your way

I really don’t care about being banned. But I don’t see how that is a proof? He updated, I didn’t, no matter time will tell.

 

[TheStonedModder]

I really don’t care about being banned. But I don’t see how that is a proof? He updated, I didn’t, no matter time will tell.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Enough people has been banned over time it’s a well known thing

Idk why so many mig users are lying to themselves. We got nothing to gain from lying about what’s causing bans

MiG ain’t paying us

 

[F4had]

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Enough people has been banned over time it’s a well known thing

Idk why so many mig users are lying to themselves. We got nothing to gain from lying about what’s causing bans

MiG ain’t paying us

I think you’re overreacting a little. Banning or not, take it easy.

 

[BigOnYa]

I think you’re overreacting a little. Banning or not, take it easy.

This is not overreacting. This is the truth.

 

[csab6482]

let me tell you how a scam can work! you send out 20/30 samples! to no one of importance! no one with a million YouTube hits say! that has tested the MiG SWITCH.... AND THE 20/30 ARE ALL CHIPS TAKEN OF THE MIG CARDS! & planted on there own boards that are easy to make! the nobody's come out and say it works! then all sales go live... then by the time you all get the cards ect the scam has being carried out! toooooooo lateeeeeeeee.... again I'm more than happy with my MiG switch & Dumper working great! to even wait on these fools!

I think you're pretty close to reality. I've done some more reading and will list my thoughts below.

1. UnlockSwitch is probably not a "scam" in the traditional sense since I believe they truly have RE'd the hardware of the MIG Flashcart. However, many of their statements and behaviors are flying red flags. For starters, let's look at this below tweet (all of which ended up being false, except maybe the case design). https://nitter.poast.org/UnlockSwitch/status/1782711687159718153

Another worrisome tweet is the "demo" of the Xtractor that has a clear cut in the video at the 0:26 mark before the device is supposedly able to read the cartridge data. (tweet here - https://nitter.poast.org/UnlockSwitch/status/1843389378615443589). This was pointed out previously by @retnuh730 in post #1442.

2. MIG released a statement that reads "UnlockSwitch did not reverse engineer the MIG Switch. Instead, they took the MIG Switch chips and put them on their own PCB (Which MIG Switch allegedly verified through some proprietary test on the UnlockSwitch review unit). The UnlockSwitch, according to that email from MIG, is basically just a re-skinned MIG Switch. According to MIG Switch team, it is possible that UnlockSwitch is just a scam, sending “legit” review units to youtubers to build some hype around preorders for a product that doesn’t exist. Receive money from preorders then disappear could be UnlockSwitch’s plan, according to MIG Switch. They conclude their email by specifying that the only thing they know for sure is that the “review” units of the UnlockSwitch actually use MIG Switch Chips."

I agree with this statement 100%. UnlockSwitch has likely RE'd the hardware, but the only way they can get it to work is by transplanting the MIG chips, which are like $70-$100 on AliExpress so it's not a scalable solution. The proprietary test that MIG mentioned was likely re-enabling the USB stack on the ESP32 with their own encryption keys, which would absolutely prove that the UnlockSwitch PCB was using a MIG chip.

3. I do believe that UnlockSwitch has every intention of RE'ing the firmware as well, but this is hard. Like, really hard.

Too bad this can already be hacked.

https://hackaday.com/2024/01/15/bre...ption-feature-of-espressifs-microcontrollers/

Thank you very much @DPyro for this link as it will likely prove useful to RE'ing the firmware. But checking the actual results from this story shows that it is a super involved process. I do not believe either UnlockSwitch or OpenMig have "95% complete software", but they probably have some level of RE'ing going on that is working to some unknown or varying degree of success. To their credit, their programmer board does look like it is 100% working for programming an ESP32, but that is only a small part of the equation.

4. OpenMig's photos of their RE'd PCB of the flashcart make no sense to me, and I will show some side-by-sides below.

On the left is OpenMig's PCB and on the right is mine. If you look at pins 1 and 2 on my design in the upper right corner, you will see that the two pins are separated, and this is crucial for the button to be able to create the short circuit that switches the games. OpenMig has these two pins shorted, so there's no way for this design to work with the button, despite the button being present on their PCB.

Below is a screenshot from Taki Udon's video showing the MIG 2 on the left and MIG 1 on the right, and it shows that these two pins are separate on the v2 to allow for the button toggle, but they are shorted together on the v1.

My intention is not to spread drama or hate to either of these two groups, but just to give some clarity on how they are likely operating given my limited understanding of this scene. I can understand the excitement of wanting to share your work/findings, because as soon as I had a v1 board design I wanted to paste the photos everywhere to share my progress. Unfortunately, I had to go through a few revisions, ensure my design worked, and all-in-all hold off for about two months before I decided to share anything. Heck, even my current flashcart PCB may not be accurate or work, but I am working on testing it (e.g. I took capacitor measurements for about 80% of the capacitors on the OEM flashcart). I do however have a 100% working Dumper PCB that anyone can get made and test.