Hacking [Soldering]What does this behaviour mean?

[_padder]

Hello Reader,

i just recently installed a modchip (guess a picofly) on a switch V2 on my own.
To my person: I am not very practised with soldering but I know the risks.

I buyed the modchip from Aliexpress.

The expected behaviour is the screen with "boot.dat".
But my console behaves different:
- Display seems to give me a try to turn on. Its lighten a little bit. After few seconds its flicker and goes off. I can do that multiple times.
- While writing this, I recognised that the console is getting hot, without displaying anything. I polugged of the battery now to avoid this.

Can someone interpretate for me, what does that mean, for the console and for the chip.
Is there something I should know about the behaviour: console broken or not. Modchip broken or just soldering mistakes?

Thanks in advance.
Kindly regards.
Padder

 

[ewabc886]

Please upload the pictures of your soldering work

High resolution
All points

 

[_padder]

Hi ewabc

While trying making a good photo. (Well it is heavy without good devices ^^), I did something else..
I hope this helps to find the error.

I uninstalled the modchip. The console is booting fine. The cooler was also working as aspected.
What exactly does this describes to my problem. Can we say, the chip is broken. Or are my missing soldering skills still be a possibility?

 

[alecocr20]

Hi,

Pictures are needed to understand what it going on. If the console was getting hot I suppose there was a short somewhere.

Try soldering the CPU flex again, use flux and small amounts of solder

 

[_padder]

I resoldered it. The picture is the best I can do.

System ist starting up currently. Display lights minimal on. Stay on without doing anything. CPU ist getting warm, over time hot. Cooler does not do anything.

 

[bvang913]

View attachment 434987
I resoldered it. The picture is the best I can do.

System ist starting up currently. Display lights minimal on. Stay on without doing anything. CPU ist getting warm, over time hot. Cooler does not do anything.

Your SP1/2 connections looked bridged. You're also missing something next to SP1

Should look similar to this. Yours looks like it's just a big blob across the whole cap.

 

[_padder]

Well I made minimum two mistake up to here.

1. I forgot to flash the chip. Thats done now.
2. I forgot to fix the chip on the motherboard (the thingy on top of the cpu)

Now the light is flashing:
Blue ... Long-Yellow - Shirt-Yellow (3 times)

Regarding the picofly guide 6.4 This is right (maybe almost). Blue then white on first boot (I did not recognised that) then yellow. If i interpretate that right. D0 is not connected...

 

[bvang913]

Well I made minimum two mistake up to here.

1. I forgot to flash the chip. Thats done now.
2. I forgot to fix the chip on the motherboard (the thingy on top of the cpu)

Now the light is flashing:
Blue ... Long-Yellow - Shirt-Yellow (3 times)

Regarding the picofly guide 6.4 This is right (maybe almost). Blue then white on first boot (I did not recognised that) then yellow. If i interpretate that right. D0 is not connected...

I would fix your CPU flex cable first. Your problem isn't D0

 

[alecocr20]

If you have a multimeter, you can test if the points are bridged and well connected. The chances of your issues being this are pretty high

 

[_padder]

At this point I am stopping my modding working. I removed the flexcable and I am happy with a working non-mod console.

The reasons for that:
- Skill issue. I do not having that precise soldering tool I need.
- Hardware. The flexcable seems for me already overused after few unskilled tries. And the pin near the SP1 is worrying me too.
- ... Maybe more i forgot.

Thanks to the User bvang for your thoughts. I don't want to stop the thread like that. I would like to think a bit further.

How do you think this is the "lightcode"? (eMMC init failure).
Probably I described the lights wrong. Again:
--> Blue ... (Long-Yellow - Short-Yellow ...) (3x)
The brackets should make this more clear. The three dots (...) describle a longer break.

 

[bvang913]

At this point I am stopping my modding working. I removed the flexcable and I am happy with a working non-mod console.

The reasons for that:
- Skill issue. I do not having that precise soldering tool I need.
- Hardware. The flexcable seems for me already overused after few unskilled tries. And the pin near the SP1 is worrying me too.
- ... Maybe more i forgot.

Thanks to the User bvang for your thoughts. I don't want to stop the thread like that. I would like to think a bit further.

How do you think this is the "lightcode"? (eMMC init failure).
Probably I described the lights wrong. Again:
--> Blue ... (Long-Yellow - Short-Yellow ...) (3x)
The brackets should make this more clear. The three dots (...) describle a longer break.

The blinking yellow lights are the error code. The long space between the one long, then 3 shorts tells you it's that error. It'll cycle through a few times with that error code. The blue at the beginning just means it's trying to glitch. If success then you'll get the white single light to confirm glitch success. Since it's not successful you get the yellow flashes.

 

[_padder]

Hey again me. made some progress. But still no succed.

I bought a new chip. Mostly because I damaged the solderpoints of the flexcable, so I needed a new one.
The first chip has the text: "RP2040-NS", the second one "New2040plus". What do you know about those chips? Is one more recommended or even less?

About my progress: I bought better equipment. Now the flexcable is installed. It seems it is now soldered properly. Installing the modchip and the emmc leads to following result:
==* CPU always reach BCT check (no glitch reaction, check mosfet)
Well even it is cleary described "check mosfet" I need help. Where is it? (On Switch-Mainboard or modchip) How to check that? Behaviour is on both chips equal.

Thanks for helping.

 

[bvang913]

Hey again me. made some progress. But still no succed.

I bought a new chip. Mostly because I damaged the solderpoints of the flexcable, so I needed a new one.
The first chip has the text: "RP2040-NS", the second one "New2040plus". What do you know about those chips? Is one more recommended or even less?

About my progress: I bought better equipment. Now the flexcable is installed. It seems it is now soldered properly. Installing the modchip and the emmc leads to following result:
==* CPU always reach BCT check (no glitch reaction, check mosfet)
Well even it is cleary described "check mosfet" I need help. Where is it? (On Switch-Mainboard or modchip) How to check that? Behaviour is on both chips equal.

Thanks for helping.

Send photos of your install so people can better help you.

 

[_padder]

As requested, photo from my solder attached (not high quality). Additional I attached my modchips.
With this install (plus chip attached) I have a normal boot and code:
Blue - Long Yellow - Long Yellow - Short Yellow

Post automatically merged: May 21, 2024

With solderpoints like this I should stop the work on this console. I better be glad, that the console is still booting and not bricked.

If possible: please still describe the problem and solution I faced, to help me and others not making same mistakes or fixing those.

 

[bvang913]

As requested, photo from my solder attached (not high quality). Additional I attached my modchips.
With this install (plus chip attached) I have a normal boot and code:
Blue - Long Yellow - Long Yellow - Short Yellow
View attachment 438380View attachment 438381

Post automatically merged: May 21, 2024

With solderpoints like this I should stop the work on this console. I better be glad, that the console is still booting and not bricked.
View attachment 438385
If possible: please still describe the problem and solution I faced, to help me and others not making same mistakes or fixing those.

Your points on the flex cable are still bridged. And you're missing some caps in that last photo. People say those are just to filter out noise. Again, each point from the pads on the flex goes to the left or right side of each cap it sits next to, not from one pad to the other. If it's booting then I would just leave it at that, this might be too hard for you.