Hacking Hardware Picofly - a HWFLY switch modchip

lightninjay

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Mar 28, 2023
Messages
561
Trophies
0
Age
31
XP
1,398
Country
United States
And what is the rgb mode of the rp2040 for?

View attachment 363786
if you have an rp2040-zero from waveshare/ali then it has a neopixel. It is used for diagnosing proper firmware flashes as well as console glitching. If you plug it in, and flash the uf2 firmware to it and immediately see a red light after flashing (this is not the same as flashing, then unplugging and replugging), then no rgb jumper needs to be made. If on the other hand, you get one quick green flashing light, then you need to bridge the jumper pads indicated to swap the LED colors for proper diagnoses capability.
 

Adran_Marit

Walküre's Hacker
Member
Joined
Oct 3, 2015
Messages
3,781
Trophies
1
Location
42*South
XP
4,573
Country
Australia
A (hopefully) final update to my first switch hacking saga. XD

I got my wireless function working again, and I managed to get rid of my slow emmc mode!

At some point during my hacking endeavors, I ripped the Dat0 trace and rendered my console unbootable...
View attachment 363782
While repairing that, I also ripped the CLK trace... So I scraped some of the solder mask away on the trace, then used uv-cure resin to mask off all the surrounding solder pads. I soldered to the tiniest pad that you can see above to the trace I exposed with 40awg magnet wire, then covered the whole thing in uv resin. I had to also repeat this process on the CLK trace.
View attachment 363783
Once I had finally gotten finished cleaning up my attempted failure of soldering to the emmc port pins (I shorted a bunch to ground since basically every other pin on the port is a GND pin -_-) I realized I had accidentally blown/brushed the tiny capacitors to the left of the APU shielding off, and these are ABSOLUTELY VITAL to the functioning of both wifi and bluetooth of the console. I repeat, if you rip these caps off, the joycons won't work unless docked in the switch, and you won't have wifi.
Here are the caps in question after I repaired them (I ALMOST ripped the trace of the one closest to the APU enough that I couldn't recover, but luckily I was able to offset the cap to hit the trace and the remaining pad on the circuit.)
View attachment 363785
And finally, if the above image doesn't QUITE give you the understanding of scale as to just how TINY these things are (literally smaller than a grain of rice) here is a photo of a single capacitor, resting on the pad of my thumb, a mere 2 finger-print traces long, perhaps 1 finger-print trace wide.
View attachment 363784

This was a real burning crucible experiment for me. Failing to fix this would mean I had a functioning switch, but no wifi and no wireless controllers could be used. I have an 8bitdo arcade stick that's compatible that would have been USELESS without this being fixed. I spent approximately FIVE HOURS positioning, cleaning, fluxing, tweezing, tweeking, nudging, holding my breath, swearing quietly, stabbing myself accidentally with pointy tweezers, and then finally getting a good connection on both capacitors to end with a RESOUNDING SUCCESS OF WORKING WIRELESS! :D

As far as my slow emmc problems go, I have a patched V1 and had 47O (47 ohm +/- 5%) on DAT0, CMD, and CLK, and hekate was reporting half-speed on my emmc. I replaced the 47O with 47RO (47 ohm +/- 1%) on CLK, and then put two 47RO in series on DAT0 and CMD to give them a total of 94 ohms resistance each. Doing this seems to have solved my slow emmc problems.

I'll be around, because I still have my GF's switch lite to hack, and potentially a few friend's switches. Keep hacking guys and gals, and if you think you've toasted your console, just consider how much I had to Frankenstein mine to keep it alive, and DON'T give up.

One again i must reiterate

Just because a mod is cheap doesn't mean it's easy. - Trust me I learnt the hard way - Adran 2023
 
  • Love
  • Like
Reactions: Dee87 and impeeza

Tom8823

Well-Known Member
Newcomer
Joined
Jun 22, 2020
Messages
55
Trophies
0
Age
36
XP
531
Country
Canada
One again i must reiterate

Just because a mod is cheap doesn't mean it's easy. - Trust me I learnt the hard way - Adran 2023
Let me comment that.

I received my parts from Aliexpress 2 days ago.

When I opened the package. Literally I said to myself "What the f... is that?! Did they send the correct parts?"

I guess I got spoiled by all the successful installation pictures I saw posted here. In reality even the mosfet looks NOTHING like the pictures on this forum make you think. It's much, much smaller. Like fraction of your fingernail. It's smaller than the tip of the matchstick.

When I saw the size of caps you have to solder to I said "there is no way you can do that without microscope."

Trust me guys, better safe than sorry. Don't do it if you have never soldered before.

I have some experience with soldering but no 0201 smd. Max I went with bare eye was 0402 and that was hard as fuck.

Don't ruin your consoles guys.
 

Adran_Marit

Walküre's Hacker
Member
Joined
Oct 3, 2015
Messages
3,781
Trophies
1
Location
42*South
XP
4,573
Country
Australia
Let me comment that.

I received my parts from Aliexpress 2 days ago.

When I opened the package. Literally I said to myself "What the f... is that?! Did they send the correct parts?"

I guess I got spoiled by all the successful installation pictures I saw posted here. In reality even the mosfet looks NOTHING like the pictures on this forum make you think. It's much, much smaller. Like fraction of your fingernail. It's smaller than the tip of the matchstick.

When I saw the size of caps you have to solder to I said "there is no way you can do that without microscope."

Trust me guys, better safe than sorry. Don't do it if you have never soldered before.

I have some experience with soldering but no 0201 smd. Max I went with bare eye was 0402 and that was hard as fuck.

Don't ruin your consoles guys.

Guess how I learnt 😅🤣

I've got a "dead" lite in my room. It has a dead trace so it autorcms.
 

lightninjay

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Mar 28, 2023
Messages
561
Trophies
0
Age
31
XP
1,398
Country
United States
Just to reiterate, I did all my soldering by eye with a large ring-light over my shoulder to illuminate the board. I would use my cellphone with max zoom to take these photos and occasionally as a magnifier to check solder spots.

It is NOT easy to solder these things by eye, but I am an example of it being possible if you have enough patience and decent enough eye sight still.
 
  • Wow
Reactions: impeeza

ellllllill

Member
Newcomer
Joined
Apr 7, 2023
Messages
9
Trophies
0
Age
27
XP
111
Country
Hong Kong
if you have an rp2040-zero from waveshare/ali then it has a neopixel. It is used for diagnosing proper firmware flashes as well as console glitching. If you plug it in, and flash the uf2 firmware to it and immediately see a red light after flashing (this is not the same as flashing, then unplugging and replugging), then no rgb jumper needs to be made. If on the other hand, you get one quick green flashing light, then you need to bridge the jumper pads indicated to swap the LED colors for proper diagnoses capability.
Why did I do rgb jumper or green light?
 
  • Like
Reactions: impeeza

Dee87

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Mar 19, 2023
Messages
1,139
Trophies
1
XP
1,589
Country
Germany
Guess how I learnt 😅🤣

I've got a "dead" lite in my room. It has a dead trace so it autorcms.
shame u dont live near me otherwise i would get it back and running , u had a riped of trace near/under the apu right ?
u dont have anybody near u who can lift that apu sucker of and replace the trace?
Post automatically merged:

updated the firmware post with 2.61 firmware / toolbox 0.2 files and board pinouts by @Dee87.

Pi Pico support is still not ready, but Pico doesn't have RGB LED, so it needs some kind of rewrite
now all we need it that PicoFly Logo :rofl2:
:rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2:
Post automatically merged:

I've already made the jumper
so ur having a green light after flashing the .uf2 firmware?
and u set the rgb mode ?
if so then undo the rgb mode pin and u should have a red light after flashing the .uf2
 
Last edited by Dee87,

JaapDaniels

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Apr 22, 2012
Messages
1,208
Trophies
1
Age
40
Website
github.com
XP
2,487
Country
Netherlands
shame u dont live near me otherwise i would get it back and running , u had a riped of trace near/under the apu right ?
u dont have anybody near u who can lift that apu sucker of and replace the trace?
Post automatically merged:


now all we need it that PicoFly Logo :rofl2:
:rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2:
Post automatically merged:


so ur having a green light after flashing the .uf2 firmware?
and u set the rgb mode ?
if so then undo the rgb mode pin and u should have a red light after flashing the .uf2
picofly.png

would this be an inspiration for a logo?
 

JaapDaniels

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Apr 22, 2012
Messages
1,208
Trophies
1
Age
40
Website
github.com
XP
2,487
Country
Netherlands
naaaa but sorry im talking about the picofly boot logo
but sadly it stays within the firmware :-(
View attachment 363838
Post automatically merged:
Work your magic with either of these pictures, and i would sugest a color changing animation red to blue raspberry...
That would totally fit the console and the raspberry.
 

Attachments

  • communityIcon_u3qcmjhath441.png
    communityIcon_u3qcmjhath441.png
    70.9 KB · Views: 38
  • nintendo-switch-blue-red-sku-header-050521.png
    nintendo-switch-blue-red-sku-header-050521.png
    19.2 KB · Views: 34

ellllllill

Member
Newcomer
Joined
Apr 7, 2023
Messages
9
Trophies
0
Age
27
XP
111
Country
Hong Kong
shame u dont live near me otherwise i would get it back and running , u had a riped of trace near/under the apu right ?
u dont have anybody near u who can lift that apu sucker of and replace the trace?
Post automatically merged:


now all we need it that PicoFly Logo :rofl2:
:rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2:
Post automatically merged:


so ur having a green light after flashing the .uf2 firmware?
and u set the rgb mode ?
if so then undo the rgb mode pin and u should have a red light after flashing the .uf2
I see. Thank you
 

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    Don't know why people get so emotional online just get over it ffs
    +2
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    He was the ass of gbatemp, everyone knocked on him, I honestly felt bad, even though I was guilty myself, but he egged it all on himself,
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    But he still here, but under dif name, he pm me sometimes still even.
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    It's like they think we'll be in their bed pissing on it the next day
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    I feel like gbatemp should make t-shirts or memorabilia to remember the lost ones. I bet the Polly shirts would sell out quick.
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    Nah that could actually bring lawsuits
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    Tempsuits
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    PollySuits
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    Your correct, Somebody would be guilty and there would be riots, then they storm the gbatemp capitol,
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    Online or not there are still certain rights that judges would have no issue handing out a warrant over
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    Just look at Kim dotcom
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    Honestly I'm scared to, from you, but ok, lemme turn on vpn, virtual machine, private browser first
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    Remember that Alexa robot I gifted you
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    And that laptop Webcam you never tapped up
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    That robot is here somewhere, I hear it moving around at night, but I haven't seen it for months.
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    Oh that laptop I give to ancientboi, so you been watching him for months, and he's been watching you
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    Oh good more than enough material for the fbi
    +2
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    Damn its 5 in morn, I gotta Go wake your mum and send her to work. Check ya later.
    +1
  • Psionic Roshambo @ Psionic Roshambo:
    He could make so much money!!! His arm would never get tired lol
    +2
  • S @ salazarcosplay:
    How are yall doing
    +2
  • VXNlcm5hbWU @ VXNlcm5hbWU:
    Just had a pure banger of a sandwich there, was very nice
    +1
    VXNlcm5hbWU @ VXNlcm5hbWU: Just had a pure banger of a sandwich there, was very nice +1