Hacking Hardware HWfly-shaped Picofly boards start shipping in China

[qhurc]

Several sellers in China have listed these HWfly-shaped chips powered by RP2040 for around $10. I asked one of the sellers and got confirmed that, for Erista and Mariko Switch, the flex cable to solder on the Tegra SoC is identical to the old HWfly flex cable.

I just ordered one to upgrade my old HWfly chip for my Mariko Switch, hope it will work.

"Compatible with Switch/OLED/Lite"

Update: I purchased it from a Chinese version of eBay, it only support Chinese and does not have international shipping, so I couldn't share a link. International buyers may have to wait until the manufacturer opens a global store on platforms like Aliexpress.

Update 2: Got mine and successfully installed. Everything from flex cable to cut position on the aluminum shield is completely identical to HWfly chip, I just disconnect the old HWfly chip from flex cable then connect the Picofly chip, and it instantly take me to Atmosphere.

I forgot to take a photo before installing the aluminum shield, but it looks very much the same as HWfly modchip.

 

[popy]

Can you please post a link?

 

[Hassal]

Actually they been available for quite sometime now. The thing is there's crack downs from agents in China closing stores that publicly sell these

 

[qhurc]

Actually they been available for quite sometime now. The thing is there's crack downs from agents in China closing stores that publicly sell these

True, there have been rumors and videos about these chips since April, but few stores are selling them by then and the price was very expensive.

Since the Chinese version of Nintendo Switch is basically dead, I presume the agents began to let go. There haven't been a legal action for a long time, therefore those stores are slowly coming back again.

Post automatically merged: May 3, 2023

Can you please post a link?

I can't share links yet, but they are easy to find in China. Maybe it will hit global market soon, just like how HWfly did.

 

[SubstituteSW]

I was shocked myself to see these spring up so quick

 

[Hassal]

I also think its not wise to share links especially at this time. Nintendo went all rogue after their game leaked, they are pissed af.

 

[leerz]

I was shocked myself to see these spring up so quick

rapid manufacturing
i get my custom boards from cn in less than 16 days

 

[CapitolLimited]

Since the Chinese version of Nintendo Switch is basically dead, I presume the agents began to let go. There haven't been a legal action for a long time, therefore those stores are slowly coming back again.

Can you explain what this means? What has happened in China where the Switches are no longer played?

 

[AndehGX]

These are nowhere to be seen on aliexpress right now

 

[ganons]

Keep us updated with how the install goes.

 

[ahbicj]

Can you explain what this means? What has happened in China where the Switches are no longer played?

haha, he said Chinese version of ns. This version is distributed by Tencent, featuring Chinese version of system and eShop. Many games have not passed the regulatory review, therefore these games cannot be found on the Chinese version of ns

 

[qhurc]

Can you explain what this means? What has happened in China where the Switches are no longer played?

haha, he said Chinese version of ns. This version is distributed by Tencent, featuring Chinese version of system and eShop. Many games have not passed the regulatory review, therefore these games cannot be found on the Chinese version of ns

Yes he's right. Chinese regulators don't trust foreign contents, they specifically enforced region-lock to all consoles to be released in China. All games must go through very strict review process before they are approved, and seldom do games survive that process, even BotW was failed. So we still play NS, we just don't buy it from the official agent(Tencent). Instead there are importers that sell the global version of NS, which of course skip all these regulation nonsense.

Post automatically merged: May 5, 2023

Got mine and successfully installed. Everything from flex cable to cut position on the aluminum shield is completely identical to HWfly.

I forgot to take a photo before installing the aluminum shield, but it looks very much the same as HWfly.

Photos are updated on #1.

 

[ride_bmx_mhell]

please share link if possible

 

[voidz9]

Can confirm it use HWFLY flex cable. flashed with 2.67 fw from factory

 

[swagyolo420]

Can confirm it use HWFLY flex cable. flashed with 2.67 fw from factory

any difficulties installing or bugs?

 

[cherup]

So these chips are compatible with the RP2040 (public) firmware and can be updated / flashed in the same way?

 

[Nakamichi]

I think these chips would be ideal for me and my friend.
if anyone has any info on these i'd be extremely grateful for a PM!
these look so tidy. i love it.

 

[Taquitos]

I managed to get one via a Chinese agent but I'm still waiting for it to arrive. It is incredibly affordable even with the agent and shipping fees in account. Unfortunately, I don't have any experience soldering though so I wonder how I could start.

As for link requests; it's not a good idea to share them right now, big N will be furious and take down everything.

 

[oggie]

Can someone DM me with details on how to obtain one? Thanks. It looks way cleaner than using the standard rp2040 pcb

 

[Taquitos]

I can DM details how to obtain one after my restrictions are lifted as a newbie! Hopefully someone eventually makes a tutorial for this chip for zeroes like me but I take it's almost exactly like HWFly installation.