This is a great tutorial! You take time to show people how to manage screws which not many videos do. Beginner modders don't always think of that and lose screws often.
thank you so much, just followed this video and i managed to do it successfully in like 20 minutes, and its the second time ive ever soldered anything before!!!!
For the metal shield cutting bit, what you can do is cut a longer strip of tape and tape it to the mod chip so it goes down and is visible, then just cut that same size and then remove the tape or shorten it, flip it, do whatever you want with it. Obviously you'll have to be careful when removing since the chip is free to move around and you don't wanna break a connection or something but I think it'll make it look better the closer the cut is to the size of the chip's plate
I'm surprised that you didn't destroy those caps and the ribbon connector with the thousand times you went over them. There is no need to put so much heat on each end of those caps.
I have to say watching you soldering hurt me in a way that words cannot express. With that said you did ok dude but my god so many little solder balls made it everywhere in the process.
Please also if doing anything inside the console disconnect the battery. You dont want any shorts to happen or you could potentially turn your switch into a brick!
Agreed, no clue how I managed but had no flux but managed to solder the pins.... thanks to this guy I was bored and ordered the kit from Ali express for less than £7 lol really shocked it works lol
Cool stuff. Have you tried a chisel tip? Someone recommended it to me some time ago, and after giving it a try on a few soldering I just could go back. It makes it easier to do good soldering points, at least for me, is the good in general. Anyway, I'm now considering cracking open my switch.
I would like to suggest listing all of the tools required for this at the beginning of the video. I went through step by step until you started soldering stuff. I am new to this and was not aware I needed this tool. Unfortunately it wasted my time until I can get around to getting a soldering kit and learning how to use it.
I’d always recommend watching the video in full before following the guide yourself, especially with an install like this. In terms of tools, it’s just a soldering iron, solder, flux, and some tweezers.
Perfect install, brother! By the way, SP2 can be bridged to the right because the bridged point and the SP2 point are both ground. But, other than that, this was way better than the last video. Now, do an OLED or a Lite, please!
If the heat shield were embossed with the shape of the chip plate you wouldn't need to cut it , just fill the gaps with thermal paste, screw down and an outer layer of tape for case pressure
Awesome Video!! It would just be easier if I fly you out to do my install. I don't want just any Joe Schmo doing the install. I need experience. LMK if you want take a short vacay. I'll pay lol 😂💯
Now I realize, that v1/v2 much easier among them. Because I actually mod for the first time was the oled one. thnks my operation was successful. I have made mistake for several projects, and now I am very passionate to childhood dream.
I solder 0803 and 0602 with a normal tip without issues. Size doesn’t matter for the tip, it does for your solder you want to have thin as possible solder. Or just use some paste.
Seems extremely doable. On the other hand, while seeing the tutorial, at the timestamp 27:34 it felt a bit worrying that the cable coming behind the shield would be pinched. It's a matter of perspective, or perhaps should it be recommendable to trimming the shield a bit more?
I've also noticed this, and while it hasn't caused any problems on my console, it feels a bit off. The issue arises with the heatsink because cutting the metal shield any further would disrupt where the heatsink contacts the shield.
@@TheModSmith perhaps bending that part up and then adding something soft as padding. Nonetheless, if it doesn't puncture the ribbon cable, that shouldn't be an issue, init?
idk, i think usinng this flexicable for this this is to dangerous, cuz u could burn the board & the components. using normal cables is better & that way u wont have y o cut the protector or u can cut much better. good video 0u0
He's really making it difficult at 12:30 by doing a coldjoint, chances of frying the resistors are very high. The proper way is to tin the resistors with solder, tin the flex cable. This way you have two points that can join more easily. Then wipe off the flux with alcohol, reapply a toothpick amount to each and it should go right in. Now the lite and OLED, different story..
@TheModSmith do you know where to get an original fan for the Switch V1? I bought one from Aliexpress and this was permanently on full speed. My fan makes some noises ...
Very good video, just what Ive been looking for. 2 questions, 1. do you need a microscope for the soldering? 2 what temp on the solder iron did you use?
I highly recommend using a microscope for this installation, especially due to the small size of the capacitors. I personally use 420 degrees Celsius on my iron, although some suggest temperatures closer to 360.
@20:15 IF YOU'RE TROUBLESHOOTING AND WONDERING WHY ITS BOOTING TO THE NINTENDO SCREEN INSTEAD OF THE MODCHIP: please also be aware that aside from the potential mod chip not being pre-flashed (which i believe is rare), it can also be that the switch isn't detecting the modchip (make sure theres enough space and not too much pressure where the mod chip is installed to prevent the connections from acting up (the pressure and screw and partial reassembly can also cause this (though in this videos case, it didn't). Really your soldering connections should look good and flush to avoid this, but just incase... I was wondering why mine kept booting to nintendo instead of the modchip whenever i'd power it on. And that was why. Make sure the connections are solid as well!
@@languidcreature2345 Well check with a multimeter on continuity mode first after the chip install. Check all newly soldered points. Once you'll be ok in terms of the connection. But again if there's too much pressure or not enough room for the modchip you may have to carefully clip the apu bracket to let the ribbon cable have space. And the mod chip you will have to cut the metal back shield as he shows here. maybe dont tighten the screws as tight if you have problems. i did!
Just to add some clarity some v1 switches came patched. Easiest way to find out if you have v1 or v2 is to look on back of console just above the usb port. The model number printed there determines if you have a v1 or v2 V1 = hac-001 whereas v2 = hac-001(-01)
Despite my comment, thank you for the comprehensive overview, plan to install mine tonight. Flashed the modchip already in preparation for the bigger job tonight 😬🤞
For this modchip, patched or not, it works on either. Easiest way to find out imo is checking the serial number online, it is well documented. For reference some V1's that are patched still have the original model number, so it is not foolproof to go by model number.
As easy as this looks.. I still have the team x chip in my closet and still fearful off trying to install it. Really wish someone lived near me that could do this for me :/
15:05 his soldering kept getting too me, he had it done but kept having to touch it up and making it worse like you had it perfect but kept redoing it and redoing it
I modded my switch lite like 2 years ago. Have had a blast with it playing emulators/rom hacks/ etc. etc. Since I never had any issues getting banned on my switch lite I decided to order a RP2040 kit for my V1 patched switch. That was literally the week Mario Wonder released and I had a physical copy that I had already played multi hours on my V1 switch. I decided to pop the game cart into my switch lite and when the game booted it started auto updating without me hitting anything. Needless to say my switch lite is now banned... So now I've just been sitting on this RP2040 mod because I'm too afraid I'm gonna get my OG switch banned if I mod it too.
You should never, ever use a cartridge from a Switch that is not modded, on another Switch that is. That's an instant ban. The cartridges have a special key that they synchronize with the first Switch where they are used, and if you try to put that cartridge that is synchronized in a modded Switch, there you will have the ban that you got... I say that you can mod your Switch V1 without problem, the problem is the cartridges
@@lantonicorporation How does that prevent you from getting banned? I was using emunand. So if I restore it from the backup I made before setting up emunand will that fix my online ban issue???
@@lantonicorporation Ah just grabbed my switch and checked... I was thinking of the emuMMC. But after doing some research I might still be able to save my switch lite. Doing some digging on emuNAND too so I might end up modding my other switch too after all. Thank you for the advice BTW!
Maybe it would've been a better idea to slide the module on the fan opening of the shield and mark to cut only were the flat flex is? That way, the heatshield will hold the module in place and you don't have to add extra tape.
This looks amazing! I'm new to soldering and I'm practicing on some SMD practice kits that are really smal like those points. I was afraid to mess it up, however seeing that if bridges happen you can fix it fairly quickly makes me more secure. I have a few questions if you don't mind answering - Do you do anything special to fix a bridge? Just add more flux and reflow and poke it a bit with the tip and it kinds of relocates itself? I will try to purposely bridge something on my practice board just to see how I do. - Can you use desoldering wick to desolder if you want to start again? I'm using it on my practice boards. - What is the difference between brown-colored flux and clear flux? I have both, but to me they do the same, both are no-clean, and claim to have same properties and uses. - I'm practicing on 0603 metric/0201 imperial, are those on the CPU a lot smaller? Thank you very much! Will update when I feel confident enough and do it on my own v2.
If you have a bridge, cleaning the tip so it can take solder away and is all that is needed, this can be repeated until happy. Desoldering wick is another way to remove solder and is perfectly acceptable. Brown coloured flux has 'Rosin' in it which tends to give it that colour, not all flux has Rosin in it. Best flux imo is the amtech stuff. There is no 'no-clean' flux, always clean flux away with alcohol without fail. For the small connections on the cpu, magnification will help big time - this can be done by digital microscope or a cheap set of magnification headsets which are on ebay and will help massively. The only advice I can give is to not rush the procedure, take your time and try to do it as neatly as you can and you will be golden. Good luck.
You made a real hash of that, you shouldn't of pre-tinned the cpu cable, no need. There was enough solder to repair the london bridge. You sure your used to soldering?
Thinking about modding my switch since i have a more recent version and I would need to do the whole mod chip installation but I've never worked with saudering tools before so this is where I'm a little hesitant on doing this in the first place if there are any recommendations you could share on what tools you'd recommend someone like me to use as a first timer that would be great! Thanks for the detailed guide I wouldn't even know how to unscrew all the right screws without this one.
@@josesshopandservices yes it is easier to pickup excess solder instead of trying to get it out with the soldering iron. Cleaning the soldering iron can do the job, but with excess heat you might desolder the capacitor and overall excess heat is not good anyway. So a small wick or pump which are really cheap will do the job.
I first soldered the easier stuff like pin headers, then moved onto more complex stuff like large SMD components, then smaller stuff gradually. There isn’t really a right way to learn in my opinion, I learn by doing stuff so I broke lots of practice boards and gradually improved.
The OLED uses the same Mariko chip as the V2 EDIT: Apparently it uses a different carrier board which doesn't expose all the signals a modchip needs, so you have to do some digging around on the PCB and use a different flex cable. TIL!
Hey, can you guys help me? I was playing in my switch and suddently turned off, now it wont turn on..my hwfly when tries to turn on, indicates a BLUE led and then flashes twice Green
I got stuck, when trying to start the console it just boots to the ofw. When trying to open the folder on pc it shows the folder briefly with the files needed inside and then closes again. But not at all times, most of the times it just doesn't show anything.I get no led signals either. I watched the video a few times as well. Am I doing something wrong?
i have 2 modchips that dont flash any light when putting thuf2 on there, on ei installed the chip entirely and it goes to OFW. assuming the uf2 isnt getting loaded wtf
I’ve got the mod chip ready for my switch. Unfortunately my display connector on my motherboard is broken, so I can only use my switch docked. Does the switch display a signal while being docked and booted into the new menu?
Thank you! The Switch Lite modchips are a different installation and have different flex cables to the regular Switch consoles, I may do a Lite modchip video soon.
I’d practice just by doing some soldering, try some pin headers and when you can do those easily then pickup an SMD solder practice kit from Amazon, they’re about £5 GBP. It’s hard to tell when you’re ready, maybe when you feel ready have a go on a faulty Switch.
great video i don't have experience on soldering but after i watched this video i will give it a try what is that item that produce flux so i can order it, what watts do i need for soldering iron
