INSTALL.md

Teardown

I am not going to detail the full teardown of the Nintendo Switch as you can find videos and pictures online, but the gist of it goes like this:

• Remove the 4 triwing screws on the back panel
• Remove the screw at the top next to the fan output
• Remove the two screws next to the USB port (These screws are DIFFERENT than the previous one, keep them seperate)
• Remove the screw just below the SD card slot
• Remove the middle screw on both joycon rails

The back panel should now come off.

• Remove the screw holding in the MicroSD board
• Carefully remove the MicroSD board
• Remove all the screws holding the metal shield in place

The metal shield should come off easily.

Unplug the battery from the switch.

Modifying the Trinket

Removing the microusb port

You should probably remove the microusb port from the Trinket. I used a hot air gun to achieve this. Be careful, because there are a few bits that go into the board that might make it more difficult to remove.

Muting the power LED light

Remove the power LED or the resistor next to the power LED. This is next to the microusb port with a silkscreen that says "On". This is a waste of power if you leave this on.

Remove reset switch (Optional, reduce height)

If you want to be able to put the metal shield back on the switch, you will need to remove the reset switch. If you keep the metal shield off you can actually press the reset switch through the rear plastic case. This is only useful to get into bootloader mode, which should be obsolete once a proper chainloader is released.

Replace power capacitors (Optional, reduce height)

My Trinket came with very tall ceramic capacitors on the voltage regulator. Because of this I couldn't fit the metal shield over the Trinket. The height of the capacitors may vary depending on the production run of the Trinket.

These are the two ceramic capacitors nearest the reset switch. If your capacitors are too tall you can replace them. The Adafruit schematic calls for 10uF capacitors, I replaced them with 22uF because that's what I had immediately available.

Installing the Trinket

Affix and solder Trinket

Now it is time to install the Trinket. Make sure the battery is unplugged from the Switch.

Refer to the following picture for recommended placement of the Trinket. An alternate point for Trinket pad 4 is detailed one section below.

Insulate and affix the Trinket to the metal shield. I used some Kapton tape to insulate and put a couple dabs of hot glue in the corners. xboxexpert used some double sided tape to affix his mod (pictured).

Carefully wire up the Trinket as shown in the picture using some thin wire. Be very careful with the point on the capacitor, and be very careful not to bridge it with the adjacent capacitor.

Install CPU RESET wire (Alternate Trinket pad 4) (Test pad on underside of motherboard)

If you do not want to solder to the small capacitor there is another pad on the other side of the motherboard that you can also use.

Warning, this is not thoroughly tested but it should work just as well as the other solder point.

Solder pad 3 to pad E10 in the .

The test pad is on the opposite side of the motherboard. I will not detail the steps required to remove the motherboard and flip it over. I will say that you should be very careful with all of the ribbon connecters as they are extremely fragile.

Install RCM_STRAP wire (From joycon rail) (Optional)

If you want to continue using a modded joycon or jig, feel free to skip this step. Even if you have a modded joycon, the advantage of this step is that the Trinket will disconnect itself from the RCM_STRAP line and should be undetectable after boot.

• Carefully remove the right joycon rail ribbon from the connector

  Note that you must release the latch before you remove the ribbon. Carefully lift the latch on the "north side" of the connector. It is VERY fragile.

• Remove all screws from the right joycon rail and remove it.

Caution, these screws strip easily!

The following picture shows where you want to solder a wire to in order to access RCM_STRAP.

Be careful, as my pins wanted to lift off the small PCB very easily with any applied heat, use some flux and solder it quickly.

If you have difficulty you can remove the PCB and ribbon cable from the rail by pushing the small metal pin out (like adjusting a watch band) to release it.

• Re-assemble the joycon rail
• Reconnect the ribbon cable
• Connect the other end of that wire to pad 3 of the Trinket

Install RCM_STRAP wire (Alternate test pad on underside of motherboard) (Optional)

Solder pad 3 to pad G9 in the .

The test pad is on the opposite side of the motherboard. I will not detail the steps required to remove the motherboard and flip it over. I will say that you should be very careful with all of the ribbon connecters as they are extremely fragile.

Install VOL+ wire (Optional)

Warning, this is untested and very difficult to solder, but it should work. There is a chance I may have gotten the point wrong, if so Vol+ should be one of the other 2 pins on that connecter that isn't ground. Additionally, the Switch CPU will spin up about 10-15 seconds after powering down. If the Trinket pulls both RCM_STRAP and Vol+, the Switch will go into RCM mode after a poweroff and the Trinket will load its payload unless you power off the Switch in RCM mode like within Hekate.

Solder one of the following points to pad 0 on the Trinket.

Test the mod

Feel free to connect the battery and test the mod. If you installed the RCM_STRAP, then you just need to hold Vol+ and press power. Otherwise use your joycon or jig to pull enable RCM. The Trinket should wake itself up and inject the payload.

See Status Lights and Troubleshooting sections below if you are having issues.

Reset wire?

You might want to consider running a wire from the "Reset" pin out the kickstand opening. Touching this wire to the metal shield (which you can do from the outside) will let you put the Trinket in bootloader mode and you can reflash it. Other options are an internal magnetic reed switch, or a physical switch installed somewhere.

The rear panel of the Switch is quite flexible, making a reset switch pushable just by pushing the back. Use your imagination.

Note that once a proper open source payload chainloader payload is created, the Trinket should theoretically not have to be flashed anymore.

Reassemble switch

Make sure you insulate the top of the Trinket if you are installing the metal shield.

Put it back together and hope you don't have any screws left over.

Status Lights

This is the order of what happens when you turn the switch on:

1. Switch turned on
2. Trinket woken up, RCM_STRAP pulled to GND, shows GREEN light for 1 second
3. Trinket reboots itself (because I'm lazy), LED turns PURPLE.
4. Trinket looks for RCM device, blinks while looking
5. RCM found? Injects payload, shows GREEN led for 0.5 second
6. RCM not found? shows RED led for 0.5 second
7. Trinket goes to sleep and waits for the Switch to turn on again

Troubleshooting

• Trinket never injects payload

  Did you mix up D+ and D-?

• Trinket doesn't turn on

  It should turn on when you plug the Switch battery back in. Check Bat and Gnd

• Trinket doesn't do anything when Switch is turned on

  Check that pin 4 is connected to the cap without shorting anything

Installation Pictures