The Nintendo Switch mainboard has a series of testpads on the front and back, presumably used in factory test, diagnostics, and early board bringup procedures.

Raw Logic captures

These are reference materials, taken from poking at I/O on various testpads. https://github.com/hedgeberg/Switch-Logic-Captures

Photos

   

Pinouts

Cluster A

Pad # Name Type Levels Continuity Frequency Comment
1 Batt GND?
2 Battery pulse? Pulse train 0-3.3V L-5?
3 Battery Vdd
4 Speaker R + Square wave 0-3.3V Speaker Right +
5 Speaker R - Square wave 0-3.3V Speaker Right -
6 Weak GND?
7 SDA I2C 0-1.8V I2C Port 0
8 SCL I2C 0-1.8V I2C Port 0
9 USB-PWR-WAVE? Square wave 0-3.3V K-4, K-5? ~11 Hz CC2
10 USB-PWR-WAVE? Square wave 0-3.3V K-4, K-5? ~11 Hz CC1

Cluster B

Pad # Name Type Levels Continuity Frequency Comment
1 DBVDD from ALC5639 pin 43
2 D+ USB-C Cluster B - 3
3 D- USB-C Cluster B - 2
4 +3.3V XRST from M92T36 pin 4
5 +3.3V VSVR from M92T36 pin 6
5(b) VUSB VB from M92T36 pin 9
6 GND

Cluster C

The JTAG pins are multiplexed between NV_JTAG and ARM_JTAG by the TRST pin:

  • NV_JTAG contains a single TAP (ID 0x221173D7) for boundary scan board verification.
  • ARM_JTAG contains two debugging TAPs for CoreSight (ID 0x5BA00477) and BPMP (ID 0x4F1F0F0F).

Note: NV_JTAG and ARM_JTAG are locked out by FUSE_ARM_JTAG_DIS on production devices.

Pad # Name Type Levels Continuity Frequency Comment
1 JTAG_TDI 0-1.8V
2 UART1_RX 0-1.8V UART-A RX
3 UART1_TX 0-1.8V UART-A TX
4 JTAG_TCK 0-1.8V
5 JTAG_RTCK 0-1.8V Unused for NV_JTAG
6 UART1_RTS 0-1.8V UART-A RTS Flow control
7 JTAG_TDO 0-1.8V
8 UART1_CTS 0-1.8V UART-A CTS Flow control
9 JTAG_TMS 0-1.8V
10 JTAG_TRST_N 0-1.8V Not a TAP reset; Multiplexes between NV_JTAG (HI) and ARM_JTAG (LO)
11 +1.8V 0-1.8V

Cluster D

Pad # Name Type Levels Continuity Frequency Comment
1 GND
4 Seaker L + Speaker Left +
5 Seaker L - Speaker Left -

Cluster E

Pad # Name Type Levels Continuity Frequency Comment
1 Vol (-) Button Vol (-)
10 Reset
11 Power Button Pushbutton 4V-0V Active low

Cluster G

Pad # Name Type Levels Continuity Frequency Comment
1 SD card detect
2 GND
4 Vol(+) Button Vol (+)
5 Li-Ion Batt Vdd Mirror Power Supply
9 BUTTON_HOME RCM strap

Cluster H

Pad # Name Type Levels Continuity Frequency Comment
1
2
3
4 Screen_on On/Off 0-1.8v I-2 Screen power state, active high
5 Flow control 0-1.8V I-5 Flow control for pad I-4?
6
7 UART 0-1.8V I-4 1.5MBaud?
8 UART 0-1.8V I-3 1.5MBaud?
9
10 5V H-12 Power for JoyCon charge circuit and fan
11 Goes to a small ceramic cap near WiFi/BT IC?
12 H-10 On the same trace

Cluster I

Pad # Name Type Levels Continuity Frequency Comment
1 GND
2 Screen_on On/Off 0-1.8V Screen power state, active high
3 UART 0-1.8V 1.5MBaud? Communication CPU -> Bluetooth using HCI
4 UART 0-1.8V 1.5MBaud? Communication Bluetooth -> CPU using HCI
5 Flow control 0-1.8V Flow control for pad I-4?
6 0-1.8V Needs testing with chip/touch screen interface board plugged in

Cluster J

Pad # Name Type Levels Continuity Frequency Comment
1 ? Edge 0-1.8V Turns on around same time as pad J-3
2 GND
3 ? Edge 0-1.8V Turns on around same time as pad J-1, slightly after
4 Power button Pushbutton 4V-0V Active low
5 ? Constant? 0V Ground?-NT
6 ? Edge 0-1.8V Turns on with pad J-6, ~1s after J-1/J-3
7 ? Edge 0-1.8V Turns on with pad J-5, ~1s after J-1/J-3
8 ? Edge? 0-1.8V Turns on ~1s after J-6/J-7, turns off at unknown point

Cluster K

Pad # Name Type Levels Continuity Frequency Comment
1 GND
2 D- USB-C Cluster B - 3
3 D+ USB-C Cluster B - 2
4 USB-PWR-WAVE? Square wave 0V-3.3V A-9, A-10? ~11 Hz
5 USB-PWR-WAVE? Square wave 0V-3.3V A-9, A-10? ~11 Hz Appears to mirror K4. Duty cycle 66.67%. Low on screen lock. Off until first interaction.
6 USB-C V+ Supply power support fast charger : "normal mode = 5V+" "Fast changer = 12V+"
7 BQ24193 VBUS + M92T36 VEX Power supply? ~3V-0V None known N/A 0 when usb-c not plugged in, falls slowly on first interaction if USB-C plugged in. Power draw related?

Cluster L

TODO: Update diagram

Pad # Name Type Levels Continuity Frequency Comment
1 Li-Ion Batt Vdd Mirror Power Supply Std. Li-Ion
2 GND
3 Li-Ion Batt Vdd Battery Input Std. Li-Ion
4 Mirrored Ground? Holds steady @ 0, looks like a decoupled isolated ground
5 Battery pulse? <1 Hz Duty cycle ~0%
6 GND