Abstract
- I attempted Jemdo’s colourful HDMI-to-USB-C dock — it is low-cost, works, and lets me dock Change 2 without having to make use of the official dock.
- It requires downloading a sketchy Chinese language firmware .exe from a random hyperlink to repair HDR points.
- Efficiency is sort of on par with Nintendo dock, however it will get heat, has HDR/menu quirks, and it might break my Change 2 in some unspecified time in the future.
My favourite factor about handheld consoles is their versatility. If I need to play my Change 2, ROG Ally X, or Steam Deck OLED in my front room on my TV, I simply slide the transportable into Nintendo’s official dock or hook it as much as my Jsaux 6-in-1 Multifunctional Docking Station, relying on what machine it’s. Then, if I need to take the hand held on the go, I simply pop it out and sport away wherever I need. Nonetheless, currently, I’ve modified issues up a bit and I have been doing numerous my Change 2 gaming in my basement workplace on my laptop monitor whereas my son is sleeping within the night.
Certain, I might transfer the Change 2’s official dock downstairs, however that might contain unplugging the dock, transferring it, after which hooking it up once more. That creates numerous noise and will probably wake the sleeping child up. My gaming time is restricted today, so making issues as plug-and-play as doable is important. So, towards my higher judgment, I just lately dove into the wild world of third-party Change 2 docks, and to my shock, I appear to have discovered one that really works so long as you are prepared to place in a bit of additional work.
Use Jemdo’s Change 2 HDMI Cable Dock at your personal danger. I’ve no clue if it is truly able to bricking the hand held. All I can verify is that I have been utilizing it for a number of days and my Change 2 is okay. If it destroys my Change 2 in some way, I will replace this story.
Say hi there to Jemdo’s Change 2 HDMI Cable Dock
It is colourful and sort of bizarre, however works surprisingly properly
Again within the OG Change period, it was generally believed that third-party docks might probably brick your Change or, on the very least, break the USB-C port not directly, stopping you from docking and charging the hand held. After I found this, I finished utilizing the Nyko dock I bought, and I did not delve again into the world of third-party docks till Genki’s supposedly secure Covert Dock launched a number of years later. It is all very technical, however the issue is reportedly tied to dock voltage points, third-party dock PD controllers, and a few not very third-party pleasant encryption on Nintendo’s finish.
There is a chance that third-party Change 2 docks might endure from the identical issues as the unique Change, however it’s nonetheless unclear proper now. What we do know for positive is Nintendo has deliberately damaged the Change 2’s generic USB-C dock compatibility with a devoted encryption chip in its handheld.
After doing a little bit of analysis on Change 2 docks, there appear to be a few on the market that declare to have already cracked Nintendo’s encryption code, even supposing the hand held solely launched a number of months in the past. I in the end landed on Jemdo’s Change 2 HDMI Cable Dock as a result of it is comparatively inexpensive and, in comparison with Nintendo’s official Change 2 dock, it is fairly smooth — it is principally simply an HDMI-to-USB-C cable. I’ve additionally by no means seen a USB-C cable that is orange and blue earlier than, so it caught my eye.
There appear to be a number of variations of the colourful cable accessible, together with a black one, the coloured iteration I purchased, and a dock-like dongle, however all of them appear to help 144Hz and HDMI 2.1 (in Canada, I needed to choose the $40 144Hz/HDMI 2.1 model particularly within the Amazon itemizing). Making the state of affairs much more complicated, the dock is offered on Amazon beneath a number of totally different model names that I’ve by no means heard of earlier than, together with this one referred to as Yigorn (some listings usually additionally promote a 60Hz/4K model, so be sure to choose the right one).
Be ready to obtain a really shady firmware file
The method is kinda of terrifying, however it works
With my analysis out of the way in which, I positioned my order and Jemdo’s Dock arrived a number of days later, however to my shock, it did not embrace an influence brick. To resolve this challenge, I dug up an older 60W iPad charger I had mendacity round and plugged it into the colourful Jemdo Dock after I set it up in my workplace (this is identical wattage because the official dock). Since I run a lot of the consoles in my workplace via an HDMI switcher, I slid the HDMI finish of the Jemdo Dock into the field, the USB-C facet into the Change 2, and plugged within the iPad charger. To my shock, it truly labored instantly, displaying Donkey Kong Bananza in all its glory on my monitor, however one thing felt barely off. Colours appeared slightly washed out, significantly with video games that help HDR like Mario Kart World.
That is the place issues get a bit wild, so bear with me. I noticed feedback on Amazon and Reddit indicating that there is a firmware replace for the Jemdo Dock that fixes its HDR points, however I wasn’t capable of finding a hyperlink to it anyplace. After a fast Google search, I stumbled throughout this video from a comparatively small YouTube channel referred to as Glitched. Their video is concentrated on a cable that appears an identical to the Jemdo Dock, however with Cabletime branding. I assumed that this was simply one other firm branding and promoting the identical Change 2 dock given they encountered the identical challenge. To resolve the issue, Glitched downloaded firmware for an 8K model of one more totally different model of cable from one other firm, and to their shock, it truly labored on the Cabletime model.
At this level, I figured I did not have a lot to lose, so I went forward and adopted the hyperlink in Glitched’s bio and downloaded a relatively terrifying-looking Chinese language .exe file from a random Google Drive. This system opened, and a pink line appeared on my display that turned inexperienced after a number of seconds. There is no manner this might work, proper? The whole state of affairs is simply too bizarre. But once more, to my utter shock, HDR now seems on my show after I’m utilizing the Jemdo dock with the Change 2, although the hand held seems to have bother switching out of HDR when returning to the menu, however this might simply be a problem with my LG Ultragear 27GP950-B 4K monitor.
On the notice of my show, I discovered that I wanted to decrease the monitor’s response time right down to regular to stop odd ghosting that appeared whereas enjoying video games. This won’t be a problem for everybody, nonetheless.
And in spite of everything that, I now have a working third-party Change 2 dock that appears to run almost in addition to Nintendo’s official dock. It will get slightly scorching after a number of hours of use, however that is the one challenge I’ve run into up to now few days. Will it break my Change 2 in some unspecified time in the future over the subsequent few weeks? I do not know, however I undoubtedly hope not.
