http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=770854
^hes got a mod for the FFC on the vibrant, anyway this can be done on the captivate?
Short answer: No
Long answer: http://tinyurl.com/2vf43f3
ive searched on google and everywhere says its possible for the vibrant, so why not for us??? its the same hardware in both phones...
The answer is no. Why do you need to know why? Physically, the phone is different. The outer shell is different, the inner casings are different, search the forums on google. There are topics on this.
It's the same case as flashing a vibrant stock rom on your cappy. Basically it wont work and it is the proof for hardwares not being the same.
You guys/gals are a bunch of negative nancy naysayers.
I did it a while back and posted my pic to prove it.
Mod closed the thread as it was a dupe, but i think it should stay open to show everyone what can be done if you put your mind to it.
Just because our phone has no place for a camera inside, and no connections on the motherboard is no reason to say it can't be done.
Think Positive!
BTW - it could use a little improvement - I am thinking about using a sharpie to color the tape black so you won't see it. Maybe then add a belt clip on the back. Oh, and cutouts for the sensors.
Bwaaahhh!!! That pic cracks me up! Mainly because I hadn't seen it before, and was expecting an internal job when I first started reading your post.
In other news, I am thinking we can REALLY fix our craptastic GPS reception with an external bluetooth GPS receiver..... thanks for the idea to think external alphadog00! (or has someone already done that?......)
the.dude.abides said:
Bwaaahhh!!! That pic cracks me up! Mainly because I hadn't seen it before, and was expecting an internal job when I first started reading your post.
In other news, I am thinking we can REALLY fix our craptastic GPS reception with an external bluetooth GPS receiver..... thanks for the idea to think external alphadog00! (or has someone already done that?......)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think someone tried it and it worked. I have an external receiver somewhere - had it for my Moto Q - not sure where it is though. But yes it has been done. It would be interesting to compare the difference - is it the phone and some blocked thread, or is it the GPS receiver in the phone, software, etc.?
I need to see if i can find mine.....
When Froyo actually comes out for the i9000 - officially - we might get some answers.
Related
I'm just wondering if anybody was curious enough (and maybe brave enough ) to try tearing down their new Captivate yet? I started, figured out that if you lift in the middle of the battery lock as you pull out, you can slide it a bit further than normal, exposing the remaining two of the six screws on the back of the device.
However, I was unable to separate the back from the front, and gave up because I didn't want to force it and chance breaking my phone. I think there might be another screw underneath the sticker in the battery cavity, but I'm not certain.
Ok, scratch that, there is NOT another screw underneath the sticker. I just peeled it back a little to check. Theres one small hole where it feels like there might be a screw, but its just a hole
I am tempted to press on, I'd like to get some pictures of the internal hardware so that we can figure out what this does or does not have, (FM Radio -> I'm lookin at you!)
It definitely looks to be the same basic PCB structure as the Galaxy S i9000. I just which I could get the back cover off without feeling like I'm going to break my phone.
EDIT: I made a little progress, got the back *mostly* separated from the phone. All but one latch at the top of the phone that appears to be very stubborn. I'm not sure if there's an adhesive there or just a stubborn latch, but I can't get it out.
EDIT 2: Got it!!! Its open now, will post pics of its innards soon..
looking forward to finding out if the fm-radio is possible, was mad after i found out att had disabled it, but if the chip is still there then there's hope
eating own foot.
blackhawk00001 said:
looking forward to finding out if the fm-radio is possible, was mad after i found out att had disabled it, but if the chip is still there then there's hope
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not entirely sure which chip to be looking for, but I've got a few pictures up, the quality may not be enough to work out what chips are or are not present, I'm going to work on getting ahold of a better camera, hopefully tomorrow, to get some clear pictures of the board.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=736363
Were you able to locate the internal SD card? Any signs that it may be replaceable for, say, a 32GB? Or is it soldered on?
it definitely looks to be soldered on. There is what looks to be a samsung flash chip...
So.. after some tinkering (and massaging) I got the back cover off of my Captivate and was able to snap some pics of the innards for your viewing pleasure.
It's very similar to the standard Galaxy S, but some of the chips are laid out a bit differently, also, I apologize for the substandard picture quality, the only thing I have available to take pictures is a Blackberry Storm2 with an led flash.
Update: I've taken some better pictures now, and I've got them uploaded:
Teardown Photos
Enjoy!
Update:
Step by Step Teardown
Very cool
That is cool. Wonder how long it will be until we see a complete tear down of the phone
That is (almost) as far as you can go. Theres one more PCB thats actually attached to the screen. Other than that, that main board and the sim/sd card board that sits on top of it are all thats there.
Edit: Here are some better pictures I was able to take this morning, unfortunately EVERY single picture I tried to take of the small Broadcom chip turned out like crap, or you could not see the writing on the chip. I could not read it myself, as the writing on the chip is extremely tiny, and I don't have a magnifying glass.
Teardown Photos
Any way you could do a photo-by-photo instruction for the tear-down? Maybe put some o' dem fancy photo-ma-shop arrows in there?
I suppose I could do that
I just need a few more photos of the "in between" steps to give a better idea of what needs to be disconnected and how to get the back cover off.
And then there's the whole write up thing. -- Question about that, should I do a new "tear down" thread, I'll get a bit more in depth this time as well, I'll get all the chip numbers down (I found a magnifying glass!) so we can better cross reference what hardware we have in comparison to the Galaxy S i9000.
Will probably be a day or two until I can get it up, maybe longer depending on the write up.
Yeah, I'm guessing a tear-down thread would be in order unless there's some way of changing your thread title. Appreciate it.
I spilled a bit of an "adult beverage" on my Captivate last nite. Dang cat... Nothing went wrong w/the phone... save for the power button & the volume rocker... They were a bit... sticky.
I was able to get them cleaned up a bit using a razor blade & some alcohol wipes, but I'd love to be able to fully clean everything by disassembling the phone. I removed the 4 screws in the back beneath the battery cover, but got nowhere...
Can someone confirm if the fm radio chip is there?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
t-readyroc said:
I removed the 4 screws in the back beneath the battery cover, but got nowhere...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are actually 6 screws. Two are hidden underneath the sliding latch for the battery door.
isyiwang said:
Can someone confirm if the fm radio chip is there?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats one of the purposes of tearing the phone down, I'm hoping to answer that question, or at least give enough people enough information to find out.
https://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas...me=N&application_id=200666&fcc_id='A3LSGHI897'
pretty cool u think now that we can tear it down, we can add the front camera too it?
I don't know, it would definitely take someone much more skilled than I to fit the Front camera in.
The layout on the top is a tiny bit different, and it would require some changes to that as well as making space above the screen on the opposite side for the camera.
So, definitely NOT an easy job, if it is even possible.
if you look at that video of the teardown of a galaxy S i9000, it looks like the FFC is part of the rear facing camera module
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lt9XNnjAcBc&feature=player_embedded
at 2:59 in the video the camera is taken out, and at 3:07 she turns it over and you can see the front facing camera - does your rear facing camera look different (except for the obvious, missing that small black square with the FFC)?
if it's not different, except for the missing ft camera, i suspect these are all modular components so sammy could assemble them, as needed, to a customer's specs - which means, if someone can source that correct module w/ffc, and rip the driver and software for it from the i9000, that it'd be possible
The camera is identical, minutes the front facing piece, if course. The connection to the main board is the same as well.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
if you pull it apart again, it'd be nice if you had a magnifier or a camera capable of macro shots so we can definitively identify that gps chipset
The macro on my camera is good, but not that good =)
My magnifying glass, however, shows me that the chip is a BCM4751.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
My research shows that this chip does not do anything with FM radio so that is quite disappointing. Dammit AT&T! Always got gotta crap up a great phone. So now we don't get FM radio and we don't get the FFC.
if its the same camera module minus the FFC, im sure we will find some junk galaxys on ebay for parts soon enough, sum1 will develop a new front for us hopefully, pop in the new camera, get the ROM for it to work, and hope it can work. i am by no way an engineer or anything technically, so im not saying its plausable, just saying it could work if some1 knew how to do it.
NikAmi said:
My research shows that this chip does not do anything with FM radio so that is quite disappointing. Dammit AT&T! Always got gotta crap up a great phone. So now we don't get FM radio and we don't get the FFC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This chip is the broadcom gps. He replied to the larryccf question.
So, I hope fm radio is here.
Broadcom BCM4751 is a single-chip GPS receiver used for tracking and navigation, primarily in mobile devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
iLoki said:
The macro on my camera is good, but not that good =)
My magnifying glass, however, shows me that the chip is a BCM4751.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
tks - it may be sammy did use a different gps chipset in the captivate
and btw, macro will magnify - take a high res shot, then open on your pc, depending on how hi res, i've had them open the picture in 25 X 22" or so sizes
and you can see mosquito footprints - had an Omega, a high end one that had a serial number on the backside way too small to read even with a 6X magnifier - had to have been laser etched
used a macro shot to read it - no joke
try it some time
Anyone notice that the back cover of the Nexus S has two little gold contacts and some sort of grounding/antenna plane just like the Captivate?
http://cdn.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/NEXUS-S-Hands-on-09-SlashGear-580x359.jpg
And
http://pocketnow.com/html/portal/news/0000011184/backopen.jpg
Perhaps it's only a ground plane or something, but there is a striking resemblance. We already know our Captivates have a little something special (in the back cover mechanism and inclusion of an Audience voice processing chip) that none of the other Galaxy S variants carry. Just speculation, but maybe there's a NFC radio hiding somewhere in our devices and that "ground plane" is actually the antenna. Perhaps if someone can discover what exactly the NFC antenna looks like (if it's internal, or integrated into the back cover of the Nexus S) we could make a better guess.
Unless someone else has a more reasonable explanation?
well thats an interseting theory. kind of a stretch though, any number of things it can be. i mean because the nexus has two contact points and has nfc doesnt mean that the points are related to nfc. i think that the cappy not having nfc is evidence that the backplate is not used for nfc. but we may have un used hardware, if i knew more about antennas and nfc and things i guess i could draw a better conclusion.
i can tell you that the round point on the cappy goes to ground through a plating on the back of the plastic over. i made no attempt to trace the contact that is on the board. if someone with knowledge in the area of antennas could coment that would be great but it's probably nothing.
I've noticed this too.
If you tilt the back door at the right angle to the light, you can see a vague pattern (at least on mine) which looks like an RFID antenna in the recessed square on the back. Maybe it's something? RF is not my specialty, but it looks awfully like the pic on the left http://www.new-rfid-concept.com/rfid_and_nfc.html.
Merlin_reloaded said:
I've noticed this too.
If you tilt the back door at the right angle to the light, you can see a vague pattern (at least on mine) which looks like an RFID antenna in the recessed square on the back. Maybe it's something? RF is not my specialty, but it looks awfully like the pic on the left http://www.new-rfid-concept.com/rfid_and_nfc.html.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Noticed the pattern too. S'why I'm curious what it's for.
Huh, but why would they put an rfid chip in a phone when android is supposed to start using nfc? My guess as to the contact points are wifi antenna contacts. I noticed I get amazing wifi pickup from routers far away. Much better than any other device I've used. Although, no signals loose reception quality when the back plate is off, wifi, cell, gps. Idk. Haven't tried bt though.
From a phone
boborone said:
Huh, but why would they put an rfid chip in a phone when android is supposed to start using nfc? My guess as to the contact points are wifi antenna contacts. I noticed I get amazing wifi pickup from routers far away. Much better than any other device I've used. Although, no signals loose reception quality when the back plate is off, wifi, cell, gps. Idk. Haven't tried bt though.
From a phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doubt it's an actual RFID in the back cover. It's just that little patch on the back cover looks very much looks like an antenna.
Really, I don't think it can be something. A mp3 player I owned for 4 years have something like this too. It's most likely to be something like digital ground just to keep the voltage stable...
Shammyh is correct, it is for NFC.
loebotomy said:
Shammyh is correct, it is for NFC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What are you saying? The captivate secretly has NFC? Seems a bit far fetched since found this yet. Would be cool though.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA Premium App
i know this thread is old, but i was searching for the same thing today. after i read this thread here, i found this, explaining some roms that support the chip:
"... Audience Chip support (Captivates have a special chip added that increases call quality... if it is used)." loraqu
@ http://forums.androidcentral.com/t-captivate/111137-cyanogenmod-7-vs-serendipity-vii.html
so i guess its like those weird sticker things they used to sell on tv that claimed "its like adding a 5 foot antenna to your phone!" and im assuming everyone knows by now it cant be nfc because the backplate is metal. i found it interesting, so there it is if anyones still searching.
This hardware fix was posted in the Vibrant, General forum. Can it be implemented on the Captivate?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=878970
I actually think this was done and posted in the dev section. I'm gonna check real quick and post the link, but our GPS contact is just under the battery cover, no need to disassemble the phone.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=876179
It was in the general section.
So it's a hardware and software issue.
Clearly Samsung is never going to fix this, the design is bad. This is crazy to use this type of contact on an antenna. Let alone on a removable back cover. Especially at these frequencies.
I can't believe Google let them get away with it using pretty much the same design for the Nexus S.
This will definitely be my last Samsung. Well, after I have AT&T replace it to fix the turn off problem...
haydonxda said:
So it's a hardware and software issue.
Clearly Samsung is never going to fix this, the design is bad. This is crazy to use this type of contact on an antenna. Let alone on a removable back cover. Especially at these frequencies.
I can't believe Google let them get away with it using pretty much the same design for the Nexus S.
This will definitely be my last Samsung. Well, after I have AT&T replace it to fix the turn off problem...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wrong! My phone works as it is...!!! Samsung fixed it!
I returned my phone since it was having sleep death issues. They issued me a refurbished phone of 10.07 batch since it was within warranty. I had a GPS lock within 10 seconds even on the supplied stock 2.1 JH7.
Check for later batches of phone, or keep exchanging till u get the working one. The initially released batches were flawed.
You don't need to disassemble the Captivate to do this fix, because the antenna contact (or antenna ground contact) is exposed under the battery cover. There's a thread covering this in general.
diablo009 said:
Wrong! My phone works as it is...!!! Samsung fixed it!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ugh. Whatever. This is a design defect similar to the iPhone 4's stupid antenna placement. Samsung at least had the sense not to use this lousy contact mechanism for their cell antenna. If they did they'd have sold about 10 of them before word got out that it drops calls constantly.
This type of contact for this range of RF can not work reliably - period. (I realize I may have a different sense of reliably than you. Reliable is far more than 90% of the time ...)
Hi.
Had some time to play with G-Tab and took it apart. Not a big deal, only 4 screws.
What I noticed was the empty socket on Motherboard with corresponding mounting screw holes on the chassis in between the battery and the MoBo. Several thoughts come to mind.... Is there a GPS module that can be installed internally? Or SSD?
Didn't take pictures thou... Big mistake, but I promise I'll take it apart again and post pix on the weekend. Hopefully someone will be able to recognize the connection and shed some light on what else could be installed and supported by G-Tab. If there was any way to get schematics of the tablet to make a little more understanding of hardware layout?
If anyone has any thoughts or knowledge, please chip in.
Thanks!
You may be interested in this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=842354
Zaphod-Beeblebrox said:
You may be interested in this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=842354
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot!! That well explains it! So, it's a 3G module!! Sad part is, it's Verizon..... I would rather prefer T-mo or ATT....
But, oh well.. Will try to find the 3G module to play with it!
So, I don't have to take the tablet apart again. Pictures posted in provided link well illustrate and describe the hardware.
Really appreciated!