Morning!
Has anyone yet taken a closer look at the lower plastic flap of the case? The upper one with the power key opens readily to accept the SIM Card, but there also is a gap of about the same size on the lower part of the phone, just below the beatsaudio logo. This one has no opening to pry open with the fingernail, but i could nudge and move it a little by ever so gently prying with a tiny flathead screwdriver. There also is a small hole pointing within this flap on the very bottom of the phone.
Q: What is the hole? Drainage hole in case the phone gets a soaking bath? Hardreset microswitch? Or is it maybe a releaser that unhooks the flap and allows for easy removal (similar to the holes beneath DVD-Drive trays to remove a disk if the Drive is broken)?
I am trying to figure this out as of now, but for the life of my I cannot find a slim enough needle to get into the hole. Guess I will need to grind / file something down to see if something happens when inserting it.
Has anyone investigated this yet? Anything interesting beyond or is it just a second flap with additional antennas and no access to interesting bits and pieces?
Wonder is it where the battery placed? Perhaps there are website trying to disassemble One S to see is it easy to replace the internal battery.
If you are referring to the tiny hole at the bottom of the phone, that hole is the mic. Wouldn't advice on putting anything in there
lol its the microphone. in almost all devices it is locates there
Funniest sunday topic
You made me laugh... I remember first iphone users were talking about " OMG one of two speakers under the phone doesnt work OMG OMG "...And someone told them " It is mic ! " LOL....
psych0t1c said:
Morning!
Has anyone yet taken a closer look at the lower plastic flap of the case? The upper one with the power key opens readily to accept the SIM Card, but there also is a gap of about the same size on the lower part of the phone, just below the beatsaudio logo. This one has no opening to pry open with the fingernail, but i could nudge and move it a little by ever so gently prying with a tiny flathead screwdriver. There also is a small hole pointing within this flap on the very bottom of the phone.
Q: What is the hole? Drainage hole in case the phone gets a soaking bath? Hardreset microswitch? Or is it maybe a releaser that unhooks the flap and allows for easy removal (similar to the holes beneath DVD-Drive trays to remove a disk if the Drive is broken)?
I am trying to figure this out as of now, but for the life of my I cannot find a slim enough needle to get into the hole. Guess I will need to grind / file something down to see if something happens when inserting it.
Has anyone investigated this yet? Anything interesting beyond or is it just a second flap with additional antennas and no access to interesting bits and pieces?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't yet have the HOS. But I can tell you that the little hole in the bottom of the HOS is the phone mic...
And be aware that doing what you intend to do will eventually void your warranty... but go right ahead... it's not my money if you screw things up...
I have taken apart enough devices to know what I am doing (except for the stupidity of not considering the mic hole because they have becme so invisible these days that its easy to just forget about them heh...).
I changed broken digitizers on DHD and did a complete disassembly / reassembly of a Desire Z that took an Soda bath and both devices work to this day. I am just hell of curios regarding the PCB layout of the One S, mainly for the storage question (soldered or aftermarket slotted microsd mounted under the hood)
And FYI, under the lower flap is just another boring antenna and another plastic cover, no more screws like behind the top flap. Do't have the right tools here to go any further without actually risking damage, but after easter I will have a closer look at it in the company. Unless iFixit comes out with a disassembly tutorial faster than that hehe.
Warranty? Well warranty. I've had a few devices now from HTC and none ever had to go to service. And with the knowledge of how to fix it comes the option of just paying for the OEM spare part from some retailer later on and fixing it yourself in 1 day instead of sending your phone in and waiting on it to come back for 1 week or 10 days.
But thanks for the hint, I might have actually forgotten about that.
First off this Xoom is out of warranty. All ready called motorola to try and get the part number, but they are going to replace the whole board which would cost a lot out of warranty.
Well I put my micro sim card adapter into the xoom (with out the sim card in it) and when I pulled it out, it broke off two of the pins in the sim card tray inside the xoom.
So I took the thing apart and bent the pins up and it works great, except that anytime I want to pull it back out, I have to wedge a thin piece of plastic in there to try and slip it out, and it is a pain.
So I have great soldering skills, and I'm confident I can do it my self, but I need to get the correct sim card tray.
The best one I could find is the JAE SF8 and the SF9 series:
comparison chart: I cant use hyperlinks so see attached picture "JAE"
Does any one know which one will work?
Here are some more pictures of the Xoom and the solder points and the pins I broke.
fixed
I decided to just fix this thing with spare parts.
I found an old R/C car wire with some metal on the end, I broke it off and shaped the metal to the desired size and thickness. It was already bent but I could have done that easily as well.
Then I took the xoom apart with some websites, and also a few videos on youtube that showed me how to get some of the ribbons off with out damaging them.
Then I de-soldered the case, bent it back, and soldered on my new pieces. Put everything back and it works perfectly.
Hopefully this helps someone else, or maybe you can take it in to a small electronic repair shop and they should be able to do this. My soldering skills are not that good, so they could do a MUCH better and more professional looking job.
legobrains said:
I decided to just fix this thing with spare parts.
I found an old R/C car wire with some metal on the end, I broke it off and shaped the metal to the desired size and thickness. It was already bent but I could have done that easily as well.
Then I took the xoom apart with some websites, and also a few videos on youtube that showed me how to get some of the ribbons off with out damaging them.
Then I de-soldered the case, bent it back, and soldered on my new pieces. Put everything back and it works perfectly.
Hopefully this helps someone else, or maybe you can take it in to a small electronic repair shop and they should be able to do this. My soldering skills are not that good, so they could do a MUCH better and more professional looking job.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would you be willing to help me fix mine for a fee? I also damaged my sim connector.
Hey,
just got the 16GB from tesco.
When I opened it, (factory sealed box), the case was not clipped all the way on, and the top edge was open a bit. I opened it properly, from the bottom as instructed. Sim car already in, so clipped case on.
Basically there is 1mm gap, right next to the headphone jack and microphone on top of the phone. So, I took case off and had a look. The body has a space for an extra clip next to microphone, but the back case misses this one out (presumably to make room for rubber bit on microphone). I had a look at the pink case in the box, this also misses this clip.
Do other peoples phones case sit tight and flush on the top edge? or is my phone maybe wonky!! I worried the numpty who put the tesco sim in has distorted the chasis, or I just have been unlucky.. Its pretty minor, but its dust access so would prefer a tight fit!
FYI, there stock systems are screwed for xmas. Says out of stock everywhere, including when you phone up the store. I went to a tesco Extra, it had lots and lots in stock. Same price as Tesco direct. So, if you still want one for £129, 16GB. Get to your nearest tesco extra, you may well get one if they have a phoneshop instore.
helppme said:
Hey,
just got the 16GB from tesco.
When I opened it, (factory sealed box), the case was not clipped all the way on, and the top edge was open a bit. I opened it properly, from the bottom as instructed. Sim car already in, so clipped case on.
Basically there is 1mm gap, right next to the headphone jack and microphone on top of the phone. So, I took case off and had a look. The body has a space for an extra clip next to microphone, but the back case misses this one out (presumably to make room for rubber bit on microphone). I had a look at the pink case in the box, this also misses this clip.
Do other peoples phones case sit tight and flush on the top edge? or is my phone maybe wonky!! I worried the numpty who put the tesco sim in has distorted the chasis, or I just have been unlucky.. Its pretty minor, but its dust access so would prefer a tight fit!
FYI, there stock systems are screwed for xmas. Says out of stock everywhere, including when you phone up the store. I went to a tesco Extra, it had lots and lots in stock. Same price as Tesco direct. So, if you still want one for £129, 16GB. Get to your nearest tesco extra, you may well get one if they have a phoneshop instore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The gap is there to allow leverage to get the back cover off. It's annoying that dust can get caught there but it would be a nightmare to remove it if there were no gap. I've had four now from various Tesco stores and they all have this gap, so no need to worry. Just clean out the dust now and again.
I had one which shipped with the case split open like you describe when I first opened it (also 16GB from Tesco).
That phone had a creaky back case - particularly noticeable applying slight pressure to the corner near the speaker. On looking at it I could see the clip on the front of the phone (not the back) was slightly too large, and so you wouldn't be able to fix it with a new back.
Phone went back as it also had a dead pixel in middle of the screen.
I think that the small plastic clips on the front part of the phone can be damaged by not taking the rear of the phone off carefully enough. If they are damaged your phone will always have a loose back, so best not to remove the back too often.
Yes mine is the same and annoyingly someone has used this gap to try and remove the backplate causing it to split at the microphone opening. (2nd hand phone).
So I suggest always removing the backplate from the microUSB end as these are not the sturdiest of backplates.
michael-jb said:
Yes mine is the same and annoyingly someone has used this gap to try and remove the backplate causing it to split at the microphone opening. (2nd hand phone).
So I suggest always removing the backplate from the microUSB end as these are not the sturdiest of backplates.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The phones from Tesco include a one page leaflet telling you to put your thumb on the moto logo on the rear and peel it up from the USB, definitely not from the top.
Seeing how flimsy the back is I personally crack open the bottom at the micro USB and then run my fingernail around the gap to pop the back off all the way. The hardest bit to release is the corner above the buttons, which is also where the rear of the case is weakest.
jfinnie said:
The phones from Tesco include a one page leaflet telling you to put your thumb on the moto logo on the rear and peel it up from the USB, definitely not from the top.
Seeing how flimsy the back is I personally crack open the bottom at the micro USB and then run my fingernail around the gap to pop the back off all the way. The hardest bit to release is the corner above the buttons, which is also where the rear of the case is weakest.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yea this is how I remove mine. The gap at the top is definitely not there to aid removal of the back. You start from the bottom like you say,
I actually swapped the black back for the pink one included. it fits much much tighter at the top so I think the back can be distorted on poor removal. The downside is I now have a pink phone until I get a replacement
cheers for the responses guys. Good to know its not a problem with my phone as such, just a design quirk..
just got a 16 GB XT1032 from US and i have this same kind of gap in between the body parts on the right side of the audio jack, when the display is facing ground. i freaked out when i found this out. i really expected perfect finishing from motorola.
did someone figure out why is this werid 1mm gap is there or some way to fix it?
Hi guys! I just bought my Moto G from Romania, 16 gb dual sim. Well, today I notice a tiny gap at the right side of the screen, between screen and plastic body. Did anyone else had something similar? The phone it's just great, but I'm a little worried because maybe dust can enter under the screen. I did'nt dropped or something, I just noticed today in the bright light. Thank you
There's no gap in mine. Are you guys making sure that your back cover is completely "snapped" on on all of its sides?
Sent from my XT1034 using Tapatalk
Picture to confirm problem
Hi,
I too have this problem.
Posting a picture
Hi all,
Has anyone successfully replaced the vibrator motor in their Photon Q? Mine went flaky on me for a while, now it doesn't work at all unless I shake the phone while testing it with the little "Vibrator Tester" app, so effectively it's shot. Maybe I weakened it when I did the Simcard mod because it's so close to where the Simcard chip is. I tried messing around with it yesterday with a jeweler's screwdriver, it's not shorting out, it needs a shake or a flip to get it running at all, then after stopping it won't run again on its own.
It doesn't look very easy to replace, appears to be soldered down along both sides pretty good. I figure I can't go at it with hot air or I'll destroy my Simcard mod or something else. I'd just buy another board but the Simcard mod is so darn difficult to do that I'd rather avoid redoing that!
Anyone dealt with this problem before? Thanks in advance for any tips!
Based on the lack of replies after a week it's looking like I was right about there not being a simple/known fix for the vibrator motor in the Photon Q.
I tried this process but it did nothing. I suspect the motor isn't just in need of lubrication, it's probably burnt out.
[GUIDE][TAKE APART] Fix the annoying/bad vibration
Let me ask a different question out of interest - Anyone else living with a vibrator motor that is not functioning right or at all in their Photon Q?
I haven't had a good motor in mine for years. The board I have in mine now works for about 3 times before it dies for about 10 minutes, so I get by with it. However you peaked my curiosity so I attempted to pull one off of a board I had laying around. Surprisingly it came off rather easily! There are only 2 solder points, and I really think you could just dab a little solder on the pads to raise them up and glue new vibe motor on there without needing to solder anything. I may give this a try this weekend just to see if it looks like it's replaceable. They are on eBay but I had heard you had to have a hot air solder station to do the repair. Here's a pic of the one I just removed.
Hi bmccrary,
Thanks for your reply. I was going to attempt to file the motor housing down enough to use side cutters to clip away at it to make the bottom and solder pads a little more accessible, but your picture is very encouraging, makes me think that the cutting will be unnecessary!
They have what looks to be a good fit motor and it's about 15 minutes drive away from me in Santa Clara California, but by the time I found it online it looks like they closed up shop for the US holiday weekend already, so now I have to wait 'til Tuesday.
Vibration - Micro Motor 1.5-3V
Many similar ones are available on eBay but I want it NOW! Well, Tuesday anyway.
Do you mind if I ask you a few more questions in the meantime?
- Is the motor glued down in that rectangular section or soldered?
- What did you do first, break the glue or desolder the contacts?
- Did you clip the contacts somehow before desoldering them?
- How did you break the glue without breaking the board?
All very encouraging so far... Looking forward to hearing back from you! Thanks again.
bmccrary said:
I haven't had a good motor in mine for years. The board I have in mine now works for about 3 times before it dies for about 10 minutes, so I get by with it. However you peaked my curiosity so I attempted to pull one off of a board I had laying around. Surprisingly it came off rather easily! There are only 2 solder points, and I really think you could just dab a little solder on the pads to raise them up and glue new vibe motor on there without needing to solder anything. I may give this a try this weekend just to see if it looks like it's replaceable. They are on eBay but I had heard you had to have a hot air solder station to do the repair. Here's a pic of the one I just removed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
timekiller_9 said:
Hi bmccrary,
Thanks for your reply. I was going to attempt to file the motor housing down enough to use side cutters to clip away at it to make the bottom and solder pads a little more accessible, but your picture is very encouraging, makes me think that the cutting will be unnecessary!
They have what looks to be a good fit motor and it's about 15 minutes drive away from me in Santa Clara California, but by the time I found it online it looks like they closed up shop for the US holiday weekend already, so now I have to wait 'til Tuesday.
Vibration - Micro Motor 1.5-3V
Many similar ones are available on eBay but I want it NOW! Well, Tuesday anyway.
Do you mind if I ask you a few more questions in the meantime?
- Is the motor glued down in that rectangular section or soldered?
- What did you do first, break the glue or desolder the contacts?
- Did you clip the contacts somehow before desoldering them?
- How did you break the glue without breaking the board?
All very encouraging so far... Looking forward to hearing back from you! Thanks again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey at least you have a place nearby! :good: I'm in TN with a bunch of cows haha, no motors around here. Ok, this is going to sound over simplified, but all I did was just took a small flat blade screwdriver and pried against the board and the weight attached to the motor shaft. It broke loose without too much force. The rectangular section is just adhesive, there is no solder. The solder joints held on until the motor was lifted 90 degrees off the board, then they just broke off the motor's contacts. However, the pads on the board are still very much intact and they did not lift at all from the board. There is only 2 small solder joints on the whole motor/board combo.
Granted, I'm sure you may want to take a little more care with yours. I didn't care what happened to mine so I just attacked it! However, I think just a little forceful but gentle prying is all that you will need. I hope yours turns out as easy as mine did!
Thanks again bmccrary. I don't think it sounds over simplified, you had to find out it if was glued or soldered somehow. I figured it would be soldered like the sim card chip is underneath, hence my thought that it would need to be clipped to avoid hot air.
Given that it's glued, I don't think there's going to be a better way than the way you went at it. The glue has to be broken through and that's it.
That place in Santa Clara ships, either directly from their site at the link above - $1.95 each + shipping, or you can buy from their eBay listing, lot of 2 for $7.95 shipped.
Vibration Micro Motor 1.5-3V - Lot of 2
I'm really excited by this particular motor design because the way the little legs protrude out a bit, I'm envisioning actually being able to solder this thing in without needing the solder to be completely "underneath" the motor.
Yourself or anyone else following this thread might want to hold off until next week when I can report back on whether or not it worked out. I'll take some photos as I go and, if it's successful, try to post some pics of each step.
bmccrary said:
Hey at least you have a place nearby! :good: I'm in TN with a bunch of cows haha, no motors around here. Ok, this is going to sound over simplified, but all I did was just took a small flat blade screwdriver and pried against the board and the weight attached to the motor shaft. It broke loose without too much force. The rectangular section is just adhesive, there is no solder. The solder joints held on until the motor was lifted 90 degrees off the board, then they just broke off the motor's contacts. However, the pads on the board are still very much intact and they did not lift at all from the board. There is only 2 small solder joints on the whole motor/board combo.
Granted, I'm sure you may want to take a little more care with yours. I didn't care what happened to mine so I just attacked it! However, I think just a little forceful but gentle prying is all that you will need. I hope yours turns out as easy as mine did!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Considering how cheap these handsets are now, why not just buy an entire new phone?
That way you'll have a ton of spare parts and a fresh chassis to continue using
gtmaster303,
Only one reason, but it's a big one. The Simcard mod.
Modifying that board to convert it from being locked on Sprint/CDMA to unlocked Simcard is, at least for me, a very difficult job. I got it done after about 3 trial boards and lots nerve racking fiddling. I'd sooner try to repair the vibrator motor on my existing board if it's at all reasonably possible.
gtmaster303 said:
Considering how cheap these handsets are now, why not just buy an entire new phone?
That way you'll have a ton of spare parts and a fresh chassis to continue using
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All I can say is that I'm looking for a way to replace the half dead vibrator motor on one of my two SIM modified Qs as well...
Hey kabaldan,
Come back here mid next week and I should have an update on my progress by then. I'm eager to give it a go!
The shop I've got my eye on here locally in the US would charge you a fortune to ship to Europe, but there is at least one Asian seller on eBay that's selling these same "protruding leg motors" pretty cheap w/ free shipping:
5pcs ultra-micromotor 4*5MM mini motor vibration motor rotor of motor DC 1.5- 3V
Hold off 'til next week though, I want to confirm it's a fit before anyone else takes this as a recommendation.
BTW. I'm waiting anxiously for an update from you w.r.t. Marshmallow in the "CyanogenMod 12.1 for Photon Q (Android 5.1)" thread!!
kabaldan said:
All I can say is that I'm looking for a way to replace the half dead vibrator motor on one of my two SIM modified Qs as well...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could also use Vibrating motor from old Nokia phones as replacement. Cornholio wrote about it. Somewhere in SIM card mod thread. I did this replacement 2 years ago and motor is working properly since than. I have used motor from Nokia 2610.
Thanks for the hint ---UFO---! No amount of searching I was doing was coming up with anything, but include the word Nokia in the search and the thread page comes up top in the search results!
Good News !!! SIM CARD MOD IS HERE !!! (Page 117 - discussing vibrator motor)
And he's got photos even, about half way down this page are the vibrator motor related pictures:
Photon Q Vibrator motor replacement with Nokia motor
The Nokia motor looks very close but clearly different than the Motorola Photon Q original. I have a feeling the Photon Q ones were very poor quality with a low MTBF.
I'm still going to have a look at the motor that has those protruding legs first. If it's going to be a fit, I'm going to try the prying method first. I want to avoid any further use of hot air on my Simcard modded board. Especially seeing as szegi2 says it took 400C of hot air to get it out, yikes!
More soon from me...
---UFO--- said:
You could also use Vibrating motor from old Nokia phones as replacement. Cornholio wrote about it. Somewhere in SIM card mod thread. I did this replacement 2 years ago and motor is working properly since than. I have used motor from Nokia 2610.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay folks, I replaced the vibrator motor in my Photon Q today. Not my finest hour for sure, but it's done and I think it should last me a good while anyway. I'll walk you through my experience here with some photos.
First, here's the replacement motor I bought from the links I provided in my previous posts in the thread. It's considerably longer, but there's room for it with some cutting of the inner case:
I decided based on a second look at bmccrary's photo to not go with the raw prying approach. I attempted to snip away at the rear end of the motor to gut it first. Unfortunately, instead of chopping the pins out while they were still straight and attached the the board, I bent the black plastic piece securing the pins and I broke one of the two pads. If you're going to use this approach, I now know that what you need to do is carefully chop the black plastic on the motor away from the pins without having those pins bend around very much, then you'll want to heat the pins and desolder them. Otherwise you run the risk of losing a pad like I did.
My heart sunk as I figured I'd never get the darn thing working in that condition. But I forged on anyway just incase it could possibly work somehow.
By using side cutters to snip away all the sides of the old motor, I was able to apply a soldering iron to the base of the old motor. I couldn't entirely desolder it this way, but the solder weakened as a result and the same side cutters lifted it up with very little effort after some heat was applied.
Well, I figured, in theory, I have a 50% chance of having the power pad and I'm missing the ground. So I soldered up the one pin I could, powered up the phone, and grounded the pin without a pad with a test wire. Sure enough, the motor ran when prompted to do so! And so I soldered in a ground wire to that pin on the motor. Some small mercy I lost the pad that was possible to replace without soldering a wire to the tiniest component imaginable!
The padding under the vibrator wheel needed to be chopped away a bit to allow it to spin freely. Then I used some "E6000" glue to secure the motor a bit to the circuit board along the bottom edges.
The inner case needed some trimming in order to accommodate the larger motor.
There it is in its new home.
And finally, I little video of the new vibrator motor in action:
Replacement Vibrator Motor in Motorola Photon Q
Okay, so in the end, had I not broken the one pad, the job would have been a lot quicker and enjoyable. So I have to recommend against raw prying because you're really taking your chances with that, and if you're going with the chopping technique, you must find a way to destroy the black plastic piece holding the pins without stressing the pins to the point where the pad breaks.
Maybe someone who understands electronics better than I do wouldn't mind to explain the risk I'm running bypassing the SMD component that leads to ground on that pad I lost. I'm not sure if it's a diode, resistor, or capacitor, but a continuity check did show that pad running to something of that sort.
Thanks to everyone that provided hints!
timekiller_9 said:
Okay folks, I replaced the vibrator motor in my Photon Q today. Not my finest hour for sure, but it's done and I think it should last me a good while anyway. I'll walk you through my experience here with some photos.
First, here's the replacement motor I bought from the links I provided in my previous posts in the thread. It's considerably longer, but there's room for it with some cutting of the inner case:
I decided based on a second look at bmccrary's photo to not go with the raw prying approach. I attempted to snip away at the rear end of the motor to gut it first. Unfortunately, instead of chopping the pins out while they were still straight and attached the the board, I bent the black plastic piece securing the pins and I broke one of the two pads. If you're going to use this approach, I now know that what you need to do is carefully chop the black plastic on the motor away from the pins without having those pins bend around very much, then you'll want to heat the pins and desolder them. Otherwise you run the risk of losing a pad like I did.
My heart sunk as I figured I'd never get the darn thing working in that condition. But I forged on anyway just incase it could possibly work somehow.
By using side cutters to snip away all the sides of the old motor, I was able to apply a soldering iron to the base of the old motor. I couldn't entirely desolder it this way, but the solder weakened as a result and the same side cutters lifted it up with very little effort after some heat was applied.
Well, I figured, in theory, I have a 50% chance of having the power pad and I'm missing the ground. So I soldered up the one pin I could, powered up the phone, and grounded the pin without a pad with a test wire. Sure enough, the motor ran when prompted to do so! And so I soldered in a ground wire to that pin on the motor. Some small mercy I lost the pad that was possible to replace without soldering a wire to the tiniest component imaginable!
The padding under the vibrator wheel needed to be chopped away a bit to allow it to spin freely. Then I used some "E6000" glue to secure the motor a bit to the circuit board along the bottom edges.
The inner case needed some trimming in order to accommodate the larger motor.
There it is in its new home.
And finally, I little video of the new vibrator motor in action:
Replacement Vibrator Motor in Motorola Photon Q
Okay, so in the end, had I not broken the one pad, the job would have been a lot quicker and enjoyable. So I have to recommend against raw prying because you're really taking your chances with that, and if you're going with the chopping technique, you must find a way to destroy the black plastic piece holding the pins without stressing the pins to the point where the pad breaks.
Maybe someone who understands electronics better than I do wouldn't mind to explain the risk I'm running bypassing the SMD component that leads to ground on that pad I lost. I'm not sure if it's a diode, resistor, or capacitor, but a continuity check did show that pad running to something of that sort.
Thanks to everyone that provided hints!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I feel like the Photo Q is one of the very few devices that gets hardware modded by its owners. The only other phone I know is the Xt910/912 changing from razr to razr maxx
BlueEditionE6,
It's all about the physical keyboard combined with the ability to run a very resent OS release. If one of the device manufacturers would put out a half way decent new device with a physical keyboard, you'd likely see most of us stop this insanity of hardware hacking this device.
I'm glad you got the new motor installed! I'm going to go ahead and order a couple and give it a go myself. I pried from the shaft end of the motor, and it simply bent up the contacts on the motor without pulling off the pads, but maybe I was lucky. I will have to be more careful with the board I actually use!
Thanks for all of the detailed pictures and efforts! I'm glad putting in a new motor isn't such a scary thing to do anymore! I'll let everyone know how mine turns out. I'm also making a back cover with some bondo to cover the mugen power droid 4 battery that I installed.
bmccrary,
I think you did in fact get lucky with that board. You're as likely to pull off both pads as you are to succeed a second time with only brute force prying. My advise is to file/cut a bit until you can use side cutters to cut the black plastic piece clean through without bending it. Once you've freed up the pins you can pry the rest out if you like, though I think your new motor won't sit in place quite as nice if you have an uneven surface from breaking the top layer off.
One other thing you should know that I didn't mention - if you're using the same motor that I did - those legs on the back of the motor that create the protruding pins are just soldered on to the motor. I had one fall off on me while I was trying to solder it to the board because all that's holding the leg on there is solder! Luckily I was able to get it back on, but what a PITA on top of an already difficult problem. You might be wise to glue the new motor down first and then use tweezers to make sure that leg stays on the motor as you solder it down.
Good luck with it, let us know how you make out.
Vibration motor replacement
FWIW, I replaced the dead vibration motor in my Photon Q. Could not find the exact part but used the following part from cellphonerepairshop.com:
Original Motorola Vibrator Motor Part # 59002313001 for Sprint Photon 4G MB855
This is identical to the Photon Q motor except for a slightly longer rotor, so I had to take care to mount it slightly back on the pads so that the rotor did not hit the PCB... and cut away the plastic slightly (but not as drastically as the OP did).
Carefully wrapped motherboard in tinfoil (AFTER removing SD card and SIM [I have a SIM modded Photon Q]) and used hot air to remove and replace. Worked perfectly first time, no damage or issues. If you don't have the tools to do this yourself, your local cell phone repair shop can do it in a few minutes (assuming you already disassembled the phone). I was a little worried the hot air would damage the plastic keyboard membrane, but it was fine.
Hope this helps anyone needing to replace the vibration motor in their Photon Q.