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The chrome paint of the SD-Card slot cover on my TC shows some small spots where the paint comes off already. It appears that those spots (on the side of the cover) result from a production fault. Does anyone know where to get this spare part (SD Card slot cover) 'cause I'm feeling a bit silly to return to the dealer just for this.
Welcome to the Club of the faulty devices.
The latch doesn't close properly on mine and I too don't want to send it back just for that. I didn't even think it'd be sold as a spare part but I'd definately buy one if so.
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.
A sad day -- My microSD won't stay in the slot. It seems to "click" in, but there isn't enough to hold it and the spring ejects it. It seems to have been getting worse over the last few weeks, but I originally thought it was a specific microSD. Now it is all.
Is there a spring or something I can try to bend that will help it retain the card?
Not sure if some cardboard would work or not. I've never taken one down far enough to see how the mechanism works for the sd card slots, so not sure what holds it in or not.
Looks like a $10-15 part if you are willing to mail-order, $30-45 here locally near San Francisco.
Apparently it is a no-solder install.
I did get some very strange looks holding my microSD in with one hand with great intensity as I was restoring a backup!
bhundven pointed me to http://www.globaldirectparts.com/Samsung-Galaxy-S-4G-SGH-T959V-Card-PCB-Board-p/smsng6103180.htm -- though it seems to be "members only"
OEM Samsung Galaxy S 4G SGH-T959V SIM Card and SD Card PCB Board - Replacement Part
I picked one off eBay for $15, claimed to be new
Good Stuff
I purchased the part through eBay seller cellfixrepairs. They shipped same day and it part was, as far as I could tell, new. It had masking film on the top and the needed adhesive on the rear. It arrived USPS within two days (shipped from Los Angeles area to San Francisco).
Total time for the repair was under an hour. A #00 Phillips screwdriver is essential, and something that you can use to pry the case away is recommended; plastic is nice. It was a little scary prying off the old board, but it did come off without bending anything else.
The ifixit teardown is very nice to have available.
jeffsf said:
A #00 Phillips screwdriver is essential, and something that you can use to pry the case away is recommended; plastic is nice. It was a little scary prying off the old board, but it did come off without bending anything else.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A guitar pick works good to pry open the case if you don't have the plastic pry tool.
I'll start with that fact that I know I did this to myself.
With that out of the way, I need some help. I'm coming from a Moto X (that I was planning on keeping as well), so I bought a nano to micro sim adapter from Amazon.
With my new N5 unboxed and ready to go, I went ahead and tried just the adapter in the micro SIM tray to make sure it fit well. Turns out it goes in, but does not come out, or at least not without the nano SIM installed.
Now I have a shiny new N5 with the SIM tray stuck in the device, but my nano SIM isn't in it. When I insert the SIM ejection tool the tray pops out about 1/8", and I can get my finger nails on it and pull, but it will not come out any further.
I've tried slipping a piece of paper in while it is partially ejected to see if I can get it past a particular stuck point, but I don't really know what part is stuck.
I really don't want to tear open my brand new phone, any other ideas?
sjroberts98 said:
I'll start with that fact that I know I did this to myself.
With that out of the way, I need some help. I'm coming from a Moto X (that I was planning on keeping as well), so I bought a nano to micro sim adapter from Amazon.
With my new N5 unboxed and ready to go, I went ahead and tried just the adapter in the micro SIM tray to make sure it fit well. Turns out it goes in, but does not come out, or at least not without the nano SIM installed.
Now I have a shiny new N5 with the SIM tray stuck in the device, but my nano SIM isn't in it. When I insert the SIM ejection tool the tray pops out about 1/8", and I can get my finger nails on it and pull, but it will not come out any further.
I've tried slipping a piece of paper in while it is partially ejected to see if I can get it past a particular stuck point, but I don't really know what part is stuck.
I really don't want to tear open my brand new phone, any other ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try this it's a video for a iphone, but it may work in your case.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCMcMkEJAIU
worst come to worst you can pop off the back... http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Nexus+5+Teardown/19016
I'm guessing the adapter just isn't sitting flush, maybe try using a business car of paper that's sturdier?
Also try jiggling it up and down light, that how i got the sim tray out of an iPhone that was also stuck because of these damn adapters.
eneka said:
worst come to worst you can pop off the back... http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Nexus+5+Teardown/19016
I'm guessing the adapter just isn't sitting flush, maybe try using a business car of paper that's sturdier?
Also try jiggling it up and down light, that how i got the sim tray out of an iPhone that was also stuck because of these damn adapters.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I'll try it with a little less force. I tried the first reply as well, with a piece of clear thin plastic, but no luck. I can get the plastic pretty far into the tray area, but can't get it to slide out at all. I guess this is one part of the phone they manufactured with really tight tolerances.
I already ordered the ifixit tool kit from Amazon..not sure if two Amazon's make a right, but it is probably the only answer.
So I was in this same position. I was going from Apple iPhone 5 to Google Nexus 5 back and forth. I didn't want to lose my nano to micro SIM adapter, so I put it in the Nexus 5's SIM tray and then into the Nexus 5. Lesson learned: Do not ever stick in an empty SIM adapter (micro-SIM for Nexus 5) into the tray. It will get stuck by the recess portion of the SIM adapter due to the spring terminals inside the phone that makes electrical contact with the metallic portions of the SIM. If you don't know what I mean, take a look at your SIM card and you'll see about three lines that travel across the metallic portions of the SIM. I did not need to open up the Nexus 5 to remove my stuck tray.
It turns out that if you still have the Nexus 5 screen protection film that comes with the new phone that you pull off of the LCD screen side, it is stiff enough to create a ramp for the metallic spring terminals to remove the stuck tray with the adapter in it. Cut across the width of the Nexus 5 screen protection film. Measure such that the width of the film to be about the width of the SIM's metallic width.
Here's a photo of what I'm talking about:
Note the Nexus 5 screen protection film, the Nexus 5 SIM tray in its normal position with the micro SIM adapter card recess portion pointing downwards, the nano SIM, and a piece of folded V shape plastic film cut out.
Pop out the SIM tray from the Nexus 5. It'll probably go out just enough that you can slip in a plastic film. What you do is you bend the cut plastic film in half to create a V shape and you jam in the bent V portion into the bottom side of the SIM tray opening if the Nexus 5 LCD screen is facing you. This is because that's where the SIM card's metallic parts face. You want to use the plastic film at the bent portion, not the two ends of the plastic film to be inserted into the SIM tray so that you can create a ramp to allow the spring terminals inside the phone to slide up and out of the recess of the micro SIM adapter (empty portion of where the SIM would normally go). You are trying to insert the plastic film where the SIM card normally goes into the recess portion of the micro SIM adapter. Make sure that the plastic film goes about more than the length of the SIM card or about the length of tray going into the phone. At that point, while pushing the plastic film into the tray, you will need to wiggle and pull the SIM tray out. I hope you have some finger nails, as that would help.
Watch this YouTube and it's basically what you're suppose to be doing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCMcMkEJAIU
Good luck. I know I wasted a lot of time removing mine and finally got mine out. Hope this helps someone else out.
hoang51 said:
Pop out the SIM tray from the Nexus 5. It'll probably go out just enough that you can slip in a plastic film. What you do is you bend the cut plastic film in half to create a V shape and you jam in the bent V portion into the bottom side of the SIM tray opening if the Nexus 5 LCD screen is facing you. This is because that's where the SIM card's metallic parts face. You want to use the plastic film at the bent portion, not the two ends of the plastic film to be inserted into the SIM tray so that you can create a ramp to allow the spring terminals inside the phone to slide up and out of the recess of the micro SIM adapter (empty portion of where the SIM would normally go). You are trying to insert the plastic film where the SIM card normally goes into the recess portion of the micro SIM adapter. Make sure that the plastic film goes about more than the length of the SIM card or about the length of tray going into the phone. At that point, while pushing the plastic film into the tray, you will need to wiggle and pull the SIM tray out. I hope you have some finger nails, as that would help.
Watch this YouTube and it's basically what you're suppose to be doing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCMcMkEJAIU
Good luck. I know I wasted a lot of time removing mine and finally got mine out. Hope this helps someone else out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was in the EXACT same scenario tonight and just wanted to say thanks. It took about 10 minutes, but I got the tray and the adapter out without breaking anything. Thanks again!
Thank you hoang51 :good::good::good:
It worked and helped me get my nexus 5 tray out.
Remember guys, if you have your tray stuck, try this method (mentioned by hoang51) and be patient. It works!
You saved My N5 too, worked like a sharm
aaronkalb said:
I was in the EXACT same scenario tonight and just wanted to say thanks. It took about 10 minutes, but I got the tray and the adapter out without breaking anything. Thanks again!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm curious if the pins come up from the bottom of the phone or down from the top. To put it another way, do I slot in the plastic on the top of the sim card tray or the bottom? I assume the bottom but I'm having a bit of trouble getting this to work.
On the positive side, I had some difficulty finding plastic that would fit in there. Paper was, of course, too flimsy. It appears that cutting a rectangle out of an aluminum soda can seems to fit quite well and retain its shape as I fumble around with this.
Thanks for the ideas!
Thank you for the idea, it worked for me too.
One piece of advice for those who are struggling > try to use the piece of plastic unfolded. I found the V shaped folded plastic too thick to properly go inside, as soon as I unfolded it it worked like a charm.
matt68000 said:
I'm curious if the pins come up from the bottom of the phone or down from the top. To put it another way, do I slot in the plastic on the top of the sim card tray or the bottom? I assume the bottom but I'm having a bit of trouble getting this to work.
On the positive side, I had some difficulty finding plastic that would fit in there. Paper was, of course, too flimsy. It appears that cutting a rectangle out of an aluminum soda can seems to fit quite well and retain its shape as I fumble around with this.
Thanks for the ideas!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For the record, You need to slide the shim between the bottom of the tray and the phone. Like where the Pins would contact the sim card.
Wasted about 90 min sliding the shim in the topside.
When it's fixed put some duct tape on the underside of the converter. Trim to size. It stopped my pins. You can put a blank cut piece of plastic in the cutout, the duct tape holding it. Just swap the blank for the sim.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Many many thanks to everyone who posted help and advice in this thread especially http://forum.xda-developers.com/member.php?u=3827427
Got my sim tray out after about 20 mins of wiggling. Thought i was doing it wrong but got there in the end. Phew! Was very worried id broken a £350 phone!
Just for the record..... DO NOT PUT EMPTY SIM ADAPTORS IN THE NEXUS 5! :good:
After about an hour of jiggling and wiggling, i finally got it out using my galaxy note 3's screen film. Many thanks i thought my N5 is over.
Hurra!!
Love it when a story has a happy ending. Great example of a helping hand saving many in trouble.
What a freaking nightmare. Tore the whole phone apart and couldn't figure how to get the tray out until I came across this thread. Thanks @hoang51, you saved my arse.
I joined this forum just so I could say thank you for this. I thought I was well and truly humped until I read the trick about folding the plastic film and inserting it into the bottom side of the tray. Popped out after about a minute of fiddling. Big ups sir!
Thank you. This worked for me too.
Corbu said:
Thank you for the idea, it worked for me too.
One piece of advice for those who are struggling > try to use the piece of plastic unfolded. I found the V shaped folded plastic too thick to properly go inside, as soon as I unfolded it it worked like a charm.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a bunch saved my Red Nexus 5
A 0.15 mm feeler gauge, such as this one from AutoZone or Pep Boys is PERFECT for this task. I slid it in on the non-screen-side of the sim tray, pulled on the tray and out it came, instantly, first attempt, no wiggling or playing with it required. The feeler gauges I have are exactly the same width as a mini SIM.
Sadly, I didn't think of this trick a few years ago when I did the same stupid thing with my CR-48 Chromebook's SIM and destroyed the pins forcing the sim adapter out.
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.