Hey all, I know this is a weird question, but I'm looking at using smartphones as sensor packages on unmanned aircraft, particularly balloons and dirigibles. The problem, as I'm sure you've guessed, is cost- ideally we'd like to use something like a G1 or that sort of thing, but we're a long ways short of the cost of a new one, and since we don't need a fully functional phone, we're trying to get ones that only partly work. I've tried calling htc america and got literally nowhere, and was told that the only way that t-mobile might be able to do anything is if we were through a non-profit, which we could do but seems somewhat less than honest to me, as this is a personal project. Anybody have experience getting broken/partially functional devices on the cheap? Any advice on other avenues?
Ebay look for phones with a bad ESN or needing repair
I wanted to break this off since the other topic was looking to be mostly about the LCD's
floatpoo said:
I wanted to see if the blank sockets on the system board were active. So I grabbed my multimeter and tested each pin to see if any delivered power. I don't know if these sockets are controlled by software, but it looks like these sockets are inactive.
(cant post link ref other thread....)
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I'm an electronics tech (avionics really) just so you know my background, and I am by no way a programmer i just hack my way throught when i need... poorly at that. I'm a long time reader but don't post much.
I havent taken mine apart yet, I bought it for the wife to use as an ereader she was using her evo before and already has bad eyesight I just dont think reading on that small screen is good for her. However we planned on returning it today because she couldn't get anything to work... But i loaded VAGAn-Tab rom on it and she likes it ALOT more now, but we still might be returning it (she thinks it to big and heavy to hold). So all I have to work with is the internal pics posted by other members and I thank you for them!
I was thinking about using a mini pci card with 3g/4g and GPS to solve my problem like this one for Sprint Customers looks very nice and they claim android support. Could someone please verify the length available for the card from the socket to the mounting holes? It should be around 50mm but i cant tell from the pic.
I cant post a link so google
franklinwireless
M600_datasheet_v1.pdf
Then after more research I figured out that think I can get the GPS to work on the board. I found that the RXM-GPS-SG-T looks to be the exact chip they are using, the pin look to match exactly VCC, GND, RX, TX, RF, VOUT. So they are using an active GPS antenna (but could be modded for passive). They use NMEA-0183 or SiRF Binary output selected by a serial command. So we need to figure out if the TX is going to U39 making U39 the interface to the unit, or directly to somewhere else (idk need to see board) I hope i can attach my pic i made or maybe an admin can post it for me.
However the PCI slot might be just as hard to use, the pin 20 that has 3.3v isnt what we want, but it could be a software control to disable/enable the card. However we still need A+ on pins 2,52 (3.3V), 6,28,48(1.5V) and maybe 24(3.3V Aux) dependeding on the card. We could be dealing with a "Non Standard" connector, they are out there but most OEM's dont bother with them. More likely to find them on a Asus product ect. It's common for the SIM card to be powered by the PCI card itself and the board looks wired that way. I have 2 Digi International Mini PCI express Wifi/Cell Development boards and thats how they both power the SIM card. Pin 16 should goto Pin 1 on the sim card, 14->2, 12->3, 10->6 but maybe 7 or 8.
Getting the Power to it could be software or hardware. Looks like around U8 on the frontside could a Vreg setup, Or it could be as simple as putting in some 0 ohm resistors around R15 and R14. We also see that U7 is unpopulated on backside. So that leave us with U7,U8, R15, and R16 which could mean they are all part of the same circuit if they laid it out with any logic. TP1,2,and 3 also make me believe this is true, however they match up to LED_WPAN#, LED, WLAN#,and LED_WWAN#. I sure wish they match the power input pins, but that means all those missing resistors could just be for unpopulated status LED's. Like I've said over and over i cant tell ya unless i can probe around the board.
As far as the memory, yes its possible, I do BGA replacement at work. What I am afraid of is that the other memory chips look to be exactly on the other side and I'd be afraid of messing them up. I'd have to look at my jig at work and see if I could set it up without any problems.
I'm no electronics expert but I dabble. I'd be interested in internal GPS and a memory boost. I'm pretty confident in my soldering skills and would try something if directed by someone smarter than me.
This is something I am very interested in. Any new info on this?
ihaveathumb said:
This is something I am very interested in. Any new info on this?
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I sadly no longer own a G tablet, wife thought it was to heavy to read books, and hated the screen. I cant argue with her on either of those points, so we returned it. However I got the ok to buy a referb on if i can find one, but when I did at my local store i showed them the paper and they told me they dont sell that stuff there and send me away. I talked to 3 different people too basically all told me to go f off. I even tried another time with the 7" they sell same results. I dont know why it gets listed on the website if they wont sell it.
Not to get sidetracked, but i even did by the proper bga fittings to solder the ram chips too lol..
So no its probably not going to go any farther from my stand point, if anyone wants my help I still read the forums everyday.
I'm just gonna wait and see what comes out in the future that XDA gets behind, because I'de never buy anything that didnt have an active community here.
IF you were looking for a reader fo rher mainly, you should've really gone with the Nook Color... eInk devices are good too IF you don't really need good PDF support and/or need it to read more complexly formatted documents, e.g. technical manual, mathematics texts, etc. i.e. eInk is best suited for ficiton and other simply formatted documents, but it VERY readable except in poorly lit conditions where you'd need external lighting of some sort.
Very true I should have bought her a nook, but now she doesnt want it because its not powerful enough for her needs imo. She also wants to login to her school (blackboard) and be able to use overdrive. Plus she likes dungeon defenders and I dont think that can handle it. We are just gonna wait it out and see what comes along, mostly cause we have our first due next month, so trying to be frugal.
mystkrh said:
Very true I should have bought her a nook, but now she doesnt want it because its not powerful enough for her needs imo. She also wants to login to her school (blackboard) and be able to use overdrive. Plus she likes dungeon defenders and I dont think that can handle it. We are just gonna wait it out and see what comes along, mostly cause we have our first due next month, so trying to be frugal.
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Yep, you'll want a full blown tablet then and I suspect that the NC would be too much of a bother to get setup for her for what she wants it for...
All the 10" tablets are fairly heavy too, so you'll probably have to stick to looking for 7/8" tablets and I suspect Tegra 2 or multi-core cortex-a9 SoCs from other mfgs... not much in the way of 7" ATM other than the elocity a7 (was c. $300 around xmas), but it's not very hacker friendly and I don't know if they ever got the USB port to run in non-host mode... probably best to not even look at it...
The g Tablet would, as many have already said, be a great tablet if it had gps mainly and increased memory. Adding pci-e would be even better. I would be extremely happy with the addition of gps. I would be very tempted to allow somebody with expertise and high level of confidence of success to experiment on my tablet.
GPS+
Just bought my Gtab yesterday. As you know the stock Roman/UI sucks big time. I installed Clockwork followed by CyanogenMod 7 and what a difference. Anyway I looked on the web for a dock and it seems there is a Chinese version of the Gtab that has higher spec's including GPS. It would seem logical to assume the U.S. motherboard has the same circuits built in. Who knows what's possible....
It's too bad that more people don't feel like tearing up their electronics to start soldering things to them.
I'll be moving to Japan because of a job (very) soon and I'm trying to get an idea of what phones I want to look for when I arrive. Usually, I'd put a good amount of time into researching devices and narrow down my choices after looking through specs and reviews, but time is kind of tight and I have a lot of other preparations to focus on.
From what I understand, au might be a better choice for pricing and service quality in the area I'll be located. Other carriers have not been ruled out, but I'm currently leaning toward au based on the recommendations from some people in my area.
Obviously I know about the common, international devices from companies like Samsung and Motorola, but I'm wondering if other brands like Sharp, Fujitsu, Panasonic, etc., are worth looking into. There are some nice looking devices that have the specs behind them, but that doesn't really help me understand build quality and generally how well the device actually functions.
If anyone with some actual experience or knowledge on the market there can help me out, that would be great. Preferably, I'd like to get a top tier device or something reasonably close. I may get there and end up picking something from the previous generation. I'm hoping for at least a 4" screen, dual core, and running gingerbread. If the specs are better than that, then that's even better!
Thanks in advance for any help!
So my phone appears to be completely beyond hope as far as I can determine. After a short it just will not power on no matter what I try. It has probably burned out a few components on the main board, but it's far beyond my capability to diagnose or repair that. I've been looking around trying to figure out how to get it fixed within a very limited budget and not having a lot of luck really. So far the cheapest I've been able to find was a main board alone on eBay for $180. The irony being that I see several for other networks that are a lot cheaper, but, not only have they managed to make it illegal to unlock phones, but as far as I can tell it really sounds like most other networks' phones won't work with Verizon anyway.
It also worries me a bit buying on eBay anyway. I'm not even touching one where they don't at least claim it has a clean ESN or post the IMEI where I can verify myself using Verizon's site and really it's surprisingly expensive even to get one with a busted screen where I could be at least relatively certain the board should be working (namely I looked for them saying stuff that at least gave me good reason to believe it was fully working other than the screen part.)
So I'm wondering if there's any sort of "official" place where you could buy just the parts? It probably would still be too much (after all, the main board contains the SoC and most of the other really important components with the screen and digitizer being the only other truly valuable components not contained on it) but I'd at least like to check it if there were somewhere to check...
EDIT: Ok, I gave up and went with eBay. I've found one that I'm really crossing my fingers over...
Hi guys, I just have a few questions about my unit. I recently bought a Note 20 ultra US version via Lazada mall from a supplier in China. They're supposedly selling brand new units and since it's categorized as a lazmall seller I took the chance. But somehow when I got the phone I'm starting to have doubts if my unit is brand new or worse a fake. I just have a few questions on how I can verify it's authenticity. Ive read that you can confirm via rtn but can't seem to find a code that works. And added reasons why I fear I got a refurbished unit is cause some animations are not so smooth. Like when I type on my keyboard there's some delay. My 3 year old s10+ does seem to have smoother animation. And when I charge, theres a running 4 red dot that appears on top of my phone while it's on locked mode. And I haven't seen it once get a 5g connection too. Hope someone can help me answer those questions.
Would connecting to Odin shed any light? If it's not a samsung phone, I wouldn't think Odin would recognize it?
Ducter said:
Would connecting to Odin shed any light? If it's not a samsung phone, I wouldn't think Odin would recognize it?
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I'm sorry, I'm not that tech savvy. I've read of Odin but not particularly familiar enough to use it and I don't wanna twiddle with something specially software that I have no idea how to use.
I'm pretty sure it's a samsung phone I just wanna find out if it's a refurbished unit. Cause it would be such a shame that I paid for a brand new phone and was given a refurbished one.
You should be able to find the androids true features via a app.
I'd suggest going on YouTube and search for some generic term like
Checking if android is fake
Or even checking wish phones
I have seen some people who check that for legitimate android versions and even true imei serial codes.
Alot of fake phones change all that info to fake it.
Things like api level
Serial number
And true resolutions
I've checked the imei and it seems legit. I'm just having trouble to see if the unit is refurbished. And seems I can only find that out through rtn. And also noticed that while charging the unit the touch sensitivity becomes kinda wonky.