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Brodit Nexus one car mount - AVOID

I normally love brodit products, having used them exclusively for the last 2 years+ (about 6 different ones for my various phones), but I won't be using this mount for 2 reasons:-
1) it's a REALLY tight fit, and I value having a scratch free phone.
2) the usb port is not lined up correctly meaning you have to try to bend either the phone or the mount to get the port in.
I've attached a picture, sorry it's bad, but you can see where the teflon (or whatever the soft covers are made of) has been taken off and put across the metal, you can see a line all up the side of the soft surface, but it doesn't show on the photo.
- Anthony

I already ordered one earlier this week. It hadnt arrived yet, but Im hoping that maybe you just had a faulty one and they generally fit better.... thanks for the warning though.

I got mine today. It hasn't scratched my phone yet, but I would agree that the connector is slightly off.

Same, no scratches, but I have to 'jiggle' slightly to get the connector to fit.

You know what, I have to take that back. I used this a few times last night and it was dropping in just fine, no need for jiggling!

any way to auto-activate the car-dock mode? maybe a DIY mod?
edit: btw: i had a bad experience with the holder for my hero. to be more exact with the tilt swivel. the screw was too short, and the adhesive was in the wrong place, so it would always unscrew itself and fall of. had to replace it with my own screw. haptics of the swivel are nothing to write home about too.

you can make it always run it when it's charging. for me charging = in car so that's ok.

[Project] [05/29/11] [99.90%] Custom dock for the G2/Desire Z that fits with Otterbox

Updates are Bolded. Scroll down to see it.
So looking around, it is obvious that there is no such thing as a dock that fits the G2/Desire Z equipped with an Otterbox. I have heard of a material called Friendly Plastic which is very malleable when prepped but when it hardens, it becomes a very strong plastic. I'm thinking of creating a custom cradle that will fit the Desire Z with the otterbox which will include a charger as well. So I'm going to be buying the material from Amazon and see if I can mold the plastic into a dock that custom fits my phone with the otterbox on.
I'll give updates as I work on this project. It might take a month or two since I am doing my Master's degree, an internship and also working on a film for school (we go into production this week [in fact equipment check out is tommorrow and we shoot thursday]). I'll try to get this thread updated as I work on it so stay tuned.
03/01/11
Ordered parts to create a custom dock. I looked around for Friendly Plastic which is extremely hard to find in California (specifically in the LA area). I found on amazon.com a similar item called Instamorph which I checked their website. It is extremely well planned and pretty much the same item but much cheaper.
http://www.instamorph.com/
Now if you delve into their site, they show you how to do it and towards the bottom of the page, there is also a "techniques" page where you can do some pretty cool stuff with the material at an advanced level:
http://www.instamorph.com/instructions/
They sell specifically via Amazon. If you spend over 25 bucks in on amazon, you might be able to get the super saver shipping, so if you plan any shopping, add this along for free shipping.
another item I bought is a Left Angle Micro USB Extender.
Now this guy is extremely rare and pretty expensive if you get it custom made.
I found a site called www.usbfirewire.com which sells various types of usb and firewire cables for an ok price. I'm saying that it is ok because it is a very unique type of cable that I am looking for therefor it seems to work best for me. This is the one I got:
http://www.usbfirewire.com/Parts/rr-mcbl-ext-xxg.html
2 things to note here: a custom made cable would cost $50, but the one I got cost me a little under 13 bucks.
Another note is that I got the 5inch length cable because I don't want to spend too much time trying to fit 3 feet of cable inside a dock of malleable plastic. I plan on utilizing as little space as humanly possible to give it the cleanest look.
Currently I have spent: $22.45 + $16.45 = $38.90
This seems like alot but it's because again, it is custom.
Once I get it, I will give more updates.
03/04/11
I just received the stuff, both of them. So I can say that they shipped really fast. I'm going to start making a test trial run of the Instamorph pellets and get used to it before I make the actual dock.
This is the Instamorph and what the pellets look like:
The 5 Inch Micro USB Extender:
2 hours later:
Lessons Learned:
1) 150 degrees Fahrenheit is a very low heat level. On my electric stove, it was around a 3 or 3.5 out of 10.
2) Do NOT, I repeat, do NOT have any of the Instamorph beads touch ANYTHING PLASTIC (this includes the otterbox, plastic cutting sheets, saran wrap, anything that you even think might be plastic). Instamorph can and will stick itself to any plastic material especially when it's closer to the 140-150 degree temperature. It is much safer when it's much much cooler. (you can find this out by touch. if it starts to resist molding, then it is probably safe to attempt an imprint, but you should test it with the smooth side of your otterbox. It will take several tries)
This is what happens when you get impatient:
3) Find a surface that is smooth (glazed surface is good).
4) Use metal equipment. Instamorph will NOT stick to metals, so using any material such as a metal spatula or a metal ruler to get hard edges. if you have a good non plastic cutting surface, you can use a knife or blade to cut it for corners and use your fingers to give it an edge.
5) find a curved edge (again non plastic) that you can mold the initial part of the plastic to get a rough shape.
6) You will constantly place the plastic back into the pot to make it soft again if you're doing alot of changes and shaping. You get on average 2 minutes of molding until it gets too hard to mess with.
1 hour later (dinner):
Ok, now that I am back from dinner:
Today I focused on creating the rough shape of the dock. I'm starting from the part that cradles the phone.
First of all, I set my stove on low. I am at 140 degrees Fahrenheit. When you boil the pellets, this is when you pull it out:
Use tongs or something to take out the mass. If you think you're a badass and want to do it with your bare hands, you are most certainly welcome to do so. Here's another look of it when it's pulled out:
I then use the backing piece as a reference. I treated this mass like play-do. I rolled it and then spread it out on the counter surface. Here I force it into a larger mass that is about 3/4 cm thick.
I waited for the mass to cool down to a semiwhite color before I take a spatula to press down on the edges to get a flat boundary. This is what it looks like when it cools down completely:
Note that you see a notch on the bottom right. This is because when you open up the silicone port for the micro USB, it is a small flap. I use this as a reference piece so that I can create a gap for the flap to slide in so it goes straight into the slot without damaging anything.
The next part is to create the side guides to help you glide the phone in when you lock it down.The first part that I worked on is the right side of the cradle which is the bottom part of the phone. Here i created a long rectangle piece. I then use the edge of my kitchen counter (which is rounded, almost circular) to create a preliminary curve. I then measured the general area of it to how high it would guide the phone.
Originally I was planning to have it go all the way up to the end of the phone but I decided it was a bad idea and cut the side down to about halfway to allow me to grab it from the top half.
Now I worked on the left side (top of the phone). Here I noticed that there is a silicone cover for the headphones, so I decided to have the guide as tall as where the silicone port is at.
Now that I have done all that, This is all extremely rough work. Once I assemble the pieces that does not have the Micro USB port, I'll be sanding them down and smoothing it out so it looks better. Here's the general look of how it will be fitted in for now.
First of all this is only the part that the back of the phone will be sliding down. I am planning to create the bottom part that will house the Micro USB cable and the back piece that will hold the backing upright as the back base.
END OF DAY 1.
I will update on a later time. I am on set from 5:30am to 5:30pm so I might have time to work on the next step, but right now I might update this thread next week depending on how much time I have. I am currently juggling an internship, class, film production, post production, and moving to a new apartment (has to be done by the end of this month) so I might not update for a while. Hopefully I can work on it soon.
Small Update: 04/05/11:
After having an extremely hard time molding the material with a spatula and the kitchen counter, I finally caved in and bought a set of clay sculpting tool. (Link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000SVRSRY ). I'm waiting for it to come in the mail.
Another update to this is that I switched my method for creating the dock. I decided to start from the bottom first. I created the base for the dock by creating the first layer, this is where the general layout of where the microUSB cable will be laying on. Then I worked on creating smaller pieces that fit around the first base that sculpts itself around the cable. I'll be posting some pictures sometime later when I have more time.
April 26 2011:
I should've updated this a long time ago, but my internship has finally come to an end so I had enough time to give an update.
First thing I did was make use of the tool set that I received via Amazon from the above mentioned link:
Now with the use of these tools, I start to put the dock in parts and layers.
The first thing I did was create parts of the first layer, combined them into one piece, then finally heat them in the water pot just long enough to get a small amount of the whole surface moldable without damaging the core structure.
From that I create the next layer which is the top layer:
note here that the top piece (with the weird looking hole in it is made to accommodate the silicone flap that covers the port that comes with the otterbox case.
the last piece hasn't been change too much because I'm still trying to decide if I should have a backing piece for the phone or have a "well" that holds the phone just from the bottom.
the layers will be secured through 4 small metal bolts (the ones that you get from Ikea furniture that feature adjustable shelves [the small metal bolt thingies that you can remove and adjust.])
Another thing to note with this is that when using the pottery tools, you can easily dip the tips in the hot water for 5-10 seconds to heat it up and allow custom targeted molding at parts you specifically want.
Here are some more pics of the parts as I molded them.
5/27/11
So for the past few days I've been tweaking with the design and finding methods to give it a more defined look. While I was at Ikea, I came across these handle pieces that were meant for a particular furniture. They had 90degree angles, metal, straight. So I bought that and use it as a partial mold when I shaped the edges. After working about 6 hours over the course of 2 days, I have come pretty close to what I want before I finish it with sanding and a way to put it together.
Here are the pics of what I have ended up with so far. I still need to sand it, and also figure out a way to combine the pieces without encasing the cable permanently.
Here are the two pieces separated:
This is the bottom piece on where the connector pointed upwards
This is the bottom with the cable in it
This is what the pieces will look when put together (assuming that I can find out a way to combine them together [non permanently])
This is the dock with my phone in it (notice the rubber bands. It's only a temporary measure to keep it together). And It's charging! that means the connection is secure!
This is the side view from the right side
This is the side view from the left side
top view of the dock
From this point, I'd like to ask your help and suggestions as to how I can put the two pieces together to so that if anything happens, I can open it up and replace the cable again. I'm also considering the opportunity if in the far future when I happen to replace my Desire Z I can always remold the piece without doing extensive damage to the cable if it happens to survive.
My next steps are as follows:
Add a piece in the back to support the weight of the phone.
Sand and prep the surface to make it smooth.
Create a method to hold the 2 pieces together
potentially spray paint it to a specific color
Any suggestions would be great since this is my first ever project that is building a custom material.
Thanks!
5/29/11 - 99.90% completed!!!!!
After spending roughly 6 hours on it, I have managed to finish the dock!!!
The first thing I did was to drill 5 holes into the dock to place the metal pin. I started by drilling with a 1/16 drill bit as a guide. and finally followed up with a 3/16 drill bit. I drilled from the bottom piece with the 2 pieces together but stopped part of the way through the top piece because it was unnecessary to drill all the way through. This is for the metal pins to place in between the pieces.
After that I worked on just the top piece and drilled just deep enough for the pin to fit in flush.
Went back to the bottom piece to cover up the holes by using the plastic pieces that got pulled up as I drill to fill in the bottom hole and using the rounded end of one of the clay sculpting tools to jam pack it back down to the bottom to ensure a strong fit.
I then combine the 2 pieces together to see the fit. I noticed that I failed to account for the notch between the pin so I went back to the hot pot and heated up the inside surface of the bottom piece and placed the metal pins in and pushed it in so the notch sinks below the surface (with the help of a hammer [and no, don't go "HULK SMASH" on it, just tap it lightly]).
From that point, I tweaked the fit with the cable inside of it and by looking through the gap, I either added or removed plastic parts so that it finally closes completely.
After that is all done, I started with a 60 grit sand paper (with a hand sanding tool) and worked on ALL the surfaces and sanded until I got 99% of the surfaces rough
I then go back and refit the metal pins to make sure that the pieces still fit and see if I need to make tweaks (which I did since at 60grit, it takes away quite abit of plastic).
I did a little more tweaking with the plastic. Adding and removing as necessary to make it fit flush.
After all that is done, I go back and worked on all the surfaces again with a 150grit sandpaper to give it a smoother finish. and finally finished it off with a 220 grit sand paper.
A good hour and a half later of hand sanding it and sore back and arms the surface is as smooth as a 220grit sand paper can offer.
The last thing I did was reheated the hot pot to around 145 degrees Fahrenheit. I took apart the dock again and this time placed it in the hotpot for around 10 seconds. Just enough for the malleable plastic to "shrink" back into the plastic and give it a smooth finish.
After it's done, I ran the pieces through cold water to set the plastic and put the whole thing together.
Below are the pics of what I have done (again, these are thumbnails. Click on it for full size):
All the pieces completely disassembled. 5 metal pins. 2 plastic parts. Left Angle micro usb extender
Metal pins inserted into the bottom piece
Dock completely assembled
My phone on it
Plugged in!!!!
Landscape mode! (and notice that it's charging! So the cables work!)
More angles
Finally, I have one thing to ask of you guys. Should I leave the dock to look as it is or should I do something about it?
I am thinking about either spray painting it or buy a "skin" (think DecalGirl skins) and cut out the pieces to fit around it.
Tell me what you guys think and what you can think of to make it better! Thanks!
oh yeah, and I finally did something about the back piece of my otterbox when it got screwed up. I did the sandpaper treatment on it and here's what it looks like now:

Sounds interesting, looking forward to seeing your progress/results.

I'm currently in the process of ordering parts. So here's a question for everyone:
Which would be the best extension port for the dock. Standard USB, Mini USB, or Micro USB.
My plan is to mold a Micro USB male head to another adapter to give it the most commonly used female port. The idea is to plug in a cable into the dock to minimize the chance of the inner cord being damaged and moved unncessarily. (think of the docks you get off ebay that just have a male port to plug in the phone and a female port out the back end so you can plug in a cable of your choice (length, brand, etc)
Here's a poll of what your preference:
http://www.polljunkie.com/bA7AA5/Poll10601.aspx

Updated: 3/4/11

Any progress/updates?
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App

Unfortunetly, not yet. I have to get through this month first. I need to have a first cut of my film out very soon, internship, finish moving to a new apartment and deal with classes. I will be promptly resuming this project when this month is over.
Sent from my Desire Z via XDA App

small Update. Check bolded txt in OP

Updated April 26. Bolded text in OP

Updated May 27. Bolded txt in OP

mputtr said:
From this point, I'd like to ask your help and suggestions as to how I can put the two pieces together to so that if anything happens, I can open it up and replace the cable again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why not try Moulding little tabs onto one side & then a hole on the other so it kinda snaps/slides together. That way you can always reopen it at a later date

KarlosTheJackal said:
Why not try Moulding little tabs onto one side & then a hole on the other so it kinda snaps/slides together. That way you can always reopen it at a later date
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so you're saying to have one of the pieces have tabs that extends to the other piece and add a hole to kind of screw it in? Sounds like a good idea as well!
I'm a little fuzzy on the visual of it, is it possible for you to provide a visual example so I might be able to replicate it? Thanks!

Updated! 99.90% done!

does anyone have suggestions or comments on how I can improve on the dock?

The finished project looks awesome man! I think, like you said, if you added some type of black texture or skin to it that it would look fantastic and even store purchased. Great craftmanship.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA Premium App

PatrickHuey said:
The finished project looks awesome man! I think, like you said, if you added some type of black texture or skin to it that it would look fantastic and even store purchased. Great craftmanship.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ah, so you think a black coloring to the dock would work? I'll test that out!
I'm also thinking of maybe taking the top piece back into work and take out more of the recess/well for the phone and maybe fashion a silicone or softer piece for the phone to rest in and might look better. (that or get a sanding head bit and sand it down till it's smooth)
Would you suggest using a skin (like a sticker type material) or just spray paint the darn thing?
as usual for those who have read any of this, I would like to get suggestions on what I can do to improve upon it.
Currently I'm also researching a method on how to activate the phone's "dock" mode. As far as my research goes, some android phones have a special magnet inside of it that reacts to polarity (one polarity for car mode and the other for home dock). I also read that potentially, HTC made a special micro usb cable that has 1 additional pit that "activates" the feature. I do not really know much of this so I'm trying to figure out how to make this happen. If someone here happens to know, and it can be something I can physically manipulate, I'll modify the dock to include the manipulation.
and again, Thanks for the praise and your suggestions!

nice work and detailed instructions are always nice. I would definitely spraypaint it black. Did you form the top and bottom parts by hand? they look a litte bumpy to me.I thought about doing this for mine and integrate it into my desk.
As for the docking mode (deskclock) i use Alarm Clock Plus. It switches into dockmode when you plug it in. I think they getting the info if its docked either from the orientation of the phone and its usb connection or the poweradapter - maybe both. Maybe its the dock im using but i did't notice some special wiring oder plug.

dieterxy said:
nice work and detailed instructions are always nice. I would definitely spraypaint it black. Did you form the top and bottom parts by hand? they look a litte bumpy to me.I thought about doing this for mine and integrate it into my desk.
As for the docking mode (deskclock) i use Alarm Clock Plus. It switches into dockmode when you plug it in. I think they getting the info if its docked either from the orientation of the phone and its usb connection or the poweradapter - maybe both. Maybe its the dock im using but i did't notice some special wiring oder plug.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
everything is formed by hand mostly. the curved parts had to be done by hand, but I did take down alot of the uneven by sanding it down for a good hour and half.
I'm currently using Alarm Clock Extreme and it does not have the dock mode, which bums me out, but I'm supplementing it with Night Clock which is a really neat app. I also paired it up with Automate It by adding a kill app on unplug action so it's sorta kinda like dock mode.
do you have any suggestions as how I can make the surfaces smoother? Is there something that I can do or get to remove the bumps more effectively?

i would use some kind of metalblocks and put the dock between them but that only works before putting it all together. Or maybe just wrap the plastic around the metalblock so that its hollow.

I probably wont be doing anything like messing with metal material since I do not have the necessary equipment nor do I have the time and money to afford that.
But I'm thinking of potentially using a skin type material and spraypaint it + my own design for it.
I had some fun with the dremel tool at my schools workshop room so I was able to get the right depth and well for the phone to slid in.
I wonder if there is anything like silicone material that can be injected on top of the material so I can make an impression (safely) and so when it sets it actually is cushioned rather than placed on the hard plastic.
I'll see if I can post more pics if I deem that the extra sanding I did made any difference.

Any updates to this?

Replacement Vibrator Motor for Photon Q?

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.

Any experience with KR-NET screen (glass, LCD, digitizer) replacement?

Hi all, I'm in the unfortunate situation that I need a new screen for my Pixel 3. Screens are hard to come by but I found KR-NET who sells screens for most phones including Pixel 3.
Any one have any experience with them? Seems like the only option for now but don't want to end up with a subpar display.

Well, I went ahead and bought it. It arrived today and my phone is fully apart. Now I can't figure out how to take the screen itself off! Teardown videos just say it's "securely adhered" (https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Google+Pixel+3+Teardown/113763) or skip over this step entirely (like in this Pixel 3 XL video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ffn4GQpgSU). Any ideas on how to get the old screen off?

Alright, well I just winged it and figured it out. Everything is working now. If anyone is interested, I can post more info. It wasn't terribly difficult but here's my lessons learned. . While I've never taken apart a phone (or anything that wasn't intended to be disassembled/is sealed shut), I'm generally comfortable with assembling electronics. It's not for the fainthearted, do this at your own risk. According to some sites, Pixel 3 has a very low repairability score because of how difficult it is.
Now that I've done it, the only reason a full disassemble is required is to route the display ribbons through the back. If you can find a way to do this, you probably only need to take off the wireless charger and loosen other things a bit.
Make sure the top speaker flex cable is through the motherboard before securing. It's easy to miss, unlike the other flex cables
Get a screen replacement kit that includes precut adhesives for battery and back cover. (Mine didn't)
Take pictures along the way to remember how things go. There are no good tutorials online with this detail
One of the front cameras has a seal that doesn't handle the process well. Mine made it but probably not as good as new
Somehow track which screws go where - beyond just pictures. I ended up with 1 extra screw and extra clip?
PATIENCE! - things break easily. Don't force parts or screws. When prying, do it gently
Be careful with the speaker mesh covers. Not sure if I did mine right but they do not come with any kit that I know of so don't break or bend them or forget to install them before you adhesive the screen on
Make sure to test that everything (phone speaker, bluetooth, bottom speaker, fingerprint, squeeze mechanism, all cameras, charging, flashlight, etc) is working before sealing it up
I managed to break my earpiece speaker somehow so now I'm on the hunt for one of those. At least speakerphone and Bluetooth work!

How's the display?
Does it seem legit, any tint etc?
Was it manufactured by lg?

No issues, can't tell any difference from original. For $80 can't complain vs $280 to get it fixed somewhere. It would be worth a few more $ to get the precut adhesive though.
It's branded as KR NET, seems they make them on their own? Not sure really. Since Google isn't making screens available yet for repairs, this seems fine. Literally would never know.

U12+ Display replacement

Hi guys
Sadly I have a cracked display...so there are no spare parts available and the shops in Germany would like to have something around 500€.
I changed in the past some Sony-Displays and thought about doing myself. I found on aliexpress some U12+Displays.
Sadly I didnt found a single "manual" or how to, to do this right - anyone can help?
Best regards

Maybe these vids from JerryRigEverything can help you out.
Good luck!
Sent from my HTC U12+ using XDA Labs

https://tinyurl.com/htcu12

Just replaced mine
majomathes said:
Hi guys
Sadly I have a cracked display...so there are no spare parts available and the shops in Germany would like to have something around 500€.
I changed in the past some Sony-Displays and thought about doing myself. I found on aliexpress some U12+Displays.
Sadly I didnt found a single "manual" or how to, to do this right - anyone can help?
Best regards
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just replaced mine yesterday and it was more difficult than any other one I've done in the past. Anyway I never found one single video on YouTube that showed the screen removal and pretty much had to play it by ear. There are a few videos that show the disassembly of the U12+ and each stops before removing the screen. My advice is to remove everything from the frame, I managed to piece together enough from the videos to know there are 15 screws to remove, one video said 14 but there's one more that's hidden until you've gotten under the motherboard holding the front facing cameras. Knowing I wanted to keep it simple I didn't remove all of the antenna wires, there's one at the bottom that's under the speaker cover that I left attached so I only disconnected it from the motherboard. Then the other I only disconnected near the vibrator, leaving it connected at the motherboard, so each piece had one wire that stayed connected. Meanwhile you'll have to undo every other plug on the device and with a little persuasion everything fell out. (Don't attempt to remove the button/pressure sensing strips along the sides!) Once you are down to the frame, and for me the ear piece speaker, I used a heat gun to soften the bond between the glass and the frame. It doesn't loosen up very easily, they are really bonded together. I got most of it and then began to chip away at the broken glass. You'll want a good heat gun for this part. I had to set mine to 300F to really get it to loosen up and then work mm by mm around the edge getting all of the glass and glue out of the track. This probably took me a half hour or more. I used E6000 glue but only because I would have had to order B7000 or any other recommended glue. E6000 is a good glue but just because many of the other videos I watched used B7000 I would have liked to use it too.
To install the new screen I used a syringe filled with my glue to follow the small glue track around the edge of the frame. Don't worry about squeeze out because this glue is very forgiving and wipes away easily with IPA Alcohol and a rag. I followed the old glue placement, adding a little extra near the bottom corners and a dab around the ear piece speaker holes. Then it's just reversing the process to assemble the electronics. Now here is another word of warning, the plugs are so small and some are not easy to align but be sure they snap into place and are flat when installed. I made the mistake of not getting the display plug flat and had to do a partial disassembly to correct the issue.
I didn't glue the back on but think I might today just to try and achieve the waterproof level the phone shipped with. You may have to glue yours but I had previously broken the back and already replaced it and the replacement came with a double sided adhesive strip that was still pretty sticky. If I remember correctly the original back was glued on and probably wouldn't have stuck if I had tried to just replace the back as I did.
One other note. After being disassembled and pulling the battery my finger print scanner didn't want to work. In fact it didn't even show up in the menu when I went looking for it but restarting the phone again caused it to show up. My advantage with the double sided adhesive was I was able to test everything and use the phone for a full day before committing to gluing the back on. Now that I know everything is working, the phone is charging and it all seems good I can glue the back on.
Best of luck