We're planning to add glass-only cracked screen repair capability to our shop. We've got ~$20k to invest in this project, and we'd like to do it properly. What are some good resources to get started? How did you learn to do it? Most importantly, how long did it take to learn?
There're many youtube videos on the topic, but people's methods are inconsistent. Some repair screens in-frame, some take the whole phone apart. Some use freezers for curved screens, some swear by heat + wire.
At the moment, I'm trying to put together a list of machines/gear to get started
Welcome to XDA
I hope you appreciate the difference between science and art.
Example; while modern medicine is based on science, effectively practicing medicine is an art.
You use what works best for each particular case based on your acquired wisdom learned while practicing medicine.
Knowledge plus practice equals wisdom (hopefully).
Hands on is the only way to learn a trade and it's tricks. Learn the assembly technologies and techniques. Use cheap or trash phone to practice on. As you progress if you're persistent eventually you will go from novice to skilled to expert. A novice or skilled practitioner can't do what someone at the expert level can. It takes experience to learn the material properties, signs, variables, techniques and to develop skillset to effectively execute the proper actions.
You have to learn which tools, then brand of tools fit each operation best for yourself. In time you will become quit particular about this if you make to the top. I go for tools with the best ergonomics and usability. The right tools become an extension of yourself, but first you need to have the depth of understanding and skillset to choose and use the tools effectively.
An expert has a whole bag of tricks that they have learned over the years, decades to use for the situations they encounter.
There may be more money in fulfillment work or contact assembly. You're own business is as good as it gets but it's hard at first.
Thanks, for the warm welcome, and for the insightful reply.
Of course it's only possible to learn these things by doing, but, from my experience, you can accelerate the process by having good guidance and quality learning materials. That's what I'm looking for myself and for my technicians.
Do you know of any good courses/classes that one could take to learn about display refurbishment?
rebeltechlabs said:
Thanks, for the warm welcome, and for the insightful reply.
Of course it's only possible to learn these things by doing, but, from my experience, you can accelerate the process by having good guidance and quality learning materials. That's what I'm looking for myself and for my technicians.
Do you know of any good courses/classes that one could take to learn about display refurbishment?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're welcome.
Nothing takes the place of experience for doing precision assembly. Looking at Grey's Anatomy isn't the same as doing surgery, it's a beginning.
Some techniques work better than others depending on the situation. You need experience to decide which is best. You learn the feel for it only by doing.
I saw guides and vids of the Note 10+ battery replacement. They intimidated me. Then I watched someone actually do it and quickly realized I could do it better myself
Of course that's not the end to my battery replacement learning curve, but it's a good start.
The biggest concern is breakage and then cosmetics. Doing it professionally means doing it right each time or at least most of the time.
Failures cost you more time and money. As for employees they will be one of or you're biggest headaches. Getting someone to do what you want, even the simplest of tasks can be challenging to say the leas
To access most displays requires a partial/full teardown. This is challenging to do on many phones. You need adapt ESD protocols and get ESD mats, wristbands, hydrometer* and such to avoid damage to the displays and especially the mobos. Out of circuit they become much more susceptible to ESD damage. Many don't do this; not doing so is unprofessional and can get very expensive.
If you find white papers and good documentation on this please share it if you can. This fascinates me.
*Humidity control is essential in dissipating static electricity ie a minimum of 40-60%. I like to see about 47-53% A temp controlled heat pot/fan works well to raise it.
rebeltechlabs said:
We're planning to add glass-only cracked screen repair capability to our shop. We've got ~$20k to invest in this project, and we'd like to do it properly. What are some good resources to get started? How did you learn to do it? Most importantly, how long did it take to learn?
There're many youtube videos on the topic, but people's methods are inconsistent. Some repair screens in-frame, some take the whole phone apart. Some use freezers for curved screens, some swear by heat + wire.
At the moment, I'm trying to put together a list of machines/gear to get started
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess you live in America, it's very important for any new shop to understand what is the chance to survive in the first 1-2 year of operations so be ready to invest money even if you don't see that money coming back.
Dealing with mobile phones it's somewhat like dealing with computers, a customer's phone has a broken screen but the phone also doesn't start up so you need to know a bit more than just replacing screens.
Dealing with Apple phones will be more complicated due to the distributor's (in fact Apple don't make phones) tricks like the latest one secret codes stored in the CPU that must match with the replaced part's embed code.
You might want to make a partnership with a specific brand so that you can get better support and deals and even workshop manuals but there are always pro and con because they will want to be the only brand in your shop.
Regarding courses, it depends on where you're (on site courses) and there are online courses like those from Udemy which is a popular site: How to repair mobile cell phones
Related
Recently a long overdue debate has started to arise, on how we humans engage with information and communication technologies on a daily basis and how we need to strengthen our basic understanding of how those complex electronic infrastructures around us do actually work.
This is much more urgent after we've seen the incredible expansion of the mobile side of computing, which will bring us quite soon to the astonishing fact that there will be more working telephone lines than people living in the Earth. Moreover, an unstoppably growing portion of those phones are "smartphones" which are computers with more and more functions every year, with the same or more capabilities as the traditional desktop or laptop computer
Every single one of those computers, just like every computer, runs through a certain software. Operative system, applications, low-level programs... And since software is so present in our lives, it's fair to ask who designed it and who it was designed for.
Whatever criteria we use to answer the first question, the answer almost always has a common point: it was made mostly by men, and mostly with men in mind. Whether it's a big software project inside a corporation or a modest project like an Android ROM, it's men who are in charge and who are the target towards which the software is directed.
Is this suboptimal? It certainly is. Developing software has a creative component, not unlike literature and other arts. Until very recent times, women were deemed unsuited to read and write, and only recently (in historical terms) have we seen women count in the literary field. Developing software may very well be the new skill which, like literature in the past, shapes our world. Isn't it high time to engage women so that this new world-shaping takes them into account too, unlike the former ones? And how should we do it?
Swypesation
There are actually a large number of female developers/programmers and it's increasing all the time. I don't think there needs to be a ton of active recruiting.
Logseman said:
How do we engage women in mobile computing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wrap things up in pink ribbons, call it Unicorn instead of Android.
i think woman wil and need to grow with and in to it.
Like my own wife she's a user not a developer.
In our world it is not what a device can do, What can it do more , where is not designed for.
think it will take a lot of years until programming en coding is natural to women.
When they realize what they are missing they will come around.
And then where screwed...........
threads like this should do it.
MissionImprobable said:
There are actually a large number of female developers/programmers and it's increasing all the time. I don't think there needs to be a ton of active recruiting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Research shows that only a minority, as in 10% or less of the whole collective, work directly in programming (management and other matters that are related in different degrees with programming are different things). And open source projects have an even lower proportion of women, like less than 2%. Since open source is the most desirable direction in which we want software to get going, it is of the utmost importance that women take their place there, otherwise we'll be replicating the mistakes of the past.
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/pr...der-gap-where-are-the-female-programmers/2386
Curiously enough, in places where computing took off much later, e.g. developing countries like India, the proportion of women in the field is much higher than in the US and Europe.
idk, Most of the programmers and IT professionals I know are women. Maybe it's cause I work in Health care, not sure.
i am 32 and grew up with computers or the things we called it then.
(commodore 64, Atari 1040, Amiga's) i loved it playing with these machines.
My sister didn't even look at it, she like to play a game once in a year thats it.
My two daugthers of nine have way more interest in computers then women my age have.
use of computers/interactive screens by them is natural, give them a device, in five minutes they know what it can do how it works.
there will be more women in the IT-Sector. we just have to wait.
Although the subject is rather troll like I hope I can do it in a non troll way.
There's a number of things that are really hacking me off about phones these days. I thought I'd have a major slam out to let off steam with the off-chance that someone might say "Ah but if you try X you can avoid that".
...some of the challenges in the mobile phone area these days...
1) Battery capacities aren't good enough as we all know. Getting through a single day is really the basics for me. Why not have hot swappable batteries? For me I expect to be able to go for 3-4 days. I don't know why... I just kind of expect that kind of efficiency.
2) Samsung Galaxy series... seems amazing but the batteries overheat, no?
3) So many people are ignorant of security to the point that most people are walking around with devices and apps that can just completely own you. Yeah there's sandboxing but it doesn't really work, it's been sidestepped. The iPhone just hides what's going on, rarely fixing the issues.
4) Licensing, all that stuff. Companies reinventing the wheel, fighting, all the rest. You can't buy a phone that does X and Y because company X won't license tech X to company Y
5) Trying to get everything perfect in one device... it's a bit of an ask but needed for portability. If things were separate we could have the better of most worlds, but that doesn't seem possible
6) Closed source. Just a bit irritating to see the inefficiency of it all in general. Bit of a hash moan but for those who can imagine better it seems like the dark ages in some areas still.
7) Closed source binary blobs. See Replicant on Samsung phones as the best we can do... the modem is arranged such messily and it's just not true a solution because of that. Kind of irritates me that there is no phone that can really guarantee it's not recording my phone numbers, conversations and credit cards because it's fully open source. Certainly an issue for companies. Companies in general are happy to rely on the word of Blackberry for thier integrity but for those of us who can imagine a solution that is secure by design it's not the best.
8) App whitelisting. Similar to the reactive rather than proactive security we tend to see as the trend in general. Manually checking all apps in the app store, trying to block and check them all.... doesn't seem the best. We've also had censorship. There are alternative stores, that's good.
9) Wakelocks. The Dalvik VM not managing or helping us track them down. Further, it's hard to tell if the app that you want to use is going to shaft your battery... once installed it's hard to tell if the app is ruining your battery too. It's messy.
10) IMEI security is a pain in the butt. It slows down the criminals but it also slows down everyone more so. In the case of Turkey it's another way to screw people with tax. Again, imperfect design.
11) As a man, if you have a phone at waist level that reduces your sperm count. Almost nobody notices or cares.
12) Just the usual society things... people looking at phones rather than each other. Can't really complain about that... the interface of looking at a screen is a bit basic. I've had speech recognition available to me... but I don't use it because there's always people around me and I'd rather be quiet... just one of those funny inventions
13) Screen don't work in bright sunlight still. We've got Motheye coming though which is great but we've had eink for ages and still no eink phone. Further, it can't be hacked onto an existing phone. Some of us aren't interested in games and movies and are focussed on getting stuff done. I feel Mirasol & PixelQi are being blocked or delayed as they try to slow things down until the point we've run out of ideas to make things better so only then does that tech get deployed.
14) Networks interfering with phones. I always go prepay because it's cheaper if you do the maths in many countries and also it allows for freer trade. Networks are always trying to get thier fingers into the mobile phone pies. Thank you Samsung for helping get against that, and also custom ROMs.
15) Apple are great but it's not clear what's going on behind the scenes.
16) eink displays would help battery life. A NookTouch can last for a month. How much would that help a phone on standby? Yet no eink display or anything like that.
17) Great to see the back of proprietary connectors but they still come back sometimes.
18) I hate the way things are made to break. Watch out for this. There's usually one thing on a phone that is designed to break. Sometimes it's a moveable part, like a ribbon cable in a slide phone. Sometimes its the USB connector. You can't buy port savers. When they fail you're screwed. Mitigate against this if you can. Try to figure out what the weak spot on your phone is.
19) Lock in software. I have an old backup phone... but I still have to keep the sync software... bit annoying. One day it probably won't work on Windows9 or whatever. People say throw it away but that's just it, throw away society. No, fix it, get it to work and be in control.
All of these things can be mitigated against. But you have to think about these things when you select your new phone.
If the commercialisation of the industry, cut throat tactics and so on aren't good enough as they are for me one thing you can do is buy a slightly older, but popular phone. In my case I never buy a new phone and instead go for something that I already know is popular with the hacking community. I know you guys can give me an insight into what I'm really looking for in life. As an example my last phone was a Galaxy S i9000. Way out of date in a sense. That's the way I find the best way to go. Go with something popular. That way you have some real support like a real man able to handle things yourself, not AppleCare and a 1 year limit. A philosophy for life. You can't have it all but with a bit of thought you can do a lot to get a bit closer to it all.
im currently pursuing an associates degree in information technology. i have an upcoming class called intro to software development. im on a budget and would like to spend no more than 300 dollars plus tax on an android tablet. is the nvidia shield a good device for a software development class, i may also consider the nexus 9 too, would that work too ?
Get the shield tablet. It's easy to use. The screen aspect ratio is better, and in class you will enjoy using the stylus for note taking and screen shots for questions or tutorials.
Sent from my SHIELD Tablet
Are you wanting to use it for software development? Or are you wanting to have it for a notebook for college? These are entirely different use cases and I don't feel the last responder answered you completely.
If you are looking for a note taking device for college, get a pad of paper and some gel pens. You are going to waste a lot of money attending college with a tablet in class as you are more than likely to put Facebook or other messaging services on the device that will just distract you and impact your ability to learn. It takes more tenacity than most people actually have to not be distracted by the technology toys. Be honest with yourself here... Even in the professional world its hard to find people not constantly fiddling with their phones and tablets during meetings. Think about why you are in school, how much money its costing, and what you want to get out of it in the end.
If you are looking for a piece of technology for which you can DO your software development on for college, I'd still say you will be at a disadvantage if you are trying to use a tablet. Tablets come with software keyboards that do a good job of trying to figure out what you want to say in the English language. However, for programming and mathematical input you will be at a disadvantage unless you get a Bluetooth keyboard. You also typically need to be able to run the software that your course requires you to run, and many instructors don't allow for you to use your own tools as they do not want to take time to help you troubleshoot your solution.
I'd recommend that you rather go and talk to the head of your Engineering / Computer Science department to find out what they recommend. They are likely to know what you will need in advance, are used to students with limited budgets, and may even have access to academic discounts to help you get a device that will provide you with the tools you need for success.
Hello,
I might have the possibility to start working in a smartphones repair shop.
I expect to fix a lot (mostly) broken screens and digitizers. Also water damage and charging ports for sure.
I'm writing this thread so perhaps people who already have experience with hardware can provides extra tips, so I could be more ready. I'm quite skilled with software repair, while I'm not a developper, I've unbricked, rooted, flashed a lot of phones. Software is generally easy and I'm not worried.
But since I expect mostly to do hardware repairs, mostly screens/digitizers, my concern is that I've never actually opened up a phone to try. All my phones are working, no experience with hardware repair, and thus not much budget to buy a new phone. I own a Galaxy S4 and LG P500. Considered opening up my LG P500 to give it a try (Device fully working).
I did watched a bunch of YouTube videos already, with several devices, mostly flagship phones, from different manufacturers. I also took quick notes on the dissasembly process, which could maybe help me remember the process faster.
Obviously every phone is a bit different, so the process has to be figured out on my own. Some tasks are also obviously harder than others. Was it the iPhone 6 (For instance) that has the glass glued really tight, and is really difficult to change just the glass?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9d...O-bGY_1dM&annotation_id=annotation_2906560193
Once again, not sure, maybe people usually don't bother with the glass replacement for this one, maybe some would change the screen and digitizer at the same time? Not sure.
If you have any tips to share, please let me know. I keep reading to use a lot of patience opening the device with a guitar pick/playing card, and don't apply excessive force, keep using a heat gun if needed - don't apply too much heat and stuff.
Obviously, training is offered, but I still don't know what kind of training it will be. Might know really soon.
Thanks for the advices, working with hardware. Trying to learn more and more at the moment.
Howdy. Long time lurker but certainly a relative lay man. I have done some cursory research on my own and have a general idea of how the chips are falling but I figured I'd be remiss if I didn't use this great tool at all of our disposals. I have queried various other communities to no avail so here goes nothing:
Regarding screen size: tired of not being able to effectively utilize all the screen real estate. I find it cumbersome and challenging to accurately hit my intentions on the distant areas of the screen. Also, battery life, tired of it dominating my pocket capacity.
Regarding root: I am not necessarily looking for something with a bunch of mod support - just looking for a phone that is at least currently rootable by someone who is only ok reading about it for an hour or so every couple years when he gets a new phone. I suppose a phone from a manufacturer without a track record of making things more and more difficult for the rooting community would be a plus.
Lastly, for me, it's just a phone to me. That is to say, it is an appreciated substitute for a desktop environment for me but falls short. Thus - I only do "advanced" tasks on the mobile platform when required and certainly am not looking to further my time spent doing upper level tasks. Given the inevitability of me losing it, breaking it or being forced by culture to at least pretend to keep up with the joneses - I don't think it apt to go top (or even near the top) of the line. Different strokes for different folks.
Anyways, any advice, insight, recommendations etc are certainly appreciated. Look forward to it. Thanks.