Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Upcoming content
I have a few ideas in mind for the site. The first is an ongoing weekly series of articles, one How-To and one do it yourself electronic project. Also, product reviews once or twice a month, and disassembling guides for something new once a month. In addition to all of that, I plan on maintaining a directory of links related to hacking, and electronics in general. I'm always going to be looking for ideas from my readers, so feel free to drop me a line at joshhoose@gmail.com or post comments here, I'll read them all!
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Replacing the screen on a Dell Axim x51v (How to guide)
On my first how-to guide, I'm going to go over replacing a broken touchscreen (digitizer) for a Dell Axim x51v PDA. I'm fairly sure this will apply to the x51 as well, and maybe the x50 series, but don't quote me on that. As you can see in the first image below, I broke the digitizer, but the underlying LCD works just fine. Also notice the tools you will need in the picture. The Torx #5 and a small phillips screwdriver(not pictured) are a must, but the other tools, the dental pick and the opening tools are optional. The dental pick is used to remove the rubber pads on the bottom, and the opening too is (surprise, surprise) used to open the case. If you've ever worked on any of the various iPods, you'll notice that the two cases are fairly similar in how you open them. Also, a small razor blade or X-acto hobby knife will come in handy.
The first step is to choose a good place to work. You should have a large stable surface, with some place to ground yourself, and something to lay the PDA down on, in order to not scuff it up. Have all of your tools laid out within arms reach, there's nothing more annoying than having to search for a screwdriver halfway through a project!
Once your workplace is set up, turn the PDA off, flip the hold switch to the hold position, and remove any SD/CF cards and set them aside. Then, remove the battery cover, to do this flip the cover switch located right below the battery cover to the open position, remove the cover, and remove the battery by pulling up on the small cloth pull tab. Sometimes it's a bit stuck, but you're not going to hurt it by pulling it out.
Now that you have the battery removed, set it and the cover aside, and look for the four small rubber pads on the bottom of the PDA, in each of the four corners...shouldn't be too hard to find at all. Take the top ones off first, they are the easier ones. The bottom ones need a bit more work, since they actually go down inside the PDA a bit, this is where the dental pick really comes in handy. If you don't have one, you might be able to get by with a push pin or needle, whatever is handy. Once they are off, set them aside. I like to set them inside the cover (or on top of it, if you're using the expanded battery pack) the same way they were orientated on the PDA, it makes putting everything back together so much easier.
Look at the places where the four rubber pads were, and you should find four #5 Torx screws. Remove them, and place them with the pads, next to the pad they go under, once again, makes life easier when it's time to reassemble.
Ok, now we are at the fun part. The two halves of the case come apart, the black and the chrome are two seperate pieces. The place I ordered the replacement screen from sent two green opening tools, to help crack open the case. If you don't have them, there are a few ways to take it apart. One is to use a small flathead screwdriver, but you risk damaging componets on the inside. If you're a guitar player like myself, you probably have ten thousand picks laying around. Grab a thin to medium thickness pick and use that. You'll most likely mess up the pick at the end, but hey, picks are cheap! Look at the photos below to pick the easiest place to start opening the case. I started at the bottom by the charging connector, but that probably wasn't the brightest place to start. Up near the top, by the SD/CF card slot would be a much better choice, on the side away from the headphone connector.
Once you've loosened the top shell of the PDA from the bottom, carefully set it aside. Two notes of importance here. Be VERY careful with the microphone! The cable is threaded through a couple of little plastic notches, it is a very thin and flimsy cable, and easy to break, so make sure you're paying attention to it. Also, the buttons on the top side are not held in to the top shell by anything, so make sure you don't lose any of them.
The next step is to seperate the guts from the bottom of the shell. The only note of caution here is to be careful with the hold switch, and don't break it as you seperate the two parts. Set the bottom shell aside, and flip the PDA over on it's back (with the LCD facing down)
To remove the screen, you'll have to unhook the ribbon connectors from the mainboard. The problem with this is that the frame on the back that supports the CF card gets in the way, so you'll have to remove it. I didn't take a very good picture here, but there should be four phillips screws holding it on. Take them out, remove the frame and set it aside. I found it helpful to put the phillips screws back into the holes on the frame.
Almost there! Now look at the ribbon cable connectors on the mainboard. There is two of them that are attached to the screen. One is for the digitizer (the small, four conductor one) and the other one is for the LCD(the bigger one) Both need to be removed to replace the digitizer. For the small one, look for the two white tabs on the sides of the connector. Pry those out and away from the connector with a small screwdriver or your dental pick. It shouldn't be too hard to move them at all. Once it is out, pull the small ribbon cable out of the connector, and move on to the large LCD cable. Same thing, but the tabs are brown, and it's a bit harder to remove it. To remove the LCD ribbon cable, rock it back and forth gently while pulling on it. It's a bit harder to remove than the digitizer cable, but shouldn't be too hard at all. Once both cables are removed, pull them through the holes in the mainboard and remove the LCD/Digitizer unit.
Now the really hard part. If you're replacing the whole unit, you're done. Just replace it, and follow these steps backwards. If you're only replacing the digitizer, this is by far the hardest part of the entire project. You have to seperate the digitizer from the LCD. The problem? It's glued on to the frame! Use your razor blade to carefully cut through the adhesive that holds the two together. Make sure you don't scratch or cut the LCD while doing this! It is very fragile, and if you break it, instead of paying 10-15 dollars for a digitizer, you'll be spending $50 or more for a new LCD, so be careful! Trace around the edge of the screen to remove the digitizer, it's difficult, but you should soon get the hang of it.
Once you have the two apart, there should be enough adhesive left on the LCD frame to attach the new screen. If not, I'm not sure what you could use, maybe some thick superglue CAREFULLY applied to the edges. Rubber cement may work as well, but in my experence, I didn't have to use anything at all. Line up the digitizer with the LCD, and start doing all the steps backwards to reassemble the PDA. A few notes; be careful with the microphone, hold switch, buttons on the front bezel, and finally, the battery latch open switch. That last one got me twice! If your PDA refuses to power up after you reassemble it, take the back cover off again and make sure the switch on the board is lining up with the top of the switch on the back cover!
At this point, you SHOULD have a fully functional PDA. If not, retrace your steps, and make sure all cables are tight. Once I figured out the trick with getting the latch switch to line up, mine fired right back up. Now here's where I ran into my problem. The digitizer I picked up off of Ebay was the wrong one! The x51v apparently uses a slightly different digitizer than the x51, and x50. It's the same size, but the connector is on backwards, and will not work! Look at the pictures below, and make sure if you're getting a screen for the x51v, it has the connector that is on the left in the picture below, or it won't work! It'll fit, but won't work at all. I'm still waiting on my replacement, and as soon as I get it in, I'll take a few more detailed pictures that I should have taken towards the end of this guide.
I hope you found the guide useful. If you have any questions, comments, or if I totally assed something up, drop me a line at joshhoose@gmail.com or leave a comment here.
-Josh
The first step is to choose a good place to work. You should have a large stable surface, with some place to ground yourself, and something to lay the PDA down on, in order to not scuff it up. Have all of your tools laid out within arms reach, there's nothing more annoying than having to search for a screwdriver halfway through a project!
Once your workplace is set up, turn the PDA off, flip the hold switch to the hold position, and remove any SD/CF cards and set them aside. Then, remove the battery cover, to do this flip the cover switch located right below the battery cover to the open position, remove the cover, and remove the battery by pulling up on the small cloth pull tab. Sometimes it's a bit stuck, but you're not going to hurt it by pulling it out.
Now that you have the battery removed, set it and the cover aside, and look for the four small rubber pads on the bottom of the PDA, in each of the four corners...shouldn't be too hard to find at all. Take the top ones off first, they are the easier ones. The bottom ones need a bit more work, since they actually go down inside the PDA a bit, this is where the dental pick really comes in handy. If you don't have one, you might be able to get by with a push pin or needle, whatever is handy. Once they are off, set them aside. I like to set them inside the cover (or on top of it, if you're using the expanded battery pack) the same way they were orientated on the PDA, it makes putting everything back together so much easier.
Look at the places where the four rubber pads were, and you should find four #5 Torx screws. Remove them, and place them with the pads, next to the pad they go under, once again, makes life easier when it's time to reassemble.
Ok, now we are at the fun part. The two halves of the case come apart, the black and the chrome are two seperate pieces. The place I ordered the replacement screen from sent two green opening tools, to help crack open the case. If you don't have them, there are a few ways to take it apart. One is to use a small flathead screwdriver, but you risk damaging componets on the inside. If you're a guitar player like myself, you probably have ten thousand picks laying around. Grab a thin to medium thickness pick and use that. You'll most likely mess up the pick at the end, but hey, picks are cheap! Look at the photos below to pick the easiest place to start opening the case. I started at the bottom by the charging connector, but that probably wasn't the brightest place to start. Up near the top, by the SD/CF card slot would be a much better choice, on the side away from the headphone connector.
Once you've loosened the top shell of the PDA from the bottom, carefully set it aside. Two notes of importance here. Be VERY careful with the microphone! The cable is threaded through a couple of little plastic notches, it is a very thin and flimsy cable, and easy to break, so make sure you're paying attention to it. Also, the buttons on the top side are not held in to the top shell by anything, so make sure you don't lose any of them.
The next step is to seperate the guts from the bottom of the shell. The only note of caution here is to be careful with the hold switch, and don't break it as you seperate the two parts. Set the bottom shell aside, and flip the PDA over on it's back (with the LCD facing down)
To remove the screen, you'll have to unhook the ribbon connectors from the mainboard. The problem with this is that the frame on the back that supports the CF card gets in the way, so you'll have to remove it. I didn't take a very good picture here, but there should be four phillips screws holding it on. Take them out, remove the frame and set it aside. I found it helpful to put the phillips screws back into the holes on the frame.
Almost there! Now look at the ribbon cable connectors on the mainboard. There is two of them that are attached to the screen. One is for the digitizer (the small, four conductor one) and the other one is for the LCD(the bigger one) Both need to be removed to replace the digitizer. For the small one, look for the two white tabs on the sides of the connector. Pry those out and away from the connector with a small screwdriver or your dental pick. It shouldn't be too hard to move them at all. Once it is out, pull the small ribbon cable out of the connector, and move on to the large LCD cable. Same thing, but the tabs are brown, and it's a bit harder to remove it. To remove the LCD ribbon cable, rock it back and forth gently while pulling on it. It's a bit harder to remove than the digitizer cable, but shouldn't be too hard at all. Once both cables are removed, pull them through the holes in the mainboard and remove the LCD/Digitizer unit.
Now the really hard part. If you're replacing the whole unit, you're done. Just replace it, and follow these steps backwards. If you're only replacing the digitizer, this is by far the hardest part of the entire project. You have to seperate the digitizer from the LCD. The problem? It's glued on to the frame! Use your razor blade to carefully cut through the adhesive that holds the two together. Make sure you don't scratch or cut the LCD while doing this! It is very fragile, and if you break it, instead of paying 10-15 dollars for a digitizer, you'll be spending $50 or more for a new LCD, so be careful! Trace around the edge of the screen to remove the digitizer, it's difficult, but you should soon get the hang of it.
Once you have the two apart, there should be enough adhesive left on the LCD frame to attach the new screen. If not, I'm not sure what you could use, maybe some thick superglue CAREFULLY applied to the edges. Rubber cement may work as well, but in my experence, I didn't have to use anything at all. Line up the digitizer with the LCD, and start doing all the steps backwards to reassemble the PDA. A few notes; be careful with the microphone, hold switch, buttons on the front bezel, and finally, the battery latch open switch. That last one got me twice! If your PDA refuses to power up after you reassemble it, take the back cover off again and make sure the switch on the board is lining up with the top of the switch on the back cover!
At this point, you SHOULD have a fully functional PDA. If not, retrace your steps, and make sure all cables are tight. Once I figured out the trick with getting the latch switch to line up, mine fired right back up. Now here's where I ran into my problem. The digitizer I picked up off of Ebay was the wrong one! The x51v apparently uses a slightly different digitizer than the x51, and x50. It's the same size, but the connector is on backwards, and will not work! Look at the pictures below, and make sure if you're getting a screen for the x51v, it has the connector that is on the left in the picture below, or it won't work! It'll fit, but won't work at all. I'm still waiting on my replacement, and as soon as I get it in, I'll take a few more detailed pictures that I should have taken towards the end of this guide.
I hope you found the guide useful. If you have any questions, comments, or if I totally assed something up, drop me a line at joshhoose@gmail.com or leave a comment here.
-Josh
Monday, September 22, 2008
Welcome!
Welcome to Hacks in Progress, my first blog. I intend this to be a place where myself, and other contributors can post accounts of their electronic projects, both finished, and still on the workbench. I will also be publishing reviews of whatever equipment I use, how-to guides for basic electronic and audio projects, and things I've learned as I experiment.
I should have some more content over the next few days, as I get things together and organize my thoughts and pictures into something somewhat coherent. If you have any ideas, would like to see something done here, or even become a contributer, drop me a line at joshhoose@gmail.com , or post here.
-Josh
I should have some more content over the next few days, as I get things together and organize my thoughts and pictures into something somewhat coherent. If you have any ideas, would like to see something done here, or even become a contributer, drop me a line at joshhoose@gmail.com , or post here.
-Josh
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