Modded The Cell

[xxkbxx]

So, my cell phone charger broke due to an unfortunate drinking accident (no need to go into details) and I had been fixing it about every week all summer - but last week it finally went ka-put. So, I ordered a new one off of eBay for about 6 bucks, then the bordom set in.

I originally wanted to just replace the housing of my phone (it was beat up a little bit and the screen protector had a scratch on it) - but come to find out, the SonyEricsson K750 is the exact same phone as the d750 and the w800.

So, I ordered a totally new housing off of cnn.com for around 35 dollars and it came in today.

Basically, my phone was in about 13 parts in a showbox, but after about an hour with my torx screwdrivers, I got it in the new case.

Originally looked like this

Now, it looks like this

To top it off - I put orange paper over the white led's that light up the keys of the phone, so the two outer rows of keys (1,4,7,* and 3,6,9,#) light up orange while the middle row is white.

Finally, I flashed the phone with the firmware for the w800i through a web service that cost me 8 euros (about 15 bucks US) Now the phone has flight mode which only uses the walkman and the camera for flying or to save battery, and also a much louder speaker!

Total cost was about 50 dollars for almost an entirely new phone (you can imagine how skidish I was to take apart my $400 cell phone (I wanted to do so anyways to clean out dust clogging up the joystick - you'd be suprised how much dust can get in your phone)!

Let me know what you think! (I'd post pics, but my phone is my camera so...!)

[xxkbxx]

I thought I'd add this image to add some gravity to the project (it's not like changing the cover and keys on an old nokia!)

Clockwise from the top left you have:

1- MS pro duo memory stick

2- Actual keys and connector to the PCB (the white thing)

3- The internal middle case part of the phone

4- Vibrator (small green and silver piece)

5- The Keys

6- Internal Antenna (the white rectangular piece)

7- Charger piece (the small black piece between the antenna and the large PCB)

8- The actual cell phone PCB

9- Play/Pause Key

10- Speaker (only partially visible in the picture)

11- Antenna Cover

12- Volume + - Button

13- Underside of the camera

14- LCD

15- Camera Button

16- Bluetooth connector

17- not pictured woops!, but it's joystick that's in the middle of the keys

18- Camera connector to switch, flash, and LED flashlight

There, that wasn't too difficult to get back together now, right?

[xxkbxx]

Got out my dad's camera for some original pics - here we go

Front of the phone:

Side of the phone:

Back of the phone:

Keys with light:

Keys in the dark: (sorry for the blur, there was like a 6 second exposure time!)

Notice I've got the middle keys in white, and the outer in orange (that's why I asked about luminous paper some time ago)

[blim]

Looking at all those dinky little parts of the phone just makes my head swim, Xx, but what a nice job (and I'm NOT showing Son this! You'd inspire him and that's dangerous! All I can say is that he has mastered Gadget Demolition so far.)

Sooo, with the luminous paper, did you use cellophane or a lighting gel or something different? Did you replace the number keythings or are they somewhat transparent so the orange shines through?

My technique with using a cellphone:

Have the kid dial the number

Hold the phone up to my ear and talk (and hopefully I'm holding the speaker to my ear and not the picture screen thingy)

Finish conversation and hand the phone back to the kid so they can hang it up.

Yup, I'm over 40!

Liz

Edited August 24, 2006 by blim

[xxkbxx]

Looking at all those dinky little parts of the phone just makes my head swim, Xx, but what a nice job (and I'm NOT showing Son this! You'd inspire him and that's dangerous! All I can say is that he has mastered Gadget Demolition so far.)

Sooo, with the luminous paper, did you use cellophane or a lighting gel or something different? Did you replace the number keythings or are they somewhat transparent so the orange shines through?

My technique with using a cellphone:

Have the kid dial the number

Hold the phone up to my ear and talk (and hopefully I'm holding the speaker to my ear and not the picture screen thingy)

Finish conversation and hand the phone back to the kid so they can hang it up.

Yup, I'm over 40!

Liz

Lol, the keys are made so that the white light shined over them, so I just cut 2 2cm strips that covered the white LED's. The LED's run where you see the orange in the keys (I didn't want to do the whole keypad, because I think the paper would interfer with the typing.

How old is your son? I got started taking things apart a whiles back (on broken things mostly) and know I'm able to fix most things. My dad had a CD changer that got screwed up and sat around for a year unused and one day I just took it apart and fixed it (there were 2 motors in it, one to spin the platter that holds 5 cd's, and one to raise and lower the cd reader so that it doesn't get stuck whent he cd's spin. The motor that controls the raising and lowering got jammed up when a CD fell off the platter, so I just had to reset it and it was all ready to go!)

[blim]

Son's 21 and has been taking things apart since he was two (which is the reason we gave up on a telephone upstairs, he kept taking apart the phone jack adaptor)

Like you, any gadget that is broken is his to tinker around with--his Girlfriend's Mom is even starting to give him things (much to my dismay as it results in my dining room table being full of parts!). He has ended up fixing a few things, but his real enjoyment is in the dismantling!

Liz

[xxkbxx]

Bumping to cover the spam

Well... anyways, I figure since I enjoy take crap apart, it makes sense to go into engineering (electrical/computer hardware) If only I could finish the college ap I started earlier this week. I kinda stalled out around the 5th or 6th page where I have to write 3 essays. Oh well, I have till October!

[Honda_Boy]

I've done a slight, well trick, I guess not a mod with my new Razr. Using 3 different programs and a link cable for a Creative Zen Nano Plus, I make my own ringtones from my library. I start with cutting out the parts with Audacity. Then I use dbPowerAmp (old version that I've had forever, new version costs money to use MP3 encoder) to reduce the bit rate and quality so it can fit and work on my phone. (64kbps, 22KHz) Finally, I use MOBILedit to transfer the tones to my phone (pictures and videos too, it does them too) via the Creative cable. My manager was jealous after I bought it from him (he's dropping his service cause he says he doesn't need it). He said he was paying so much a tone and I was smart enough to create my own.

Right now I have a picture of my gaming rig as my background .

[mikex]

xxkbxx, any spare partswhen you were finished? lol

gotta have a few....things that just weren't needed.

[xxkbxx]

xxkbxx, any spare partswhen you were finished? lol

gotta have a few....things that just weren't needed.

Actually no, probably the first thing i've ever put back together that needed all the parts. Generally there are some pointless screws or something

[robroy]

My technique with using a cellphone:

Have the kid dial the number

Hold the phone up to my ear and talk (and hopefully I'm holding the speaker to my ear and not the picture screen thingy)

Finish conversation and hand the phone back to the kid so they can hang it up.

Yup, I'm over 40!

Hehe Liz, I'm over 50 and kids seem surprised that I can and do use texting on my cell. Heck I may be a little slower than most but it isn't hard. Have to set stuff on speed dial for the wife on hers, otherwise she would be misdialing all the time