OESF Portables Forum
Model Specific Forums => Gemini PDA => Gemini PDA - Hardware => Topic started by: joe on March 06, 2018, 09:46:58 am
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Has anyone been courageous enough to do a teardown yet? I feel squeamish just taking the cover off, but I'd love to see the insides. Especially the battery and how to remove the hinge and bottom cover.
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Has anyone been courageous enough to do a teardown yet? I feel squeamish just taking the cover off, but I'd love to see the insides. Especially the battery and how to remove the hinge and bottom cover.
I have done a quick search on Google Images, but found none, I believe that such a review will anyway surface sooner or later.
Varti
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Has anyone been courageous enough to do a teardown yet? I feel squeamish just taking the cover off, but I'd love to see the insides. Especially the battery and how to remove the hinge and bottom cover.
Just use the tool used to open the side of the Gemini on the other side to see the battery. I popped it off to check out the battery its big. I wish they would have made the battery swappable because I would have ordered an extra 3 less weight then a powerpack. Also Has anyone else misplaced the opening tool I am now looking to see where it was left.
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Just use the tool used to open the side of the Gemini on the other side to see the battery. I popped it off to check out the battery its big. I wish they would have made the battery swappable because I would have ordered an extra 3 less weight then a powerpack. Also Has anyone else misplaced the opening tool I am now looking to see where it was left.
Funny you should mention a misplaced removal tool. I used a flat bladed screwdriver (the one on my Leatherman) to open the cover. Given a bit of care and gentleness it doesn't seem to have done any harm. I've not heard anything back from Planet after a request for instructions on how to remove the battery, though given they've a lto on their plate and the moment I can't see that a clumsy Welshwoman who's injured her Gemini is top of their priority list.
If I don't hear anything back by the end of today I'll be delving inside again to see if I can work out how to remove the battery. I'm guessing there's some screws hidden underneath the membrane that the key mat/caps sit on top of but I was reticent to look any further last time as it's a delicate looking thing and I'm a bit clumsy. If I do I'll post pictures in the Battery Removal thread in General Discussion.
So far as the actual workings of the insides are concerned, I took a trawl through the past updates on the Indiegogo site looking for clues on how to remove the battery. There's nothing on that but there are quite a few of the PCB on the other half of the phone, both with and without components.
Rosie
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I used a flat bladed screwdriver (the one on my Leatherman) to open the cover. Given a bit of care and gentleness it doesn't seem to have done any harm.
I found that the covers (front and back) pop off pretty easily if you slide your fingernails and pull up from the front lip of the cover, instead of the back. At least on mine it is even easier than using the tool when prying from the opposite direction.
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While this isn't a proper teardown, here are a few pictures from inside the covers and keyboard.
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Since Varti kindly increased the upload quota, these are now in the best quality I can currently create.
I reshot three of them, covering some numbers with paper, so I didn't have to edit and recompress.
Other than removing GPS data, these are straight from the camera.
I know they're a bit blurry on one side. That seems to be an issue with the camera.
Not sure why a few appears upside down. Perhaps IP.Board doesn't parse all the headers?
Feel free to use them for whatever legal pupose you can think of.
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I do have these in larger sizes, but since we "only" have 50MB for attachments, I need to be a bit conservative.
Thanks for posting them. I have now raised the uploading limit from 53MB to 512MB for all the members, you can now reupload the images at their full resolution if you wish. I believe that it is important that pics like yours are as detailed as possible to allow close inspection.
Varti
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Thank you very much, Daniel.
I too have been looking for interior pictures for a little hardware mod I have in mind, to see if it might be possible in principle.
There were a few other pictures of the final prototype pieces in PlanetCom's Indiegogo updates of August 2017.
The only one that adds something to your excellent pictures is one showing the main board.
I've tried to find a way to link to those updates in particular, but that doesn't seem possible so I'm re-posting here the picture of the board, and the video that shows the board with the front camera attached and being tested.
[img]https://c1.iggcdn.com/indiegogo-media-prod-cld/image/upload/c_limit,w_620/v1502884456/ujtdxzxhjkqosomayqr4.png\" border=\"0\" class=\"linked-image\" /]
Video: Gemini PDA booting Android (bare main board and display with front camera)) (https://vimeo.com/231200800)
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I too have been looking for interior pictures for a little hardware mod I have in mind, to see if it might be possible in principle.
What hardware mod are you planning?
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What hardware mod are you planning?
I'd love to insert a thin LED for some keyboard side-lighting if possible. Maybe string a contact to one of the 5v lines? But I'll leave that to more capable modders
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Ta for the pics! I just magaed to pour tea in mine ... grrr! seems mostly working, but keyboard partly not.. how did you get the battery out? mine won't bude
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Ta for the pics! I just magaed to pour tea in mine ... grrr! seems mostly working, but keyboard partly not.. how did you get the battery out? mine won't bude
I didn't. The picture without a battery is from inside the top cover (screen part of the Gemini) while the picture with the battery is from inside the bottom cover (keyboard part of the Gemini).
This thread: [a href=\'index.php?showtopic=34856\']www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=34856[/a] seems to suggest there no easy way to remove the battery. Due to space constraints, it's not designed to be removable, but replacable (when worn out). This seems to mean it's connected to the Gemini via a proper connector, rather than just being soldered in, but the battery itself is still (my guess) likely held in place by some adhesive.
Unless already done, I'd suggest carefully removing the key caps and keyboard mat, and try to clean things up the best you can. The keycaps are designed such that they can be removed, but they are a bit delicate. Gently prying from the rear seems least likely to cause damage. You can look at the pinned topic on keyboard mat replacement. Doing this sooner than later will likely reduce risk of liquid damage by corrosion.
Should that not work out, I guess you'll have to ask Planet Computers for help. The thread linked above mentions Planet Computers setting up a repair facility. As that post was from late March, perhaps it will soon be in operation. Best of luck.
Edit: Looking inside the battery compartment, I can see some holes through which the bottom of some of the keycaps are visible:
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(There are more to the right, which aren't visible in this closeup.)
At least for those key locations, having access both from the top (after removing keycaps) and the bottom, might somehow facilitate cleaning. Again, best of luck.
Edit #2, Sep 2 2019: To avoid bumping a basically archived thread, I'm adding a link here to a picture I came across:
[img]https://regmedia.co.uk/2017/09/10/board_l.jpg\" border=\"0\" class=\"linked-image\" /]
It comes from this https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/09/11/ge...ototype_handson (https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/09/11/gemini_psion_alike_pre_production_prototype_handson) 2017 article on the then upcoming Gemini. As it shows a [prototype] main board from a different angle than the picture below from zevv, I thought should be included here. The article itself has a few more old photos, including one of a keyboard with the (later ditched) rectangular Enter key.
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Not much of a teardown, but this is below the black plastic cover panel:
[img]https://i.imgur.com/LK1Mp4T.jpg\" border=\"0\" class=\"linked-image\" /]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/FgAbTPE.jpg\" border=\"0\" class=\"linked-image\" /]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/pP514f9.jpg\" border=\"0\" class=\"linked-image\" /]
(Edit: I realized I just posted my IMEI barcode - very smart. Image edited to white out)
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Some of photos can be found in FCC reports.
https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas/reports/View...id=2AO7Q-X600W1 (https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas/reports/ViewExhibitReport.cfm?mode=Exhibits&RequestTimeout=500&calledFromFrame=Y&application_id=0%2ByEm4w%2FEXjagKiu3Ej8vw%3D%3D&fcc_id=2AO7Q-X600W1)
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Thanks for the great pictures. What would be really cool if backlit- capable keycaps became available, and then maybe some fibre-optic light guides could be laid back to an led?