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Gemini PDA - Hardware / Screen Hinge Tightness RESOLVED

« on: July 10, 2018, 05:42:18 pm »

It works!  \o/

When pressing on my screen, there's still about a millimetre of play before the keyboard half starts to tip too, but it's a lot firmer than it was.  (And I'm scared to bend it any further.)

I'd suggest being a bit careful how you bend the metal; its corner will be a natural weakness (due to the row of holes for attaching the rubber), and you don't want it to overshoot, soften, or even break.  For the same reason, I'd be wary of doing this more than once or twice in future.

Perhaps this indicates an area whether manufacturing processes and/or QA could be tightened up?  (Like the keyboard mat; I suspect there's still room for improvement there.)

Glad it helped you! i was sooo excited once i figured it out, the thing feels like a tank now.

I think this is something they can tighten up in QC while manufacturing. does anyone know how to get a hold of PC? id gladly assist them if i could. my background is manufacturing and engineering, it would be awesome to help this project in any way.

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Gemini PDA - Hardware / Screen Hinge Tightness RESOLVED

« on: July 10, 2018, 10:36:59 am »

EDIT: Added pics

So the power went out at my house yesterday. Bored, i started messing with my Gemini. In doing so the screen cover just freaking fell off!

I noticed with no hinge cover (the grey metal part that has the planet logo and the words Planet by Gemini) the
 screen was just flopping around. The physical hinge itself just controls the amount that the screen opens and DOES NOT control the amount of force required to open the display or how much force is needed to close the display.

My gemini suffered screen bounce when i would set it down on a table and touch type. and if i held it and thumb typed the screen would flop around. it really makes the device feel cheap in the hands and was probably my biggest let down.

On to the fix:

the general idea behind the fix is understanding how the hinge cover is used to apply force. it hooks on to both the display and the keyboard parts and essentially acts like a spring. it just wants to pull them together (therefore locking them in to place)

On my gemini, with the display all the way open i could put my fingers in the gap where the ribbon cable goes and unhook the hinge cover from the keyboard side. i knew this was not good and was the reason the screen wobbled. So i took the bottom cover and sim cover off the gemini first, then opened the screen and popped off the keyboard side of the hinge cover and gently removed the cover from the screen side as well.

with the cover off i could see that the angle where the rubber strip is was just a tick over 90 degrees. the cover should make an L shape where the long part of the L is where the planet logo is, the corner of the L is where the rubber strip is.

So instead of looking like this L it looked more like this \_ (obviously not that exaggerated) so i bent it to a little tighter than 90 degrees and reassembled the unit. to put the hinge cover back on, attach it to the display, open the display all the way and the bottom part should take just a bit of force to get over the lip on the keyboard part. reattach the other covers and congratulations. You now have a sturdy as frig pocket computer you always knew the gemini could be.

ill get some pictures and better instructions one i get home (i stayed in a hotel last night due to the power being out at my house)

ALSO, in one pic, you can see where the rubber is attached to the cover. if you put some superglue on each black nub that sticks through the metal, i bet this will fix the "Rubber keeps falling off or getting bendy like bacon" issue.... im doing it to mine.

not too bad for my first post.