Waited 1 year for N900, but some more days of tinkering may be required
 

Hi guys,

Yesterday, after about a 1 year search, I found a N900 for 10€ in a website like Craigslist but in France (Leboncoin.fr).

I contacted the seller and bought the phone (he was happy not to have it anymore as he replaced it a long, long time ago).

Nice looking even with some scratches on the LCD and on the Battery, the only problem the vendor said:
the µUSB port is gone.

I know it's the N900 disease but here it wiped one of the pads on the PCB(the first one : VCC/5V).

anyway, I charged the battery externally lately yesterday when I got back home (2.5v to 3.97v in less than an hour at 1000mA, so it's fine) and I put everything back together, the phone LED goes white for some seconds and it vibrates, I also saw the keyboard lighting sometimes when I slided it, but not always (at some starts it works, all the other times it doesn't),
though, nothing on LCD nor in the Speakers,
this evening, I soldered some wires on the golden test pads, made some tests (not succcessful), then I removed them, I also cleaned the device a lot, 6 Years of dust...


So:
-Nothing on LCD
-I'll have to solder a new USB jack, but I'd love to make that MOD:
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=90460
-I'm missing 4 screws (2 on the LCD and 2 that hold the front of the phone (not the hex screws)
-The "CMOS" battery is flat (500mV) but I don't know how to change it
-Inside the phone is a bit corroded, not a lot but that's noticeable


Please tell me It's just a matter of updating the firmware or something, I'm kind of lost and tired of waiting for this wonderful device (I already love it, so dense, so functional (except for the keyboard), so nokia :p ).

All thoughts are welcome

Re: Waited 1 year for N900, but some more days of tinkering may be required
 

I looked at these pages:

http://wiki.maemo.org/N900_Hardware_Hacking#Debug_ports

http://wiki.maemo.org/Updating_the_f...MC_in_the_N900

The replacement I think:
http://www.ebay.fr/itm/Connecteur-a-...YAAOSwKIpV~Y~w

Re: Waited 1 year for N900, but some more days of tinkering may be required
 

I forgot to mention:
I'm a student, not in electronics but I tinker, I'm planning to get an HAM license (I'm in a Radio-Club) and I'm beginning at making my PCBs and soldering SMT componnents, though I was never lucky with small devices like smartphones

Re: Waited 1 year for N900, but some more days of tinkering may be required
 

It seems to be alive right now as when i press on lcd i got feedbac haptic (vibrating) and the keyboard is lit when opened but stil nothing on lcd :( :(

Re: Waited 1 year for N900, but some more days of tinkering may be required
 

I just locked it and unlocked it a second ago with the slider on the side of the phone

Re: Waited 1 year for N900, but some more days of tinkering may be required
 

Connect it to the TV. Can you see anything?

Re: Waited 1 year for N900, but some more days of tinkering may be required
 

I try in a minute

Re: Waited 1 year for N900, but some more days of tinkering may be required
 

Just need to find a video cable, is a camescope cable fine ? Jack 4 points

Re: Waited 1 year for N900, but some more days of tinkering may be required
 

Yes, jack, 4 points. I don't know what cameoscope is but my old Sony laptop, Panasonic video camera and Nokia N900 video cables were completely interchangeable.

Re: Waited 1 year for N900, but some more days of tinkering may be required
 

Seems to be working I checked pinout, gnd and av signal reversed, I tested and got some signal (a "valider" button appared but very noisy) i'm soldering an adapter wait a minute, thanks for the great idea