Happy Thanksgiving. We all love our Nokia Internet Tablets, but if you are anything like me you are less infatuated with the wired, earbud headset that came with the system.

If I only used my N800 as a personal media player I would simply use my favorite wired headphones, however I use my N800 for VOIP as much, if not more than, music and video. VOIP is the primary motivation for me buying the N800. I admit to being disappointed when I found out the N800 had no support for BlueTooth HSP (no real BT audio support at all unless you do the xterm hack for Kagu described a few weeks back).

Whether it is for echo cancellation, or privacy, speakerphone mode isn't the best for VOIP on the N800. (I have learned that RTCOMM has no echo cancellation, so using the N800 without a headset is out of the question with that app.) As mentioned, the N800 & OS2007 has no bluetooth headset capability so I am forced to use a wired headset (headset with microphone, not headphone--no mic).

I am sick of using the N800's earbuds. What follows is MY cure.

Here are photos showing proper disassembly the Nokia headset pendant. Unsoldering the earbuds from the printed circuit board and soldering replacement headphones is not particularly difficult, but having some soldering experience helps. You'll need a small phillips head screwdriver, a soldering pencil (~25watts) and a soldering tip that comes to a fine point (file it to a point if necessary), some fine silver solder, a match or butane lighter, and an exacto knife.

I used RCA "E.clipz" for my transplant because I have used them in the past on MP3 players. They sound good and fit over the ear nice.

FWIW- The results exceeded my expectations !! I encourage anyone thinking about doing this to go forward. I hope my photos demystify the process. Anyone wanting to see the uncompressed photos can send me an ITT private message and I'll get you the full size photos. Enjoy. M5

Part Two

M5

PART THREE

This became a three part post because of limits on space and photo count on ITT.

The very first step involves prying up on the front plate (see first photo). That is held in place with a double sided adhesive tape, and may take some lifting force to defeat. I used an X-Acto knife. Don't pry in a way that puts down force on the pushbutton as the switch under it is quite delicate. Once you pop that front plate off, you'll see one screw. Now remove the pushbutton's plastic cover. There you will see screw number two. Don't touch the sticky tape. Your skin oils will ruin the adhesiveness. If this occurs you'll need to glue that cover back in place later.

From this point forward things are quite intuitive. The next notes will help the less experienced complete the project.

When you strip the insulation off the RCA cables you will see tiny, colored, stranded copper wire. It will not be obvious but that copper inside is ALSO insultated (wires are double insulated). To get the inner insultation layer off, you'll need a butane lighter or match to heat the wire ends. Don't do this to excess. You need only burn off the coating on the end of the wire so solder can stick to it. Only burn back the insulation coating about .030 inches.

"Tin" the four wire ends prior to trying to get them attached to the Nokia PCB lands. You should use very fine silver solder for this. I used .015 inch diameter silver solder. You will need a steady hand doing the soldering.

You don't need to unsolder the five wire cable, only the four wire one to the earbuds.

There is a knot in each set of wires which act as a mechanical strain relief. Be careful that you do not damage the wires during reassembly. I did not tie knots in the new headphone wires because I felt it was more risky tying the knots then risking a pull strain on the cable later on. The headphone cable has some strain relief in the pendant anyway...there is a plastic slit the cables squeeze into on reassembly. I trust that will suffice for me. I did leave the knot in the other cable (the one going to the Nokia miniature phone plug). You don't have a choice on that one, you have to leave that knot.

My photos do not show a thin, clear plastic sheet that covers the pushbutton switch on the component side of the board. Don't lose that clear sheet, and remember to put it back over the PCB before you reassemble the pendant.

Send me a PM here if you need any help or if you want better photographs (the uncompressed ones are approx. 600K each).

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IMO-The results are awesome. The RCA E.clipz on the N800 sound great. I think they are even a tad louder than the earbuds were, and the clarity / fidelity seems better too (highly subjective statement, but made with confidence). Now I can listen to music, and quickly answer an incoming VOIP call without unplugging anything. The microphone built into the pendant cures the heavy echo problem with RTCOMM, and regardless of which VOIP client I use I have more privacy than I'd have with the N800 in speakerphone mode.

The pushbutton switch in the N800 pendant allows me to answer incoming Skype calls without taking the N800 out of my pocket, and when the call is concluded, pressing that pushbutton hangs up. I haven't tested the switch function with Gizmo or RTCOMM yet, but I would expect them to work the same way....they should.

If you don't have the small tools or skill to do this hardware hack, find someone who does and ask them to do it for you. You won't regret the results.

M5

Follow Up:

In order for the pushbutton switch in the pendant to answer an incoming Skype call, the Skype client has to be "on the screen". If Skype is running, but minimized, the button contact closure is ignored :-(

This means you need to be sure the Skype client is not running as a background application prior to putting it in your pocket, and that you "lock" the touchscreen prior to pocket insertion to prevent unintentional flips in function in your pocket.

Enjoy.

Or you can wait for the next OS2008.

You can see here
https://stage.maemo.org/svn/maemo/pr...-0osso1/audio/
there will be support for headsets, i guess it's not ready yet, but support for routing SCO data to pcm/hci it's on the way.

I hope i'm right.

Yup I hope you are too.

I got tired of waiting. The earbuds annoyed me, and I use Skype, GizmoProject and now that I have RTCOMM working and configured for 4 SIP carriers ( including MagicJack ha ha ha), I had to solve the wired headset issue TODAY.

I would have flashed to the leaked OS2008 but SKYPE was not ready for OS2008 yet ! Gizmo wasn't either (at the time of the leak) but it appears to be now. What is going to be the case with all these N810's hitting the streets if Skype doesn't work on them right away?

I'm not flashing to OS2008 until most all of the applications I use on my Internet Tablet are going to work as well. It makes no sense to me to flash to OS2008 to get the Bluetooth headset functionality if I lose Skype functionality. I want the bluetooth very much, but until it is a reality on my N800 and all the apps work with OS2008, I'm gonne be wired to that headset jack.

You gotta love software companies. Management says, "Ship it!!". Engineering says, " it isn't ready yet". Management says, "Ship it, we'll fix it later".

The customer ends up fixing it by downloading fix after fix over the Internet. This isn't a big deal for the Nokia Internet Tablets because they are perfect for this. But when I buy a new video card for my desktop, or a USB WiFi dongle from Netgear and it doesn't work right out of the box because the manufacturer knowingly shipped it with defective drivers you gotta shake your head.

I know it is all about maximizing profits in our capitalist system, but counting on your customers to fix your sh_t is lame. I don't apply this same attitude to the Nokia Nxxx because it is different than other devices.....still I would have hoped Nokia would have had bluetooth working beyond a couple of simple profiles by now. SPP and Object Push Service profile is all they put in my N800? This thing has been in the public's hands for almost a year. For the N8xx to be a true portable Skype / GizmoProject capable device they needed to put a priority on HSP in my opinion.

I love my N800. I'll love it tons more when I can VOIP with it via bluetooth. For anyone who VOIPs with OS2007, tired of waiting for bluetooth HeadSetProfile (and AVRCP), do yourself a favor and replace the earbuds with something soldered together like these RCA E.clipz (or equiv.).

Who wants to bet me that even when OS2008 has HSP (and functional Skype) it will still be lacking BT AVRCP? How much longer before that surfaces? I should stop bi*ching because I love the N800.

All good things come to those who wait (or know how to build them for themselves)

I think i've spoted some AVRCP code there also ... everything can be done ... just waiting for that Sco data to be available somehow ...

I am sure there is AVRCP code about, but I still am willing to wager the bluetooth (without AVRCP) will lead the AVRCP by weeks or months. Getting bluetooth audio for RTCOMM ( and Skype, and Gizmo ) will be a treat when it finally arrives.

Well I actually have my bt headphones working with my n800 and os2007 ... just a bit choppy sound wise, and only works ATT with kagu... There you have full stereo with a2dpd and control function with AVRCP.