GTA02 Board only option in October?

Harald Welte laforge at openmoko.org
Sun Jul 29 09:25:42 CEST 2007


On Mon, Jul 09, 2007 at 10:12:47AM +0100, Cass, John P wrote:
> I have a question before I go ahead and order my Neo - there was an
> earlier discussion about the possibility of getting a GTA02 board in
> October so we can upgrade our Neos to 02 without having to buy a whole
> new phone (call it the Philosopher's Neo).  

The issue is a bit more difficult.  As of now, the 'board kit' would
have to be:

1) the mainboard, including the stacked wifi PCB and the bluetooth FPC
2) the translucent buttons (otherwise you won't see the new much-
   requested LED's)
3) adhesive rubber between LCM and PCB
4) new plastic inset (speaker assembly)
5) adhesive shielding tape for LCM-PCB cable

Even then, the assembly steps are not exactly trivial, since you
* need to remove the LCM from the PCB.  This is glued, and it is quite
  hard to remove without damaging the LCM, especially the very fragile
  FPC cable between LCM and PCB
* need to remove the current white plastic stereo speaker compartment
  and replace it with the new mono speaker compartment (we had to find
  space for the wifi somewhere...)

Yes, you could keep the GPS antenna, the plastic case and the LCM.  But
seriously, if you consider the amount of effort that we have to spend on
creating a detailed step-by-step guide with photographs on the assembly
process, plus the inevitable amount of customer support with people who
think they'd get it done but now can't manage (or actually broke one or
both of the devices now), I'm not really sure if it makes all that much
sense.

In the end, all you keep is the LCM.  Yes, it is an expensive LCM.  But
in the overall picture, that 'mainboard kit' would only be
insignificantly cheaper than the full GTA02 device.   Oh yes, the case.
Which costs close to nothing, and your old case might already have some
scratches at GTA02 release time ;)

So you probably wouldn't save more than USD 50 (maximum) that way.  And
for that, you have all the risk of some assembly problem?

Thus, my personal conclusion: Isn't it much better to keep the old GTA01
and sell it to somebody who can't afford a GTA02? 

So I don't think we'll have an official upgrade kit.

We will start selling spare parts at some point, though.  The schedule
is still somewhat unclear.  Maybe there is a chance you can combine your
kit out of spare parts.  But still, I don't think it makes much sense.

Sorry,
-- 
- Harald Welte <laforge at openmoko.org>          	        http://openmoko.org/
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