Harald,<br><br>I am curious, what do you estimate the cost (as a percentage or dollar amount) that the GTA02 board "kit" would run compared to the expected $450 base price? I do prefer your idea about selling the GTA01Bv4 instead of upgrading...some people would just rather do it themselves...bragging rights? ;)
<br><br>Thanks<br><br>Kyle<br><br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 7/29/07, <b class="gmail_sendername">Harald Welte</b> <<a href="mailto:laforge@openmoko.org">laforge@openmoko.org</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
On Mon, Jul 09, 2007 at 10:12:47AM +0100, Cass, John P wrote:<br>> I have a question before I go ahead and order my Neo - there was an<br>> earlier discussion about the possibility of getting a GTA02 board in<br>> October so we can upgrade our Neos to 02 without having to buy a whole
<br>> new phone (call it the Philosopher's Neo).<br><br>The issue is a bit more difficult. As of now, the 'board kit' would<br>have to be:<br><br>1) the mainboard, including the stacked wifi PCB and the bluetooth FPC
<br>2) the translucent buttons (otherwise you won't see the new much-<br> requested LED's)<br>3) adhesive rubber between LCM and PCB<br>4) new plastic inset (speaker assembly)<br>5) adhesive shielding tape for LCM-PCB cable
<br><br>Even then, the assembly steps are not exactly trivial, since you<br>* need to remove the LCM from the PCB. This is glued, and it is quite<br> hard to remove without damaging the LCM, especially the very fragile<br>
FPC cable between LCM and PCB<br>* need to remove the current white plastic stereo speaker compartment<br> and replace it with the new mono speaker compartment (we had to find<br> space for the wifi somewhere...)<br><br>
Yes, you could keep the GPS antenna, the plastic case and the LCM. But<br>seriously, if you consider the amount of effort that we have to spend on<br>creating a detailed step-by-step guide with photographs on the assembly
<br>process, plus the inevitable amount of customer support with people who<br>think they'd get it done but now can't manage (or actually broke one or<br>both of the devices now), I'm not really sure if it makes all that much
<br>sense.<br><br>In the end, all you keep is the LCM. Yes, it is an expensive LCM. But<br>in the overall picture, that 'mainboard kit' would only be<br>insignificantly cheaper than the full GTA02 device. Oh yes, the case.
<br>Which costs close to nothing, and your old case might already have some<br>scratches at GTA02 release time ;)<br><br>So you probably wouldn't save more than USD 50 (maximum) that way. And<br>for that, you have all the risk of some assembly problem?
<br><br>Thus, my personal conclusion: Isn't it much better to keep the old GTA01<br>and sell it to somebody who can't afford a GTA02?<br><br>So I don't think we'll have an official upgrade kit.<br><br>We will start selling spare parts at some point, though. The schedule
<br>is still somewhat unclear. Maybe there is a chance you can combine your<br>kit out of spare parts. But still, I don't think it makes much sense.<br><br>Sorry,<br>--<br>- Harald Welte <<a href="mailto:laforge@openmoko.org">
laforge@openmoko.org</a>> <a href="http://openmoko.org/">http://openmoko.org/</a><br>============================================================================<br>Software for the world's first truly open Free Software mobile phone
<br><br>_______________________________________________<br>OpenMoko community mailing list<br><a href="mailto:community@lists.openmoko.org">community@lists.openmoko.org</a><br><a href="http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community">
http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community</a><br></blockquote></div><br>