Database Users

Looking for memory chips to do 128Mb upgrade

I'm trying to track down some of the ram chips the Infineon HYB18L256160bf-7.5 they are an obsolite component now, so if any one knows where I can source these ICs for that would be great. I have the equipment and skills to fit BGA's, I actually run couses on it, so if I can get a reliable source for these ICs I maybe able to offer an upgrade service.
Cheers
Dave.

3g on Blackstone - Would this work?

Has anyone tried or know if it would be possible to replace the current antenna in the Blackstone to a USA capable 3G antenna? If so, what would the cost be? I would think that hardware would be easy to replace, no?

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=466660&highlight=3g+united+states
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=457418&highlight=3g+united+states
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=466660&highlight=3g+united+states
and many, many more. try and use the search function.

I've read those posts, what I was asking was would it be possible to physically replace the antenna hardware with a US 3G antenna.

phongdto said:
I've read those posts, what I was asking was would it be possible to physically replace the antenna hardware with a US 3G antenna.
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it's not the antenna you want to replace, it's the modulator/demodulator chip that is flashed with the correct ucode. which is about 1/4 size of your pinky nail. and is soldered on. you need mad skills to do this at home. i would say the same if you do it at a professional lab (ie. with all the pro equipments other than a soldering iron).
that or
you can locate the correct ucode, and the tools (cables, terminals), and flash the existing modulator chip yourself.
the antenna itself is already tuned to 850 MHz frequency.

buggybug0 said:
it's not the antenna you want to replace, it's the modulator/demodulator chip. which is about 1/4 size of your pinky nail. and is soldered on. you need mad skills to do this at home. i would say the same if you do it at a professional lab (ie. with all the pro equipments other than a soldering iron)
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Click to collapse
We should start a pool (babey even a poll):
If someone could figure out a solution, I'd be willing to pay $500 and donate my G1 to the cause (to transfer the 3G chip that HTC obviusly supports)
Both my soldering skills and my programmin skill suck.
Anyone up to the challenge?

I cant donate $500 but i could donate something to someone that gets 3G working with us frequencies.

buggybug0 said:
it's not the antenna you want to replace, it's the modulator/demodulator chip that is flashed with the correct ucode. which is about 1/4 size of your pinky nail. and is soldered on. you need mad skills to do this at home. i would say the same if you do it at a professional lab (ie. with all the pro equipments other than a soldering iron).
that or
you can locate the correct ucode, and the tools (cables, terminals), and flash the existing modulator chip yourself.
the antenna itself is already tuned to 850 MHz frequency.
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Click to collapse
Hi buggybug0, you are not telling the whole story again, eh?
I'm not sure what component you are referring to, but I don't think Qualcomm RF ICs are programmable in the way you mention. Same with the main SoC IC, there's a lot of stuff on one crystal, but everything is controlled either by pins wiring or programmatically. Both OS and radio firmware are stored in external flash. In other words, I believe there shouldn't be any flashable memory in RF IC. Am I wrong in my conclusions? If you can give us a hint regarding the IC you are referring to, it may help finding a solution to this problem.
As per discussions in Diamond (and Raphael) thread, relevant ICs, PCBs and antennas are the same on the units that do and do not support US UMTS bands. This is likely to be the case for HD too, if HTC ever releases an NA version. Some ICs (other than flash) are programmable and can even be programmed without special tools. If one of them is responsible for band selection, then the "ucode" you are referring to is all we need to make this happen.
Cheers!

Help us out here buggy.

i think it is risky to do things like this. it could toast your phone. wait for any tweaks that dont touch your components.

wow, thanks for the clear explanation. although it is way too technical for me, it gives me hope that one day this bad boy with rule the world of devices.

16GB to 32GB Upgrade?

I am picking up a 16GB A500 from Staples today (only $300 w/the coupon, woot!), and would like to upgrade the internal memory to 32GB. I'm certain that the memory is soldered to the board, but am curious if the existing memory requires replacement or if there is an empty location for another 16GB memory chip.
Has anyone tried this, and/or are there any photos of a torn-down A500? TIA for any inputs.

There is no vacant slot for another flash chip. There are plenty of pics of the internals, and even some teardown videos if you care to google.

This like most all imbedded devices is what you have is what you get monotonous mentioned to be updated. So that software major ones willbforce youbto buy a new tablet sooner its the price we paybto have the next best thing

I recommend just putting in a 16GB or even 32GB microsd. They are a little weird the way you access them though. To save you some digging:
Your 16GB internal storage will come up under /sdcard/ while the external card is /mnt/external_sd (or something like that).

So if there isn't an open location on the board, that would require removing the current 16 GB chip and replacing it with a 32GB chip. No big deal.
I've already got a 16GB microSD, but some programs are stubborn about not moving to micro SD. This tab is a replacement for my gTab, I'll be rooting it soon and am not scared of internal upgrades.

ThatGeekGuy said:
So if there isn't an open location on the board, that would require removing the current 16 GB chip and replacing it with a 32GB chip. No big deal.
I've already got a 16GB microSD, but some programs are stubborn about not moving to micro SD. This tab is a replacement for my gTab, I'll be rooting it soon and am not scared of internal upgrades.
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Click to collapse
I think you're confused...
There is 16GB internal AND you can ADD a 16GB memory card which gives you 32GB total. That is not 32GB internal, per se, even though it's all contained within the device physically.
Changing from 16GB to 32GB would require physically tearing apart the A500 then putting in the 32GB chip, which is an on board chip, not a simple micro-SD card.
You could also just add a 32GB micro-SD card and end up with 48GB total.

Guys/gals he seems to be aware about having to tear apart the iconia to add the memory in his first post he states that its soldered and later says hes not scared of internal upgrades
To answer your question from what I have seen you are correct you would have to de-solder and remove the 16gb chip and solder the 32 in its place . you are either very brave or have some good experience lol
let us know how the upgrade goes!

oxbeast1210 said:
Guys/gals he seems to be aware about having to tear apart the iconia to add the memory in his first post he states that its soldered and later says hes not scared of internal upgrades
To answer your question from what I have seen you are correct you would have to de-solder and remove the 16gb chip and solder the 32 in its place . you are either very brave or have some good experience lol
let us know how the upgrade goes!
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Click to collapse
I hear that, the impression that I got was that ThatGeekGuy was ready to dive in head first.
@ThatGeekGuy.. If I had the equipment I'd do exactly what you're trying to do, please let us know if you achieve what you set out to do!

Why not try 64gb?

nice Idea!
good luck
I would think about partitioning the chip and copying the OS onto it beforehand,
after all, even the recovery is on that chip

ehasoon said:
I hear that, the impression that I got was that ThatGeekGuy was ready to dive in head first.
@ThatGeekGuy.. If I had the equipment I'd do exactly what you're trying to do, please let us know if you achieve what you set out to do!
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Click to collapse
I see that in the post as well, but I mean if someone really understands the impact of that then they probably wouldn't be on this forum asking questions about it. They would know that there's not an open slot... maybe that's a bad assumption on my part.
Just seems that the knowledge/skills necessary with replacing the onboard memory did not match the question being asked...

I'm aware that the memory upgrade involves teardown of the unit, and is not a simple plug-in like an SD card. My main curiosity was if it would require simple soldering of an additional chip, or removal and replacement of the existing one. Many boards (mobos, latops, tablets) have upgrade locations on the board layout, and only populate them based on what options are ordered. On my gTablet, the layout was on the board to accomodate a GPS circuit that was never populated. Some enterprising folks here on XDA figured out the components and code required to get it functional.
If it is a remove and replace upgrade, it can definitely be more challenging. As wolfman mentioned, the ROM is in the current chip. Hmmm, more research before jumping off this bridge ....

ThatGeekGuy said:
I'm aware that the memory upgrade involves teardown of the unit, and is not a simple plug-in like an SD card. My main curiosity was if it would require simple soldering of an additional chip, or removal and replacement of the existing one. Many boards (mobos, latops, tablets) have upgrade locations on the board layout, and only populate them based on what options are ordered. On my gTablet, the layout was on the board to accomodate a GPS circuit that was never populated. Some enterprising folks here on XDA figured out the components and code required to get it functional.
If it is a remove and replace upgrade, it can definitely be more challenging. As wolfman mentioned, the ROM is in the current chip. Hmmm, more research before jumping off this bridge ....
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Click to collapse
Good deal! Just wanted to make sure!
best of luck!

ThatGeekGuy said:
I'm aware that the memory upgrade involves teardown of the unit, and is not a simple plug-in like an SD card. My main curiosity was if it would require simple soldering of an additional chip, or removal and replacement of the existing one. Many boards (mobos, latops, tablets) have upgrade locations on the board layout, and only populate them based on what options are ordered. On my gTablet, the layout was on the board to accomodate a GPS circuit that was never populated. Some enterprising folks here on XDA figured out the components and code required to get it functional.
If it is a remove and replace upgrade, it can definitely be more challenging. As wolfman mentioned, the ROM is in the current chip. Hmmm, more research before jumping off this bridge ....
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Click to collapse
ThatGeekGuy, did you go thought with changing out your internal memory? I've been doing alot of research on how to crack the tablet open, swapping out the internal memory chip and adding a SIM card reader.

oxbeast1210 said:
Guys/gals he seems to be aware about having to tear apart the iconia to add the memory in his first post he states that its soldered and later says hes not scared of internal upgrades
To answer your question from what I have seen you are correct you would have to de-solder and remove the 16gb chip and solder the 32 in its place . you are either very brave or have some good experience lol
let us know how the upgrade goes!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He would also figure out how to boot up since his storage is blank
Sent from my ICONIA

Replacing Flash Memory Chip

Hi Everybody,
so i was looking at the teardown for our little baby, when i came across this:
Toshiba THGBM5G6A2JBAIR 8GB Flash
So i went online and do a little search. It turns out that Toshiba builds other sizes of this particular chip.
Looking at the specsheet, it seems that every single spec is the same (can't post the link yet)
So i was wondering if we can replace this damn chip (since i'm stuck with an 8gb version of the Nex 4 (Yeah..since they don't sell in Italy...i had to find a compromise) I know it would take a lot of soldering works, but the real problem is: How to install the OS and stuff?
So i'm planning to ger one of this chips, or a broken phone with one of this (from 16 to idk) and try to do some research, in order to get if i can do this substitution.
So..anyone tryed this before that can help me out with some advices?
Thanks everyone and for the mods...if this is not the right place to post this, i'm sorry...:angel::angel::angel:
p.s.
Sorry for my bad English

Don't attempt to replace the chip with a soldering iron. You need someone with a dedicated SMT rework station that can handle BGA devices. (this chip is a VFBGA according to the datasheet).
Even then, it may not boot at the end of it... Be prepared to have a bricked phone... On the other hand, if it works, you may be able to make a buisness out of selling 32GB Nexus 7's until Google/LG makes them....

Basically, it's not something an end user could do.

Ok, so since is a BGA device, reballing and reflowing should do the trick.
I know that is something that an end user shouldn't do...but give it a try should be nice...of course i would not go straight for the replacement on the n4, i will start with something else before.

Installing it is one thing, it's getting the important stuff on there that is the problem.
It's not a case of just fastboot flash, since there are more partitions than that.
Plus you need fastboot to be there in the first place, JTAG would probably cover that, but the rest? God knows.

Yeah..that's my problem afterall...i mean..put the chip on that is kinda fine..i mean i do this on notebooks so i'm used to reballing and stuff.
But the OS thing is going to drive me mad...meh..need to figure out how to do that!

Just don't do it. You're gonna regret it. Laptops is one thing but a cellular device is another. Chips are way smaller and complicated. It's not as easy as you may think.
But it's your phone, you can do whatever you like to it.

This is retarded. You realize those connectors are so small it requires machines worth millions of dollars to attach and connect. Might as well use some Elmer's glue or a hot glue gun if you're gonna do it yourself, or hey maybe even some ear wax, you'll get the same result.

Ok, nevermind.
I'll do some tests with my machine and some old crappy phone...u never know what is going to happen..lol
Tnx anyway guys!!

Everyone else here is an unambitious ass
DragGuardiano said:
Ok, nevermind.
I'll do some tests with my machine and some old crappy phone...u never know what is going to happen..lol
Tnx anyway guys!!
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Dude you shouldn't let people detour you, soldering chips is not that hard and the size of the chip doesn't really make a difference for BGA most of these guys probably have never soldered a BGA chip in their life so how would they know how hard it is. I would suggest that you practice on some old pcs or an old game system that you dont care about. the hard part about this would be getting your hands on the new chip (and weather or not it is pre-balled because re-balling is a *****), from what I can tell toshiba only will sell the chip in a minimum quantity of 5 chips per order so if all goes well you may be able to charge people to upgrade their nexus 4s.
People are to scared now-a-days to get their hands dirty and take risks to get what they want and I commend anyone willing to put in the time, learn a new skill, and get what they want even though no one will just give it to them.
I hope you decide to do this anyway.
PS. The bootloader/recovery should be a separate memory module all together and should still exist when the chip is replaced, so if I had to guess i would say that you could just flash a new rom assuming your bootloder is unlocked and the chip comes pre-formatted.

Everything is held on the eMMC chip, nothing is separate.

evice suggestions for demonstration of JTAG benefits

I tried to get some help in the Q&A section, but it appears this is more technical/hardware seeking question than just generic "which phone" thread.
I have been suggested Samsung Galaxy Spica/i5700 by boofman (thank you), but the device is cost prohibitive.
I would very much appreciate anyone's suggestion.
I am planning a presentation to demonstrate the benefits of JTAG for data recovery on embedded systems. The audience has approx. 12th grade education, but higher than average computer understanding.
I have most of the equipment already, including a uLINK2, Bus Blaster, and Raspberry Pi for the UART-to-USB, and OpenOCD for the software.
What I am missing is the simplest cell phone (or other inexpensive embedded device) to make the demonstration.
I would like to connect to the device and list the devices on the JTAG chain, and recover the data from them.
What cell phone brand and model would work well for this presentation?
I would need to know the JTAG points, have access to the data sheets of the onboard chips, and since it is out of my own pocket, I hope to get the phones on eBay for a low price.
Any suggestions are welcome.

huperetes said:
I tried to get some help in the Q&A section, but it appears this is more technical/hardware seeking question than just generic "which phone" thread.
I have been suggested Samsung Galaxy Spica/i5700 by boofman (thank you), but the device is cost prohibitive.
I would very much appreciate anyone's suggestion.
I am planning a presentation to demonstrate the benefits of JTAG for data recovery on embedded systems. The audience has approx. 12th grade education, but higher than average computer understanding.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You'd be surprised what kids know these days.
huperetes said:
I have most of the equipment already, including a uLINK2, Bus Blaster, and Raspberry Pi for the UART-to-USB, and OpenOCD for the software.
What I am missing is the simplest cell phone (or other inexpensive embedded device) to make the demonstration.
I would like to connect to the device and list the devices on the JTAG chain, and recover the data from them.
What cell phone brand and model would work well for this presentation?
I would need to know the JTAG points, have access to the data sheets of the onboard chips, and since it is out of my own pocket, I hope to get the phones on eBay for a low price.
Any suggestions are welcome.
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Click to collapse
Check out gsm-forum, under the hardware repair section.
Googling for jtag pins and your phone model number usually works for me. I'd assume you might have to wait a little bit for brand new devices, unless you feel like scoping the pins to find out which is which or hope their labeled.

These individuals are not kids. :fingers-crossed:
Excellent resource at the other site. Thanks!
But, I think I do not think I made myself clear regarding what I am looking for:crying:. I am not looking for info on how to JTAG a specific phone.
I am looking for 3 or 4 of the same model of cell phone that
I can pick up on eBay or similar for reasonable price (<$30/phone),
the JTAG TAP is known on the motherboard, and
it would be a bonus if the JTAG command set was known (besides the basic requirement).
This would allow me to make test run on one of the phones, then demonstrate the use of JTAG on the others.
The Samsung Galaxy Spica is a good phone, but I do not have the budget at $100+/phone. I need to find something cheaper. It does not need to be fancy telephone, or even smart phone - just have sufficient JTAG documentation.

If anyone has any ideas on what to use for this demo, I am still in need of a good idea.

You can look into any of the older HTC phones for this. I think that would be your best bet. I've done plenty of hardware repair, disassembling, reassambling, flashing, etc... on Android, & non-Android phones, & from my experience, the older HTC phones are the best. Specifically, concentrate on the GSM ones, such as for T-Mobile. Look into HTC myTouch 3G Slide (awesome little thing) , HTC G2 (one of the best keyboard phones ever), myTouch 4g, myTouch 4G Slide (overheating, self-destructing piece of crap), even the HD2 & the HD7. These are all devices that you can get for around $30 or so with a cracked, but still working digitizer, or some other kind of problem. Screens & other parts for them are very cheap as well.
Also, these are all known to RIFF Box. Look it up. You can do JTAG repair with these, & RIFF Box have all the JTAG ports labeled & documented. They might have some of the documentation right on their site, but I'm not totally sure. Anyway, check it out & see. I think this will be exactly what you're looking for.

Excellent! Thank you very much.
I have looked at looked at many commercial products, including RIFF Box. I narrowed the selections down the RIFF and ORT, but they are both very expensive for demonstration purposes.
I do love the fact that one can buy "jigs", "clips" or "adapters" (names change depending on vendors) which removes the soldering requirements for some of the phones. Except, these are still very expensive. :cyclops:
Again, thanks. I will look into these.
3ndymion218 said:
You can look into any of the older HTC phones for this. I think that would be your best bet. I've done plenty of hardware repair, disassembling, reassambling, flashing, etc... on Android, & non-Android phones, & from my experience, the older HTC phones are the best. Specifically, concentrate on the GSM ones, such as for T-Mobile. Look into HTC myTouch 3G Slide (awesome little thing) , HTC G2 (one of the best keyboard phones ever), myTouch 4g, myTouch 4G Slide (overheating, self-destructing piece of crap), even the HD2 & the HD7. These are all devices that you can get for around $30 or so with a cracked, but still working digitizer, or some other kind of problem. Screens & other parts for them are very cheap as well.
Also, these are all known to RIFF Box. Look it up. You can do JTAG repair with these, & RIFF Box have all the JTAG ports labeled & documented. They might have some of the documentation right on their site, but I'm not totally sure. Anyway, check it out & see. I think this will be exactly what you're looking for.
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Click to collapse

I'd go with Galaxy S 1 as it's really cool to work on and relatively well documented and demonstration on such stuff always looks well. But if you want something low-budget. I've seen JTAG pads on Nokia E50'ish stuff. Or try with some Samsung S3000's, these are pretty cheap. But I don't know how's JTAG there.

as @3ndymion218 told you , search old HTc .. also some Samsung that I think cheap could help too .
Samsung F480 , F490 , U700 , U900 etc ... some news Corby model also .. I think cheap .
I could help if you were near to me . I have 3 phones that I could offer you ...

Thank you for the further info.
Definitely will try to track down the HTC and Nokia information.
Samsung is a bit pricy as you said, but maybe down the road.
Again, thank you all!