Develop Bugs

Painting the HTC Universal's housing

So... I've purchased a Vodafone v1640 from eBay a while back.. and I'm sick of the silver housing! I'd rather have a white or black housing, so I plan on opening the sucker up to paint it! I'm pretty sure I have no warrenty anyway, as I purchased from eBay and am not on a Vodafone plan (Cingular here in the USA)...
My question is... what's the best type of paint to do this with? Any special sort of paint?
Or, I guess, if there's anywhere I could buy different housings for it, pre-painted.. that'd work too.
Any input at ALL would be greatly appreciated! ;D

I want some infos too on this case for a new housing because black housing for Universal looks the best.

From my experience of disassembling the HTC Charmer, I think the HTC stuff are kinda tightly fitted, it might not be that easy to have it painted. I mean, I'm not sure how good you are at painting, but for the paint job I did (on other stuff, toys, cars, shelves, not the phone, yet), I usually end up with a thick (relatively) layer of paint on it, which I think may cause problem when you try to assemble the phone up again.
So, my advise, make sure you can really do a skin tight paint job before you try it on the phone, as it seems that it is really difficult to get a spare casing for HTC stuff.
BTW, you may want to look at some of the web site for PC modding, where they tend to mod their keyboard and mouse, giving them new paint job, probably such forums will have experts on the paint that you should be using.

you might have to experiment a bit if you haven't painted before...
The most impoportant thing is to find a dry place with no humidity.
You can get the retouching spray for cars called deco paint. It will work well.
p.s. IMO black housing will look good if you have a black keyboard.

Hmm black keyboard...
very good point.

i once painted my dreamcast controller black 8)
just used a normal spray can for it (didn´t have an airbrush at that time yet)
works very easy:
- open it up and remove all things you dont want to spray
- clean everything very good (with terpentine/gasoline/ammonia for example)
- let it dry
- spray it (very thin, because you don´t want to make drops of paint on it) from about 15-20cm away (any closer and it will be more difficult to avoid paintdrops and keeping the paint thin
- let it dry in a clean enviroment
after a few months of usage the paint will shine on spots where you hold it much...
so you might want to spray some colourless shine stuff (sorry: don´t know the name for it in english, it is ´lak´ in dutch) on it after the paint is drie to have the color remain the same way
or you could just touch it everywhere so the shine is everywhere :wink:

heh, it's close in english, it's pronounced 'lak-ker', spelt lacquer

Anyone have any luck with this repainting the case idea? Any pictures?

i did my old mpx 220 before black cases were out, i used a special, plastics spraypaint from krylon. flat black ,and clear topcoat. i dont have the pictures anymore but it was nice. just take your time read up on painting . thin light coats and follow the directions on the can.

Please help identifying parts

Hi everyone,
I ordered a replacement case for my prophet and of course had to break something and have some extra parts after I thought I had finished.
Where do the small metal and plastic parts go, and do you think it's possible to solder the lead back to the speaker?
Thanks, Robert

the small metal clip goes on the sides, after u remove the plastic middle, u can see them on the inside, there's 6 in total if i remember corectly.
plastic bit is i think, for the stylus 'holder' if u understand me. look where the stylus goes on the inside.
i guess u can solder, is that the new speaker?
hope that helps

bits and pieces
wanwarlock, thanks for your reply.
I think this prophet had already been tinkered with as there is no evidence of the metal clips.
I have tried to solder the leads back to the speaker, but I think I'll need a replacement.
As for the plastic bit, the stylus of course fits through the hole, but there is no groove or hole it would snap into. The only indication of its former place is the fact that it's made of the same transparent violet material as the cover of the IR port.
Any new thoughts?
Thanks, Robert

use the service manual from this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=385944&highlight=service+manual
the black bit according to it is actually the head phone jack holder! hmmmmm
those small clips are so flimsy, maybe you've actually lost em? is yours bought new or 2nd hand. anyway, i guess those clips don't matter cos i think i lost 1 or 2 of them & my prophet is working fine.

Question about battery cover

I have a European Touch Pro2 and unfortunately I managed to drop it a couple of days ago. Luckily there was no obvious damage. However, when it hit the ground the battery cover came off. I just put it back on checked for damage and carried on with a high sense of relief.
However, I have now noticed one thing that I don't know if it's always been there and I am just being paranoid or not. On the part of the back cover that covers the camera lense is there meant to be a bit of plastic or something? On my cover I can put my finger right through it and touch the lense inside the device.
I hope I am making sense here...; what I'm trying to ask is should there be a hole in the case where the camera is just above the straight talk mute button or should there be something there to keep the dust out?
Thanks.

yes there's supposed to be plastic & the actual camera lense is NOT supposed to be exposed.

I've got just a hole on the back of mine which was supplied by Orange in the UK..and it was deffinitely like it out of the box.
The US ones with the different shell may have some other arrangemment.
'tunes

yeah my vodafone uk one just has a hole, no plastic or anything to cover the lens.

Thanks guys, I was thinking of ordering another back cover but I didn't want to waste £25 just to find out it was the same. Good to see I'm just being paranoid. A plastic cover would make sense though; it seems like an invitation to dust.
I'll go back to enjoying the phone now .

Camera Cracked Internally & Externally!

Hi,
I have an HTC Desire which is a little over a week old, though on Saturday I got my desire knocked out of my hand and took a fall onto gravel and the battery cover's camera lens cracked and now has a thick crack through the middle which is not much of a problem as it is easily replaceable, though the glass which covers the lens/sensor cracked into many pieces though I do not know if it is a filter of some sort or just some dust protector. (I can still use the camera without a problem).
Should I send it for repair to get the protector put in, or will I be ok just buying a new battery cover?
Thanks!

It's likely not just a filter of some sort, but an important part of the optical design. It could be replaceable, but normally replacing lens elements requires re-calibration of the entire lens itself. I doubt though, that they would replace just a part of the lens, they would likely swap the entire thing. I'm pretty sure HTC buy these lenses/modules already assembled and calibrated from someone who specializes in making such things.
Mac

Thanks a lot for the detailed reply! Will be sending to be repaired today. Thanks again

Hi All,
Just for everyone benefit i also cracked the back cover plastic screen and also the glass screen on the camera as well. The back cover is easily replaceable by a new back cover off eBay for £12.99 or the lens piece itself for about a £5 i think, which is easy to find but i decided to replace the internal glass myself. I found this on eBay for £7.49:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ORIGINAL-HTC-...UK_Mobiles_Accessories_RL&hash=item230c703e97
Using an old sack pin i manage to remove the cracked glass, the trick is to prize up the black plastic the glass is stuck too, that way no shards fall off into the camera itself.
I thoroughly cleaned the camera and new glass with an anti-static wipe.
You have to push out gently the four plastic stripes round the camera that the glass fits into so the new glass fits it snuggly when you push it in.
I did make a hash of it to begin with and touched the back of the glass so it was smudged and got a bit of glue on it. I put an anti-static wipe on the needle end of the sack pin and cleaned it thoroughly and this did the trick. To test it though use barcode scanner as well as the camera app.
I haven't much patience and have large fingers, i guess you could take more time and use more precise tools to do a better job but as the camera isn't the most important function for me this was fine.
I did contact the HTC repair shop that was listed on XDA and this was there reply:
Hi,
You’re looking at between £39.95 and £64.95
Thanks in advance
Regards
MRC Team
www.mobilerepaircentre.com - (CLICK THIS LINK TO BOOK IN A REPAIR/REQUEST A QUOTE)
I guess if you have phone insurance that would be a better way to go but as i didn't i saved a few quid doing it myself, it only took 15 mins to do, not hard at all.
Good luck to anyone else who attempts this!

I had the same problem with my phone and I sent it away to redstafford.co.uk and I got it back in about 3 days, all new and shiny... highly recommend!

[Q] How do I fix gauge/scratch on frame of phone.

The outer frame of my phone (the metallic plastic border-frame-thing) has a scratches and gauge on it now because I dropped it few weeks ago. I know it's just the appearance but at times I just find myself staring at it with discontent.
Here is the Link to the photo of it. (remove the spaces I'm a new user)
http : / / yfrog . com / n415092010127j
So I ask what would you do if you vibrant has that gauge/scratch?
Do you think it's fixable? maybe just sand it down to smooth it out or would it be make it worse?
Is it possible to get a replacement part?? I cannot find anything online but... I did see the non-working "T-MOBILE DUMMY SAMSUNG VIBRANT T959 DISPLAY PHONE" model on ebay.. do you think I can take the part from there? (haha, I think I do sound somewhat desperate)
oh and is there a case that just covers the perimeter of the phone leaving the back and front exposed? (I have a case for my phone already it but it makes the phone look pretty bulky)
Thank you everybody

I'd like to know this as well as I dropped mine on Friday and scratched all four corners! I thought about sanding it to give it a brushed look, but since it's plastic, I have a feeling it would look like crap.
Can you replace just that part?

Just put it in a case that covers the chrome bezel.

I had a similar issue when I had my blackberry 8900. The "chrome" around the sides started coming off, so I picked at it with my nail until it all came off. It was smooth black plastic underneath, and I'm willing to bet that's the case with the Vibrant.
You could tape off the parts you don't want scratched (screen, buttons, etc.) and use sandpaper on the chrome.

YES U CAN
GO TO
Global direct part.com and find ur phone

sad2903 said:
YES U CAN
GO TO
Global direct part.com and find ur phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
www.globaldirectparts.com
you mean that?

http://www.globaldirectparts.com/Samsung-T959-Front-Housing-p/smsng6085940.htm Right here bro

Just use a good quality liquid Wax polish used on automobiles.
I had a very similar issue as yours. I tried everything and finally came up with a solution. And it was the liquid Wax polish used on cars and bikes to make them shine. Just mask all the sensitive parts of the area of your phone in which you have scratches, then take the polish and rub it on the damaged area with optimum pressure with a clean cotton cloth (make sure a little heat is generated due to friction) . You might have to do it several time so, protect any other unwanted part.
Hope this helps ?