I originally opened up my phone because I wanted to see if I could replace the LED used to backlight the hard key buttons with a brighter one and maybe change the color. I am using the backlight as a substitute for a notification light, but the keys are very dim. Well, it turned out that the LED for the backlight wasn't dim at all. It was super bright, and there were actually three of them. Because the buttons have their button circuitry directly under them, their backlight LED's are offset and the light that shines through is routed through a maze of rubber and plastic first. I decided that since the LED's were offset, I could just drill a hole directly over one of them and create my own notification light. The mod is very simple, but I'm going to purposely leave out pictures for some of the steps to scare away incompetent people that shouldn't be doing this to their electronic devices. If you can't figure out how to do this without the pictures, you shouldn't try this at all.
This will void your warranty in the most OBVIOUS way. Do not try this unless you are comfortable taking a drill to your phone.
Supplies:
Steps:
1. Turn off the phone (obviously). Remove the micro sd card, the back cover and the battery.
2. You will see seven screws. Six are around the perimeter and one is where the battery would be.
3. Remove them all while taking note that the one in the battery compartment is much shorter than the others. You may need to place the phone on a flat surface and press very hard to get the screws started. They all have thread locking fluid on them. Take care to not strip the screw heads. I love the fact that for once the screws are not the stared security screws. Yay open systems!
4. Once the screws are removed, separate the silver back plate from the front plate and phone circuitry. There are small plastic tabs keeping the two connected. Using a finger nail, work your way around the phone until they all pop out. The back plate should come off with zero effort if all the tabs have been unlatched. All of the plastic side buttons will come off too. Don't lose them.
5. Remove the two screws and cover plate located over the micro usb plug. This might also take some muscle. These screws are different from the rest. Don't mix them up.
6. Carefully pop the PCB up. It should only be held down by two small plastics tabs on either side of the phone. The PCB will still be attached to the screen by a ribbon cable. We don't want to remove the PCB or the screen. We just want to get at the front row of buttons to slide out. With the PCB moved up a bit, you should be able to remove the four buttons that are actually attached to one another.
Here is what it should look like:
Notice the three LED's marked by arrows?
Here is a top-down view:
The white ovals represent where the LED's are relative to the buttons. As you can see, the LED's are covered by both the webbing between the keys and the outer case of the phone.
I chose to use the LED on the left as the notification LED. This is because it is located a little bit higher on the phone than the other two. That made the drilling easier as I wasn't afraid of cracking that small plastic bridge. It was also a lot easier to tape up once I was done. It is up to you to decide which you want to use. The backlight for all your keys will still work no matter which one you pick.
7. The blue lines are where I cut the webbing between the keys. I had to even remove part of the menu button. That did not change the way the button worked.
8. Now for the drilling. Here I am about to drill my phone:
The boys in the machine shop were fascinated with what I was doing.
"Don't mind me. I'm just using an industrial drill press on my $200 phone."
As you can see, I taped the battery cover back on the phone to protect the PCB while drilling. Place a piece of cardboard on the inside to protect the PCB in case you drill too far down!
Here is the after picture:
I had to drill again with a larger bit (1.5mm), because my initial hole was a little too high. You can see the LED through the hole now. You could probably drill even further down on the phone, but the hole I made works fine with the diffuser.
Here I am manually holding the battery in place to see how the LED shines through the button webbing and the hole:
As you can see, that single LED is super bright.
9. Finally, cut out a piece of tape that will patch up the hole from the inside of the phone. In the center of the tape place a very small sliver of foam. You are making a super tiny band-aid. I used the kind of foam that is used to wrap around merchandise for shipping to prevent scratches. The foam will act as a diffuser for the light and make a secure seal around the hole. If we just used tape, the sticky side would be pointed toward the outside world and would most likely collect dust.
You want to make the tape as small as possible so that it doesn't interfere with the keys on either side but large enough so that it will secure the foam over the hole you just drilled. It will take a lot of trial and error to get it right. Once you have your band-aid in place, use the tip of a toothpick or needle to apply a very minute amount of superglue around the perimeter of the tape. This will ensure that it stays in place. Give the glue ample time to set before continuing.
10. Put your phone back together using the correct screws in the correct holes. Remove any dust from the silver back plate before screwing it on to ensure that dust doesn't settle on your camera. You don't have to worry about dust getting under your screen cover because we never broke the seal for that. After you are satisfied with how the mod came out, you can add a small amount of superglue from the outside into the hole, and allow it time to set before moving it again. This will completely seal the hole and further strengthen the band-aid.
Here is my final product:
The green comes from the kapton tape I used. It is actually too bright in my opinion. So I might open it up and apply more layers of kapton tape to make it dimmer.
But there you have it. A notification light in less than 30 mins of work.
Now use the keylights app or the tasker script I'm using here to make the backlight blink when you have missed calls/texts/...etc.
Enjoy!
This will void your warranty in the most OBVIOUS way. Do not try this unless you are comfortable taking a drill to your phone.
Supplies:
- Eye glass repair kit or equally tiny phillips head screw driver
- A drill (drill press is preferred)
- 1-2 mm drill bit (I used 1.5mm)
- A strong tape (I used kapton tape for its strength and color)
- Superglue
- A small section of foam as a diffuser
- A razor or scissors
Steps:
1. Turn off the phone (obviously). Remove the micro sd card, the back cover and the battery.
2. You will see seven screws. Six are around the perimeter and one is where the battery would be.
3. Remove them all while taking note that the one in the battery compartment is much shorter than the others. You may need to place the phone on a flat surface and press very hard to get the screws started. They all have thread locking fluid on them. Take care to not strip the screw heads. I love the fact that for once the screws are not the stared security screws. Yay open systems!
4. Once the screws are removed, separate the silver back plate from the front plate and phone circuitry. There are small plastic tabs keeping the two connected. Using a finger nail, work your way around the phone until they all pop out. The back plate should come off with zero effort if all the tabs have been unlatched. All of the plastic side buttons will come off too. Don't lose them.
5. Remove the two screws and cover plate located over the micro usb plug. This might also take some muscle. These screws are different from the rest. Don't mix them up.
6. Carefully pop the PCB up. It should only be held down by two small plastics tabs on either side of the phone. The PCB will still be attached to the screen by a ribbon cable. We don't want to remove the PCB or the screen. We just want to get at the front row of buttons to slide out. With the PCB moved up a bit, you should be able to remove the four buttons that are actually attached to one another.
Here is what it should look like:
Notice the three LED's marked by arrows?
Here is a top-down view:
The white ovals represent where the LED's are relative to the buttons. As you can see, the LED's are covered by both the webbing between the keys and the outer case of the phone.
I chose to use the LED on the left as the notification LED. This is because it is located a little bit higher on the phone than the other two. That made the drilling easier as I wasn't afraid of cracking that small plastic bridge. It was also a lot easier to tape up once I was done. It is up to you to decide which you want to use. The backlight for all your keys will still work no matter which one you pick.
7. The blue lines are where I cut the webbing between the keys. I had to even remove part of the menu button. That did not change the way the button worked.
8. Now for the drilling. Here I am about to drill my phone:
The boys in the machine shop were fascinated with what I was doing.
"Don't mind me. I'm just using an industrial drill press on my $200 phone."
As you can see, I taped the battery cover back on the phone to protect the PCB while drilling. Place a piece of cardboard on the inside to protect the PCB in case you drill too far down!
Here is the after picture:
I had to drill again with a larger bit (1.5mm), because my initial hole was a little too high. You can see the LED through the hole now. You could probably drill even further down on the phone, but the hole I made works fine with the diffuser.
Here I am manually holding the battery in place to see how the LED shines through the button webbing and the hole:
As you can see, that single LED is super bright.
9. Finally, cut out a piece of tape that will patch up the hole from the inside of the phone. In the center of the tape place a very small sliver of foam. You are making a super tiny band-aid. I used the kind of foam that is used to wrap around merchandise for shipping to prevent scratches. The foam will act as a diffuser for the light and make a secure seal around the hole. If we just used tape, the sticky side would be pointed toward the outside world and would most likely collect dust.
You want to make the tape as small as possible so that it doesn't interfere with the keys on either side but large enough so that it will secure the foam over the hole you just drilled. It will take a lot of trial and error to get it right. Once you have your band-aid in place, use the tip of a toothpick or needle to apply a very minute amount of superglue around the perimeter of the tape. This will ensure that it stays in place. Give the glue ample time to set before continuing.
10. Put your phone back together using the correct screws in the correct holes. Remove any dust from the silver back plate before screwing it on to ensure that dust doesn't settle on your camera. You don't have to worry about dust getting under your screen cover because we never broke the seal for that. After you are satisfied with how the mod came out, you can add a small amount of superglue from the outside into the hole, and allow it time to set before moving it again. This will completely seal the hole and further strengthen the band-aid.
Here is my final product:
The green comes from the kapton tape I used. It is actually too bright in my opinion. So I might open it up and apply more layers of kapton tape to make it dimmer.
But there you have it. A notification light in less than 30 mins of work.
Now use the keylights app or the tasker script I'm using here to make the backlight blink when you have missed calls/texts/...etc.
Enjoy!
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