I intended to save this post until next week to avoid overshadowing my last post, but it's too fun to keep to myself that long. If you love me, you will Digg This!
These pictures are the internals of the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet. There is really nothing to see inside - it's well engineered and comes apart relatively easy, but there is no undocumented hardware like the Nokia 770's microphone when it was released. All the chips are covered by soldered-on RF shielding so they cannot be read. The back of the PCB is all "antenna space" so even the circuit traces cannot be followed. The only thing that struck me as odd is that the headphone jack appeared to have one extra contact on it, but that could just be the mounting solder point or the RF shield. The pictures are in the album linked off the above image.
I did it so you all don't have to. I did it twice, actually: Once for the photos and once for the videos. So yes: DO NOT TAKE APART YOUR INTERNET TABLET. It will void your warranty and there's nothing interesting to see inside.
Here's the video:
By the way: Those who guessed "RDesktop" for my last video got it right. It WAS a hoax, but a fun one. I had to re-flash all the way back to IT2005 since RDesktop was never ported beyond that. The "magic USB cable" was connected to nothing. See? Told you it wasn't VNC!
14 comments:
Damn... The face plate does not seem to hide any magnetic switches.
There's one for the battery cover but the only realistic place for one in the front would be on the button board. That seems too flat to contain a sensor.
thanks for the post. actually there's a rdesktop port for IT2006, check maemo's applicationcatalog2006 page. (or maybe applicationcatalog2006wip? not sure)
Awesome. It looks like it would take a lot of "Thought" to "Fix" one should it happen to have any major issues. The guys at the repair centers for this thing have their work cut out for them.
Thanks that very nice video.
Ooooh lovely pun, Derek. Actually the most common damage would be the outer case or the display, and those are all modular. If the circuit board is damaged in some way, the case and display can be recycled. It really is an ingenious design - ESPECIALLY in how easily the two most expensive parts (circuit board and display) are so independent of each other.
Could not the extra contact on the head phone jack be for the microphone on the headset?
The extra lead on the headphone jack is for the microphone. You'll notice the included headphones have an extra band that stereo headphones usually do not have (microphone). The Mic is in that grey and black bas labeled Nokia near the left ear piece. Apparently Nokia is Norsk for "mic"
The most interesting part was left out: What chips are exactly on the PCB (behind the shielding). Any suprises? Something the developers want to know, I am sure.
RFFN
Has anyone tried using a bluetooth keyboard on the N800?
I'd like to use a camera with the N800 at a distance of 2-4m
(Application type: parking aid).
What I'd like to know is whether I can remove the built-in webcam and reconnect it with a 2-4m cable.
Could this work? (Probability?)
Or would the signal detoriation be too great?
Alternatives would be WLAN-cams (expensive+need separate power source)
or USB-Cams (driver support for Moeme?)
dusty: Yes! I use the Stowaway "Sierra" keyboard myself, though any generic (not Palm- or whatever-specific) BlueTooth keyboard should work.
vume5: It's worth a try. Note that it's a digital signal, so there won't be any quality degredation, though it's questionable how far the signal can go without repeaters. You'd definitely want to use as shielded a cable as you can get. Maybe multiple USB 2.0 cables. (Multiple to get enough wires; also gives separate shielding to reduce crosstalk.) Also, adding those ferrite-core "donuts" around your cable should increase the distance the signal can go.
USB camera might work if you find one with an open-source driver and you're willing to compile for ARM yourself. Also note that while the N800 does have a USB host, you need to make your own cable (using USB mini-B plug instead of A), and supply 5V DC to the USB port, as it isn't self-powered. (See here [from the Maemo wiki])
Another non-N800 alternative is a closed-circuit monitor setup. The cameras are cheaper than WLAN cameras, and a simple 5 inch black-and-white video monitor can be had for $20-$40.
ThoughtFix, did you see a crystal canister in the unit when it was open? Since I haven't seen any overclocking software for the N800 I was thinking that brute force canister replacement could get the 330MHz up to 400+ or so.
If you look closely at the rf shields, they can be easily pried open with a small screw driver. The top portion is not actually soldered to the bottom part.
Nokia N800 specs web-page has this line: "Nokia AV connector 3.5mm". Any chances that there is also a Video out signal embedded in the headphones socket? Like e.g. Nokia N95? The Omap chipset should support this feature.
Here's another thing to note: Nokia actually installed an fm reciever chip in the unit without telling anyone (just search your repositories for 'fmradio') and the chip uses the headphone port as an antenna. The program can allow you to plug headphones (or anything, really) into the port and broadcast through your speakers, or switch to the headphones for actual private listening.
It may just be using the common ground on the case, but then again there may be a lead going to the headphone port for this a s well!
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