
I Broke My Phone’s Screen, and It Was Awesome - suraj
http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=4018
======
jzwinck
There's a cultural quirk buried in the article, when the technician uses his
or her "very long thumbnail (in lieu of a spudger/guitar pick)."

Some Chinese men grow one fingernail quite long as a sign that they do not
toil in the fields (else the nail would be broken)[1]. It has been for some
time a symbol of high status. Yet here we see a long fingernail employed
specifically to aid manual labor.

I now wonder if there are budget repair guys walking around Shenzhen appearing
to show off their socioeconomic status but actually just hoping their nails
don't break because it would make splitting open broken phones less
convenient.

[1] [http://www.vagabondjourney.com/why-chinese-men-grow-long-
fin...](http://www.vagabondjourney.com/why-chinese-men-grow-long-fingernails/)

~~~
misframer
Interesting how a long fingernail can also imply cocaine usage.

~~~
evincarofautumn
It’s funny how many different connotations can be conveyed by something as
simple as fingernails. The cocaine pinky, false nails in pornography, some
varieties of massage, as a status symbol, and classical/flamenco guitar
playing come to mind.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
I find even moderately long nails make throwing pots on a pottery wheel nearly
impossible to do (well). So you can add no-fingerprints + short nails to the
list under potter.

~~~
Centigonal
Violinists and pianists also have to keep their finger nails clipped because
nails get in the way of hitting the key/string properly. Interestingly, this
is opposite to some guitar/banjo/mandolin players, who keep their nails long
to help with picking, as mentioned above.

Add one more to the list!

~~~
napoleond
This is the height of pedantry (and I apologize), but guitar/banjo/mandolin
players are not really "opposite" to violinists--they all need to keep the
fingernails of their _fingerboard_ hands short. The difference is that the
former may choose to keep the nails of their _picking_ fingers long, whereas
the fingernail length of a violinists' bow hand is almost inconsequential.

------
JumpCrisscross
Contrast this with my recent experience at the 14th Street and Fifth Avenue
Apple Stores in New York.

Two weeks ago my Mac stopped booting. Made an appointment at the 14th Street
Apple Store. Arrived 15 minutes early. Discovered there was a line to check
in. That put you into a second line, the line to be seen by a "Genius". Forty-
five minutes after my appointment time, I'm seen by someone with no intimate
knowledge of my device. Laptop is checked in overnight.

Two days later, I receive my "fixed" Mac. SSD replaced, problem still there.
Take it to the Fifth Avenue Apple Store at 4AM. This time I'm seen within 30
minutes of my appointment. "Genius" asks me to call phone support. Phone
support insists Genius can solve the problem, asks to speak with Genius–nobody
at store can find him. Thirty minutes later, phone support tells Genius what
to do. Genius disappears into a back room, emerges 20 minutes later with the
right tool. No clear answer as to what went wrong provided.

I am willing to pay for fast, smart solutions. Sometimes the brainpower is not
available, and I accept that. Curious that I feel that brainpower would have
been more amply available in the streets of Shenzhen than New York.

~~~
objclxt
> _Curious that I feel that brainpower would have been more amply available in
> the streets of Shenzhen than New York_

...although perhaps not at 4AM, which is when you went? Not to play down the
fact you had a pretty rough time of it, but the fact you could find someone to
fix is at 4AM is to me an achievement in and of itself.

~~~
bunnie
xobs and I have a game we like to play when we live in Shenzhen for extended
periods -- it's called "let's buy a soldering iron at 2AM". We'll hack until
some stupid late hour and then get hungry, and go out to find street food and
"something else", e.g. soldering iron, spare parts, phones, power adapters,
etc. in the street markets of Shenzhen. So far, we have not been disappointed.
That city simply does not sleep.

This is in part because the EU and US is awake during Shenzhen's nighttime,
and if people waited until the morning to fill all the orders coming their
way, they'd have to spend all day catching up.

~~~
voltagex_
That game sounds like a lot of fun. What's the trickiest/most obscure item
you've been able to locate?

------
userbinator
Shenzhen, and particularly the Huaqiangbei area, is a great place to be if
you're into electronics in general. Components are cheap and plentiful, and so
are component-level repair shops. "Fixed while you wait (and watch)" is the
norm, and some of the more popular shops have lineups of people waiting with
their tablets/laptops/desktops/etc. in need of repair. A friend had his
laptop's chipset reballed there (the nVidia one that was famous for failing
early.) Very different experience than in the West.

Bunnie has been there before:

[http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=283](http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=283)

[http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=147](http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=147)

~~~
rasz_pl
>A friend had his laptop's chipset reballed there

Sounds like he got scammed. Reballing only is a temporary few months at the
most fix. Its not the pcb-bga contact that fails, its the silicon-bga package
that has the problem. Reballing heats up whole chip and by accident reseals
broken solder joints directly under the silicon. Those joints will crack again
because NVIDIA used bad glue that gets plastic under heat stress.

The only way to fix bad Nvidia GPU is to replace it with a brand new one from
the fixed batch with new glue formula.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjmBv6nvUOM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjmBv6nvUOM)

~~~
userbinator
Worked well enough, he didn't mention any problems and I heard he'd sold the
laptop over a year later. The reball was ridiculously cheap too.

------
dewitt
I wish I had more adventures like this one, but I've found one of the things
that holds me back is the language barrier. I don't speak any of Mandarin,
Korean, or Japanese (I wouldn't be surprised if bunnie does, given how
brilliant he is), and I worry that not being able to communicate effectively
rules out serendipitous moments like these.

For others here, did you learn Chinese (or Spanish, or Arabic, or Russian) to
assist you in your travels? I've always found learning computer languages
easy, but human languages frustratingly difficult for me (different muscles, I
know).

~~~
bemmu
Just go. I just went to Shenzen last month. I don't speak a word of Chinese.
It really helps that you can go to Hong Kong (where you can get by with
English) first and cross the border by train/car. If you change your mind,
it's easy to come back.

Crossed the border, got a SIM card with a data plan. Browsed wikitravel,
showed taxi driver the characters for where I wanted to go. Then just take
another taxi ride to a hotel from google maps, reception spoke English. Rest
of the trip went similarly. Had no problems.

~~~
gbog
Yes, just go. But you should add that the traveler must be ready to let things
go, when traveling in deep China without knowing Chinese. And to be confident.
Then serendipity will not be just another trendy word.

~~~
prawn
And try not to achieve anything on an expected timeframe. Allow for delays;
missed trains because you couldn't find a platform or taxis going to the wrong
place because your directions were vague, etc.

------
VLM
One interesting aspect of replacement is the difference between a good rework
job and a bad rework job is typically environmental sealing. Does the case
still snap perfectly tightly, with sealant/gaskets, if any, around the borders
etc?

This is useful advice not just for people doing it themselves, but to evaluate
a shops ability to do rework. If its a busy shop catch a guy leaving with a
replacement and ask to see some completed work.

There is an analogy with programming where a mere "it compiled" is not exactly
the pinnacle of all possible compliments.

------
sergiotapia
Same deal here in Bolivia, you break something chances are someone somewhere
in Los Cachis can fix it for you inexpensively.

For example my Kindle 1st gen charging port was no longer snapping the
connector cable correctly - I took it in and for 20Bs ($3) they fixed a
soldered part that had come loose with the ins-and-outs of the charging cable.

------
x0n
I did this myself for my Nokia Lumia 920. Same fault - the glass cracked but
the digitizer and display were fine. Hair dryer, tweezers and a ton of
patience. It took me four hours though, but it was a complete success.

If you're planning on doing this yourself, don't be tempted to buy an
unbranded replacement - they may be fakes or poor quality reproductions (not
gorilla glass, digitizer inaccurate, etc.) - My phone was a developer device
but I replaced the screen with an AT&T branded one. The branded screens are
usually genuine.

~~~
subway
Simply obtaining branded hardware can be difficult -- I recently had to
replace the full assembly on my Nexus 4, and in the process had 2 orders out
of Shenzhen seized by customs, while a 3rd out of HK successfully shipped.
This was all due to an LG logo that was only visible on the back of the part.

~~~
anoncow
Why were they seized?

~~~
subway
My understanding is the seller didn't have the appropriate paperwork to export
hardware bearing an LG logo.

------
icegreentea
This post hints at one of the great advantages of being close to suppliers.
When you're that close to the supply source, you gain all sorts of advantages
like:

a) You can typically find the person actually building the damn thing, and ask
about it.

b) You can probably get your hands on a large set of cheap, defective parts to
play around with.

c) You can get your hands on the actual parts really cheap.

b and c together vastly reduces the cost of experimentation, and more
importantly, reduces the cost of screwing up.

This is some of what you lose when you become just the end node of the supply
chain. This is the type of 'magic' that some people speak about when they talk
about when 'America (or insert your choice of western democratic country)
built things'.

~~~
judk
This is also a hardware metaphor for the concept of "open source" software.

------
Intermernet
The hairdryer as heat-gun method was first shown to me by an incredibly gifted
Electrical Engineer (from China) who used this method to fix dry joints on
PCBs (including consumer mainboards).

It was astounding the first time I saw a dead MB revived with nothing more
than a bathroom accessory!

~~~
rasz_pl
Sounds like quite a feat considering hair dryer wont produce more than 50-60'C
and solder needs >180'C to even start thinking about melting.

Hair dryer in Bunnies case was used to heat up the GLUE between glass and
screen.

~~~
noonespecial
Just partially block the air intakes. It'll get hot fast. Just be careful it
doesn't start to melt inside.

~~~
rasz_pl
no it wont, there is a thermal cutoff inside

~~~
noonespecial
Hmm. I've got one here I use for heat-shrink tuning I used masking tape on to
lower airflow and boost temp. I'm not sure its hot enough to melt solder
(probably not) but its great for heat-shrink. I suppose a YMMV is in order.

~~~
rasz_pl
If you remove thermal cutoff you will:

a/ burn the heater

b/ melt whole thing

c/ burn your house

a combination of those things.

------
dannyrohit
That's pretty nice, but in the US at least, the digitizer alone is almost
always never replaced because it is a fairly dangerous maneuver. [1]

Also, if you have the tools (and I would recommend buying a small electronics
tool set to everyone, because it's a lot cheaper and funner to fix stuff
yourself than to pay someone to fix it), then you can buy a complete LCD +
digitizer for $36 on Amazon. [2]

[1][http://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/111483/iPhone+5+cracked+g...](http://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/111483/iPhone+5+cracked+glass,+but+the+screen+still+works)

[2][http://www.amazon.com/Generic-Screen-Digitizer-Assembly-
Repl...](http://www.amazon.com/Generic-Screen-Digitizer-Assembly-
Replacement/dp/B00APSNZSG/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1401023285&sr=8-4&keywords=iphone+5+screen)

~~~
drfritznunkie
It's hard to understand Shenzhen if you've not been there. I just returned
from the Dangerous Prototypes Hackercamp in Shenzhen, and quite frankly, I
don't think there is anyway you can fully comprehend what they can do there if
you haven't seen it with your own eyes. Such things as replacing the glass are
completely routine and done with incredible speed and precision. They have
tools and techniques there not found anywhere else.

I ran into Ian and Jin from Dangerous Prototypes at the SF Bay MakerFaire last
weekend where they were demonstrating the BGA reballing techniques we learned
at the Land Mobile Repair School in Shenzhen. Ian told me that earlier in the
Faire, a couple of Intel engineers stopped by to tell him that what he was
doing was wrong, incorrect and impossible (or some combination thereof). He
ran them through the process and left them agog, not only that the process
developed by the Chinese (about $50USD in tools and supplies) was comparable
to a $XX,000 reballing machine, but that they'd never seen or heard of these
techniques before. They were throwing away prototypes worth thousands of
dollars instead of fixing the problem because they didn't have proper
reballing machines/jigs.

It is well worth the trip to Shenzhen if only to see them disassemble a phone
completely and refurb it faster than imaginable. Ian hopes to make HCS a
regular event and I highly recommend it!

~~~
turnip1979
For someone without the contacts, can you recommend a way to plug-in to the
scene? This hackercamp sounds interesting .. any more on the way?

------
Retr0spectrum
When I repair phones, I always replace the digitizer and the LCD, firstly
because it is too difficult to separate them, but secondly because buying the
LCD+Digitizer as one unit isn't that much more expensive than buying the
digitizer on its own.

~~~
maxerickson
The shop is apparently in the business of refurbishing the units. That should
be helping keep your prices low...

------
ricardonunez
I didn't have the same luck with a nexus 7 couple of months ago. It fell from
a small night table and the screen shattered (the digitizer still works). I
did the same process as the post explained and I got a replacement in Amazon
($60 and $6 for the tape), but for some reason it didn't work. The broken
screen used to work, but now I only hear noise when I turn it on, but no
image. I think I made a mistake when I was removing the graphic ribbon, who
knows. Now I feel like I don't want to put more money and time into it. It's
great a company like that recycle everything, just separating the digitizer
takes a lot of work.

------
Zigurd
FTA:

> _I had originally assumed that the glass on the digitizer is inseparable
> from the OLED, but apparently those clever folks in Hua Qiang Bei have
> figured out an efficient method..._

There is a large amount of skill involved. I saw a designer take apart a
smartphone to use the digitizer in a "looks like works like" prototype.
Getting the glue off and otherwise dissembling a smartphone screen without
breaking anything is not easy! It's not meant to be repairable. And this guy
is a wizard at building prototypes.

------
readme
I've got the iFixit repair kit. So far I've used it to repair a kindle hdx, a
samsung android device, and an iphone 5c. Basically I just wait until a friend
breaks their device and fix it for free. I got a free kindle fire HD out of
the deal anyway. I don't ask for money since it's usually friends. I've also
used it to replace the battery in my lenovo p500 which does not have a
removable battery i.e. you must crack it open.

------
raldi
Does anyone here get anything useful to happen by dialing ∗#0∗# on an iPhone?
I just get the message "Error performing request: Unknown Error"

~~~
eli
I don't have an iphone handy, but I bet if you google "iPhone USSD" you'll get
some pointers.

------
qwerta
> This is the power of recycling and repair — instead of paying $120 for a
> screen and throwing away what is largely a functional piece of electronics,
> I just had to pay for the cost of just replacing the broken glass itself.

Some level of replace-ability should be enforced by law. There should be
universal interchangeable types of batteries. Board self-test should be
available and so on.

~~~
rayiner
That's not how engineering works. There are good designs that can't be
achieved while making things replaceable. For example, the reason screen glass
often isn't replaceable is because it's optically bonded to the underlying
LCD, which improves sharpness, reduces glare, and reduces parallax when using
a pen. The reason batteries usually can't be replaced is that it saves space
and weight to use naked Li-Poly battery packs molded to the available space.
Making say a back case removal reduces structural rigidity and reduces space
available for a battery. That's engineering--making trade-offs between
features people may not care about in favor of features they care more about.

~~~
pekk
Most people could stand slightly thicker phones. We are dumping huge amounts
of toxic stuff because phones are designed for planned obsolescence. If there
were pressure to use replaceable or upgradeable parts then we would see
thinner phones with these traits, but without that pressure we are going to
get more planned obsolescence. That's engineering too.

~~~
lilyball
Inability to repair is not planned obsolescence.

------
pling
The three times I've broken phone screens it's always the OLED/LCD display
that popped and the digitizer just sat there and grinned at me having
protected sod all. I've replaced them all myself and it's been pretty easy on
all devices and very cheap. The OLED/LCD displays all came from ebay.

------
jakejake
I was curious about the diagnostic code mentioned * # 0 * #

I tried it and the phone did seem to go into some diagnostic mode and showed
"please wait" for about 5 seconds, then just stopped with "Unknown Error" Sad.

------
amolsarva
I guess it takes skills @dannyrohit

I have tried to replace the set on an ipod touch in the past. Didn't succeed.
Screwed up taking the face/body assembly apart.

------
pyb
I don't fully get Bunnie's point. I got my 3gs' screen replaced for £30 here
in the UK (over the post though)

------
stonogo
There's no better place than any oversaturated labor market to get cheap
labor! How uplifting.

------
lcnmrn
Can you replace the iPhone LCD screen with an OLED display?

~~~
nobodyshere
Technically yes, there's nothing stopping you from that. However you have to
find a suitable display assembly of the same size and with the same connector.

------
wfjackson
Video of the process for anyone curious.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbZwypAINYE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbZwypAINYE)

------
darkstar999
Maybe I'm just grumpy since I haven't had coffee yet this morning, but why is
this worthy of being #1 on HN? Author got a part replaced on his phone. Wow.

~~~
gdubs
Here's why I find it interesting. We live in a world (in the west) where our
gadgets are a big part of our lives, and yet we're pretty helpless when
anything goes wrong with them. We use these pocket-sized supercomputers for
the most mundane tasks, and compared to the rest of the world, we live a life
of leisure.

This piece is interesting because it's a nice short story that gives a great
sense of place. To me, it feels like Blade Runner. There's a society of people
that can repair a $500 smartphone like it was reattaching rubber to a boot.
They possess advanced repair skills, but belong to a class that would be doing
menial labor here in America.

~~~
judk
They are doing menial labor in China as well (being paid nearly nothing),

And most of us here can't reattach rubber to a boot either.

~~~
gdubs
Yes, that was my point -- though I worded it poorly.

