Razr HD & Razr HD MAXX Teardown

In case anyone feels like taking their RAZR HD apart, here are some instructions:

1. Get the following items together first:

• Little dish, to hold screws & parts so they're not lost
• "T-5" torx screwdriver
• Plastic or thick wooden toothpicks, for gently prying connectors apart
• A box to hold the screen/pcb/etc. so they won't get damaged

2. Use the torx screwdriver to remove the two screws on the bottom.


3. This little plastic trim is going to fly out of the phone, so point it at your dish on the next step so it doesn't land under your couch.


4. Hold the phone like you'd hold a newspaper, and slide the screen up. (Like it was a slider phone). It should move about 1/4"


5. The screen will now unfold from the back. It's attached with 2 ribbon cables. You remove the cables by pulling on them


6. The screen is now detached. Put it in a box on a high shelf out of your way so it's not lost or stepped on.


7. There are 10 black screws to remove. Use your T-5 Torx screwdriver. Put all of them into your dish of safekeeping.


8. The metal camera clip (item 2) is now loose. Put it in your dish.
9. Remove the clear plastic over the speaker connector (item 1). It is held on with medium adhesive, you can use a thin blade to pry it away from the plastic. Put it in your dish.
10. Pry the button ribbon cable (item 3) off the PCB, it is held with a light adhesive. Then pull it out of the connector in the direction of the arrow (HINT: see maxx pictures)


11. Here is the button ribbon cable detached


12. The speaker cable plug is held in a "U" shaped channel. You detach it by pulling it towards you (away from the back of the phone). (HINT: see maxx pictures)
13. (optional) You can remove the camera by pulling the ribbon cable up. Not recommended- they are kind of annoying to re-attach.


13. Remove the plastic cover over the battery ribbon cable. It is held on with light adhesive.
14. Push/pull the battery cable down to detach it. (HINT: see maxx pictures) Remember to use plastic/wood to do this- when shorted, these batteries can literally melt metal instantly.


15. With the 2 ribbon cables + speaker cable disconnected, you can now remove the PCB


16. The battery is attached with double-sided tape. You have to pry it out by pulling on the sides. There are 2 "battery removal" stickers on the battery which suggest that is where you should pry. However, I found that I could most easily pull up the upper-left corner, which would let me put my fingers underneath to pull it off. Regardless of how you go about it, be gentle, as the battery is somewhat malleable (like clay) so you want to bend it as little as possible


17. The locations of the double-sided tape- a little on top, and a bigger one on the bottom


18. The speaker is held in place with a light adhesive.


Update:

The screen appears to be plastic-welded into its bezel in several spots. The speaker & LED are removable, but the screen is not:


Update:

Closer pictures of the back cover and chassis.
Also a picture of the EV30 battery electronics, for those considering attaching an induction charger. The arrows are:
Red: Where the battery leads are soldered. Clearly we can't attach charger there because it would bypass the safety electronics
Yellow: Snugly plugs into a socket on the PCB- no place to attach charging
Green: Where the plug is attached to electronics. Your best option.

Razr HD MAXX Teardown

Are you nervous about taking apart your Razr HD MAXX? No worries, it's exactly the same as the regular version. Let's go to it!

Remove screws and slide up


Unfold the screen and detach


Close-ups of the PCB


Prying up the speaker connector


Prying up the button cable


Pushing down the battery connector. Once it's pushed down this far, you can pry it up from underneath (where the arrow points).


PCB removed, and close-ups of the battery sitting in the battery tray


The MAXX battery: model EV40 ... 3300mAh!

Convert RAZR HD -> RAZR HD MAXX

Are you interested in frankensteining your RAZR HD to have the MAXX battery? YES, it can be done! You don't even have to remove the battery or speaker.

Once you have remove the PCBs from both phones, the back panels are an identical layout.



The MAXX back is slightly taller

icenight89 said:

Grant2, did u so that little tutorial yourself?

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Yes the pictures + text are all mine. Have the higher-resolution pix but i downsized them all to 640x640 to fit on the forums.

Thanks for the compliments!

Motorolalover said:

Its 2460/2530 mAh. I wonder what does that mean.. does it mean its in between this?

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"2460/2530 mAh (min/typ)" ... i take that to mean:

2460 mAh = minimum (guaranteed by the manufacturing process and/or quality assurance testing)
2530 mAh = typical (most batteries will have this amount)

What's interesting is the "9.3/10Wh (min/typ)", which has double the tolerance (7%) as the mAh (2.8%)

2460 mAh @ 3.8v = 9.3Wh
2530 mAh @ 3.8v = 9.6Wh

So I suspect that the package, for whatever reason, overstates the "typical" Wh slightly.

amedeh123 said:

One thing tho: Is the screen fused with the front glass? Is it also fused with the carcass? (meaning that if it breaks of the touch stops you have to replace the WHOLE front assembly)

Click to expand...

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YES the display appears to be plastic-welded to the bezel! There is no obvious way to separate them. (see pics in main post)

I cannot determine if the glass is fused with display or not.

nippit said:

I am trying to figure out if i can squeeze an Qi or powermat receiver in there, maybe with some bulging... but not sure about the NFC and etc around the area.

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New pictures in the main post! Unfortunately I'm not sure they can give you the info you want...

007shark talks about putting a magnet on the cover in this post: http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=34805593&postcount=17 so clearly there is room to put more in there.

The cover is already shaped thicker at the top, which is where the NFC is glued, so the battery tray is actually flat.

I don't think there is room for something about as thick as a credit card. The case can flex a bit, but only in the middle, so anything thicker than a credit card would have to be a decent amount smaller than the battery tray (which is 105mm x 58mm) for the flexing to give more room.

I could only find a picture of a Qi receiver for the Galaxy S3. If the pad you are thinking of using is the same dimensions as that, I expect it to fit. However, getting power to the battery is another issue. The EV30 battery plug has 4 pins and they fit snugly into the PCB. You can't really attach there.

It seems much more plausible to solder the receiver to the battery's electronics at the same place as its plug is soldered. You would need to use your voltmeter to identify which of the solder points actually connect to the + and - terminals on the battery. (See picture in 1st post). Once you've soldered the wires you can attach the receiver to the battery with the double-sided tape that's already on the battery.

If you attempt an install, please let us know how it goes.! This sounds like a great mod.

Edit: I tried to reassemble phone with a credit card between battery & PCB. It was still too thick. I would guess you could fit approx. 1/2 credit card thickness, or approx. 0.35mm. However if you include the potential flex from the back cover this receiver probably could still fit.

tech_head said:

Actually not weird for the tolerance.
The voltage probably has some tolerance. So P=IR.
That is Power is equal to Voltage times Current.
So 2.460x3.8v = 9.4Wh
If we back into the number then we will assume 3.8V is the minimum voltage from the battery based on the specs.
Then that means you could have a voltage as high as 3.95 from the battery based on 10Wh.

The bottom line is that to get to 10Wh either the voltage or current capacity has to go up.

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

2.46ah x 3.8v = 9.348Wh. So I think you are rounding the wrong way.

I considered that variable voltage may be responsible for the discrepancy, and although there was some merit, I wasn't really convinced.

My EV30 battery has a voltage range of 3.51v -> 4.33v during discharge. This would produce an average voltage of 3.92v, assuming an even slope. If the slope were convex (i.e., voltage drops more slowly at higher voltages) the average could indeed be 3.95v.

The problems I have with the idea is:

1) voltage is controlled by the onboard electronics. Others might tell me if this isn't the case, but every EV30 battery should have _exactly_ the same voltage range (determined by controlling electronics), even if the capacities vary (determined by electrode materials). Therefore voltage cannot contribute to the delta between "min" and "typ" batteries.

2) why would the "min" Wh be calculated from 1 arbitrary voltage level (the one displayed on the label) and the "typ" be calculated from some other arbitrary voltage level (3.95v) that's not listed anywhere?

...
an interesting academic discussion, and perhaps one day someone in the battery manufacturing industry can confirm exactly how the numbers on the label were derived?