[HARD MOD]I successfully added 500 gb HD and kept all batteries

So, I've added a 500 gb hard drive to the dock while keeping the battery.

That's right, all batteries, all parts are still there! The only difference is I've rearranged all the inner crap around to make the 500 gb fit. Asus, if you're reading this, take notes

Anyway, here are the pictures. Remember that all I've removed are some plastic pieces that serve no other purpose than to keep things in place. All electronic parts are still there. It's like trying to work out a piece of puzzle. Well, I've finally found a combination that works!

Well, here are some pictures. Now, I have a laptop-tablet hybrid with a 500 gb hard drive and 16 hours of battery life!

A side note, I really really tried to figure out a way to add more battery on top of this. No possible way.









Added by edit.

By the way, constructive negative feedback are welcome. Non-constructive vague, misleading generalizations are also welcome but with an attitude of annoyance. I did this hardware mod fully aware that I voided my warranty. What can I say? I'm adventurous like that.

Like some people have mentioned before while doing a tear down of the dock, there's just a lot of unused room in there. The problem is those unused room are scattered all over the place. What I have done is move the electronics around so that everything is still there + a 500 gb hard drive.

I highly recommend against this hard mod for everyone else but me. If you're going to do this, I take no responsibility if you screw up. The mod requires some very delicate soldering. So, please, don't follow my foot steps.

Anyway, as far as I'm concern, I'm the only person in the world as of this moment with a tablet-laptop hybrid that has a 500 gb hard drive. Damn, I feel special

Added by edit (9/2/2011)

So, I just added in a tiny switch to turn on and off the hard drive. Here are some pictures. Those of you who want to do this mod, glean what you can from the pictures







Edit.

I am now offering to do this mod for people. If you want me to do this for you, you need to buy the hard drive (hdd or ssd, doesn't matter, make sure it's usb), send your dock and drive to me + $75 via paypal + a return stamp. I promise I will be extra careful with your stuff. Hit me a pm if you're interested. Also, you have to tell me if you want me to put in an on/off switch for you. I live 2 minutes from radio shack. If you do want the switch, add $2. In the package, there should also be a letter with your name, address, and exactly what you want. And please if you're going to send me the keyboard dock, make sure you send me a functional one. I will test out every aspect of the dock before I do anything. If anything is wrong with it, I will send it right back to you. So please, do not try to scam me into buying you a replacement dock.

If you're poor, like a college student, talk to me. And if you're that guy who introduced himself as a businessman and then went on to try to negotiate down to $40... really?

For those who are handy dandy with your hands, I have posted more than enough info for you to replicate what I've done. If you cannot do this mod with the current info, then it's best that you don't try.

I do ask people 5 things, though.

(1) Make sure you consult me first about the hard drive you want. Don't just send it to me. I need to make sure it will fit!

(2) I need you to be absolutely sure you want this mod done to your keyboard dock. This mod will void your warranty.

(3) I need you to not regret after it's been modded. I take no responsibility for any buyer's remorse from you.

(4) I promise you that I will be extra careful with your dock. After experimenting with my own dock, I have developed much safer ways to do this mod. I'm almost 100% sure I can do this without messing up your dock, since I now know the dock inside out. I know every little part that's involved. I know exactly what wire goes where. However, there's still a risk involved. I need you to understand that.

(5) Don't be a whiner. I hate whiners. This is a transformer. It will never become an ipad. Jesus christ, if I hear one person complain that this mod did not turn their transformer into an ipad...

Anyway, think it over and if you still want this mod done, hit me a pm or email. If I don't respond to pm, then try again with email.

And by the way, this is not a business I'm doing. This is more like a favor. You try getting best buy or some other store to do something similar to this for you and see how much they charge. In other words, I have no money. Please don't try anything funny to scam me. Trust me, I've nothing for you to scam out of.

Before you guys send off your dock to me, I need you to check if your sdcard is still in the slot. There are 2 reasons why you should take your sdcard out before you send to me.

There are some things on your sdcard you'd rather not have me or anyone else see. For instance, someone just sent me 16 GB of gay porn. Not going to mention any name *ahem* . Next time this happens, it could be you and your spouse in a naughty video.

If I take the dock apart with the sdcard still in there, the sdcard slot will stop holding in the sdcard. There is a little tiny pin in the sdcard slot that's responsible for clicking and keeping in your sdcard. When I first took my dock apart, I forgot to take out the sdcard. The pin flew out. It took me a whole saturday to put the pin back in there.

In other words, I now officially hold myself NOT responsible if I absentmindedly take your dock apart before checking the sdcard slot. And I absolutely do not want to spend another saturday putting another one of these tiny pins back into the sdcard slot.

Added by edit.

So, to recap. Here's what you need to include in your package.

(1) Your docking station. I can't mod it over the internet yet. Still working on it.

(2) HDD.

(3) Shipping label.

(4) A letter stating the following:

Dear all, I ain't telling nobody how to do this. Again, this is way too dangerous and I wouldn't want anyone to risk it. I really don't want to be responsible for something that might happen. Especially when this ivolves taking the battery cells apart and solder them together in such a way to fit the design. If you want to do something similar, you figure it out.

No, I'm not being a jackass. I just don't want to be reponsible for the extinction of the human race.

Frosty666 said:

You're most likely right, which is unfortunate.
Strange though. The seller has sold 49 these (http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/256GB-US...ash_Drives&hash=item45fcc29b06#ht_2782wt_1139) and still has 100% positive feedback.

EDIT: Make that 50 sold. There was 47 sold when first found that page. He must be doing something right...

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Because most people are dumbasses. There are fake hard drives floating around from china. They are not real. They have been rewired to say however big the faker wanted to say. Your data will be lost once its real capacity is passed.

jdmnash said:

How can you make a post about such a substantial mod on a hack/mod/developing forum and discourage anyone else from trying it? Seems a bit conceded if you ask me. There are PLENTY of people on this site that are not "faint at heart".

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Because I know most people are not up to something like this. You can go ahead and try this if you want. I can't stop you. But take my word for it, this really does take some very delicate soldering jobs. Do you feel confident soldering pinhead size places on a board? Do you even have the equipment?

Also, take a look at the following thread on me modifying my car to mount the tablet.

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1192291

Read the subsequent comments telling me what an idiot I am for putting that in. In fact, I have no doubt that you at this moment think I'm an idiot for doing that mod with my car even though I explained in that thread very clearly that I checked many times to make sure the mod is out of the way of the air bag and air bag deployment area. Go ahead and read the rest of that thread. See how people started desperately looking for a reason to criticize that mod because it seemed scary.

Well, this mod is 10 times scarier than that car mod. I simply don't think most people are up to something like this.

But if you really want to try this out yourself, tell me and I will post step by step instructions on how to do this. Take a look at my viewsonic g tablet for dummies site linked in signature. I am very good at writing instructions for dummies.

I am currently testing the battery life. Started off fully charged both tablet and dock. Set the brightness to full. Have a timer running down from 16 hours. So far, 2 hours have passed. No noticable heat coming from the dock. Just checked the hdd. Still working 5 by 5.