HW mod the device to install a microsd holder

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BeatB

Senior Member
Sep 24, 2010
299
72
Vienna
Ok guys my post here has nothing todo with the micro sd holder, although good luck with the work.

But since some of you opened their tabs and had a look at the mobo:

is there any chance of upgrading a wifi only model with a 3G module? Because i found a site with spare parts. Now i want to know if i can somehow solder it to the mainboard if there is space..?? or no chance?
 

jacampb2

Senior Member
Apr 21, 2012
115
18
Beaverton
www.rollmeover.com
BeatB, you may have seen earlier in the thread that we mentioned that the 7510 has a similar unpopulated area on the board where the Sim reader is attached. At the very least you will be in a similar boat as to what we are looking into here, for certain the connector as it is not present, most likely the nearby circuit, and write possibly other component changes in other undetermined locations to support the cellular radio. Probably possible, but most likely cheaper to sell what you have and buy the tab you are after. I am a huge proponent of DIY, but I think in your scenario the risk far outweighs the benefits.

zooster, thank you for the new pm, the link worked. I have just had a few minutes while at work to glance at the service manual, however, i did see that in the section on level 2 repair, all the pictures show a Tab that while missing the sd card holder, still has all the component locations for it populated. The bad news is that none of the photos are high resolution. It does have me wondering though if the launch version 3g tabs were populated. If so, we need to get word out and to have people look, at best, this might be plug and play for them, at the least maybe they can help us on hardware and someone smart can look into software???

At any rate i have my fingers crossed. I'll share whatever else i stumble across as time permits.

Later,
Jason

Sent from my GT-P7510 using Tapatalk 2
 

zooster

Senior Member
Oct 14, 2007
2,151
281
If you notice those pics from fcc approval are related to a 3G 7500.
Hopefully Sammy didn't empty those pads suddenly before the marketing.
I'm quite confident that for the very first commercilized mobos of 7500 sammy did take out only the sd holder, leaving in place those SD pads populated, emptying them only in a second time.
So, I think there are good chances that an early manufactured mobo of a 7500 has got all those chips in place.
So, please: who has early got a GT-P7500 (3G) as soon as commercialized can please take an hi-res snapshot of the mobo?
 

johho

Senior Member
Sep 11, 2007
292
18
Mainz
www.maklerhofmann.de
If you notice those pics from fcc approval are related to a 3G 7500.
Hopefully Sammy didn't empty those pads suddenly before the marketing.
I'm quite confident that for the very first commercilized mobos of 7500 sammy did take out only the sd holder, leaving in place those SD pads populated, emptying them only in a second time.
So, I think there are good chances that an early manufactured mobo of a 7500 has got all those chips in place.
So, please: who has early got a GT-P7500 (3G) as soon as commercialized can please take an hi-res snapshot of the mobo?

From which date area are u talking? I mean how old does the pad have to be to have the chance that the parts are inside? Mine is 3month old.. Dont want to open it just for fun...

Sent from my GT-P7510 using XDA Premium HD app
 

jacampb2

Senior Member
Apr 21, 2012
115
18
Beaverton
www.rollmeover.com
If i had to guess i would expect it would be the very early models. Like the folks who ordered at launch in whatever market saw the launch first. A lot hinges on when they made the decision to exclude it. We see from the sd card readers out on the market that they must have been making them prior to the decision to exclude, it stands to reason that there would be at least some matching tabs out there.

It would most likely be much more costly to rework the mobo's and remove components, then recertify and use those boards then it would be just to scrap them. The least expensive option would be to just to use them as is and do a revision on the rest where the components are unpop'ed.

Probably if your tab is 3 months old, then it is far to recent of a build to have the parts. Ty for offering though.

Jason

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2
 

zooster

Senior Member
Oct 14, 2007
2,151
281
I agree, and I add that it would be most likely easier to find those components into a 7500 than a 7510. The fcc approved one with those components is a 7500, and easily there are 2 different manufacturing chains, one for the 7500 and another one for 7510. I wouldn't be surprised if still now all the 7500 are manufactured with those components soldered. After all, that sdholder is labeled for 7500...
Again and again, its important to take a pic of a 7500 mobo, better if of an early production.
 

jacampb2

Senior Member
Apr 21, 2012
115
18
Beaverton
www.rollmeover.com
I agree, and I add that it would be most likely easier to find those components into a 7500 than a 7510. The fcc approved one with those components is a 7500, and easily there are 2 different manufacturing chains, one for the 7500 and another one for 7510. I wouldn't be surprised if still now all the 7500 are manufactured with those components soldered. After all, that sdholder is labeled for 7500...
Again and again, its important to take a pic of a 7500 mobo, better if of an early production.

I have found quite a few pictures of the 7500's, the FCC ones I found were the only ones that were populated.

There is a thread elsewhere on XDA (I would have to dig to find it again) where they talked about whether or not the hardware would be in the tabs even though the decision was made to scrap the SD slot. There was one user who claimed, although he did not provide pictures, that his 3g tab had the hardware inside (including SD card slot) just no case opening. It appears this user had a penchant for exaggeration and embellishment and managed to get himself banned, but I guess there was a chance he was telling the truth...

I have a hard time believing any recently produced tabs are still going to have the hardware. They wouldn't spend the money on components for no reason. Even at pennies a piece, things add up in their numbers game.

Later,
Jason
 

endursa

Senior Member
Dec 26, 2008
958
312
Linz
i would definitly try this out, but i got some troubles ordering the memory card holder in europe/austria

somebody know something where to get this?

i have some background in electrical engineering so maybe we can achieve somethinghere!

edit: i found something in the service manual, the area besides the molex connector is indeed populated, but the pics in the service manual are to blurry :/
 
Last edited:

jacampb2

Senior Member
Apr 21, 2012
115
18
Beaverton
www.rollmeover.com
There was a UK seller selling the card holders on Ebay when I got mine. If that doesn't pan out, LMK via PM and I will middle man one from the US for you. No one is listing that many at a time, so either there are very few out there, or the people who do have them are testing the waters...

I personally have not been able to do anything at all with moving forward on this. I had planned on pulling my tab apart last week and ringing out the connections and mapping the pads, but I got called back to work and might be really slammed here for the rest of the summer. I work at a major chemical plant and we cover the plants 24/7. A four man crew in my building working 12hr shifts, and we had one guy blow his shoulder out so now it is 3 people to cover 24/7. Needless to say I am pretty much only working and sleeping right now. I'll keep up to date with what I can...

Later,
Jason
 
Oct 29, 2011
11
0
hi, i have attached 2 photos of my P7500 internals i hope it would be helpful , the pics are not very high quality but that is all i could do.. i really hope that a micro sd card could be installed because i am beginning to choke on the stupid 13 GB storage..
 

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zooster

Senior Member
Oct 14, 2007
2,151
281
Hi, can you please take a very hires macro of the area at the close right of the simholder?
 
Oct 29, 2011
11
0
i am very sorry but unfortunately the pry tool broke and i sealed the tablet after changing the touchscreen digitizer so i have no means of opening it :(
 

zooster

Senior Member
Oct 14, 2007
2,151
281
Well, today I was thinking about a workaround to the memory limitation.
Since atm we cannot mod the hardware installing a memorycard holder, why not replacing the original memory chip with a larger one? 16gb with 32 or even 64?
Yes it's required a lot of soldering skill, but still I think it's feasibile as long as the memory addressing of the new chip is the same.
E.g. we can start soldering into a 16gb version the same chip of 32gb version, afaik roms are the same, so till 32gb it should be ok.
 

droiduzr2

Senior Member
Jan 26, 2011
895
126
Just a thought here. I hope I can explain this properly.

It might be easier to just modify some SDcard (not microsd) slot and attach it to the charging port (usb on the go).

Make sure you can unplug it or obvious charging reasons.
By using a FULL size SDcard reader/adapter we can also use a microSD with an SD adapter card. This gives us the option of reading full size and microsd cards.

I am sure you can find some really thin setup and wrap all the pieces in heat shrink tubing for the clean look. connect the reader with velcro to the back of the tablet. Just take apart something that has the sdcard slot or buy a cheap part from some other device from ebay. What about the internal sdcard slots found on laptops?

Now you can have numerous options.

What do you think?
 

zooster

Senior Member
Oct 14, 2007
2,151
281
Already discussed... surely it's the easier way the one to connect the sd slot directly to the usb pins of the 30pin connector but there are 2 downsides. One is that you have to unmount the memory everytime you need the usb, the other one, and I believe to be the main one, is that usb needs 5v, whereas internal microsd uses 3.3v, so there would be a consistent battery drain due to a device always connected.
 

droiduzr2

Senior Member
Jan 26, 2011
895
126
Already discussed... surely it's the easier way the one to connect the sd slot directly to the usb pins of the 30pin connector but there are 2 downsides. One is that you have to unmount the memory everytime you need the usb, the other one, and I believe to be the main one, is that usb needs 5v, whereas internal microsd uses 3.3v, so there would be a consistent battery drain due to a device always connected.

I don't think that a big difference in power draw.
I am sure you will recharge the tablet long before.
If someone is creative they can probably make a split connector or some pass through. Personally I don't see it being a big deal to add an unmount widget on your home screen and then when you want to charge the tablet it just tap it.

The current method seems to have a very high risk of damaging the tablet.
How many ppl will be able to do that?

Just my 2 cents.
 

zooster

Senior Member
Oct 14, 2007
2,151
281
Nope, battery drain would be high compared a microsd, and anyway you couldn't install app on that device since it wouldn't be seen as a sd.
 

droiduzr2

Senior Member
Jan 26, 2011
895
126
Nope, battery drain would be high compared a microsd, and anyway you couldn't install app on that device since it wouldn't be seen as a sd.

I am confused. I thought the point of wanting external storage would be for music/movies/photos

I am sure 16gb internal allows you to install lots of apps.

Okay, carry on your experiment:cool:
 

sxi200

Senior Member
Oct 18, 2010
1,510
449
Melbourne
Wish someone could find a way to do this. Bought the tab 2 on Friday just for the micro SD slot. Selling the tab 1 to a friend. Anyway, after 1 day I've decided to keep the tab 1 and sell the tab 2.

Although it has the sd slot, it pointless for me as it wont connect to HDMI and that damn screen is horrendous. Looks horribly washed out and a yellow tinge or something. Side by side the tab 2 beats it hands down and text is much cleared. And ics on the tab 1 is much smoother than on the 2.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium
 

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    But it's still possible to use the internal connector and slot, ready for the microsd holder.

    This is the holder:
    201112211935395264.jpg


    And below is the mainboard of the tab
    1
    My next step....

    XDA is no longer worth my time.