Is Samsung going to reuse parts from recalled Note 7 phones? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: fubar.gr
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 15, 2016, 04:38:49 pm
content: After the Note 7 recall, Samsung is going to end up with millions of barely used or totaly unused phones in their hands.What are they going to do with these? Does it make sense to dismantle them for parts? I guess it wouldn't be cost effective to reuse cheap parts, but some of them can be quite expensive.Eg, the curved screen of the Edge models costs about $85 according to some articles. That amounts to 30% of the BOM! Can these be used on one of the future Samsung models?How about memory chips, processors, etc?

author: elgonzo
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 15, 2016, 05:00:45 pm
content: What exactly is the point of your question?I mean, you could write an email to Samsung and ask them. I am sure they will thoroughly answer you how they deal with the situation in each different region in the world, which companies they have contracted to deal with the disposal and/or recycling of these devices (including shadily selling these devices somewhere in the 3rd world), what extracted components they are allowed to sell to whom or in which market (for example allowing selling of screen on 2nd hand/grey market, but demanding the complete destruction of the boards), and whatnot...

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 15, 2016, 06:46:39 pm
content: Some VR headset used Samsung phone displays as is, with Samsung bezel. They may not be worth much to Samsung, but someone can benefit from this.But corporations never give away stuff like that, so it is likely they will just scrap them.

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 15, 2016, 06:59:11 pm
content: The device is done, even if they fix them all, they have missed the cycle. The whole brand is probably done too. I doubt the next one is even going to be branded Galaxy.NOTE: This was a reply to a post that was deleted while I was writing the reply.

author: NiHaoMike
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 15, 2016, 07:07:01 pm
content: Resell them for dirt cheap without the batteries, hotwired to run from the USB power and adb enabled for easy provisioning. The DIY "supercomputer" builders will take them all in a flash. (Imagine if Dave got 100 of those!)

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 15, 2016, 07:12:45 pm
content: Quote from: NiHaoMike on October 15, 2016, 07:07:01 pmThis will even further tarnish the brand. Especially when people will try to use them as phones with some crap batteries from alibaba. And there is going to be another wave of the news on how Samsung phones explode even after they all have been recalled.

author: RGB255_0_0
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 15, 2016, 07:18:57 pm
content: Only the S Pen and Camera!If we look at all the parts, they might be able to use more since it's a bit more modular, such as the USB-C board. The board, battery, case will RIP and possibly the screen/SOC will get reused in Gear VR or something if they have some kind of jig to remove.

author: continuo
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 15, 2016, 07:34:52 pm
content: Quote from: fubar.gr on October 15, 2016, 04:38:49 pmActually, no. According to the reputable German newsblog "Der Postillion" they are all sold to ISIShttp://www.der-postillon.com/2016/10/samsung-is.html

author: NiHaoMike
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 15, 2016, 11:20:33 pm
content: Quote from: ataradov on October 15, 2016, 07:12:45 pmUpdate the firmware (or modify the hardware if there's a cheap way to do it) to disable the charger so it cannot be used with a battery. Maybe even super glue the USB cable in so it would be clumsy to try to use as a phone. And require the buyer to sign a waiver that Samsung will not be liable for unauthorized modifications including any attempt to power the phones from anything other than a USB port.

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 15, 2016, 11:25:18 pm
content: Anything you do to a phone will just lose more money.There is not going to be enough of a market for this. Realistically, how many people will want a phone with a cable glued in, or charger disabled? You already can buy used (and even new) phones pretty cheap.And if you sell it, you must also deal with warranty and customer support.It is a losing proposition, no matter how you look at it.

author: NiHaoMike
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 16, 2016, 12:58:07 am
content: Quote from: ataradov on October 15, 2016, 11:25:18 pmThere won't be that many who'll want to buy it, but the few who do will want to buy many. There are some altcoiners who have 50 or more smartphones in their mining clusters. What matters are performance/$, performance/unit, and performance/W. High end smartphones do very well on the second and third metrics but very poor on the first. If an altcoiner gets the rare opportunity to buy high end smartphones for a fraction of the original price, that will give him or her an advantage over altcoiners who only have cheap, low performance smartphones.Maybe shorten the warranty to 90 days or less and have a minimum order requirement to reduce overhead costs. It would also be interesting to do an analysis of the cost to recycle the phones. It might be cheaper to disassemble the phones, remove and dispose of the battery, then give away the remaining parts to hackerspaces. Or stretching it further, train some members of hackerspaces how to safely remove and dispose of the battery and let members reuse the remaining parts in projects. (e.g. use resources of local hackerspaces to cut shipping costs.)To get around the problem of someone reassembling the phones with a questionable third party battery, make a statement that anyone who claims to sell a Note 7 with a working battery is unauthorized and that such devices are likely unsafe.

author: Brumby
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 16, 2016, 05:30:21 am
content: The process for assembly is highly automated and components are presented in a form to fit in with this.The process for disassembly is anything but. Any recovered components will be too fiddly to handle. Any sub-assemblies are more than likely going to be the wrong layout and/or specs to be usable in a new design.In short, they are better off grinding them up and recovering any precious metals......

author: NiHaoMike
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 16, 2016, 07:43:37 am
content: The kind of clusters altcoiners build can accept virtually any Android device. It's literally just installing the mining software on the device and running it. The batteryless Note 7s actually have a huge advantage for large clusters - if they could be configured to boot as soon as USB power is connected, it greatly simplifies rebooting a crashed node.I'm sure the altcoiners wouldn't mind having to reassemble half disassembled phones if that means they could get great performance for a low price. Simply blending up the whole phones is a no go as it would mean having to deal with a rather intense fire. They would have to remove and dispose of the batteries in a safe manner.

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 16, 2016, 08:01:28 am
content: Quote from: NiHaoMike on October 16, 2016, 07:43:37 amWell, they are not getting Note 7s.Samsung never sold phones directly, they always do it though carriers or local distributors. To give away those phones they would have to figure out a way to distribute them around the world.Then there is a whole slew of legal issues. They are still connected devices, so they may need re-certification. Or may be not, but you will not know until you pay someone to figure that out.Disassembling the phone for scraping produces 3 piles - a pile of batteries, a pile of phones and a pile of cardboard and other packaging material. None of the piles need to be neat.If you want to reuse the phone, you need to figure out a way to open it carefully, extract the battery, and then package it back. After that you need to figure out a way to test that phone still works. You would not want to get a broken phone, even if it was cheap, do you?All of this is manual labor, it is expensive, even in "cheap" countries.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 16, 2016, 08:30:17 am
content: The packaged charger units will be usable as either units for new phones ( in the case of the unsold stock that was returned) or as warranty replacement units for those in new phones that fail. That is about the only part that is not model specific, and i suspect that the rest will simply be sorted into 4 piles, cardboard box and printed manual, plastic wrappings, charger and wire ties, and finally the phone itself. Then the cardboard and printed manuals will go through an industrial shredder, the plastic will be baled, the chargers will be sold as is, and the phones themselves will go through another shredder to be recycled as scrap metal.

author: TerraHertz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 16, 2016, 09:38:45 am
content: They could crush them, mix with tar and gravel, and pave a road somewhere with the result.Call it Galaxy Road.All fun until it explodes.

author: NiHaoMike
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 16, 2016, 02:45:04 pm
content: Quote from: ataradov on October 16, 2016, 08:01:28 amMaybe the idea of training some members of hackerspaces and letting them do the work would be the solution. And donating rather than selling would get around the problem of duds.I wonder if some altcoiners beat me to the idea since several of the altcoins I'm mining have jumped in difficulty level faster than expected.

author: raptor1956
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 16, 2016, 11:35:31 pm
content: Quote from: TerraHertz on October 16, 2016, 09:38:45 amAnd that road would lead to one and only one place -- Uranus!Brian

author: station240
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 17, 2016, 04:15:53 pm
content: Quote from: TerraHertz on October 16, 2016, 09:38:45 amHeated roadwaysMuch though I hope the LCD screens could be reused in hobby/general electronics, I suspect the resolution, interface etc might be too much work.

author: janoc
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 17, 2016, 07:55:19 pm
content: Quote from: RGB255_0_0 on October 15, 2016, 07:18:57 pmNo, it won't. GearVR doesn't contain any display, CPU or anything else of substance (there is only an IMU, touchpad and a "face sensor" connected to an USB connector , the rest is a piece of plastic with 2 lenses and a strap). You insert **your phone** into that to act as a display & CPU.The original Note 7 cannot be even used with the GearVR headsets anymore, it has been explicitly blacklisted by Oculus because of the fire/explosion risk. Nobody wants that sort of liability for something strapped to your face.Oculus is supposedly using Samsung LCDs, their DK2 development kit had an LCD with the phone touchscreen still attached (not bezel!) inside. But nobody is going to buy recycled displays like that to put in a retail product - the potential of support problems afterwards would be huge. It is simply not worth the risk for a product in that price range. That is something they really don't need after all the missteps, scandals and various bad press they had this year already.

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 17, 2016, 08:01:58 pm
content: Quote from: janoc on October 17, 2016, 07:55:19 pmHere you can see that they use full phone front face including a bezel with Samsung logo on it and holes for the buttonhttps://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Oculus+Rift+Development+Kit+2+Teardown/27613

author: bktemp
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 17, 2016, 08:12:07 pm
content: Quote from: station240 on October 17, 2016, 04:15:53 pmIt is not an LCD, but an AMOLED. It uses a MIPI interface, so it could be used as a general purpose screen if you can get the init sequence (it runs in command mode and needs a custom init sequence, otherwise it won't turn on). I've used an FPGA for driving similar OLEDs from a HDMI source. The OLED itself are very fragile (moisture sensitive) if not bonded to the touchscreen/frontglass. They are very thin, flexibel displays. So removing them from the front glass is impossible.To answer this thread:Samsung is going to destroy everything:http://www.i4u.com/2016/10/116244/samsung-destroy-all-galaxy-note-7-unitsThat is probably the only solution to make sure the phones don't appear somewhere in China.

author: SkyMaster
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 17, 2016, 11:06:08 pm
content: Quote from: TerraHertz on October 16, 2016, 09:38:45 amRoad?Where we're going, we don't need roads

author: janoc
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 18, 2016, 07:22:42 pm
content: Quote from: ataradov on October 17, 2016, 08:01:58 pmShould have re-checked before opening my mouth.Of course you are right.