yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] kiril_nedev:
Ok so I'm probably the biggest dumb ass around :D

I already tried on 2 phones and still can't get it working

on the first Phone I blew up some capacitors, the pull-up resistor etc. so I gave up

I bought another one and:

1. disassembled it carefully

2. Removed the plastic part of the keyboard

3. Removed the metal cap covering the SIM chip very carefully using hot-air soldering station

4. Removed the SIM Chip again very carefully using hot-air soldering station

5. Removed the SD Card slot using hot-air as I don't need it and I want to put the SIM slot on this place

6. Put the SIM slot and soldered it according to the diagrams provided (verified the pinouts)

7. Flashed recovery-clockwork-6.0.1.3-asanti.img using fastboot.exe and Unlocked the BootLoader from Motorola's web site

8. copied cm-10.2-20131102-SNAPSHOT-M1-xt897.zip to the internal flash (the one mounted as /sdcard/)

9. Booted into clockword mod and cleaned everything (factory reset)

10. Flashed cm-10.2-20131102-SNAPSHOT-M1-xt897.zip

11. in CyanogenMod from the Networks Menu I tried all kinds of configurations like RUIM/SIM instead of NV, configured network mode to GSM Only, GSM/WCDMA Auto/

but I still get an icon of an SIM Card with Question mark on top of it and a label saying "No SIM Card - No Service"

with my previous phone when I was trying to set the Network Mode to GSM/WCDMA it didn't allow me, saying that I have to put a SIM card first.

now it allows me but I still cannot get any service.

Is there any other step that I'm missing?
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] divie:
it should find a sim no matter the settings. Did you try it on stock rom?

Sent from my SM-T320 with Tapatalk 4
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] timekiller_9:
kiril_nedev -

I don't think it's a matter of being a dumbass. This is very difficult surgery, and there are flaws/gaps in the various documents out there.

I don't understand the piece you wrote that I have quoted below. Are you saying that the phone is detecting the SIM or not? Clarify the state your phone is in and we might be able to help you better. Download "SIM Card Info" from play store and let us know what it tells you (On my phone, it crashes on startup if it doesn't detect a SIM, but that's still useful data).

If your phone is detecting your SIM then the first question I'd ask you is where you are located. If you are in the US you need to unlock US GSM. See the end of my post here:

http://charleswilkinson.co.uk/2013/12/02/add-sim-card-to-photon-q-4g-lte/#comment-5931

If you end up flashing up to CM 12.0 or higher then the command is built in; it's named "unlock-us-gsm". Just run it as root from a shell.

If you need to redo the mod because you killed something and just cannot see it, and again if you're in the US, don't rebuy the whole phone, just get another motherboard from eBay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Motorola-Ph...394?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4189bda512

I killed 4 of these before I finally got it right.

I think you're going to regret removing the SD Card. I would have suggested placing the SIM card as I did in the post I linked above and then, if it's necessary for you to be swapping the SIM card regularly, come up with some creative way to make it easier to pop up the butt end of the case or dremel a small slot in the back case.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] Galane:
I updated my old, out of service Photon Q to CyanogenMod 12.1. Mainly just because I'm fed up with SamSprint putting North America at the bottom of the pile for updating the S4 and GT3-7.0" to Lollipop.

I first used Motorola's unlock service then Motochopper to root. Next I used RASHR to install TWRP. That's where the problems began. TWRP could not mount or wipe the stock partitions, nor could it reformat them to stock format.

I had to use it to change the format of System, Data and Cache to F2FS *then* CM 12.1 would install and the phone would boot.

Apparently nobody has ever gotten a real full stock ROM for the Photon Q which can be flashed. I found a TWRP full backup that TWRP can restore, I assume if those three partitions are changed back to their original filesystem, whichever one it is.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] arrrghhh:
What do you mean, RSD lite flashes stock beautifully.

As you mentioned there's a TWRP backup floating around as well. Not sure what else you could want... With RSD being so simple, I didn't see the need to create flashable zip's for stock - it seems everyone else felt the same way :)
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] Galane:
Got a link to stock 4.1.2 that RSD can flash? I haven't been able to find one.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] arrrghhh:
Devhost still seems to be hosting these files for me...

http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=57121063&postcount=138 <<< last post in the FXZ thread FYI.

I use an adblocker, so the 'bogus' download link is blocked for me... Just note the orange 'download' link is bogus. The blue 'download now' link is valid. They started doing that crap recently, but it's free and doesn't get blown up like dropbox.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] Galane:
OK, got that. Now I just need someone who wants a 2+ year old phone with the latest version of Android installed. ;) Seems pretty decent for speed, no bloatware, plenty of storage left in the built in 4 gig.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] arrrghhh:
Good luck, sell the kb aspect :p

Also, just FYI the internal storage is technically 8gb - but only ~5gb is available to the user.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] Galane:
I wonder if this wiped the built in storage with an old version of Motorola Device Manager that shows up when the phone is plugged into a PC without the Motorola drivers already installed?
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] arrrghhh:
I'm not sure, but at this point we are both pulling this thread wayyyy off-topic.

If you don't have anything to add related to the SIM mod, start a new thread (or find another one to steal that is more related to your question :p)
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] Freundschaft:
Just received my modded Photon Q XT897, such an upgrade to my Droid 4 XT894!

Thanks a lot to CornholioGSM! Worked without a flaw!

Cheers
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] wolverien:
wtb

Hello, i'm interested in buying one but don't really know what steps need to be taken,....

im still rocking on a desire z right now but its getting time to put it away

and since no other interesting keyboard phones here i am :)
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] arrrghhh:
Buy a Photon Q, contact [MENTION=243251]CornholioGSM[/MENTION] (look at the OP his email is there), he will work out the details with you to get the modification done professionally.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] wolverien:
i am mailing with this guy, but im not sure what he means , should i buy a phone and send it straight to him.

Or will he buy the phone or should i buy it get it to myself first then to him
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] arrrghhh:
However you want to do it. May be cheaper to just send the phone direct to him - although keep in mind this way you won't be able to test the device so you'll just have to assume everything is a-ok.

He may charge a bit extra to check it out for you if you do ship direct to him. Otherwise ship it to yourself, make sure the device is fully functional before shipping to him and insure it appropriately.

He will not buy the device, you need to provide the phone to him. He is only providing the hardware to make a SIM slot accessible and obviously the professional services to install said SIM slot.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] wolverien:
Ok thx guess ill be looking for a phone then :) any 1 knows best spot to buy them for europe ? ebay ?
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] Elanzer:
Ebay is fine, in my case after contacting cornholiogsm I had my unopened photon Q mailed directly from the ebay seller to cornholiogsm, with a note in the box with my email address. It came to me in perfect new condition... he didn't even remove the "please remove me before using!" plastic screen cover.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] wolverien:
what did you pay for the phone ? just to get an idea
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] mikeshox:
i paid 47,00 on my photon q
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] wolverien:
does it matter if it has a bad esn or not ?

can only find them around 70.00 and they are not shipping to outside us :/
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] mikeshox:
about bad esn i dont know :/

and try send with shipito, viabox, myus...
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] tobby88:
BadESN doesn't matter when using it with SIM-card.

If they don't ship directly then you can use Borderlinx.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] dequis:
Got my modded photon Q from [MENTION=243251]CornholioGSM[/MENTION]!

A massive upgrade over the motorola milestone 1 that I had before, it's like I really am in the future.

I didn't really care about having to wait for it, but the whole process took almost a year because I asked a friend from the USA to take care of buying it from ebay and shipping it around the world, and, well, this friend didn't consider this phone the most important thing of the world, heh.

Remember this message?

Yep. That was my friend, who didn't follow my instructions :p

After talking to CornholioGSM and confirming that it was mine, he got it done within a few hours, the fastest part of the whole process. Contrasts a lot with the three months it took for my friend to bring it back here.

But here it is! :D.

Now I need to reconfigure my brain to remove all the "you can't do X" that I collected over the years. Like "you can't use a web browser" (so slow it was painful), "you can't install more apps" (they might steal ram) or "you can't open the keyboard in this app without hanging it for several seconds". The last one feels really weird now - it's instantaneous, *and* has a fancy animation. How does that even work? This must be some alien technology.

Attached pic of the photon Q taking a pic of the good old milestone, which I had been using the last few months without the "keyboard" (read: sheet of plastic with key labels) because it was actually easier to type than with it.

(also, front camera! whoa!)
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] mikeshox:
Cornolho this is amazing job bro, thanks very much,

working in Brazil
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] angelfirex:
Hi,

maybe I'm on the way to mod my phone (really don't know if I can get it done), one of my resistors must be disconnected on the RIGHT side (in blue circle, arrow side) is it important? What should I do?

Thanks!
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] CornholioGSM:
it is not resistor, but capacitor connected on one side to ground....not neede - you can leave it free :)
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] angelfirex:
Oh so glad!!! Many thanks! :o
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] schmandroid:
Dequis - I remember that post for the "t shirt" Q haha.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] angelfirex:
How important is that silly little blue square ring? I can't find it anymore. . .can I do without?

Thanks!
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] henryricken:
I've been meaning to come back here and say thanks for the sim mod. I have been using my modded Photon Q for a few months now. I've already bought another Q in case something happens to mine. If the Project Ara phone doesn't get a good physical keyboard module, I might have these 2 phones for the next 5 years!

I'm on the AT&T network with Straight-Talk, if that helps anybody.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] angelfirex:
Got mine modded and working finally (lost the blue ring but works without)!!
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] valebiliris:
stopped reading at page 76 so I apologize if someone already said this: I used push/push nano sim holder from Nokia Lumia 830. It fits perfectly near speaker but you should be careful when soldering it: I melted it and had to buy another one!

awfully sorry but I can't share imgs...
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] CornholioGSM:
Hello,

i have question for all who have modded photon from me in australia.

can you please tell me delivery time?

Bacause i have now two packages on the way from me to australia and are on the way more than one month :(
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] gtmaster303:
Anyone know what happened to cornholiogsm? I was emailing him back and forth about sending out a photon q for mods and haven't heard from him in almost a week...

He was very good about replying, usually getting responses same or next day
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] tobby88:
He's very busy sometimes. Sometimes it takes up to 6 weeks until he can mod your phone and maybe he is on summer vacation at the moment ;)

Don't worry and maybe wait a little bit longer :)
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] CornholioGSM:
you know...are vacations etc :)
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] gtmaster303:
No worries, my Photon Q is delayed (ordered from ebay)

Hopefully I can get it by Monday. I will provide you tracking as soon as I ship
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] gtmaster303:
Just disassembled my phone within 10 minutes of receiving it. I feel like Adam Outler :P

I followed this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_JlhF600XU

But don't be fooled into thinking the teardown is that simple. The phone in the video has obviously been taken apart before, considering the ease of everything coming apart. I didn't have a pry tool, so I used a credit card. Worked ok. Be careful not to break any of the small plastic clips on the back cover. It is fit very snug onto the phone, as it's not designed to be taken off. There are no entry points. Use your fingernail to get started. The amount of adhesive holding the battery in place is substantial, to the point that I was bending the battery to get it off. The antenna frame has 3-4 clips that you have to be careful with. You can easily break them.

Just take your time, don't force anything too hard, apart from the battery adhesive

Cornholio, my phone is on its way out to you :)
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] escogido_irrazonable:
super awesome mod, 150% satisfied

Just got my photon q back and it works great! Thanks!!!
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] photonqaccount:
I've been using my self-modded phone for about a year running cm11.

Today I upgraded to cm12.1 and now the following problem shows up:

- after booting the network and sim card is working

- after one to five minutes the network is gone and the settings drawer show "no sim card"

Any hints on this?

Edit: Never mind, two cables were not connected properly. Strange coincidence.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] gtmaster303:
Just wondering if anyone uses this phone on Cricket Wireless? What kind of data speeds are you getting?

I'm currently with T-Mobile and the best speeds I've gotten are 13Mbps down, 2mbps up. I will be switching to Cricket in the near future and would like to take my Photon Q with me

I know cricket limits LTE to 8mbps and HSPA to 4mbps. Wondering what that translates to when using the photon Q
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] gtmaster303:
Found out on my own (wow this forum is pretty dead)

It was just as I expected. I only catch HSPA signal so I'm limited to 4mbps. Still fast enough to do what I want on the go, but wish it was a tad faster. I can't complain about Cricket's price though.

Thanks all
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] nick_fc:
gsm network issue

is anybody have an issue with loosing network or loosing simcard?
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] ninthtale:
I have a question.

If this guy had to physically hack his way into this phone to make this work, how do we explain this:

http://www.cricketusers.com/f152/[t...-4g-lte-cricket-talk-text-mms-internet-35039/

Did they have a model that already had a SIM slot? Did they hack it? Did they not actually need it?

What gives?? D:
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] arrrghhh:
That thread is from 2012, Cricket was CDMA at that time... The modifications there do not require a SIM slot and has nothing to do with this thread.

You already created a new thread, please don't crosspost as well...
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] mazak23:
Hello again.

I found that thread few weeks ago and went through but not finished reading.

Now I have my Photon Q and wanted to go ahead with mod, it should be no problem for me as I worked for mobile repair center some time ago and have skills and tool.

But what's worry me - if I am not going to change for CM or any other Android and leave it with the 4.1.2 as it is now - will it work everything after modding and using GSM card - for example 4G or LTE data transfer?

Cheers
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] Schattenspieler:
4G/LTE will work, but only in countries using supported frequency bands (presumably like USA).
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] schmandroid:
Yeah - most countries will work to some extent. Check the frequencies of the carriers.

Works in Australia.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] gtmaster303:
after the sim card mod, can i still use this phone on sprint? will it still get lte on sprint? i may be switching to ringplus (sprint) soon and would like to continue using this phone, rather than buying a fresh photon q...
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] zzangu83:
You should get Sprint SIM card after this modification to use Sprint mobile again.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] gtmaster303:
which sprint sim card? there are multiple cards out there and i dont believe they're universal
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] zzangu83:
I don't know about the Sprint service but before do modification, test Sprint sim card to another phone whether it works or not.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] Jpwinks001:
I am just trying to find if this works in the UK? I noticed the 4G band is 1900mhz if I am not mistaken? That sounds like it wouldn't work with UK providers I thought... Can someone clarify this for me?
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] zzangu83:
you can use this phone in U.K. but you can only use UMTS(WCDMA) or GSM network. LTE network only available in USA
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] SumthinWicked:
Just bought a second Photon Q on e-bay and having it shipped directly to CornholioGSM. Bought my first about a year ago and it's still going strong. At one point it even bounced out of my jacket breast pocket from on top of my bike (yes, I live in the Netherlands) to somewhere, didn't realize it was gone until I was home. Went back and searched all along the road I had biked for about an hour. Turns out some girl found it by the side of the road and called my gf with it (yes, one of the reasons I do *not* lock my phone). She had been waiting outside my house for about 40 minutes: my hero. It was cooold. Got it back the next day: Zero screen damage! I guess my guardian angel cought it and put it down gently ;)

I realized I better have a second one lying in wait in case something like this happens again and my luck runs out!

Just wanted to thank CornholioGSM for his past & future work: Tnx m8! :laugh:
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] CornholioGSM:
...thank you too :)
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] mazak23:
I tried today remove the chip but unfortunetly no joy. Can anybody had that kind of problem? My heat gun is pro but I was not using it for some time, mainboard was damn hot allaround but no chance to move the chip even a bit. Maybe mine is glued?
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] CornholioGSM:
no...shield is just soldered and you need small hotair adapter with approx 7mm dia. quickly you can do it with approx 450 celsius for about 10 seconds..........BUT 450 celsius only for remove shield!!! for "sim" ic is enough approx 350-400.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] mikeshox:
i'm waiting for my second photon modded by cornholio <3
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] Shaker1978:
I'm not sure, what a heat gun is, but DO NOT use a blow torch like I did in my first attempt wirh no success either! It is said, that it needs to be be a hot air rework station. It has a little air pressure or a higer air flow than a blow torch / heat gun or whatever and is more precise. I had 600 °C output and nothing moved. But the resistors / capacitors around became black...
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] schmandroid:
Pencil torch (eg really fine tip) worked fine for my mod. Tinfoil for heatshield around shield, and then chip.

Hook the shield through the small hole in the top to remove.

Use tweezers to remove the chip.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] CornholioGSM:
...correct
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] mazak23:
Mine is hot air rework station. After suggestions from CornholioGSM i manage to remove it. I choose the highest temperature setting (number 6) but not much blow (number 2). It was still not easy - about 2 minutes of making board hot went off. In the meantime i broke the chip around the corner. Also was not easy to remove shield as I would say I have to cut it out somehow. If the rezistors are black they still may work, but worst think is that all around board may had some sensitive parts that can overheat during extesnive temperatures. I will soom order nano sim and will try to fit in the place where was old chip. Nano specification say it is 9mm wide and there is 10 mm. Good luck.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] Shaker1978:
I did it!

Finally!

First attempt with stock phone - gone totally bad. :D

Second attempt (new board) by a "professional" - ripped off some near SMD parts.

Third - already modded phone by some ebay guy - had an unusasbly poor WLAN reception.

Fourth attempt (new board), now with a suitable equipment and some gathered experience - my modded Photon Q is ready for daily use :victory:

THANKS for the great instructions and technical information (SIM wiring) here!
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] photonqaccount:
Looking for digitizer

I managed to break my screen. Has anyone a digitizer (or complete screen) for sale in Germany/Europe?
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] photonqaccount:
So I got a new phone and also a new os: CM13. I received the error "no data sim" a few times. Only switching the phone off and on again fixed it (reboot did not).

Any clues whether this is sim mod related?
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] ogrfnkl:
I've got a modded Photon Q that's been sitting around unused for about two years, since I upgraded to another phone. It's in good condition. The only thing I am not sure about is the state of the battery, as these things don't take kindly to long periods of no use. If anyone is interested, make me a reasonable offer....
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] photonqaccount:
An update to this problem: I travelled a bit by train the last two days which implies a lot of bad cell tower coverage and I got the problem with "no data sim" every 30 minutes. So it seems to be triggered by bad reception. Any hints anyone?
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] ---UFO---:
Could anyone please tell me, what is proper way of doing NV edit to enable SIM moded Photon Q to work in USA? Thanks in advance.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] kabaldan:
In cm-11.0 since Apr 30 2015, cm-12.0 since Feb 24 2015 or any cm-12.1/13.0 builds, you can execute 'unlock-us-gsm' command in a root enabled terminal emulator app or adb shell.

That's the easiest way to do the NV edit if running CM or CM based ROM.

su
unlock_us_gsm
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] CornholioGSM:
...oki...i go add it on first page :)
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] elros34:
Hello, I just bought Photon Q with unfinished sim mod.

www .imgup.cz/images/2016/05/28/20160527_004.png

Anybody know for what this 4-pins missing IC is? From what I have understand I can replace R1, R2, R3 with 0 Ohm and R4 with 2 kOhm. Is that correct?

My micro-sd slot is broken also but I found it's is MOLEX 5033981892 - www .tme.eu/pl/details/mx-503398-1892/zlacza-do-kart/molex/5033981892/. Maybe it will be useful for somebody.

I know there are no schematics but maybe somebody found I2C bus on pcb?
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] huhu1312:
huhu, i bought a second xt897 on ebay after i brick my first.

but the new one make me problems with the sim card.

i always getting the message invalid sim or no sim after some min / hours. its really randomly.

so i taked a look inside. and i saw one wire from the sim card reader is going somewhere else.

can this make the problem?

the one that was working befor i bricked it:

the problem phone:

Edit: i changed the antenna who was cutted when the phone get the sim mod.

the antenna i insert is from a old vodafone 525 phone. that fixed the problem.

whats about this tut? can it enable LTE for our nice phone, maybe ?

http://xdaforums.com/galaxy-s5/general/how-to-add-rf-lte-frequency-bands-to-t2886059