[Vibrant Android Development] siirial:
Breaking news available via my twitter feed or #vibrantFFC

FFC works in 2.1 with Bionix 1.6. No video calling available yet, but FFC does work.

10/8: There are a lot of changes coming to this thread over the next 12-24 hours. This has turned into a thread with too many functions that is cluttering each other. Due to this, and a few requests from our moderators, I feel I need to make these changes before continuing too much further.

This was originally intended to be a thread on making an FFC work, and getting the expected use out of it, both on the hardware side, as well as some needed software development. I have been asked to move the purchasing buddy system to another thread in Vibrant general as well as a couple other things. I will have these all set up tomorrow.

I would like to apologize for being a bit silent recently. I had been called to take on some projects out of town for work, and just got back into town last night. I have been trying to pack for my move since, and still have some more to do.

Beyond this, I have good news. The first shipment has been ordered with expedited shipping. Should have it in hand by the end of the week. Details for those that have sent pms will be sent out tomorrow to give you details of a private buy it now ebay auction for presales of the first shipment. Once those people have been taken care of, or the shipment arrives, the single item purchase will be open to everyone.

Unfortunately, selling on amazon does not look like it can happen at this time. Once I can get past a couple hurdles, it should be good to go.

Thanks guys. Can't wait to hear everyone talking about their FFC's on their vibrants...

10/5 pm:

Hey guys,

I have gotten a lot of feedback from people interested in the FFC mod, and the wholesaler keeps changing the minimum order like a douche (10/6: Talked to the owner today - He's pretty cool, not a douche, but MOQ will stay set at 3 from now on). So, I am setting up an account on Amazon to sell them individually. The price is going to be about 30.00 bucks (It basically covers the units + wholesaler shipping, Amazon retail account, warehouse storage, and fulfillment services - with a little left over for beer) per unit plus shipping. If you are interested and haven’t contacted me yet, please PM me so I can order enough units to cover everybody.

Also, Amazon has free shipping with a Prime Account. For people who don’t know, you can sign up for a free Prime Account if you have a valid college email address (anything that ends with .edu). The signup page is a little hard to find, so here you go.

To those who have already pm'ed me: I will be sending individual pm's as soon as this is all set up, thanks.

10/5:

Sorry all, I have had a tight schedule the last few days... I will have more info very soon regarding the Amazon stock. Thanks for your patience and showing interest!

10/3:

With the supplier upping the minimum order quantity to three already, I wouldn't put it past them to increase again. With that said, I am looking into a way to do a large purchase of i9k cameras and drop shipping with amazon. I have a couple other ideas... whichever makes the most sense and costs the less I'll roll with. Chances are that after the extra costs, the price will be in the mid $20s to $30 each. If anyone is interested PM so I can get an idea... will have to make an initial purchase with cash out of my pocket, so need to know how many we are looking at. I'll get a chance to make a couple calls tomorrow and update this with more info.

tested, working

Needed:

Replacement Camera with ffc: GlobalPartsDirect.com *** Wholesaler (Min order requirements, keeps changing, had been as high as 10) Working on individual purchases through Amazon **

Eugene's Froyo JP3(Latest as of this writing is R3)

Cameradata file: datapattern_front_420sp.zip (attached to post below)

Other things that can help:

Tools to open phone, fiberglass pen (not confirmed) or denatured alcohol, tear down video

How to do it:

1. Shutdown your Vibrant, remove battery, sim card, sd card

2. Remove each screw in the back plate

3. Using an opener tool (or something to wedge between the back and front plates), snap off the back plate.

4. Disconnect all of the "snap on" assemblies

5. Remove the Camera

6. being careful not to snap the connection to the power button (it is glued on the phone), move the main board to the side slightly so it stays safe.

7. Using your method of choice (paint remover chemical or fiber glass pen), remove the paint inside the circle molding where the FFC mounts to.

8. Install camera when area is fully dry (5 minutes or so)

9. Put phone back together

10. Flash Eugene's Froyo (R3 is latest as of writing) - remember to flash a 2.1 kernel whenever trying to nandroid restore or installing a 2.1 rom so you don't brick your phone during the downgrade

11. adb push cameradata file to /system/cameradata

12. boot up phone, download "mirror app for samsung galaxy s" from the market

13. Check your hair or something using your newly installed FFC!!

adb push [location to file]/datapattern_front_420sp.yup /system/cameradata/datapattern_front_420sp.yup

More info coming as I get a chance to add it...

UPDATE 9/30: Camera installed... With eugene's r3 froyo + the cameradata file, ffc works without any further set up. I'll update this post in the morning before I get on the road.

UPDATE 9/28: Found a camera from an i9k. Before I link it up, I would like to have some time to make sure its worth your investment. The i9000s camera snaps in as expected, and the rear camera works without a hitch. Need some dev help to get the ffc software into the build environment/kernel. In the mean time, I'll be plundering through the source.

Unfortunately, I am merely a web/db developer and can do bash scripting, but building android is not in my realm of expertise...

UPDATE 9/28: Good news is that the rear camera works as if I never switched cam assemblies. Also, as you can see in the fourth pic attached, if done right, the mod looks factory once done.

Now on to getting the front cam to work!!

Original Post:

Had to tear my Vibrant apart this last weekend, and in the process I did some research on the camera. See attached photos. The camera chip is the exact same chip used in both the Sprint Epic 4G and the international Galaxy S, as is the rear camera. The only difference is the inclusion of a front facing camera on the epic and i9000s. This got me thinking about how to mod the vibrant to have a front facing camera since they are the exact same thing.

On the hardware side, obviously you need a hole for it. BUT WAIT!! Samsung already left an opening in the body mold for the front camera to mount to! All you need to do is drill a hole through the mold. Looks to be a 7/64" bit would be needed. A 1/8" bit looks like it will take too much away.

Next step would be mounting. Well sh*t. The camera snaps onto the main board under the chip.

So the hardware side is easy (assuming I can actually find the camera), so it comes down to software. From what I can tell is that the galaxy source includes the modules for every phone... so this could be easy, correct?