yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Nook Color General] rhcp011235:
Im sure they will accept checks or money orders. Just PM him.
[Nook Color General] rboatright:
PM me for an address.
[Nook Color General] thereddog:
I wonder why webOS Internals is involved...? For love of the game?
[Nook Color General] adunofaiur:
Good luck. Thanks webOS internals, its nice to see that the telethon funds are being well spent
[Nook Color General] willywayne:
Deleted....
[Nook Color General] cabbieBot:
wise man say, webos fans want good hardware :D
[Nook Color General] cabbieBot:
still nothin. guess we should be patient till next week
[Nook Color General] 10equals2:
Thank you NovaPorts! I assume that all of the findings will be made public knowledge, seeing that you hosting your own wiki.

I was gonna donate to the CM fund, but if Ya'll are gonna make public your findings, that could help the CM efforts as well.

So now I think I'll split the donation between the two.

I would encourage others to donate as well!

Gotta love the Linux community!
[Nook Color General] rboatright:
The teardown unit arrived 3 jan 2011 (Monday )

First results tommorow but expect the entire project to take several weeks. Tues Jan 4's results are unlikely to be much more than closeup photos of the board without chips.

Follow us on the wiki
[Nook Color General] dhoshman:
Hope we can get some bluetooth love...Keep up the good work fellas
[Nook Color General] webvan:
Yes with Bluetooth the Nook would the ultimate cheap tablet!
[Nook Color General] 10equals2:
Wasn't bluetooth confirmed to well, not be disabled and someone had it working using hcitool?

I hope These guys can get us FM radio. That'd be awesome
[Nook Color General] webvan:
Never saw any reports of Bluetooth working on the NC, got a link?
[Nook Color General] phantom9000:
here u go

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=897934
[Nook Color General] webvan:
Thanks for that!
[Nook Color General] rboatright:
****************delay announcement ****************

First salting images will be delayed 24 hours due to a health problem

Novaports team regrets the delay (and the health problem)
[Nook Color General] mrschwarz:
Feel better.
[Nook Color General] clockcycle:
24 hour flu?

-CC
[Nook Color General] fwdixon:
need to send y'all a box of that "Air Defense", lol. The suspense is killing me, but hope the health problem isn't too severe and we'll be looking forward to the killing of the nook!
[Nook Color General] rboatright:
Update Jan 6 2011: First photos from teardown posted at http://gallery.novaports.org. First results: The standard WL1271's antenna switch support chip is installed and fully wired, the teething pain problems that the programmers are having with bluetooth are not hardware related.

REMEMBER: the entire process for this will require SEVERAL WEEKS. when you look at the images of the Wireless Modem chip, and see all the connectors, remember that this chip is only 6mm across, and that probing where the wires go on when the spacing for the pads is less than 0.5mm is -hard-
[Nook Color General] acomiskey:
Sweet! Keep up the good work
[Nook Color General] fwdixon:
That 3G pad has me curious. Wonder if B&N is planning on releasing a 3G version of this anytime soon?
[Nook Color General] KryptoNyte39:
I believe they actually submitted a letter to the FCC stating that the 3G would be permanently disabled. I've seen the folks around here pull of some fairly amazing stuff, so not sure if "permanently disabled" always applies to these folks. I suppose they could always change the model number a bit, and release it with the new capabilities (perhaps this is what you meant).
[Nook Color General] fwdixon:
well, it's "permanently" disabled by virtue of there not being a chip. I would assume that the only reason to include a pad is so that the same board can be used in a wifi and 3G/wifi model. I would also assume they would have separate model numbers and the 3G would require an additional FCC approval.

But, if they are planning on releasing one, and their current price structure holds true, then there is a possibility of a 3G tablet with free unlimited 3G data for $300 :D
[Nook Color General] notinterested:
Free unlimited 3g on a tablet for $300? Thats the funniest thing i have read in a long time.

If they did add a 3g chip you can bet on paying $50 more at least AND a monthly 3g fee they would not be giving it away in a million years.

They can do such things with the nook/kindle because its painfully slow. The NC can use as much data in an hour as the kindle could in a year.
[Nook Color General] EugeneKay:
This is of course straying decidedly off-topic for the thread, but the economic viability of "Free Unlimited 3G" depends entirely upon the nature of the content being served. If you're being limited to pay-content(books, audio, movies), then it doesn't matter how much of it you use, because the cost of the internet service is coming straight out of the purchase price of the content. Unlimited "internet", however, would become unprofitable very quickly.
[Nook Color General] Homer_S_xda:
Doesn't Kindle do exactly that? The 3G is only for getting to the mothership to buy books. Not for streaming YouTube.

Homer
[Nook Color General] Hadelo:
There is a typo in the caption for picture no. 9.

It should also be TQM679002 802.11b/g/n WLAN/BT Front-End Module. ;)

So far it looks VERY promising.

I am really looking forward to the next months of my nook :)
[Nook Color General] manonbr:
Excellent work so far!! Major props. Will be donating as soon as I get a NC :D
[Nook Color General] fwdixon:
Well then I guess you haven't checked out the 3G nook. Unlimited 3G data courtesy of AT&T, including web browser, no plan required.
[Nook Color General] phantom9000:
the plan does not include web browsing it is only to download books
[Nook Color General] fwdixon:
Well then I guess the browser working on 3G is a fluke. (Turned off the wifi on a demo unit and was able to use the browser just fine)
[Nook Color General] IM0001:
They would never have a full NookColor with Free 3G considering how we can hack it and use the device in a much more data entisive way then say a Kindle or Nook 3G. (Even unrooted it still can do youtube at the minimum.) It would have to be a 3G data plan for a Android Tablet.
[Nook Color General] phantom9000:
that is weird i have the nook 3g and if u open the web broswer with wifi off it says please connect to wifi first to use
[Nook Color General] nrune:
Not sure if there is any interest in this or not, but I have been really wanting to know if the glass is made out of gorilla glass or not, so... Could someone wack the glass with a hammer and see what this stuff is made of?

Mike

sent from my nookcolor using the xda app
[Nook Color General] RoboRay:
Sure! Hang on just a minute...
[Nook Color General] fwdixon:
could be the salesperson just "said" they turned off wifi to try and make a sale.

If that's the case I'm even more glad I didn't buy it. I would have been pissed.

Ok, next question then, how feasible would it be to add a 3G modem without waiting for B&N? I see there is already a sim card slot and traces to connect it all. And would a 4G (LTE) modem fit the same pad?
[Nook Color General] Homer_S_xda:
I lost my hammer, try yours first and let us know. :rolleyes:

Homer
[Nook Color General] nrune:
Umm... I was talking about the tear down unit that is being salted. this is the thread that is discussing the tear down right?

No nooks were injured in the making of this post. except the one bring salted, but that one is already dead.

Mike

sent from my nookcolor using the xda app
[Nook Color General] Homer_S_xda:
I know, just making a joke. It's a good idea actually. Some blog said it has Gorilla Glass(TM) and everyone repeats it. I can't find it in B&N's specs or on Corning's product page.

Homer

Sent from the XDA app on my NC (1.0.1 w/A-n 2.12.25)
[Nook Color General] nrune:
Driving me nuts wanting to know how tough this stuff is, I think it would only take one wack with a hammer to find out. ;-)

sent from my nookcolor using the xda app
[Nook Color General] RoboRay:
I'd rather see a measured test using a strain-gauge or something while increasing pressure on it to the breaking point, but either way could prove interesting. :)
[Nook Color General] Homer_S_xda:
I would guess this group would do the strain gauge. Could you also just try to scratch the corner with a key?

Homer
[Nook Color General] Croak:
No need to hammer it...you can glide a finger over it and tell it's not GG. The way it retains fingerprints more stubbornly than GG is another clue, it's not as smooth as the Corning product. It's not bad glass, there's definitely worse on the market (ohai Viewsonic, Archos, etc), but it's not Gorilla Glass.

I've own a Nook Color, a Galaxy Tab, a Galaxy S, and a Milestone. The last three have GG and it's obvious.
[Nook Color General] CBJamo:
well, woudn't it be a good idea to strength test the screen anyway? The unit has no hope of being put back together, so they might as well test everything they can.
[Nook Color General] GoochyPuppy:
Ambient light sensor, or led, or camera window next to "n" Nook home button?

The tear-down guys probably already know the answer to this?

About 1/2" to the left of the "n" button, there appears to be a 1/4" round window (very hard to see since it is covered with the dark plastic bar across the entire unit).

Is there a sensor or led under this window?

Cheers,

...Terry.
[Nook Color General] cal3thousand:
Economics says NO

And does anyone really expect them to lay down nearly 24 sq inches of Gorilla Glass with everything else included in this thing for $249?

Just sayin...
[Nook Color General] rboatright:
Nope. It's a screw that holds down the board. Sorry.
[Nook Color General] MrOtsKrad:
Ive checked my gmail from my kindle3 and browsed xda
[Nook Color General] rboatright:
New Photos

New Photos in the nook color teardown gallery at http://gallery.novaports.org

Specific finding today, Nook Color CPU chip is a TI Omap 3621

There's been some speculation that it MIGHT be something else. It isn't.

-- Rick
[Nook Color General] teknikk7:
How did you get the front bezel off? Is it snapped in? Is it held down by screws?

Thx
[Nook Color General] rboatright:
We will be posting a tear-down-process series, but our posting of images has been delayed due to "personal" issues, so please be patient.
[Nook Color General] spiicytuna:
Agreed! It's good glass, but not Gorilla.
[Nook Color General] criley:
I just do it the lazy man's way - rooted android phone serving as a hotspot for my rooted color nook =P

It's a great time to be a tech geek, what with all the devices with unlockable features that abound these days.
[Nook Color General] fwdixon:
already doing this, but being able to use a built in radio would present certain advantages.
[Nook Color General] thirteen113:
This should help:

http://www.zdnet.com/photos/nookcolor-teardown/487636?tag=content;get-photo-roto
[Nook Color General] RoboRay:
Yeah, Verizon would love to charge me for two data plans instead of just one.
[Nook Color General] fwdixon:
more I would use it instead of the smart phone with skype
[Nook Color General] EsotericPunk:
I do this with my Droid X. Best part is, Droid X will broadcast as infrastructure! :D

Don't you need a mic for Skype?
[Nook Color General] fwdixon:
bluetooth :D
[Nook Color General] EsotericPunk:
Ah, Check and mate, my friend. Well played.
[Nook Color General] spikey911:
Any possibility on installing a microphone yet?

Would love to know if there are some pads to solder to.
[Nook Color General] suzook:
Basically just a wasted nook... we havnt gaiined a thing.
[Nook Color General] spikey911:
That's too bad...I was hoping someone would find microphone inputs.
[Nook Color General] macguyvok:
That would have been nice. We still might, depending on what's wired to the microusb connector.

I feel I should say, the teardown's still useful. We've learned that the bluetooth is wired up and therefore should work fine. We learned that B&N at least considered a 3G variant, and still might release one. We still stand to learn more about the connector, and possibly how to make homebrew accessories for it. (I'm a fan of homebrew hardware hacking.)

*shrugs* Might not be worth $250. Might be... it all depends.
[Nook Color General] nrune:
so is this project dead?
[Nook Color General] spikey911:
It appears so according to the last few posts... I thought there was going to be Xrays and traces followed, teardown instructions etc, but looks like that won't be the case.

Can't complain cause we didn't pay for it anyway :)
[Nook Color General] Snyperx:
Easy folks. Rick said that this process could take a FEW WEEKS. It sounds like he is dealing with some personal issues as well. Go play with your nooks for awhile.
[Nook Color General] spikey911:
You give the impression people are complaining, which is not the case.

Someone mentioned that the tear down was over. If it is not as you elude to, then thats great news and hope we have some more surprises in store..
[Nook Color General] Snyperx:
Sorry if I came off sounding rude. That was not my intent. I think we should just wait to hear from someone at Novaparts on whether the tear down is over or not. I hope its it not either being I just picked up my Nook on Saturday:-)
[Nook Color General] suzook:
What a waste of a nook....what did we gain...other than some pics.
[Nook Color General] pstein2:
Calm down, like Snyperx said we should wait for some from Novaports to say something before jumping to conclusions.
[Nook Color General] jmccarter:
We learned that bluetooth is not disabled in the hardware...
[Nook Color General] JetGigan:
Actually, occip on the dev forum discovered bluetooth was enabled before the teardown even began. I'm not complaining about the teardown wait. I'm cool with all the info coming forth whenever. Just wanted to clarify.
[Nook Color General] Toys Samurai:
Well, then why did B&N take out 3G from the Nook Color? That's beause the Nook and the Nook Color are two very different animals. Even without rooting and a custom ROM, the Nook Color by itself is a fairly capable generic tablet. 3G on it is possible, but it probably will never be free.
[Nook Color General] fwdixon:
I think the main reason is that B&N is moving away from 3g devices. They've already announced the original noon is being discontinued. I also think they wanted the hardware to be capable of a 3g connection should demand warrant it, hence the pad and sim slot.
[Nook Color General] cj1896:
looks good
[Nook Color General] nchopp:
Cool to see, thank you!
[Nook Color General] crispian:
Thanks for this, very interesting!
[Nook Color General] :
The most interesting part of this entire tear down was the radio chip. It's amazing they pack so much in something so extremely tiny. Makes you feel like you're living in the future....
[Nook Color General] Damager78:
Very interesting project. I will be checking out the bluetooth thread. It'd be great if that gets worked out on the Nook.
[Nook Color General] Cstanner17:
I see the picture titled: "Un used 3g Modem pads on the NC board."

This doesn't mean the NC will have the ability to use a 3g connection will it?!

Cuz that would just be awesome. I love hearing about the "new found" hardware inside the nook! This device just never gets old haha. (at least for now).
[Nook Color General] wgarrido:
No, it would mean that there is a place for the radio to be connected. The CPU/SoC they use is the same for other devices that have 3G.
[Nook Color General] ArmitageID:
In case you haven't seen yet. The latest CM7 release has enabled Bluetooth. I've been playing with it an it works quite well!
[Nook Color General] ArmitageID:
What about the FM functionality of the chip. Does that mean its possible for someone to create and app to listing to local radio?
[Nook Color General] RoboRay:
Only if you solder in an FM antenna or a wire connecting the FM antenna contact on the chip to the headset jack.
[Nook Color General] Krazypoloc:
Very cool.....although its a shame to destroy a brand new device, its for a good cause. :)
[Nook Color General] Fattychance:
FM, It's too bad

It would have been a nice and cheap add-on that B&N could have launched with...or enabled later.

All it needed was a wire.
[Nook Color General] chisleu:
pics would be epic.

The last thing I soldered:

Not just the hackery of wires, but all the SMC components. haha. That was a system that ran the fuel management on this race car:

Sorry to get so off topic, but I love sharing pictures of the car! :o
[Nook Color General] etx:
MegaSquirt!!!!!!!! Awesome.
[Nook Color General] Budge72:
I was at Barnes and Noble yesterday, and the manager told me a couple of things about the Nook hardware that I hadn't heard before. He says that there is an ambient light sensor near the N button. He also said that there is a mic input on the headphone jack. When I asked him how he knew, he said that B&N is considering activating these features in future updates after they release Android 2.2 next month.

Is there anything in the teardown to support this?
[Nook Color General] projektdotnet:
IIRC if you look closely in direct sunlight you can see the light sensor, but I'm not somewhere than I can grab it and hold it under bright light (if you're holding it in portrait mode it should be to the left of the "N" IIRC). Also I've not been involved in the tear-down, just remember seeing an odd coloration on that portion of the nook somewhere at some point.
[Nook Color General] deadbot1:
what did WE lose? These guys paid for this and are funding it....not us. Thanks a million Novaports. I for one appreciate the hell out of your work, which has led to so many great hacks/updates for the Nook.
[Nook Color General] fwdixon:
It's a screw, not a light sensor:

http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=10500830&postcount=51

And the headset jack has 3 contacts in it (well, 4 actually, 2 on the sleeve) so no mic there.
[Nook Color General] spikey911:
It would be great to find the pads to solder up a mic to, but it appears we may never see it happen.
[Nook Color General] fwdixon:
Bluetooth
[Nook Color General] spikey911:
Understood, but that's one more thing to carry along...

It is quite shocking that such an inexpensive component, yet very useful component was left out.

Even though its a reader, a microphone could have been quite useful for notes, etc..
[Nook Color General] x-ravin:
Too bad it looks like that 3G footprint isn't routed, otherwise I'd have my Nook's board in the oven :p
[Nook Color General] IsaacTheIceMan:
Antenna Length

Can anyone tell me what the length of the antenna is inside the Nook Color? Does the bluetooth not require a separate antenna?

I ask because my MOTOROKR S305 only gets about 5 inches of range. It works fine when held next to the Nook Color. It appears to me unlikely that this is a software issue.
[Nook Color General] RoboRay:
I'm sorry, but all if that is already covered (repeatedly) in this thread and the CM7 ones.
[Nook Color General] IsaacTheIceMan:
I do not recall reading anything about antenna length on any one of the eleven pages in this thread. Since you seem to know where to look, could you please provide a link. Otherwise, I am afraid you missed the point of my question as I am not interested in discussing the bluetooth feature in general.
[Nook Color General] IsaacTheIceMan:
Seriously, I just want the length of the antenna

If your not going to help me then shut up. All you are doing is burying my question under a pile. I didn't ask for an estimate on the number of post that contain the answer and I did not ask for pictures of the antenna. I don't care what the antenna looks like. So buzz off; I don't give a damn about your stinking post counts and status. If you want to discuss the topic of spoon feeding, PM me.
[Nook Color General] chisleu:
it is the length of the nook plus the with of the nook.

Antenna is not the problem. This had been asked and answered 100x. Don't be lazy.
[Nook Color General] deadbot1:
this.

and the answers have all been stated. The single antenna is served by a switch chip that feeds both wifi and Bluetooth into it. The problem IS software. We are waiting on someone to figure out how to make the chip switch properly to get good range. If you are that impatient, time for YOU to start digging into spec sheets and stuff to come up with a driver that works.

guys, seriously...sometimes just restating the obvious will end it rather than brow beating...there will always be lazy noobs who don't want to or simply can't look as hard as they can.
[Nook Color General] sucksgg:
I saw the album you linked... there's an unused 3G modem pad in the NC... do you think it will be possible to install a 3G module on it?
[Nook Color General] ira41798:
Wow that is a bunch of work!! props to them!
[Nook Color General] Dadeeo:
Easy does it cousin...

To be fair to the op, I find the search function on this site to be less than helpful. Do a search for "antenna length" in the Nook Color General forum and you will get 69 hits, of those you have to click on each one just to see if "antenna" is in the post. Any post with the word "length" in it is also included in the results, so it quickly becomes frustrating to have to read every post JUST to see if it's relevant.

In this thread there is only one post stating the length and it simply states the length to be the length of the NC plus the width of the NC.

I would really like to know how to remove the back cover of my NC but a search using the term "back cover" yields 997 results and I can't click on a thousand results trying to find the information I want.

You guys ***** about laziness, but then YOU just spam the threads even more by quoting the previous poster adding "50" ill-relevant number of posts to search, so quit your *****ing and ignore posts you think are stupid or lazy and maybe the guy will continue to search and maybe find the info himself.

I do/would really appreciate help from others that might have the info floating around in their head. And remember not everyone comes here daily, some come just hoping to find an answer. Perhaps you could help by posting a "Sticky" worthy tutorial on how to use the search feature. I would love to know how to use it without getting nearly a 1,000 ill-relevant posts.

Dadeeo ;-)
[Nook Color General] RoboRay:
For those unaware, typing your search terms into Google along with "site:xda-developers.com" tends to yield much more useful results.
[Nook Color General] NotMyProblem:
Hopefully someone will be able to get FM radio to work.
[Nook Color General] fwdixon:
The back cover is easily removed. Simply unscrew the two small torx screws on either side of the microSD slot then run a thin metal or plastic blade between the edge of the cover and the grey metal edge to releasr the snaps. I have found the simplest method to be popping up the cover at the usb portthen you can release the test by flexing the cover with your hand.

Reinstall the opposite order you removed it.
[Nook Color General] FRSP:
nevermind...
[Nook Color General] Speeddymon:
I'm most curious to know if the headphone jack is hooked up to the FM antenna leads from the chip. If the hardware is all there, then it should be no issue for an experienced dev to port the necessary software from a phone with a similar chip. I know for a fact that the Droid has a WL1271 chip though it is probably electrically and internally different from the one in the NC. I think the Thunderbolt has the same chip as well.
[Nook Color General] n0c:
Seconded. This would be awesome if we could have FM radio where the headphones are the antenna :)
[Nook Color General] mrpaulmanley:
I'll have to try that next time. The search on xda is pretty terrible.
[Nook Color General] SeaFractor:
It's not possible "manually" soldering by hand, as much of the pads are also underneath the module.
[Nook Color General] barf99:
Can be done using heatgun and/or butane torch. Might have to heat both sides of the board - be careful on what is on the back of the board.
[Nook Color General] SeaFractor:
Make sure to post your image of this procedure :) Although Nook toast might be disturbing to view.