3 replies to this topic

[ugokind]

Want to DIY Iphone4?
whell, it's possible. oh.. it's not like to discover hot water.. but never easy as drinking it.

must:
-be skilled in manually, and dare.. with courage
-read a lot of guides to assemble/unassemble i4.. BUT
most of them are incomplete because explains (very clear) what to do about repair/replace .. and the difficult is to learn the assembly of little parts.. which are hidden or intended to be 'always mounted' and never unassembled (as the balance lever to extract sim, the complete exploding of mute/unmute lockbutton, the correct position of the small grids between ear/mic and middleframe, how to place stickers/wificable, and not less important the exact bill of material of screws.. they are huge.. and starts from 1.2mm to 6mm! what you must put and where??)
-buy the parts with calm.. you must be as the man who's waiting on the dark side of the river..waiting that the dead passes by.. Ebay bids are damned.. and you want it now.. no. you want it before now. you want to have iphone4.. right NOW. and you pay a lot if you move faster. be quite. (repeat 10 times)
-remember: paying 30 things to 30 sellers.. and you spend a lot in shipping. my 1st experience is that: due to have the iphone before summer.. I want to close bids everywhere.. to have all items before summer. wrong. I spent 80€ in shipping.
see the attached xls.. same color.. same seller. I bought items in different times from different seller.. that's because I never knew the complete BOM until I finished to mount it! so.. now I know.. next i4.. I'll be more saviour.
-never buy locked logic boards.. some BaseBands are impossible to unlock.. and sincerely.. it's very boring to spend time .. a lot of time.. to unlock a thing that's unlockable.

I'm here to advice you.. ask me.. not PM
in attached the BOM.. the name of my sellers.. they're not the best.. I suppose HK sellers do best price..
I wrote all .. because you can learn what parts are needed
I think I've forgiven 2 or 3 things.. but because I don't have data! they are:
-the little metal rectangle that covers the flat near the connector of the battery
-stickers
-..don't remember

I think I could spend less money.. suppose between 300 and 400
but it depends on how you buy logic board... because the average of the cost of the Group Display/Digitizer/homebutton/dockconnector/backcover is near 95..110€ (black or white)..

sorry for poor english
ugo

Attached Files

•  i4.zip   2.8MB   30 downloads

[cili0]

what a remarkable job ugo thanks for sharing your experience.

IMHO the only main drawback is that you're basically renouncing to the warranty. It may be also not so easy for everyone to assemble everything with the required precision to obtain something good looking.

ciao!

[ugokind]

cili0, on Oct 6 2011, 05:34 PM, said:

what a remarkable job ugo thanks for sharing your experience.

IMHO the only main drawback is that you're basically renouncing to the warranty. It may be also not so easy for everyone to assemble everything with the required precision to obtain something good looking.

ciao!

agree with you
I'm applying the same thinks that I extend in my life for every kind of utility.
I mean: what is the cost of an item? 500? ok.. this is the cost that includes the warranty coverage.
ok.. if I take apart the coverage.. I have to spend less money..no? this is the risk..
another example:
once upon a time.. washing machines never stop before 15.. 20 years. then: today is not the same. today the lifetime of an utility (camera.. dishwasher..smartphone) is between 3 to 6 years.. and if you are lucky. and now yhe lifetime never depends on what brand you choose.. and what standard of quality you pay.
you buy a whashing machine Bosch.. at 550€? then.. after 5 years it breaks! it's normally.

then I decided to buy only low-medium price of an item.. because:
you are sure it stops early..
you spend 350? well.. you save 200.
you pay for an extra-warranty-coverage of 36€ (typical price in mediaworld) and you are safe for 5 years.
the 6th you change the machine.

if you spent 550.. you have to change the machine IN THE SAME TIME.. loosing 200..

the same reason for buying low cost i4?
maybe.. but I decided to build it for enjoying.. (but I'm not rockfeller ehehe)

congratulations for the 110 cum laude.. I esteem you

ciao

[cili0]

the problem is that in many cases the extended warranty doesn't cover all the possibile damage cases that the normal warranty usually covers.

For instance, a friend of mine bought for 60€ the extended warranty for an HP portable computer. Few months before the warranty expiration the display decided to stop working. After the RMA process the computer went back fully restored, but, again, after few months (this time after the warranty expiration date) the computer showed the same problem.  There should have been no problem because of the extended warranty. Actually HP complained about the fact that fixing the computer would have cost more than buy a new one, so they refused to fix for free the computer, even with the extended warranty in place. In the end she was forced to buy a new one (a macbook pro 13'' this time )

Take also into account that a couple of weeks before the update, you had been able to find the iphone 4 discounted to 499€ (at Bennet superstore). The price should drop even more now due to the release of the 4S.

Thanks for the congratulations. It has been hard, but in the end  it was worth the effort.

ciao!