Tinkering my Treo 600

This is what I love about tinkering. Mostly you get the job done for free and you get a HIGH for nothing at all. And when the thing in question is a geek gadget, you know what I mean.

Had put aside this job for over an year, but today actually had the mood to do it,
having to do nothing else in the time bought by deciding to celebrate the year's
Diwali not with firecrackers
(read Hydrogen Bombs, Ladoo Bombs, colorful rockets, sound effects and what not), but with sweets.

Having got home early, I decided to have a go at my Treo's problem with its display.
Some dirt lodged between the digitizer and the
TFT is causing a lot of difficulty when in bright daylight.
When the display is off, the dark background of the TFT very clearly "shows off"
the dust particles. Making very sure that the dust is indeed between the digitizer and the display,
I pried open the unit and took out the skeleton.

This guide is a good one for opening up your Treo.


Treo 600 Screen Replacement Guide

The treo's touchscreen in front of the display is very much like the Visor Edge's screen, which I had opened up earlier. This helped a lot in giving me the confidence I was lacking for a long time.Slowly pry open the digitizer (top sheet along with the transparent plastic sheet) from the display unit's mount. A visiting card will help to pry the sheet from underneath,but u can use a thin precision screwdriver at first to get some leeway. Also, the paper card will cause much less damage electrically and mechanically..eliminating short circuits and scratches...Once it comes off, u can see the dirt layer on top of the TFT surface.
Cleaning can be done with a damp cloth, but care should be taken not to make any scratches on the TFT, which is a soft glass material. U may want to clean the underside of the touchscreen unit also, depending upon the nature of dust...some are really stubborn, like mine..
damp cloth will remove 90% of the problems..
USE LINT-FREE SOFT CLOTH TO CLEAN ALL GLASS/TRANSPARENT SURFACES.
All this can be done with the unit's battery connected, but always backup before opening up the unit.
If anything can go wrong,it will.

Admire your work...

My display actually showed far better images after the cleaning...and much cleaner and darker when off too.

I would really have taken some pics to show how it's done, but the only cam I have is the treo's. Sorry for that. But it shouldn't be too hard on you, if u try it. maybe u can do some cleaning inside the unit since u have opened it..like keypads...

Some GIS thoughts.

Once I tried an interesting software in my old Handspring Visor Edge.It gave your current global co-ordinates with centimetre accuracy,(here comes the interesting part) without any hardware gadgets or GPS devices either built-in or plugged in. Ain't it cool?Yeah, I thought too, and when given to calculate a fix, it showed "You are Here", with a position marker which looked professional.haha. Now there are different ways to do it, and even add a target and an "I'm here" facility, calculate the distance, get co-ordinates, search for road intersections and for landmarks, zoom in on the data, link it to addresses, drag the map, get the map moving with the GPS input, edit ESRI shapefiles on the field and more. Yes, I'm talking abt the HandMap utility for the PalmOS 5.0 and above, which I'm now using with my Treo 600.It's a sexy li'l piece of software for the outdoor person. The purpose of this blog is not the HandMap utility itself, but abt developing and sharing data for the platform. The only software that I'm aware of that outputs data in the format that Handmap can process is the MapIt Enterprise Edition , though to view the data that you created in the Mapit, you would need a valid license for your Handmap, and that too for Deluxe/Pro Edition. I've tried developing the Trivandrum Roadmap with some Landmark and Junction layers, and would love to have contact with people in the same interest area. I'd like to add that my interest is not limited to Trivandrum. I'd be glad if there are any positive reactions to this, either to try out or to develop new. Anyone having a Licensed Mapit EE would be welcome, always. I'm sorry to have no screen captures with me, to actually show the Handmap in action.

Video Info for Everyone

This Site is a cool resource on everything (well, almost) in Kerala - the narrow strip of Heavenly Greenery nestled between Western Ghats and Arabian Sea, in Southern Peninsular India. Includes lots of cool pictures and videos on Culture, Heritage, Arts, Society, etc.

Prasanth Nagar

This is the place where I was born and I grew up.
-Ode to the Place-

Rocking information on Kerala!!! Roll baby Roll...

Wanna see God's own country in hot action?Just check out what's hot and where to cool off.