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Cracking Open the classic Motorola StarTAC flip phone

By // February 27, 2008, 5:12 AM PST

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  • The full monty

    By Drew McBee

    Remember the legendary Motorola StarTAC? Released in 1996, it was the smallest cell phone available, and the first to feature the now-ubiquitous clamshell design. It was also the first mobile to sport the vibrate option. In addition, in 2005 it was number six on PCWorld's "Top 50 Gadgets of the last 50 years." Not too shabby. Naturally, we had to crack one open.

    Here we have the intrepid "Wearable Cellular Telephone," as it was called by Motorola, along with its accessories for your viewing pleasure. As I recall, these phones were very expensive at the time.

  • Front/Top view

    Really a nice size, considering most phones then were close to the size of a pop can.

  • Busted

    This has never happened to you, has it?

    The antenna was broken on this unit when I received it, as were most extendable antennae, at some time or other, I think.

  • Right Side

    I think this picture really shows how slim this unit really was.

  • Top View

    Top view, complete with dangling antenna.

  • Left Side

    Aside from the battery mounted on the cover, this basic design has persevered for some time.

  • Open sesame

    A view of the unit opened and ready for action, only needs to be activated.

  • Keypad and screen

    Nice view of the keypad and screen.

  • Just the screen, please.

    A closer view of the screen - Ready now.

  • Battery in the lid

    Removing the battery. This happens to be an extended life battery, as you can see.

  • Hidden agenda beneath the battery

    It appears that this will be an important piece of the puzzle in getting the lid separated from the base.

  • Brass Tacks

    So now we get down to brass tacks. Looks like this houses our speaker and our "vibrate device."

  • Specimen

    Yes, there she is – simple little specimen. We see here our speaker, our power pickups and what appears to be the ribbon that runs under the protective black tape and back to the main unit.

  • Another look

    A closer look at the unit that makes it shake.

  • Mini Monolith

    Anyone know what purpose this serves? At first I though it might be something for noise cancellation, but it is not magnetic...

  • Ribbon

    Here we have the ribbon that runs the upper half of our device. All of the pieces just snapped into place, and the ribbon was just glued down with the black sticker under the battery.

  • Ooops

    The “vibra-motor” broke off – looks like a good time for fun with batteries.

  • Fun

    I tried 4 times to get this picture, but the motor kept jumping out of the micro-pliers that I was using. I finally had to get a pair of pliers with “some hair on them” as my Dad used to say. I was surprised to see how much vibrate this little unit put out.

  • Removing the antenna

    Minus the sagging antenna tip.

  • Not Much

    Not much remarkable here – anyone who has broken their antenna before has seen this.

  • The Base

    I had a bit of a time getting this removed – once I found the two little holes at the bottom, it slid off quite nicely.

  • Body Armor

    Here we have the cover off to reveal lots of silicon body armor. I don't know if they do this on all phones, but it sure looks like a good idea. These steel covers are all soldered into place. I didn't see much point in removing them – just chips underneath. Maybe these doubled as heat sinks for the board as well. At the top you can see where our speaker, etc ties into the mainboard.

  • The ribbon

    Close up of the connector lock.

  • Unlocked

    Another close up of the ribbon disconnected. In the back ground you can see where it snakes out from behind the hinge.

  • Divorced

    After the ribbon came out, I found that the board separated into two parts.

  • Right

    This is the half that has the body armor on the back. At the edge of the board (bottom of the picture) you can see the clips that held the antennae tube, which is still lodged in the other half of the case. Also notice the steel cover on the right - it comes up later.

  • Left and LCD

    Here we can see the antennae tube at the bottom of the the case, and the back of the LCD. Actually, this is not the LCD itself, but the backlight screen for the LCD - as you will see later.

  • Nifty

    Notice the nifty little socket that connects the two boards together. Anyone know what that is called specifically?

  • Phenolic

    This is the block that is covered by the steel cover mentioned before. It looks like it is phenolic, and does not appear to have any contacts inside. Maybe used as part of the manufacturing process, but since it has a heat shield, it has to have a purpose.

  • Part 2

    Removing the bottom board to reveal the plactic/rubber keypad below.

  • Outed

    Here is the unit complete with keypad etcetera out of the case. Later, I'll plug it all in and test sans case.

  • Thermistor

    Not sure, but this looks to me like a thermal fuse. Its got two overlapping fingers that would indicate such.

  • Keypad

    Only included this because its a nice pic of the keypad...

  • Broke again

    I broke the ribbon connecting the two halves when trying figure out how it fished through the hinge. Bummer – wanted to get that out in one piece.

  • The mystery hinge

    Okay – so now to get that hinge apart without breaking it. After some prodding, I found that this little piece swings out like a trap door and ....

  • Swinging

    It is revealed that this is a kind of floating pin, holding the two pieces together.

  • Mystery solved

    One half can then be lifted up and slid away from the other...

  • Ooooo

    To reveal the simple, modular unit that holds the lid open and closed.

  • Spring loaded

    This shows the little spring loaded unit removed, and shows how it mated with the base via a very durable triangle type of configuration.

  • Exploded

    I had to find out what made that thing so strong and durable. I can't turn it at all with my fingers, and it is tough with a small pair of pliers. Flip phones in general open and close a thousands of times and I have never heard of anyone having trouble with them.
    So, there it is – a simple little spring-loaded cam-operated deal.

  • Franken-StarTAC

    It lives, IT LIVES! I put the pieces back together and powered it up. I had to hold my broken ribbon together, since the kids did something with my hemostats. Still getting a digital signal, even.

  • Feeling disconnected

    The only thing holding the lcd to the board were these two little black clips and the ribbon itself.

  • The big peel

    Next I decided to strip down that pink keypad membrane.

  • Not what I thought it was

    As it turns out, that pink membrane over the LCD board only had one function...

  • Backlight

    ..to power the backlight.

  • The two together

    The two little tabs on the pink membrane were only to pick up power for the back light.

  • Then there was light

    This is a not-so-good picture of the backlight, well – lit. I laid it over the lcd board, and had to apply a little pressure to make contact.

  • Another peel out

    Next to get a look under the keypad membrane. Simple little metal cups close the circuit for each key. Notice the interesting little hole next to it – presumably for air passage – lest the membrane get an air bubble in it.

  • At Last

    And here we have the whole unit, blown up for your enjoyment.

  • Theres more...

    If you were wondering, yes, it did go back together and worked properly. I had to solder the motor back on, and "fix" that broken ribbon first.

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The full monty

By Drew McBee

Remember the legendary Motorola StarTAC? Released in 1996, it was the smallest cell phone available, and the first to feature the now-ubiquitous clamshell design. It was also the first mobile to sport the vibrate option. In addition, in 2005 it was number six on PCWorld's "Top 50 Gadgets of the last 50 years." Not too shabby. Naturally, we had to crack one open.

Here we have the intrepid "Wearable Cellular Telephone," as it was called by Motorola, along with its accessories for your viewing pleasure. As I recall, these phones were very expensive at the time.

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