Skip to content

TechRepublic

  • Top Products Lists
  • AI
  • Developer
  • Payroll
  • Security
  • Project Management
  • TechRepublic Academy
  • Innovation
  • Cheat Sheets
  • Cloud
  • 5G
  • Big Data
  • TechRepublic Premium
  • Top Products Lists
  • AI
  • Developer
  • Payroll
  • Security
  • Project Management
  • TechRepublic Academy
  • Innovation
  • Cheat Sheets
  • Cloud
  • 5G
  • Big Data
  • See All Topics
  • Sponsored
  • Newsletters
  • Forums
  • Resource Library
TechRepublic Premium
Join / Sign In
Hardware

Cracking Open the Tungsten E2 Palm PDA

By drew.mcbee-tradesmeninternational October 12, 2008, 12:47 PM PDT

Image
1
of 22

Cracking Open the Tungsten E2 Palm PDA

In its Glory

In its Glory

I was saddened when I discovered that my old pal the Tungsten E2 would no longer take a charge. I must not have been TOO saddened, because it was a good excuse to go upgrade my cell phone to an MDA, which I happily did. You can see the fate of my now retired HTC T-Mobile MDA here.

nnI really did like my palm, and I foolishly believed that the case was made of aluminum, or some other alloy. It makes you feel like a MAN when your PDA is made of metal – yes it does. I also liked the feel of the stylus – heavy and substantial in your hand.
br>nnI bought a wi-fi (SD slot) card for it (this would have been at least 3 years ago), and had a ball testing different connectivity configurations, playing with VPN software, etc. I will say that I was overall not very satisfied with the browser performance, however. I believe it was the Blazer browser.

nnThe Audio on the unit was excellent as well, and as I said, I was a bit disheartened by the fact that the battery died off so quickly. Replacement batteries are easier to come by now, and more affordable than I recall they were then. I found a nice one on eBay for about $15. I checked the local “Every Battery in the World” shop, and they had one for $39.99 – thus my eBay purchase.

nnThere appears to be – or to HAVE been a Linux on the Tungsten project, which I may persue once my Tungsten is back up again. A link to the aged but still seemingly relative “Linux for Tungsten” site is here Linux on the Palm Tungsten En

nI thought it would be a good time to Crack ‘er open, while I was replacing the battery, and so here you are –

Here is our specimen sans power. To the right the blessed hammer of Palm shorthand, the stylus.

Photos by Drew McBee for u00a9 TechRepublic

Cracking Open the Tungsten E2 Palm PDA

Four points

Four points

Only four very small torx screws to remove.

Photos by Drew McBee for u00a9 TechRepublic

Cracking Open the Tungsten E2 Palm PDA

Mumbling

Mumbling

After a bit of mumbling from me, I separated the two halves exposing the innards. The yellow circle shows our conveniently mounted 1100 mAh Li-Ion battery. The two red arrows show contact points for the surprisingly adequate speaker and mainboard.

Photos by Drew McBee for u00a9 TechRepublic

Cracking Open the Tungsten E2 Palm PDA

Powered by Sanyo

Powered by Sanyo

Funny that they (Sanyo) used black ink to print the model number on the battery with a black cover. They probably decided at the factory that is was still visible, and not worth spending time on it…

You don’t really need the number “these days” anyway, as they are common place enough that you just need make and model of device.

Photos by Drew McBee for u00a9 TechRepublic

Cracking Open the Tungsten E2 Palm PDA

Slip and slide

Slip and slide

Now the whole MB/display package slides out neatly from the front half of the case. The yellow shows the SD card carrier.

Photos by Drew McBee for u00a9 TechRepublic

Cracking Open the Tungsten E2 Palm PDA

Parts of the whole

Parts of the whole

Here we have the major chipsets: Yellow is the Intel PXA255 200mhz CPU, the Green appears to be the memory chips – more on those in a few frames, Red is the WM audio chips, The Blue is an MX chip – usually those are used for network controllers, so I would have to think that it is the Bluetooth controller.

Photos by Drew McBee for u00a9 TechRepublic

Cracking Open the Tungsten E2 Palm PDA

CPU closeup

CPU closeup

A nice pic of our Intel chip…

Photos by Drew McBee for u00a9 TechRepublic

Cracking Open the Tungsten E2 Palm PDA

Sounds like a WM9712

Sounds like a WM9712

This is the WM9712, a low-power version of a common audio chip the AC’97.

Photos by Drew McBee for u00a9 TechRepublic

Cracking Open the Tungsten E2 Palm PDA

Wait a SEC...

Wait a SEC...

In the Yellow – these appear to be our memory, as they are SEC, or Samsung chips. I don’t see any other chips that would qualify as RAM on the board.n

nThe MX chip here, in the blue, I think is our bluetooth controller. I could not find any info on this chip specifically, but I have to think that that is the case, as MX chips are typically built into network controllers.

Photos by Drew McBee for u00a9 TechRepublic

Cracking Open the Tungsten E2 Palm PDA

Disappointment

Disappointment

It was about here that I was stricken with the realization and subsequent disappointment at the fact that the E2 case was actually made of plastic, and not some space-age alloy as I had fooled myself into believing. You can see the gray plastic underneath and the silver over spray.

The square of silver that we see in the yellow circle is the display assembly – attached to the mainboard by the ribbon we see there.

Photos by Drew McBee for u00a9 TechRepublic

Cracking Open the Tungsten E2 Palm PDA

Button Cluster

Button Cluster

Here we have a good picture of the Tungsten control button cluster.

Photos by Drew McBee for u00a9 TechRepublic

Cracking Open the Tungsten E2 Palm PDA

The REAL buttons

The REAL buttons

A single red arrow indicates the permanent directional and shortcut buttons that are soldered onto the board.

Photos by Drew McBee for u00a9 TechRepublic

Cracking Open the Tungsten E2 Palm PDA

Turn it over

Turn it over

Turning the assembly over again, we see where the ribbon connects to the display assembly.

Photos by Drew McBee for u00a9 TechRepublic

Cracking Open the Tungsten E2 Palm PDA

Feeling...disconnected

Feeling...disconnected

Simple standard connector here. Nice picture, I think.

Photos by Drew McBee for u00a9 TechRepublic

Cracking Open the Tungsten E2 Palm PDA

Lift and separate

Lift and separate

Lifting the display assembly away.

Photos by Drew McBee for u00a9 TechRepublic

Cracking Open the Tungsten E2 Palm PDA

Separation anxiety

Separation anxiety

The mainboard and display beside one another. I’m not sure why they used the copper foil on the mainboard. I would assume as a barrier from the display assembly. By why not the whole area of the display, and not just that small bit to the right?

Photos by Drew McBee for u00a9 TechRepublic

Cracking Open the Tungsten E2 Palm PDA

X and Y gene?

X and Y gene?

This I thought was interesting in it’s simplicity. Only four control lines leading to the surface of the screen. Two pairs of X and Y axis for stylus tracking, yes? The “touchpad” as it were.

We’ll see later that it is not the screen itself, but a glass/plastic overlay.

Photos by Drew McBee for u00a9 TechRepublic

Cracking Open the Tungsten E2 Palm PDA

Removal

Removal

The “touchpad” ribbon from the previous frame, removed.

Photos by Drew McBee for u00a9 TechRepublic

Cracking Open the Tungsten E2 Palm PDA

Easy

Easy

Once that small ribbon was disconnected, the glass overlay (foreshadowed earlier), and the display itself separate.

Photos by Drew McBee for u00a9 TechRepublic

Cracking Open the Tungsten E2 Palm PDA

Tear it down some more

Tear it down some more

We can take the display apart a bit more, but since we plan on using this later, we are limited as to how much.

The red arrows point out the small slots that hold the lcd into a metal frame. Pry back on them, and the lcd falls away.

What is this? A secret message?

Photos by Drew McBee for u00a9 TechRepublic

Cracking Open the Tungsten E2 Palm PDA

Not a secret message after all

Not a secret message after all

Here we see a better view of what appears to be reflective material for the display – possibly to enhance the brightness?

One of the enhancements that was featured in the Tungsten E2 was that it was supposed to be 30% brighter than its predecessor.

Also note in the yellow cirle – that looks to me like a power connector for display backlighting.

I did not take this down any more, as it appeared that doing so would damage the flimsy ribbon between lcd and control board.

Photos by Drew McBee for u00a9 TechRepublic

Cracking Open the Tungsten E2 Palm PDA

The Palm Tungsten E2 exploded

The Palm Tungsten E2 exploded

Here are all of the parts that make up our unsuspecting victim.

Not very many, but then it is usually moving parts that take up space, and of those, we have few on the Tungsten.

After doing this gallery, I think I am going to see about that Linux .prc for the Tungsten…

Photos by Drew McBee for u00a9 TechRepublic

  • Hardware
  • Account Information

    Share with Your Friends

    Cracking Open the Tungsten E2 Palm PDA

    Your email has been sent

Share: Cracking Open the Tungsten E2 Palm PDA
Image of drew.mcbee-tradesmeninternational
By drew.mcbee-tradesmeninternational
  • Account Information

    Contact drew.mcbee-tradesmeninternational

    Your message has been sent

  • |
  • See all of drew.mcbee-tradesmeninternational's content

TechRepublic Premium

  • TechRepublic Premium

    Checklist: How to manage your backups

    PURPOSE Backups are essential to any IT job. Some consider backups as the most critical tasks in an administrator’s day. Why? Because when a backup is done correctly (and performed regularly), recovering from a disaster is less of a nightmare and more of an inconvenience. Without those backups, your business could be non-operational for some ...

    Downloads
    Published:  May 29, 2023, 4:00 PM EDT Modified:  May 30, 2023, 3:04 PM EDT Read More See more TechRepublic Premium
  • TechRepublic Premium

    Hiring kit: Prompt engineer

    PURPOSE Recruiting a prompt engineer with the right combination of industry knowledge, organizational awareness, experience and technical expertise will require a comprehensive screening process. This hiring kit from TechRepublic Premium provides an adjustable framework your business can use to find the right person for the job. From the hiring kit: DETERMINING FACTORS, DESIRABLE PERSONALITY TRAITS, ...

    Published:  May 29, 2023, 4:00 PM EDT Modified:  May 30, 2023, 8:37 AM EDT Read More See more TechRepublic Premium
  • TechRepublic Premium

    Office relocation checklist

    PURPOSE New office launches and site relocations run the range from straightforward to overly complex. For intricate, sophisticated new office deployments and larger site moves, TechRepublic Premium’s Office relocation checklist can help plan, monitor and execute such projects. From the checklist: LIST REQUIRED OF EQUIPMENT AND SERVICES Begin by creating a simple list of required ...

    Downloads
    Published:  May 25, 2023, 4:00 PM EDT Modified:  May 26, 2023, 11:17 AM EDT Read More See more TechRepublic Premium
  • TechRepublic Premium

    Onboarding and offboarding IT staff checklist

    PURPOSE Onboarding and offboarding employees requires careful attention. Otherwise, team members may receive insufficient permissions to perform their jobs or continue to have access long after their employment’s termination. Given the stakes, the problem is even worse when managing IT staff permissions, so it’s imperative that your company adopts a system to ensure consistency. Employees, ...

    Downloads
    Published:  May 24, 2023, 4:00 PM EDT Modified:  May 25, 2023, 9:19 AM EDT Read More See more TechRepublic Premium

Services

  • About Us
  • Newsletters
  • RSS Feeds
  • Site Map
  • Site Help & Feedback
  • FAQ
  • Advertise
  • Do Not Sell My Information

Explore

  • Downloads
  • TechRepublic Forums
  • Meet the Team
  • TechRepublic Academy
  • TechRepublic Premium
  • Resource Library
  • Photos
  • Videos
  • TechRepublic
  • TechRepublic on Twitter
  • TechRepublic on Facebook
  • TechRepublic on LinkedIn
  • TechRepublic on Flipboard
© 2023 TechnologyAdvice. All rights reserved.
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Property of TechnologyAdvice