vB Easy Archive - My LED (SE Emblem) Mod for the P800

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My LED (SE Emblem) Mod for the P800
(Click here to view the original thread with full colors/images)

Posted by: vwvwvw

It’s seems that the only mod that I'm seeing P800 owners doing is changing their housing from blue to grey or painting it (PimPin Stick excluded). I wanted to do something a little different that would make my P800 unique and not just change the housing (BTW I really like my Electric Blue housing in combination with the Ice colored S Jacket and I also think the Grey colored S Jacket goes great with the Mineral Grey Housing)

In trying to think of something to do that would be different, I recalled “back in the old days” (like yesteryear with my Moto V66 &V70

) when putting on an aftermarket antenna or battery with flashing colored LEDs was the big craze. It really made the phone stand out when a call came in and it lit up!

This obviously isn’t something that could work with the P800 (no external antenna) or would even look aesthetically pleasing. None the less I did want to do something that would involve lighting up my P800 that wouldn’t look tacky but be as attractive as if it was an OEM install…and I’m happy to say that I think I succeeded.

Most of you have already seen my Silicone Jacket mod. In the pix I had shown (in that thread) you could see that I added one of the SE Jeweled Emblems to the front of my P800.

Well, I got this great idea… what if I could recess the emblem into the housing and also make it light up just like the emblem on the P800 Cradle does, when it‘s connected to the PC. And how about if it could flash just like those old aftermarket antennas that I added to my Motos. Well here’s what I came up with.

Video...

http://people.msoe.edu/~raud/forum/MOV00031.mpg

Posted by: Ludwig

looks nice. forgive my stupidity, but how did you replace the stock internet browser with Opera in the upper task bar of your p800?

Posted by: vwvwvw

On Applications> View > Preferences... You can then select from a drop down menu to replace anyone of the 5 icons in the tray.

Posted by: dupasquier

Great job Don!

Posted by: Bengalboy

Wonderful Mod 3VW!! I guarantee that you are the only person with a P800 modified in this way. Very cool and I know it took you awhile to get it going. Another HoFo exclusive!! How long did it take you to get it to work?

Posted by: vwvwvw

Thanks Guys

Mark…It took me about 3 days to get everything the way I wanted... I intend on posting pix yet of the internals and how I did this.

One of the most difficult parts to accomplish was getting the LED(s) to light. They're powered by RF only and that can be a very touchy thing in regards to proximity of the emitting signal and the energy being channeled to power the LED(s). In other words I had a difficult time in positioning the LED(s) where they would light and continue to work. The closest term I could use for how this happens would be magic.

If you've never tried putting one of these aftermarket antennas next to your phone you really should... you'll be amazed! Just by putting it CLOSE to your phones antenna (no actual contact!) it will light up when there is RF present during a call. A lot of ppl I show this to are shocked that this can actually happen. Can anyone say SAR!

Anyhow the fabrication work was the easiest part compared to getting the RF working all the way down to the bottom of the phone. I've got it working beautiful now and it should stay that way unless I move something in the set-up.

I almost forgot... I found this paint job will browsing some other P800 forums. What D Ya think?

Posted by: Boner

tat must be the most ugly v66 abd v70 i hv even seen

good work on the p800 tot

Posted by: tekno_geek911

The LED looks great,nice work!!!!!!
The paint looks kinda ugly lol

Posted by: vwvwvw

Quote:

Originally posted by Boner
tat must be the most ugly v66 abd v70 i hv even seen

good work on the p800 tot

Uggggly... come on where's your Christmas spirit?

Posted by: tekno_geek911

LMAO

Posted by: -AX-Scarface

no kiddin, the led light looks great 3vw, nice job

Posted by: ront75

cool!!! wish i had the "guts" to mess with my phone like that

Posted by: samantha2001

great job 3vw!

will you do it for us who are interested? i like the lighted green SE logo

Posted by: Jalal

Very nice job 3VW.

Posted by: blue8300

Clean Photoshop work !!

Wish it was true... lollllll

Posted by: vwvwvw

Quote:

Originally posted by blue8300
Clean Photoshop work !!

Wish it was true... lollllll

Aaahhh... A doubting THOMAS

Posted by: satellite

Great!!!

Where I can find those Leds?

Please post a brief description about this "Mobile Tunning" Job.

Posted by: vwvwvw

"Mobile Tunning Job"

I like that... that's how I would put the act of getting the LEDs to illuminate.

I'm hoping to post the pix later today... hang in there!

Posted by: oferlaor

3vw,

I'm confused. What did you hook up the led to?

A led modification isn't that difficult, but I'm confused with regards to what it's hooked up to...

Posted by: vwvwvw

Quote:

Originally posted by oferlaor
3vw,

I'm confused. What did you hook up the led to?

A led modification isn't that difficult, but I'm confused with regards to what it's hooked up to...

I can understand why you're

(you're not alone... have a read http://www.esato.com/board/viewtopi...709&forum=35&16 ) because if you haven't played around with aftermarket antennas you probably haven't experienced how Magically they can be lit up without a real electrical connection. They only need to be in very close proximity to the phones antenna to work.

Hang in there I'm trying to get everything together to post this evening.

Posted by: vwvwvw

OK, I’m going to give you a video to view first so that you can understand how the LEDs (aftermarket antenna) can be feed just by the RF signal alone... no electrical contact needed!

http://people.msoe.edu/~raud/forum/MOV00032.mpg

Now that you have seen this you can understand where I’m getting my energy to feed the LEDs.

The next thing I needed to do is find a way to take that energy (from up by the P800s antenna) all the way down to the bottom front of the P800 where there is (fortunately) some space (with the flip removed) to mount the LED’s little circuit board.

I knew I’d have to use a wire and I’d have to find a path to feed that wire all the way from the top to the bottom of the P800. Sooo I took the phone apart (first time for me) and after some careful examination I found I could do it as follows.

At first I really didn’t even know what would happen to the energy running it along side of the P800’s motherboard. I wasn’t afraid that it would do anything adverse to the phone, it’s just whether I could get that energy to travel all the way down through the wire without it somehow dissipating and in turn it wouldn’t light up the LEDs.

Here’s another view of how I tucked the wire in

After closing up the back of the phone, I next took the stripped end of the wire on the top and just simply laid it over the P800’s antenna. Mind you the antenna of the P800 you are seeing has a thin coating on it, so again the wire doesn’t have an electrical contact. It’s just held down by snapping the cover back on

Now down to the front...

I selected a particular antenna that had a central lit green LED that I could position so it would end up with the right effect (green light centered) that I needed. I took the antenna out of its housing and solder the other end of my wire to the spiral wire that circles the LEDs / circuit board. I next used some thin double face tape to hold everything down.

I only then had to locate and drill the hole that would correspond to it’s position, in the front cover to mount the SE emblem. BTW the emblem is from a SE T300... its translucent just like the one on the P800’s cradle. In fact it’s the same one. BTW the SE emblem that is on the P800’s battery door won’t work for this... you can’t see through it!

I did need to put some black electrical tape over the inside of the cover because the whole antenna begins to shine through (I only needed the green).

Now the problem I was having was if I would move the LEDs a little to get the centering just right they would go out. It was just a touchy thing to position everything correctly (before snapping the cover back on) and having them illuminate like I wanted them to. Don’t ask me what exactly is going on here as I don’t understand it myself. All I know is if I played around with their position for a while I could get it to work. I don’t plan on moving them now that I found the “sweet spot” and its been working just great for over the last week. So I really can't say what your chances are if you would like to duplicate what I’ve done... you’d just have to try it yourself.

BTW I've observed a lot already by having this indicator on my P800.

The first being, that there are bursts of RF being transmitted even when there isn't a phone call. It seems that the phone does some sort of registering (at various times) that causes the emblem to flicker/flash while the phone is sitting idle.

Another aspect that is relevant is that your phone changes output energy (during a call) in respect to how far it is from a cell tower. In other words the farther you are from a cell tower the more energy your phone will put out and just the reverse that the closer you are to the tower the less power it will put out. Sooo respectively my emblem will glow its brightest the farther I am from a tower (with in reason of course) and not even light went I'm next to a tower (@ 5 bars). However I do see that it does come one, even though I'm right next to a tower, for about the first 15 sec. (only) when either sending or receiving a call. This tells me that the phone puts out high power initially regardless where it is but then cuts back to a level that corresponds to its distance... very cool to see. Also the emblem will glow during data transfer... and just think all this info from a little LED mod.

Now the big question... will blue8300 believe this isn't a Photoshop job? lol

Posted by: Bengalboy

3Vw, I swear you could make McGiver scratch his head, thinking...
"How'd he do that?"

You always impress me, such abstract thinking and innovative solutions! It would make a great tool for demonstrating to a jury how a cell phone emits radiation/energy while in operation during a call based upon signal strenght.

Posted by: oferlaor

3vw,

I take my hat off to you.

Amazing.

Posted by: oferlaor

3vw,

where did you get the emblem?

Too bad it's not in the back. There are many japanese phones that have the back light up so people know when you're talking to someone!

Posted by: JamaalJ

I assume that if they are looking at the back of the phone, that the phone is being held to the person's ear. Wouldnt the fact that the person is talking on their phone with it up to their ear give away that they are talking to someone? Or do they make a lot of fake calls to try to look important?

Quote:

Originally posted by oferlaor
3vw,

where did you get the emblem?

Too bad it's not in the back. There are many japanese phones that have the back light up so people know when you're talking to someone!

Posted by: samantha2001

Quote:

Originally posted by oferlaor
3vw,

I take my hat off to you.

Amazing.

ditto!

i hope 3vw will take orders for led mods

in all honesty, i like your creativity.

i can't wait for my p800, it should be here this afternoon

Posted by: The Rex

holy smokes, 3vw!!!

very trick... awesome mod

Posted by: tekno_geek911

I agree,this is the best mod I have seen for the P800!

BTW congrats on the new toy Samantha!

Posted by: samantha2001

Quote:

Originally posted by tekno_geek911
I agree,this is the best mod I have seen for the P800!

BTW congrats on the new toy Samantha!

thanks tekno_geek911

Posted by: vwvwvw

Thanks again everyone for all the compliments. As you can see this isn’t a mod for the novice & inexperienced. But since it doesn’t alter anything permanent, I’d say give it a try if you're game.

Here’s a another pic of it in the Cradle while loading this HoFo thread we’re viewing (

those two SE Emblems glowing together). As you can see it does illuminate while connected to the internet too!

And welcome to the P800 clan, Samantha. If you got your P800 today I can’t imagine you’ll be doing much else but playing with it for a while

Posted by: samantha2001

Wirelessly posted (SonyEricssonP800/R101 Profile/MIDP-1.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.0)

Quote:

Originally posted by vwvwvw
Thanks again everyone for all the compliments. As you can see this isn’t a mod for the novice & inexperienced. But since it doesn’t alter anything permanent, I’d say give it a try if you're game.

Here’s a another pic of it in the Cradle while loading this HoFo thread we’re viewing ( those two SE Emblems glowing together). As you can see it does illuminate while connected to the internet too!

And welcome to the P800 clan, Samantha. If you got your P800 today I can’t imagine you’ll be doing much else but playing with it for a while

thanks 3vw! i love this thing! now i gotta go and open my pc to see those recent pictures you've posted. unlimited gprs matched with a powerful phone like the p800 is really great

Posted by: -AX-Scarface

you got one addie? Congrats

I've also decided to keep mine, just sent it off to get a firmware upgrade...few ppl pm'ed me telling me itll be the biggest mistake selling it, well hope you love the phone

Posted by: Jalal

3VW,

I wish I had 10% of your skills.

Posted by: The Rex

i wish i had 10% of his imagination... i would never have thought of something like this, let alone figure out how to do it

Posted by: Jalal

Yeah that too

Posted by: jeffro01

great mod, really impressive, i'm working on something similar but with a constant power source, but it's being tricky..... to say the least. Oh and still looking to sell my p800

peace