*TUTORIAL*-How to change trackball color on Blackberry Pearl 8130 (with pictures)

[fudge92]

This is my first tutorial so please bare with me

I know lots of people want to change the trackball color like people did on the 8100. Unfortunately for us there arnt any color LED's under the ball
BUT! for the lot of us determined to get the ball our special color... we have a way! SHARPIE!
i know people already know of this method but i thought id make a tutorial for those who arn't quite sure what to do.

first things first
*this will void the warranty (this where the tape will come in)
**i take no responsibility if you mess up your phone

Things you will need:
1). Very small Flat head screw driver or a pin of some sort
2). A sharpie of any color (i will be using blue in this case)
3). Some clear tape (you will only need a little bit)
4). The Blackberry Pearl 8130 (DUH!)

ok lets begin....

get all your stuff ready


next you want remove the ring around the pearl
there are 3 clips 1 on the right side 1 on the left and 1 on the bottom

take your screwdriver and start on the right side
pry a little bit and you will see the clip portion keep prying but not too much cuz remember its plastic


do the same to left


on the bottom one i prefer starting on the inside and twisting the screw driver around.... trust me it'll pop off


now that we have the ring off it should like this :


now you have to tack the ball and its housing out
to do this take your screw drive and pry a bit on both sides then flip your phone over and shake it out the rest of the way
(sry no pic for that)
when its out it should look something like so:


Our little friend LED is to the lower right corner


now this part is optional but i really recommend doing it
Take a very small piece of tape. Enough to cover the whole LED
i recommend this for two reasons
1) if you some how screw up your phone later you can take the tape off befor going to get the phone fixed so "its still under warranty"
2)you have the power to change the color whenever you please because if you sharpie the bare LED you'll be stuck with that one color
...lay the tape in over the LED if anything else is covered its ok as long as the sides are not being touched
(no tape pics either..sry)

now take the sharpie of your choice and go ape over the tape covered LED
make sure u get all over the LED and around it too


now your ready to put the housing back in
before you put the ring on make sure u can fully maneuver the ball in all directions and you can click it just fine
if your set then pur ur trackball ring on you're ready to go
if you cant scroll a certain way
then make sure theres no object restricting the movements and put your ring on

here are a couple pics of my finished product:

[fudge92]

sorry if the pics are too big... i have no idea how to make em smaller

[zooyorkjohn]

Thats pretty slick! I think I'm going to do this to mu curve when I get home.

[Moridar]

OMG that is the most simple bad *** mod to the BlackBerry that I've seen in a long time!

[roguemoog]

I've taken the thing apart a bunch to clean it. I never thought of just using a sharpie to put ink all over the LED! I thought this was going to involve soldering a new LED on there which I don't think is worth the trouble.

Great idea!

[k761110e]

Interesting...

Now I need to find a cool colored sharpie around here...

[Haoaw]

That's awesome!

I am going to give this a try ASAP!!!

[adambigge]

*spoken in an English accent* (like the Guinness commercials)


BRILLIANT!!!

[Brewc]

Damn someone else from Wise COunty, Va on here

[CarlGalgano]

OK, call me crazy, but I dont get it. Whats the point?

[Massonite]

OK, call me crazy, but I dont get it. Whats the point?

To make the ball look different

[T3chGirl]

Can this be done for the Curve also?

Has anyone tried it?

[Red Setter]

Can this be done for the Curve also?

Has anyone tried it?

Yes and Yes. Process is exactly the same

BTW: If you didn't use the piece of tape to mask the LED and later decide you don't like, or want to change, the colour just swap the LED with a cotton swab dipped in isopropyl alcohol.

[DavidBeaudoin]

WOW! That's all I can possibly say! I love it!

[hoygagoka]

so.... um i hate to burst ur bubble, but for the Pearl all you need to do is dload xColorevent and it makes the LED do whatever you set it to. On my friend's pearl we tried it out, and were able to make the LED change different colors depending on either who is calling, if its an email, or a text.

On the other hand, on the Curve does not have a multi-colored LED, so you would have to do this