Droid 1 < 2 conversion

[dbuglio]

Just from my initial eyeballing of the teardown of the new Droid 2, parts are defiantly looking interchangeable with the original Droid.

The keyboard and front bezel are the 2 major reworks, I do believe that the droid 2 has a blue color instead of black (personally if I performed this mod, I would be sandblasting the bezel and polishing it to a chrome finish, I have seen a few others doing this and it looks amazing).

I am looking for either closer pictures of the droid 2's bezel - keyboard - digitizer - and flex cable, any schematics of the droid 2, or someone brave enough with enough money to find out for the rest of us and take the initial step.

The droid 2 from this point looks like a incremental update and I have a funny feeling that outside of the locked bootloader and cpu bump to 1ghz (mine runs quite stable with a ULV kernel @ 1.25ghz as is) that 95% of the parts are reused.

Parts should be available for the droid 2 soon.

 

[JimmyD]

If you decide to make some of these modifications, please keep us updated of your build process with pics! dancedroid

 

[meth0dykal]

I think if you look for complete teardown pics of the Droid 1 and Droid 2, you will be able to determine the interchangeable parts. It'd be a great DIY, but I can imagine the pain of 1 piece that prevents everything else from being assembled.

 

[dbuglio]

It will be about a month or two before my distributor has parts for the droid 2 (I own a local cell phone repair business). What I am really looking for is any closer pics or tech docs referring to the droid 2. I really like the color and shape of the droid 1 however that updated keyboard is my main "want". I promise that once parts are available I will keep this thread updated. If I can go with the full conversion and keep it relativity cheap I will, however it would be pointless to spend ~100$ on a droid 2 conversion.

 

[the_existentialist]

I managed to get the droid 2 motherboard into my droid 1, along with replacing the mic and speaker phone. The droid 2 camera could have fit if I shaved off a bit of the plastic from the case but I didnt even bother. The keyboard works for the most part other than 2 keys being different. The screen also works great. So far no issues but in the future I plan on swapping the keyboards as well.

 

[Smokie]

I have seen pics of the droid 2 completely disassembled. I could have sworn the day the d2 was released someone posted them on here.. maybe it was a link to a droid-life article or something but its def somewhere.. i'll look around.

 

[FranklinWalker]

please post more details about your process!

 

[bL33d]

I wish someone or company would make a snap on hard case for droid 1 that makes it look like droid 2 as i like the smooth chin and it being chrome. seems like the snap on part could be shaped like that and then snapped on.

 

[the_existentialist]

Im sorry I didnt take any pics of the process but it is actually very simple. I used the teardown guide at ifixit here. The main circuit boards are identical with matching connectors and ports, so everything like the usb port line up. The camera probably would have fit, but since I didnt want to modify the case I left the original. Since the camera is a separate board this was not an issue. The microphones and speakerphone, as well as many other components are identical. It seem motorola really tried to scavenge what they could from the original droids manufacturing facility to save money. I have noticed a few issues with the keyboard but other than that it works great.

 

[dbuglio]

The keyboard is what I am looking for, does the droid 2's keyboard use the same connector as the droid1? My goal is to buy a droid2 keyboard assembly, open up my droid 1 and replace just the keyboard assembly units. I am more then happy with the rest of the hardware and while I am used to the d1's keybaord, the d2 looks just so much better.

 

[1xinfusion]

I'm looking to replace my milestone (canadian droid)'s digitizer, keyboard and motherboard with the milestone 2's versions.

the problem I am having is that the milestone 2 is not out for north america yet. (no NA 3g frequencies).

I can proceed with digitizer mods and keyboard mods first though...

I'm just wondering something . does the new droid 2 digitizer fit in the old droid 1 frame ? I do not like the curved frame and I prefer the sleek straight frame on the original droid. The new digitizer looks a bit rounder than the original droid and it doesn't seem like it could fit (without gaps) in the original frame.

I am also wondering about the keyboard.

I'm sorry to resurrect threads but it seems this is the only thread with some kind of progress on the topic.

Do you still get 30fps on the original droid camera with the new motherboard?

EDIT: well actually. about the digitizer. I don't actually want the digitizer of the droid 2. but it is the fact that the back and menu key is reversed on the new digitizer. Is it still mapped properly after you guy's experience in swapping the motherboard while keeping the original digitizer? or is back now menu and menu now back. etc (if you get what i mean)

EDIT2: i see the new mt716 thats going to be released in china. it looks so much like the droid digitizer with the droid 2 softkeys. I'm not spending more than 100 to convert tho ... so thats not an option