[Question] replacing a flex cable in a note3 clone

[alexzap]

before i start, here is a link to the gallery of all of the images i have taken... so you can jump there and see what i am talking about.[Only registered and activated users can see links Click here to register]

okay, so here is my story: i have a Star/Ulefone Note 3 clone that is model N9002. about 2 months ago, the thing started refusing to charge. the usb port in the bottom was extremely loose and it wouldn't charge/wouldn't connect to a computer. i checked a bunch of advice online about cleaning out the port and about trying to tighten up the port by squeezing it a bit with a pair of pliers. none of this helped. i thought maybe something inside might be broken, i had no idea (at the time) how these things were assembled, and thought maybe the usb port just needed to be re-soldered on to the motherboard. i looked around for a shop, but all of them refused to work on it because it was a clone phone, not an original Samsung. fine by me... after talking to a couple of people over in [Only registered and activated users can see links Click here to register], they told me i could probably do it myself. i opened it up and found that the microusb port on the flex cable had several broken connections, including the ground. i really didn't think you could solder on the flex cable, and i realllllly hate soldering surface mount stuff (i wont say i suck at it, but i am no expert), so i checked around on the Chinese sites, and on ali-express i could get a new flex cable assembly for it for 6-7 bucks! to me this was the way to go. i got 3 of them (my wife has the same phone and a spare is always good to have, right?), plus i got various other flex cables for the phone... the power button, the volume control, and the home button/microphone (which turns out was a great idea, more later).

it took 3 agonizing weeks of using an external battery charger on my phone to get the parts in, and everything looked right. so i took my phone apart when i had a free day and started.

here are some pictures of my initial repair... sorry for the potato quality pictures... i was taking upclose ones and my camera refused to really focus well.

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so the charge port flex cable was bare bones. on the cable is mounted what i thought were 2 things. the speaker and the vib motor. if you look at the picture of the new flex cable you can see the spots where they go. i had to take apart and remove the cable from my phone and de-solder these items from the old cable and solder them on the new cable. it peeved me a bit, but hey, what to you expect for a $6 cable, right?

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i did a pretty good job, if i do say so my self... what i didn't realized was when i was pulling the old cable out, i broke a connection. if you look at the flex cable to the right below where the vib motor goes (the round silver thing), there is a solder pad where the home button and speaker flex cable gets soldered directly on. when i pulled it all apart, i broke this cable... or it was breaking anyway, and i helped it fall apart. whatever, it is broken.

so i put the phone back together

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and i booted back up... it worked great! (don't mind the reflection of the cosmic nipple... it is just the over head light). if you look in the right of that last image you can see the 2 parts of the old flex cable as it broke apart as i was removing it from the phone. the double stick tape they use in the phone is realllly strong! it worked great, that is, until i tried pressing the home button... and making a call. the button didn't work and no one could hear me. so i slowed down a bit and i looked at the old cable and the other parts i had.

i realized that the home button flex cable attaches to the charge port flex cable directly by solder.

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so you can see clearly in this the solder pad on the home button flex cable and the solder pad on the charge cable flex cable and where they attach. easy enough. i think i am confident enough to solder them together... i just have to replace the home button cable inside the phone... so i took it apart now for the third time. but i got stuck. i cant figure out how to get the case open to replace the cable. [Only registered and activated users can see links Click here to register], but i cannot for the life of me get the case apart there to get the cable out or replace it.

so, does anyone have any advice/experience here? is this close to the way a Samsung note 3 is assembled? i was told the charge port flex cable looks almost identical except the connector points up instead of down. either way, i'd like to try to get this fixed... unless i am over my head here. any advice would be greatly appreciated!!