As a long time lurker, and a recent second hand owner of a smashed up Scroll II Essential, I thought it would be cool to try and replace the damaged parts and document what is inside for the curious. If you are like me and capable of chopping your fingers off with sharp tools, make sure you get some adult/professional supervision or a medic.
I bought this tablet for a project. I want to make an arcade cabinet out of this device. Small enough to sit on the desktop, and enticing enough to help with my college procrastinations. Smaller and better looking (its an android after all) than the iCade.
Now before you rip open take apart your scroll, I used an Xacto (scalpel) blade and took off the top adhesive. You need pliers and some patience. If the screen is smashed you are not going to need it, and odds are the sensor is going to be toast in the process.
Now the sensor was working on the right hand side but the broken glass was pressing down on the sensor and making the tracking inoperable. As I am using a keyboard to operate the tablet (works quite well actually) I do not need any more fingerprints, so the sensor and the glass went into the trash.
Now you will need a clothes peg for your nose as the adhesive is quite stinky. Make sure you are not lighting one up and keep a window open. I don't know how those poor Chinese workers at Foxconn breathe. Must be awful.
Anyhoo, once I got the front off I located the bezel retainers and pried them off with a flat blade screwdriver making the back come off, well not off completely, as there are speaker wires attached.
Peel off the retaining tape and keep your screws in a safe place or a plastic container. Keep the black material tape flat and away from sticky objects. Flip the gates up holding the ribbon cable. Don't make the same assumption as I did thinking that the gates were clipped on...oops.
Make sure you remove the two screws near the power button and Micro-SD slot. Otherwise you might have some bad words for me later on. I cut the speaker cable off the board (crap anyway) as I will use the headphone socket. I took off the camera and it is held by tape so be extra careful if you want it working again. It is not a four wire jobbie (I was hoping it was USB) more like twenty.
There are three screws holding the mainboard to the plastics. One of them is behind the material tape insulating the micro SD slot and holding the camera. Gently pry the Wifi antennae power strip away from the casing. You do not want to rip it. But it could be a good time to make a hole in the side of your case if you want to make an antennae connector.
I got a Wifi extender from the pound store and clipped the cable off of it. I'm sure it will help reception. Burn a hole in the side with an iron and then hot glue the connector and inside wire.
Find some felt or T-shirt to put the screen on after removing it from the housing. If your screen glass is cracked or smashed use the blade to remove it from the housing. Watch your fingers. I thought the glass was plastic, and then continued to slice my fingers pretty good.
Replace the display inside the plastic retainer and connect the inverter. Take pictures of what it looks like so you can go back and investigate where you made a mistake if the unit does not come on. Saves you fiddling and making more woe.
You might think your tablet is useless once you sit on it, stick it under your pillow or let your heavy handed old dear try it out, but it can make a great hobby PC like the Raspberry Pi or use in a project like mine. If you are gentle with the display it should work great after the surgery. If the display is wonky/patchy afterwards you can always get VNC and remote display it on your PC.
Pictures of the disassembly is here.
If you have any questions I will do my best. Watch those fingers!
