MoLoGoGo Phone


Phone Basics

The phone is a Motorola i415 from Boost Mobile with integrated GPS.

Here is a page about how to use the phone as a GPS tracker that is full of useful information.

In order to install Java applets from a PC, use WebJAL by Harry Thompson (you can also use this to upload ringtones and other crap to the phone).

Supposedly the firmware should be upgraded for better GPS reception - get the firmware from the Motorola developer website.

3ricJ has installed the MoLoGoGo Java app on the phone for GPS tracking. Our l/p is ahab/ahabahab for the flight phone and exgf/exgfexgf for the other phone.

The awesome coder of Mologogo, "gravitymonkey," has provided us with Mologogo Solo, which eliminates the map display, can upload every N seconds instead of N minutes, and has a bunch of other performance upgrades.

Here (PDF) is the user guide for Mologogo.

Links for watching the phone on Google Maps and Google Earth.

 

Weight Relief

The phone was stripped to decrease the weight from 5 oz to 3 oz, and then extension leads were added so that the antennae could be placed outside the shielded payload box.

 

Disassembly

(These photos and more are from Bre's flickr set.)

  1. Remove the battery cover

  2. Pull out the battery & sim card - note how they are placed in the shell

  3. Unscrew the six T6 screws holding the case together
  4. Pull off the back cover - note the contact connections between the main board and the cell antenna, GPS antenna, and vibrator which are housed in the back cover

  5. Peel out the keypad from the front cover
  6. Pull out the display from the front cover - there are two tabs on the sides of the display that are holding it in place

  7. De-solder or cut the speaker leads; now the back shell is completely disconnected

  8. Unscrew the one T6 screw that holds the cell antenna shell onto the back shell & pull off the antenna shell

  9. Pull out the cell antenna
  10. Put on a mask to protect from melting plastic fumes
  11. Use soldering iron to carefully melt the three plastic posts holding the GPS antenna on
  12. Carefully pull off the GPS antenna, noting the orientation of the two antenna contacts with respect to the board

 

Reassembly

  1. Tape the simcard down in the same orientation as noted above

  2. Zip-tie the display and the battery to the main board

  3. Solder a 1 ft lead between the cell antenna and the cell antenna contact on the main board
  4. Solder a 1 ft twisted-pair lead between the GPS antenna and the GPS antenna contacts on the main board, replicating the orientation of the antenna contacts as noted above

  5. Place the keypad in place and power-up
  6. Check phone and GPS functionality -- note that the GPS antenna prefers to be in the orientation such that the primary plane of the antenna (the face that was attached to the back face of the phone) is perpendicular to the ground