I give up trashing my phone!! (sorta) ~ journey to the full spectrum

I posted a thread few years ago to seek an ideal replacement of my beloved phone : Motorola Z play.
This phone only has one 16 MP rear camera which is pretty good for my need.



I wrecked many Z plays and its camera units just to convert it to a full spectrum camera. Basically I need to open the camera and remove the hot mirror which is located right in front of the image sensor. I had to access from the cable side and try as much as I could not to lift the top assembly too high. The top assembly contains the lens, autofocus and image stabilizer and is connected on the left side of the above picture to the bottom side which houses the flex. This is proven to be very difficult because the connection is very fragile.

An interesting feature on Motorola Z series is that they are designed to be modular and there are accessories that can be attached by the means of magnets onto the back of the phone. The accessories that I use is the wooden shell. I modified the original camera hole and attached a 25mm filter ring so that I can thread in a visible light pass filter or an infrared pass filter depends on my needs.




The modified shell (left) with IR pass filter attached and the phone (right).




With 25mm visible light pass and infrared pass filters.

After many attempts this is the first "successful" result. Photo below is with infrared pass filter attached.




This photo below is made with visible filter pass attached



As you can see the camera now have problem with edge sharpness on the distant objects.

This "successfully" modified unit later developed problem with not being able to focus at all.

I bought another camera replacement and soon began working on the next surgery. Success!
Still not perfect but I am pretty happy with this unit because it focuses easier than previous one.



Unfortunately after a few months the camera unit developed strange vibration once in a while. Later on it became permanent symptom.
So I give up now with this method.

MFstooges said:

I bought another camera replacement and soon began working on the next surgery. Success!
Still not perfect but I am pretty happy with this unit because it focuses easier than previous one.

View attachment 372152View attachment 372153

Unfortunately after a few months the camera unit developed strange vibration once in a while. Later on it became permanent symptom.
So I give up now with this method.

Click to expand...

These look great!

mshchem said:

These look great!

Click to expand...

Thank you.

Neat project, I like it!

Sounds like those camera modules you hacked may now suffer from bad connections. There may be a contact arrangement similar to the one in low-end LCD displays (the omnipresent 16x2 ones for instance) where conductive rubber pads contact copper pads on the base PCB. This would ne vulnerable to mechanical intervention. Perhaps it's possible to disassemble one of the modules you have and figure out how/why it fails, and use that knowledge to fix the other one.

koraks said:

Neat project, I like it!

Sounds like those camera modules you hacked may now suffer from bad connections. There may be a contact arrangement similar to the one in low-end LCD displays (the omnipresent 16x2 ones for instance) where conductive rubber pads contact copper pads on the base PCB. This would ne vulnerable to mechanical intervention. Perhaps it's possible to disassemble one of the modules you have and figure out how/why it fails, and use that knowledge to fix the other one.

Click to expand...

The camera unit has connections that are soldered between the base plate and the top lens assembly. These connectors are sunk in the plastic base plate and lens assembly cover. I tried to access from the top but it's even more impossible, there are four magnetic coils on each side for the optical image stabilizer, focusing, diaphragm etc.
So the technique that works best for me is to heat up the soldered connections while cracking open the base plate to access the IR cut filter. Then reheat up the solder again when closing the camera.
Below is diagram from Yole Semiconductor, not exactly the camera on this phone but very similar.



One of the earlier attempt when the image sensor was damaged by flying shattered glass from me breaking the IR cut filter (yellow circle).

Kudos for getting it to work at all, given the size of those modules, and the fact that they were never designed to allow disassembly!