How I revived my DEAD San Diego, and how you may be able to...

[Guest glossywhite]

After months of my San Diego being dead, and needing a 1080p capable video device to make a YouTube video, with this incentive behind me, I suddenly had a flashback to something I was taught when working in a mobile phone shop, years ago...

See these photos, and you will see two sets of two wires - two red, two black. The middle pin of the San Diego battery connector MUST NOT BE TOUCHED. The two reds near one end, and the two blacks near the other end, are shorted together internally in the phone, but again, DO NOT TOUCH THE MIDDLE PIN!

## GUIDE ##

~~~ NOT FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE UNSURE ABOUT ELECTRONICS, AS THIS COULD BE THE END OF YOUR SAN DIEGO, AND KILL IT MORE! ~~~

My friend said the San Diego had TOTALLY died and would not charge, so here's what I did, and it worked to revive the handset!

1/ Remove the back cover from the handset.

2/ Look at the above photos, and unplug the battery connector from the PCB - it lifts straight UPwards, very easily.

3/ Prise the battery out of the battery recess - it can be done with an old credit card - it's only held down with double-sided tape.

4/ Get an old Nokia/Ericsson/whatever brand phone charger which outputs 3.7 volts DC, and strip the wires to the bare copper strands, and then wrap each wire around a cork board pushpin or a dressmaking pin. Next, using a multimeter, check which of the wires is negative, using the DC voltage range.

Ensuring the battery is unplugged and TOTALLY clear from the handset, hold the pin or pushpin which is connected to the NEGATIVE wire of your modified phone charger, and press the point into either one of the two OUTER CONTACTS which are marked as "-" on the photos, and then grab the pushpin or pin which is connected to the POSITIVE pin of your modified charger, and make contact with EITHER of the red wires shown in the photo (marked as "+") for ONE SECOND, and repeat this at 30 second intervals, a further ten times or so.

Finally, plug the battery back into the PCB but DO NOT put the back on the phone just yet. Next, plug the San Diego into a charger AND LEAVE IT FOR HALF AN HOUR. You can push the power button at any point during the charging cycle, but DO NOT disconnect for at least half an hour.

After doing the above, my San Diego SPRANG into life, and now works, so I can now use it as an HD camera and YouTube watching device! :)

Take care.

Edited July 24, 2013 by glossywhite

[Guest glossywhite]

Please do post a comment and report back if this procedure helped you and revived your OSD, thanks :)

[Guest Thedarkphonetech]

How did it break?

[Guest glossywhite]

How did it break?

I don't know the exact reason - my friend said he put it on charge one night, but forgot to plug the USB end into the wall charger, so it must have drained the battery dry, even lower than the residual voltage which is required to power the standby/charge detection circuity - it was not even recognised via USB, which correlates perfectly with a device with no power, even to power the circuit which controls the USB interface.

I wanted to share this to help others who have this same frustrating situation :)

[Guest markhuges]

Thanks for taking your time and posting this! Might be helpful for some! :)! Thanks !

[Guest glossywhite]

Thanks for taking your time and posting this! Might be helpful for some! :)! Thanks !

You're welcome. I've had to do this twice now, as it died again yesterday... :/

[Guest Raihan42]

If you could explain in brief how to open the back cover that would be great, it looks a bit tricky :P

[Guest glossywhite]

If you could explain in brief how to open the back cover that would be great, it looks a bit tricky :P

Yes, of course - start around the headphone socket, and use a pry tool or a credit card which you've shaved the corner of with a blade to make it a sharp edge, and carefully work the corner of the card into any obvious wider gaps between the back cover and the body. The back unclips VERY easily indeed... in fact, worryingly so! (easier done than explained):

Start here:

Edited July 31, 2013 by glossywhite

[Guest Raihan42]

Just tried it to test it out, worked thanks a lot.

[Guest Thedarkphonetech]

Possible to change higher capacity battery then?

[Guest BlueMoonRising]

Possible to change higher capacity battery then?

Good luck in finding a higher rated battery the exact same size. In other words no, sorry.

[Guest glossywhite]

Possible to change higher capacity battery then?

Entirely possible, but you have the task of finding one - I cannot imagine that would be so easy. I would say the hardware/software, or both, are at fault here (likely to be the hardware, since this happens outside a software context, when the phone is off) and maybe the battery is of a poor quality too - who knows? All I can say is that if they can sell such a powerful device SO cheap, it's been made down to a price, and that price is quality assessment, thorough testing and materials.

[Guest Raihan42]

Bumb. My osd battery is almost dead so If I found a new battery (same battery as a normal osd) to replace my old one would this technique work?

Edited May 25, 2014 by Raihan42

[Guest BlueMoonRising]

Bumb. My osd battery is almost dead so If I found a new battery (same battery as a normal osd) to replace my old one would this technique work?

If you found a new suitable battery then you wouldn't need this technique would you?

[Guest Raihan42]

If you found a new suitable battery then you wouldn't need this technique would you?

Any idea where I could get a new suitable battery? Edited May 26, 2014 by Raihan42

[Guest BlueMoonRising]

Any idea where I could get a new suitable battery?

Not a scooby, sorry.

[Guest Raihan42]

Not a scooby, sorry.

What about a compatible battery required for this tutorial?

[Guest BlueMoonRising]

What about a compatible battery required for this tutorial?

You'd have to PM DullWhite, he's always happy to help ;)

[Guest Raihan42]

You'd have to PM DullWhite, he's always happy to help ;)

Do you mean glossywhite?

[Guest BlueMoonRising]

Do you mean glossywhite?

;)

 

 

 

 

 

You've never dealt with him then?

[Guest Raihan42]

;)

You've never dealt with him then?

Nope