[ToniCipriani]

Behold...



Possibly the world's first Bell Pre Plus is born.

[livinofframen]

Separating the omap board from the screen is an order of magnitude harder than a comms board swap.

-- Rod

I'd heed Rod's warning in this case. That's not an easy procedure to perform, especially in lieu of the fact that it's pretty easy to get the comms board out. I don't see any advantage of doing it the other way.

[thesmj]

I'd heed Rod's warning in this case. That's not an easy procedure to perform, especially in lieu of the fact that it's pretty easy to get the comms board out. I don't see any advantage of doing it the other way.

The only advantage would be to make a $100+ Pre -> Pre+ upgrade a $30 Pre -> Pre+ upgrade. Just throwing out ideas.

Unless a suitable Pre+ just drops in your lap, this is a really expensive way to upgrade your phone. Last I looked a Pre+ is going for far more than I paid for my vanilla Pre 8 months ago.The fact that a new Palm phone is rumored to show up about 6 months from now doesn't help either.

[KrazyRogue]

Wow this is so cool. I'm glad the Sprint folks can now finally enjoy the plus version. Awesome work livinofframen. Wouldn't it be cool if all Palm phones from here on out could be hardware modded like this?!

Oh I forgot to mention, my brother has a Vzw Pre Plus in really good condition laying around. If anybody wants to buy it from him you can PM me. Hope this helps somebody out.

[amateurhack]

I knew this could be done! Thank you soooooo much. I really didn't even know where to begin on the programming side of it. The rest is, as Derek put it, "Meatball Surgery."

Well Done! Thanks Again!

[rwhitby]

The only advantage would be to make a $100+ Pre -> Pre+ upgrade a $30 Pre -> Pre+ upgrade. Just throwing out ideas.

It's more likely to end up making a $100+ upgrade into two broken phones.

Seriously.

I've swapped a number of keyboards and comms boards, but would think carefully twice before attempting any surgery involving separating the omap board from the screen.

-- Rod

[grndslm]

This is awesome.

I wonder how this affects actual GPS performance Is the GPS chip on the comms board as well, or no? If not, it'd be good to compare the Sprint & Verizon GPS services, applications with standard hardware.

EDIT: My guess is that the GPS *is* on the coms board, however.

[TheMarco]

I have a rather beat up Sprint Pre... and I got a shiny new Pre Plus from Palm at a developer event which has been sitting in it's box ever since (because I have no use for a Verizon device).

I know what I'll be doing this weekend... muahahaha!

[johncc]

I have a rather beat up Sprint Pre... and I got a shiny new Pre Plus from Palm at a developer event which has been sitting in it's box ever since (because I have no use for a Verizon device).

I know what I'll be doing this weekend... muahahaha!

Where have you been since November? Just lurking?

[TheMacs]

Wow, very impressive livinofframen!

Like a bunch of others I'm sure, I immediately went looking for a Plus on the interweb. I'd probably spend more than a couple bucks (more than I paid for the plain Pre!) to get one but they do seem to be cost-prohibitive right now, especially since a new Pre2PlusPro-whatevertheyllcallit should be out sooner rather than later.

But if I come across one cheap, we're goin' in!

[TheTolsonator]

Been considering it...depends on how much I can get a broken Pre+ for.

[gitit20]

Separating the omap board from the screen is an order of magnitude harder than a comms board swap.

-- Rod

You mean like this see pic

[hrminer92]

As my Pre is my work lifeline and thus "non-riskable", I would never try this. Great write up though and it looks straightforwards enough to follow. (If I had an extra Sprint Pre and a P+, I'd give it a go.)

This is something I might try once new hardware is available. That way if I screw up, I can just get a new one. If it works, I'll use the modded device until the price goes down on the new hardware.

Do what I do... get broken screen Pres and bad ESN Pre Pluses.

Sounds like an opportunity to make a little cash for someone with the required skills.

[victorkruger]

Since i don't want to risk breaking my current pre, I've taken ToniCipriani's suggestion to heart and I've been trolling for cracked screen sprint pres and bad esn pre pluses.

One question comes to mind. How am i going to convince Sprint to transfer my account from my current pre to my new franken pre plus?

[Nightburn]

Since i don't want to risk breaking my current pre, I've taken ToniCipriani's suggestion to heart and I've been trolling for cracked screen pres and bad esn pre pluses.

One question comes to mind. How am i going to convince Sprint to transfer my account from my current pre to my new franken pre plus?

That's the whole point of this process, you don't need to get Sprint to do anything. When you transfer the sprint radio board (and tokens) to a pre plus, you're essentially transferring your account with it.

I DO NOT recommend a broken screen Pre Plus. If you have to transfer the screen from your sprint Pre, it'll be considerably more difficult to do this operation. Look for a BAD ESN Pre Plus. I got mine on ebay for like $75.

edit: a broken screen Sprint Pre with a good ESN radio board would be fine.

[victorkruger]

That's the whole point of this process, you don't need to get Sprint to do anything. When you transfer the sprint radio board (and tokens) to a pre plus, you're essentially transferring your account with it.

So it doesn't matter what sprint com board you put in, as long as you transfer over the correct tokens?

Basically my end-game result is to have my current pre in one piece and possibly give it to a friend of mine, and then have the Franken Pre Plus as my new phone.

[Nightburn]

it matters only in the sense that whatever sprint board you transfer cannot have a bad ESN

[warguy]

im waiting to try this as soon as i can get my hands on a pre plus for a good price. Ive got everything ready to go to transfer the tokens over but i havent been able to find a decent pre plus with a bad esn, people still want like 100+ bucks for them, that crazy!! you can find clean esn ones for that price. But as soon as i get my hands on a pre plus its on like donkey kong!!

[Nightburn]

im waiting to try this as soon as i can get my hands on a pre plus for a good price. Ive got everything ready to go to transfer the tokens over but i havent been able to find a decent pre plus with a bad esn, people still want like 100+ bucks for them, that crazy!! you can find clean esn ones for that price. But as soon as i get my hands on a pre plus its on like donkey kong!!

This exact modification is why BAD ESN pre pluses are selling well

[warguy]

This exact modification is why BAD ESN pre pluses are selling well

I was angry earlier, i was sniped out of a pre plus for 61 bucks If i would have been at home on my fios 25mbit connection that wouldnt have happend and i would be one step closer to doing this mod