From: TP Diffenbach <rockbox_at_diffenbach.org>
Date: Sun, 22 Jun 2003 20:10:57 -0400

I partially diassaembled my archos FM Recorder today, as a practice run at
replacing the hard drive.

The back plate of the fm recorder is a pieced of soft metal (aluminum?) bent 90
degrees at each edge into flanges, to form a tray. The sides of the tray are
soldered to the archos main board (the top and the bottom are not solderedd), to
form a box; the hardrive (hdd) rests in the bootom of the box, next to the
backplate, the battery sits atop the hdd, sandwiched between the hdd and the main
board:

Bad ASCII art of this arrangment, viewing the top (or bottom) of the Archos:

  solder point -- main board -- solder point
  f f
  l battery l
  a a
  n n
  g hard drive g
  e/ e/
  b d
  e n
   nd ------------ back plate ---------- be


As I'm not a solderer, I elected to bend the top and bottom flanges rather than
un-soder the side flanges; Rather than than unbend the 90 angles, I just put
pressure on the flanges until they bent where they's naturally bend, which happens
to have been on the inside edge of the "feet" (the feet which the bumpers fit
into) on the back plate. More bad ASCII art, partial view from the side of the Archos:

   flange --------------------> | v------- my bend (exaggerated)
   90 degree factory bend ----> |__ o___
   foot--------------------------> \__/
   
My question is this: how can I best straighten these bends, given that my only
access to the inside (convex) portion of the bend is through a bent flange (as I
still do not wish to unsolder), and given that the bend presses against the
(removable) harddrive, and is attached to a (delicate) main board?


Thanks,
Tom

-- 
Archos FM has a Rockbox!

Received on 2003-06-23