Author Topic: Teardown of GPD XD System (Blue 32gb) and my thoughts  (Read 31053 times)

beldandy561 (OP)

  • Posts: 90
Teardown of GPD XD System (Blue 32gb) and my thoughts
« on: September 21, 2015, 02:12:28 am »
OK a couple of comments before we get started:

***After taking apart this system I DO NOT RECOMMEND anyone else do this unless you are extremely experienced in small electronic dis-assembly and you have NO other option to fix your hardware issue!

***The internal ribbon cables are extremely fragile and low budget.  This system clearly was meant to be assembled once.  These parts are not of the caliber that you will see in main stream products.  do to this they can tear, strip or snap off the board very easily.  they can not stand being disassembled multiple times as they will wear out extremely quickly!

***In their defense they are perfectly suitable for their use and are sturdy enough for the gaming that will be done on the product, but once hooked up are not really meant to be tampered with.

OK on to the Teardown.

First thing I noticed was that the QC and GB size stickers serve no real purpose, as they are not covering a screw hole like they are meant to.  they can be removed if you don't like them.

I have removed those stickers and the screw cover plugs in the first picture.

http://imgur.com/hzzdlFx

**upon accessing the screws i noticed that 2 of my screws were actually almost completely NOT screwed down and just hanging in their sockets by a turn or more, not cool.  (top left screw and bottom right screw)

anyway moving on.  the 4 screws here are really not doing much to hold the back plate on the unit as that i really being held on by the 6 plastic clip points on the inside that need to be popped.  to do this you will need to carefully put a paperclip in the mini hole on the underneath of the system located near the power light. (just to the left of it)  pry this up a little to pop the first clips and then use a spludger to work your way around the system popping the rest. 

**be very careful when inserting the Paperclip as there is a MICRO battery not too deep in that hole that I snapped off the motherboard when prying to pop the first clips.  I will show this to you in a later photo, (had to solder it back on)

** also when the clips are all popped you will want to lift slowly upwards towards the L and R buttons as they are attached via a cheap ribbon cable to the motherboard as well as the battery.

http://imgur.com/JOCt2i1

Now we get a look a the motherboard in the above photo.  I have already de-attached the battery that would normally be sitting right in the middle of that photo.  It is attached to the underneeth of the back plate by double sided tape.

** you can see how small and thin the ribbon cables are for a selection of items here.  the L and R buttons the analog sticks (that are their own item) and so on.

Below is a picture of the units battery.  Notice that there are NO listings of manufacturer or Voltage ratings.  This kind of sucks as it will NOT be easy to replace with another one without that info.  I should also mention that the soldered red and black contacts to the battery are very very weak and can easily be bent or snapped off due to cheap solder contacts.

http://imgur.com/uHoge22

Here is the picture of the snapped off MICRO battery that was in the hole were we pried the unit apart with the paperclip.  I have NO idea what its purpose is (maybe a CMOS battery?) who knows but I later soldered it back on.

http://imgur.com/729Z1T0

Here is a general overview shot of the back panel that was removed that contains the L and R buttons.  Not much to say here except that the ribbon cables being used for these are VERY FRAGILE AND THIN.

http://imgur.com/LSaRYuq

Here is a closer look at the design of the L and R buttons, they look to use a miniture version of the standard arcade microswitches and not your standard Nintendo or Sony microswitches.

http://imgur.com/uLWT98k

Here is a side shot with the bottom panel off showing you the WIFI antenna or lack there of.  its on the right side of the unit beside the right analog stick.  This area will almost always be covered by your right hand which will lower the atenna's range as well as the paint that also disipates the signal.  I have done many custom paint jobs for home consoles and portables and one thing i learned real fast is that painting multiple layers onto plastic that has a WIFI antenna underneith will GREATLY reduce its signal range if not completely kill it.  This should also help explain why the paint quality is SO thin.  if it was much thicker it would make the WIFI range even worse.

http://imgur.com/qQeH8zq

Here is a good shot showing you how fragile the plastic is and how easy it is to snap the clips on this system.  these clips are intricate to holding the back shell on tightly and as i previously mentioned the back screw do little to hold that plate fully in place.

http://imgur.com/x1YIY0F

Here is a shot of the Left analog stick and its ribbon cable and the Screen ribbon cable right beside it.  i find it odd that they decided to let the screen ribbon cable go over the back end of the Left analog stick, but whatever.  Take note that both these ribbon cables are EXTREMLY FRAGILE and should NOT be tampered with.  the ribbon cabling is extremely THIN and very suceptable to tearing.

http://imgur.com/ke8xG5Y

Here we have the controller rubbers with the Primary motherboard removed.  they are the standard rubber membrains you would see on most nintendo gaming products.  Not much i can say as these are standard parts.  I will make one note that for people having issues with their diagonal movement with the arrow key i believe you have a mis-seated rubber membrain.  the arrow key membrain and the X, Y, A, B membrain have a housing rubber frame that helps seat the membrane in place and hold it there.  its not uncommon for this to get not fully seated or shifted during assembly when they flip it over to screw down the mother board.  this is a common occurance with offbrand controllers.  and would require a teardown to re-seat the controller membrain to its proper position. (at your own risk of course as this is just a theory of why you are having diagonal issues)

http://imgur.com/wMfOIUD

Here is a shot of the primary motherboard by itself.  you can see that the android buttons are the bottlecap clicky kind while the directional key and controller buttons are of the classic NES kind with the mushiness everyone has described.

http://imgur.com/kfoe93Q

Here is a closeup of the fixed MICRO battery after i soldered it back on.

http://imgur.com/44fddmE

And here is the unit booting up after it has been re-assembled. (with fingerprints all over the screen)

http://imgur.com/btEGmiN

****Final thoughts.  Regardless of how low budget the parts being used are, this is one of the best NockOFF systems i have ever had the pleasure of owning.  I have been buying these type of systems to play my EMU's for years.  I still have a GPX32, a GPX32 WIZ, This system and a JXD s7800b.

All of these systems will have similar build quality due to the inexpensive Chinese manufacturing.  But that is why they only cost $100 to $200 and not $350 to $400.  and by and large the community that buys this kind of stuff understands that.

As for repairablility of this unit, that can pretty much be summed up as 0.  I am seeing a lot of proprietary parts like the custom L and R clickers, the NON-Descriptive battery, Etc.  If i had access to these parts than YES i would say it could be repaired with some effort, without access to these parts and just going by what you could GUT from something else...... NOPE.

In the end I again DO NOT RECOMMEND taking your unit apart as the internals are VERY FRAGILE and even with my 20yrs of engineering skills and micro modding portables experience, I still managed to damage  minor stuff that i luckley could repair.

I hope this has been informative to you all. 

Vinc3Has3

  • Posts: 209
    • The Not Sane For Work Podcast
Re: Teardown of GPD XD System (Blue 32gb) and my thoughts
« Reply #1 on: September 21, 2015, 03:26:05 am »
Thank you very much for putting in this effort!

This is certainly a different build than the G5 and G7, which I have had to take apart once or twice...  ;D

After your description of the ribbon cables, I'm thinking that I should only close the unit when absolutely necessary... They do not instill confidence. The hinge and screen ribbon cable were my greatest worries going into this purchase, and It seems that I was accurate in that fear.

Did you notice if there was enough travel room to ease pressure and bending on the screen cable as the unit opens and closes? Or does it seem that it might die an early death?

SONY

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Re: Teardown of GPD XD System (Blue 32gb) and my thoughts
« Reply #2 on: September 21, 2015, 03:27:50 am »
Thanks~ Twas an awesome read and nicely written with huge HQ images too.
It's amazing how secretive most Chinese companies are with source, etc when in fact they don't seem to mind straight copying or reverse engineering well known products from well known companies.
Nintendo Switch w/ipega PG-9083

SONY PS3 Super Slim
SONY PS4 Slim
SONY PS4 Pro

ALLDOCUBE Mix Plus w/ ipega PG-9023

Apple iPad pro 2019 w/Gamevice (pending)

beldandy561 (OP)

  • Posts: 90
Re: Teardown of GPD XD System (Blue 32gb) and my thoughts
« Reply #3 on: September 21, 2015, 03:53:49 am »
Thank you very much for putting in this effort!

This is certainly a different build than the G5 and G7, which I have had to take apart once or twice...  ;D

After your description of the ribbon cables, I'm thinking that I should only close the unit when absolutely necessary... They do not instill confidence. The hinge and screen ribbon cable were my greatest worries going into this purchase, and It seems that I was accurate in that fear.

Did you notice if there was enough travel room to ease pressure and bending on the screen cable as the unit opens and closes? Or does it seem that it might die an early death?



The screen cable was snug but not overly taut, I i dont have any concerns about it snaging up or tearing from hing usage at all. 

I did have to take the unit apart about another 4 times, due to sticking x, y, a, b buttons after the initial teardown to minutely adjust the amount of preasure the main board screws were putting on the shell.  I had them to tight and not enough breath room for the button membrain to bounce back up.  after loosening equally all 8 screws to a mild hold but not firm or snug that solved that problem.

One other note i forgot to mention was that the back plate (4) screws should not be screwed down too tight or they inhibit the outside L and R buttons from moving.  accidently did that too and had too loosen the left one so my L would work again without getting partially stuck.

Dual

  • Posts: 29
Re: Teardown of GPD XD System (Blue 32gb) and my thoughts
« Reply #4 on: September 21, 2015, 04:00:29 am »
Nice detailed teardown.

The small battery looking thing you broke off is a microphone.  :-*

beldandy561 (OP)

  • Posts: 90
Re: Teardown of GPD XD System (Blue 32gb) and my thoughts
« Reply #5 on: September 21, 2015, 04:09:35 am »
Nice detailed teardown.

The small battery looking thing you broke off is a microphone.  :-*



Ahh, why didnt i think of that.  I was stuck on a micro battery or mini speaker for the click noises from the keypad.  Doh!

Vinc3Has3

  • Posts: 209
    • The Not Sane For Work Podcast
Re: Teardown of GPD XD System (Blue 32gb) and my thoughts
« Reply #6 on: September 21, 2015, 04:10:47 am »
The screen cable was snug but not overly taut, I i dont have any concerns about it snaging up or tearing from hing usage at all.

That is very good news! I can actually close it and put it away, tonight.  :)

I do have to give GPD credit for attempting this build - I think this level is really new territory for them. I have a black 32 gig unit. It feels good to hold, and seems solid while I'm using it. It makes it very difficult to go back to my G5 or G7, they definitely pale in comparison.

beldandy561 (OP)

  • Posts: 90
Re: Teardown of GPD XD System (Blue 32gb) and my thoughts
« Reply #7 on: September 21, 2015, 04:23:26 am »
The screen cable was snug but not overly taut, I i dont have any concerns about it snaging up or tearing from hing usage at all.

That is very good news! I can actually close it and put it away, tonight.  :)

I do have to give GPD credit for attempting this build - I think this level is really new territory for them. I have a black 32 gig unit. It feels good to hold, and seems solid while I'm using it. It makes it very difficult to go back to my G5 or G7, they definitely pale in comparison.


Yeah i hear ya.  when everything is working on this unit, it is one of the BEST of its kind in recent memory.  sturdy feel, good build design, well made screen, etc. 

­

  • Posts: 565
Re: Teardown of GPD XD System (Blue 32gb) and my thoughts
« Reply #8 on: September 21, 2015, 06:02:30 am »
Nice one, beldandy. That was a good, insightful teardown.

One thing I have to mention, ribbon cables are cheap either way. Even "high end" ribbon cables don't cost much more than the extremely cheap one they've gone with, and it's a shame they didn't use the better ones. I suspect it's the source for many reported issues.

Regarding the paint/WiFi, having the signal go through multiple mediums decrease its quality and therefore range far more than one obstructive medium. This does not excuse the poor paint quality. Nor does it excuse the poorest WiFi antenna I've ever seen, which could've gone horizontally across the device instead of vertically and take advantage of the dead space in the middle.

All in all, I think it's a Frankenstein's Monster. The individual parts (d-pad, should and face buttons, analogs) are good and have a good design, but it's put together like a hack job. Really a shame - even if they would've raised the device cost $10 they could've covered all of these issues and then some, and I don't think it would've impacted the number of units sold in any significant way.

beldandy561 (OP)

  • Posts: 90
Re: Teardown of GPD XD System (Blue 32gb) and my thoughts
« Reply #9 on: September 21, 2015, 06:09:34 am »
Nice one, beldandy. That was a good, insightful teardown.

One thing I have to mention, ribbon cables are cheap either way. Even "high end" ribbon cables don't cost much more than the extremely cheap one they've gone with, and it's a shame they didn't use the better ones. I suspect it's the source for many reported issues.

Regarding the paint/WiFi, having the signal go through multiple mediums decrease its quality and therefore range far more than one obstructive medium. This does not excuse the poor paint quality. Nor does it excuse the poorest WiFi antenna I've ever seen, which could've gone horizontally across the device instead of vertically and take advantage of the dead space in the middle.

All in all, I think it's a Frankenstein's Monster. The individual parts (d-pad, should and face buttons, analogs) are good and have a good design, but it's put together like a hack job. Really a shame - even if they would've raised the device cost $10 they could've covered all of these issues and then some, and I don't think it would've impacted the number of units sold in any significant way.



Yea i agree with ya, ribbon cables are mostly fragile but cheap is cheap.

the only design decision i am scratching my head on is the wifi antenna location, Like you i agree it should be in a different location.  having it in an area were a hand is going to cover it up is just stupid.  maybe have it on the back under the back plate or go to the top panel near the screen.

Oh well just my 2 cents

eragon2890

  • Posts: 1887
Re: Teardown of GPD XD System (Blue 32gb) and my thoughts
« Reply #10 on: September 21, 2015, 09:23:04 am »
Great interesting post!

Well I didn't plan on opening mine up anyway since it works perfectly, but I have a question :

Quote
***In their defense they are perfectly suitable for their use and are sturdy enough for the gaming that will be done on the product, but once hooked up are not really meant to be tampered with.

Can we take this to mean, that in your opinion, as long as you get a working unit (so no damage in transport or in the factory), they are solid enough not to break quickly? I mean, the plastic clips holding the screen, battery solder points, and ribbon cables might be "very fragile" when you open up everything and start thinkering with them, but from what you write I get the impression you are not worried these 3 important components will go kaput within say two months of normal usage if you get a working unit and don't do anything crazy with it right?

beldandy561 (OP)

  • Posts: 90
Re: Teardown of GPD XD System (Blue 32gb) and my thoughts
« Reply #11 on: September 21, 2015, 09:47:09 am »
Great interesting post!

Well I didn't plan on opening mine up anyway since it works perfectly, but I have a question :

Quote
***In their defense they are perfectly suitable for their use and are sturdy enough for the gaming that will be done on the product, but once hooked up are not really meant to be tampered with.

Can we take this to mean, that in your opinion, as long as you get a working unit (so no damage in transport or in the factory), they are solid enough not to break quickly? I mean, the plastic clips holding the screen, battery solder points, and ribbon cables might be "very fragile" when you open up everything and start thinkering with them, but from what you write I get the impression you are not worried these 3 important components will go kaput within say two months of normal usage if you get a working unit and don't do anything crazy with it right?



Yeah, thats basicly the conclusion im drawing. 

As long as you have got a good condition working unit you should have little issue with its build unless yiu start to fiddle with its inards. 

The only real concern i have is the battery.  This is very poorly put together.  Let me explain..... the battery itself is quite nice and not really bendable (like some ultra cheap lithium battery platters i have come across.  Im looking at you iphone 5s and JXDs7800b) that has 2 paper thin + & - tin slips coming off of it to a very small rectangular circuit board.  These slips are bulk soldered to this little board which has an 18guage + & - wire running from it to the mail connector that attaches to the female conector on the main devices board to power everything.  These little tin slips are the batteries akilies heal as they tear with just the slitest bit of tension.  I accidently did this without even noticing and of course my unit wouldnt power on. 

Took me a little while to see the slitely torn + slip on the edge of the battery under the yellow seethrough edge tape.  Would be soo easy to miss as it looked to be intacked but it actually had a paper thin tear in the middle and the two slivers were so close it looked good until i removed the tape and saw the separation damage.


 I could see this happen to a large number of these units during assembly, or after the units been used for a while and the tin slip starts to desintegrate after being heated up and cooled down from charging then using then charging.  Without these tin slips there is NO way i see to access the + & - leads of the battery.  If these tin slips are torn or break due to heat exchange like a tube fuse coil eventually separating in the middle after being heated.  That battery will be toast even if the battery itself is still good, we would have no way to access its electricity. 

midknight

  • Posts: 272
Re: Teardown of GPD XD System (Blue 32gb) and my thoughts
« Reply #12 on: September 21, 2015, 09:50:53 am »
"micro battery" by any chance could that be a mic? that would explain the hole being there when i pulled mine apart to fix the shoulder button i thought that's what it was but didn't look to deeply into it. on another thought im with you on your recommendation on not opening this device because its easy to break the zif cables for the shoulder buttons and you can break the clips from opening it too much im more on edge about opening up this thing than i am on pulling apart my galaxy s3 the shoulder buttons look super easy to break.

beldandy561 (OP)

  • Posts: 90
Re: Teardown of GPD XD System (Blue 32gb) and my thoughts
« Reply #13 on: September 21, 2015, 09:57:52 am »
"micro battery" by any chance could that be a mic? that would explain the hole being there when i pulled mine apart to fix the shoulder button i thought that's what it was but didn't look to deeply into it. on another thought im with you on your recommendation on not opening this device because its easy to break the zif cables for the shoulder buttons and you can break the clips from opening it too much im more on edge about opening up this thing than i am on pulling apart my galaxy s3 the shoulder buttons look super easy to break.



Yeah another user pointed out that it was a mic and not a micro battery.  So your right about that.  As for the ribbons they use..... they be paper thin and cheap.  If you tamper too much with them they will tear.  I have had to take this unit appart 6 times this evening after the initial teardown to fix minor issues that i imposed when i reassembled it. (Screwed board back down to tight and buttons began to stick)  (minor teat damage to battery so it wouldnt turn back on.) Must of happened during my multiple teardowns to test loosen the screws to fix the button sticking issues.

Oh well all is good now.

eragon2890

  • Posts: 1887
Re: Teardown of GPD XD System (Blue 32gb) and my thoughts
« Reply #14 on: September 21, 2015, 10:04:26 am »
Great interesting post!

Well I didn't plan on opening mine up anyway since it works perfectly, but I have a question :

Quote
***In their defense they are perfectly suitable for their use and are sturdy enough for the gaming that will be done on the product, but once hooked up are not really meant to be tampered with.

Can we take this to mean, that in your opinion, as long as you get a working unit (so no damage in transport or in the factory), they are solid enough not to break quickly? I mean, the plastic clips holding the screen, battery solder points, and ribbon cables might be "very fragile" when you open up everything and start thinkering with them, but from what you write I get the impression you are not worried these 3 important components will go kaput within say two months of normal usage if you get a working unit and don't do anything crazy with it right?



Yeah, thats basicly the conclusion im drawing. 

As long as you have got a good condition working unit you should have little issue with its build unless yiu start to fiddle with its inards. 

The only real concern i have is the battery.  This is very poorly put together.  Let me explain..... the battery itself is quite nice and not really bendable (like some ultra cheap lithium battery platters i have come across.  Im looking at you iphone 5s and JXDs7800b) that has 2 paper thin + & - tin slips coming off of it to a very small rectangular circuit board.  These slips are bulk soldered to this little board which has an 18guage + & - wire running from it to the mail connector that attaches to the female conector on the main devices board to power everything.  These little tin slips are the batteries akilies heal as they tear with just the slitest bit of tension.  I accidently did this without even noticing and of course my unit wouldnt power on. 

Took me a little while to see the slitely torn + slip on the edge of the battery under the yellow seethrough edge tape.  Would be soo easy to miss as it looked to be intacked but it actually had a paper thin tear in the middle and the two slivers were so close it looked good until i removed the tape and saw the separation damage.


 I could see this happen to a large number of these units during assembly, or after the units been used for a while and the tin slip starts to desintegrate after being heated up and cooled down from charging then using then charging.  Without these tin slips there is NO way i see to access the + & - leads of the battery.  If these tin slips are torn or break due to heat exchange like a tube fuse coil eventually separating in the middle after being heated.  That battery will be toast even if the battery itself is still good, we would have no way to access its electricity.

;_;

But I have to say, I have mine for a month now, keep it on all day long (in standby also), have had it in charger almost 50 times already I guess (including more then 10 times overnight so all night long), and did in total like a hundred hours of gaming and hours of watching anime on it, and it's still fine. Also, it doesn't heat up at all really as far as you can feel on the outside.

Basically what I mean is this, it might be fragile during assembly sure, but is there any reason to assume the heating going on in the device is going to destroy this connection? Is this a sure thing or just a small chance of this happening?
Also, do you think this will happen after three months, or more like two years? Because if it lasts one or two years of heavy usage, I am happy. I throw it away and buy the surely better model they will have on the market by then XD

(Yeah, fuck the environment... :O )

beldandy561 (OP)

  • Posts: 90
Re: Teardown of GPD XD System (Blue 32gb) and my thoughts
« Reply #15 on: September 21, 2015, 10:21:51 am »
Great interesting post!

Well I didn't plan on opening mine up anyway since it works perfectly, but I have a question :

Quote
***In their defense they are perfectly suitable for their use and are sturdy enough for the gaming that will be done on the product, but once hooked up are not really meant to be tampered with.

Can we take this to mean, that in your opinion, as long as you get a working unit (so no damage in transport or in the factory), they are solid enough not to break quickly? I mean, the plastic clips holding the screen, battery solder points, and ribbon cables might be "very fragile" when you open up everything and start thinkering with them, but from what you write I get the impression you are not worried these 3 important components will go kaput within say two months of normal usage if you get a working unit and don't do anything crazy with it right?



Yeah, thats basicly the conclusion im drawing. 

As long as you have got a good condition working unit you should have little issue with its build unless yiu start to fiddle with its inards. 

The only real concern i have is the battery.  This is very poorly put together.  Let me explain..... the battery itself is quite nice and not really bendable (like some ultra cheap lithium battery platters i have come across.  Im looking at you iphone 5s and JXDs7800b) that has 2 paper thin + & - tin slips coming off of it to a very small rectangular circuit board.  These slips are bulk soldered to this little board which has an 18guage + & - wire running from it to the mail connector that attaches to the female conector on the main devices board to power everything.  These little tin slips are the batteries akilies heal as they tear with just the slitest bit of tension.  I accidently did this without even noticing and of course my unit wouldnt power on. 

Took me a little while to see the slitely torn + slip on the edge of the battery under the yellow seethrough edge tape.  Would be soo easy to miss as it looked to be intacked but it actually had a paper thin tear in the middle and the two slivers were so close it looked good until i removed the tape and saw the separation damage.


 I could see this happen to a large number of these units during assembly, or after the units been used for a while and the tin slip starts to desintegrate after being heated up and cooled down from charging then using then charging.  Without these tin slips there is NO way i see to access the + & - leads of the battery.  If these tin slips are torn or break due to heat exchange like a tube fuse coil eventually separating in the middle after being heated.  That battery will be toast even if the battery itself is still good, we would have no way to access its electricity.

;_;

But I have to say, I have mine for a month now, keep it on all day long (in standby also), have had it in charger almost 50 times already I guess (including more then 10 times overnight so all night long), and did in total like a hundred hours of gaming and hours of watching anime on it, and it's still fine. Also, it doesn't heat up at all really as far as you can feel on the outside.

Basically what I mean is this, it might be fragile during assembly sure, but is there any reason to assume the heating going on in the device is going to destroy this connection? Is this a sure thing or just a small chance of this happening?
Also, do you think this will happen after three months, or more like two years? Because if it lasts one or two years of heavy usage, I am happy. I throw it away and buy the surely better model they will have on the market by then XD

(Yeah, fuck the environment... :O )



In the end i think there is just a small chance of it happening and not something to worry too much about. 

I do hope they come up with a better battery solution in the future as well as maybe switch the arrow key and A, B, X, Y buttons to the dome click type that can be seen on the rest of the board that the android menu buttons use.

 These are of much higher quality and for the most part last just as long and feel better.  I think the cost and time to make this minor hardware modification to the design request before manufacturing the all in one board would be negligible at best.

eragon2890

  • Posts: 1887
Re: Teardown of GPD XD System (Blue 32gb) and my thoughts
« Reply #16 on: September 21, 2015, 01:47:02 pm »
Great interesting post!

Well I didn't plan on opening mine up anyway since it works perfectly, but I have a question :

Quote
***In their defense they are perfectly suitable for their use and are sturdy enough for the gaming that will be done on the product, but once hooked up are not really meant to be tampered with.

Can we take this to mean, that in your opinion, as long as you get a working unit (so no damage in transport or in the factory), they are solid enough not to break quickly? I mean, the plastic clips holding the screen, battery solder points, and ribbon cables might be "very fragile" when you open up everything and start thinkering with them, but from what you write I get the impression you are not worried these 3 important components will go kaput within say two months of normal usage if you get a working unit and don't do anything crazy with it right?



Yeah, thats basicly the conclusion im drawing. 

As long as you have got a good condition working unit you should have little issue with its build unless yiu start to fiddle with its inards. 

The only real concern i have is the battery.  This is very poorly put together.  Let me explain..... the battery itself is quite nice and not really bendable (like some ultra cheap lithium battery platters i have come across.  Im looking at you iphone 5s and JXDs7800b) that has 2 paper thin + & - tin slips coming off of it to a very small rectangular circuit board.  These slips are bulk soldered to this little board which has an 18guage + & - wire running from it to the mail connector that attaches to the female conector on the main devices board to power everything.  These little tin slips are the batteries akilies heal as they tear with just the slitest bit of tension.  I accidently did this without even noticing and of course my unit wouldnt power on. 

Took me a little while to see the slitely torn + slip on the edge of the battery under the yellow seethrough edge tape.  Would be soo easy to miss as it looked to be intacked but it actually had a paper thin tear in the middle and the two slivers were so close it looked good until i removed the tape and saw the separation damage.


 I could see this happen to a large number of these units during assembly, or after the units been used for a while and the tin slip starts to desintegrate after being heated up and cooled down from charging then using then charging.  Without these tin slips there is NO way i see to access the + & - leads of the battery.  If these tin slips are torn or break due to heat exchange like a tube fuse coil eventually separating in the middle after being heated.  That battery will be toast even if the battery itself is still good, we would have no way to access its electricity.

;_;

But I have to say, I have mine for a month now, keep it on all day long (in standby also), have had it in charger almost 50 times already I guess (including more then 10 times overnight so all night long), and did in total like a hundred hours of gaming and hours of watching anime on it, and it's still fine. Also, it doesn't heat up at all really as far as you can feel on the outside.

Basically what I mean is this, it might be fragile during assembly sure, but is there any reason to assume the heating going on in the device is going to destroy this connection? Is this a sure thing or just a small chance of this happening?
Also, do you think this will happen after three months, or more like two years? Because if it lasts one or two years of heavy usage, I am happy. I throw it away and buy the surely better model they will have on the market by then XD

(Yeah, fuck the environment... :O )



In the end i think there is just a small chance of it happening and not something to worry too much about. 

I do hope they come up with a better battery solution in the future as well as maybe switch the arrow key and A, B, X, Y buttons to the dome click type that can be seen on the rest of the board that the android menu buttons use.

 These are of much higher quality and for the most part last just as long and feel better.  I think the cost and time to make this minor hardware modification to the design request before manufacturing the all in one board would be negligible at best.

Thank you!

I guess we can call the build quality "sufficient" then, good design to keep ie using the hinge or buttons from putting stress on the ribbon cables and good enough quality ribbon cables to last a while. Sounds like no reason to complain to me, opening your hadheld iw not its "intended usage" anyway. XD a tad shame about the battery, i guess it explains why three units had dead batteries days after receipt - those contacts were probably damaged during assembly for those? But if you say it wont happen probably for the rest then everyone with a worki unit has nothing to worry about it seems about longetivity. Quite good news for such a cheap unit.

And agreed about the buttons, they are mushy but more importantly don't stick out far enough, I find that keeping x pressed and pressing a at same time can be a bit of a pain, and mushing the x button consistently and quickly is quite difficult. The buttons on my q9 stick out a bit more and are thus much nicer to press. So for some games like project diva they are much nicer to play on the q9. But off course San Andreas, mc4, the conduit HD, quake, Mario 64, colony wars etc. are way better on xd due to analogs... So I use my q9 for arcade games and such and xd for android and more recent emulated games which use analogs... And for watching all my anime! Screen u so good :-)

Finally.. Is it just me, or is this thing with "one cheaper component" not really a gpd only issue? The iPhone and jxd have a shit battery, the archos gamepad 2 was a portable BBQ, my vita headphone socket broke in a few dozen hours, the q9 has a great dpad but a bit less durable then average, the hinges on the old Ds(I)'s all cracked, the new 3ds xl creaks and sqeaks and fews cheap and the screen flies around, the PSP while sturdy had a shit dpad, the GameCube had a very-often-failing DVD read laser, etc. Ad infinitum... So can we really say the build quality of these devices is any less then the "mainstream" (also made in China) brands then? :O

eragon2890

  • Posts: 1887
Re: Teardown of GPD XD System (Blue 32gb) and my thoughts
« Reply #17 on: September 21, 2015, 07:34:19 pm »
Oh and BTW, I take all of this to mean that opening the screen to almost full 180 degrees (past second lock) won't cause damage in any way? D:

beldandy561 (OP)

  • Posts: 90
Re: Teardown of GPD XD System (Blue 32gb) and my thoughts
« Reply #18 on: September 21, 2015, 08:28:45 pm »
Oh and BTW, I take all of this to mean that opening the screen to almost full 180 degrees (past second lock) won't cause damage in any way? D:


No i dont see any issue with that other than.

midknight

  • Posts: 272
Re: Teardown of GPD XD System (Blue 32gb) and my thoughts
« Reply #19 on: September 21, 2015, 09:52:05 pm »
Great interesting post!

Well I didn't plan on opening mine up anyway since it works perfectly, but I have a question :

Quote
***In their defense they are perfectly suitable for their use and are sturdy enough for the gaming that will be done on the product, but once hooked up are not really meant to be tampered with.

Can we take this to mean, that in your opinion, as long as you get a working unit (so no damage in transport or in the factory), they are solid enough not to break quickly? I mean, the plastic clips holding the screen, battery solder points, and ribbon cables might be "very fragile" when you open up everything and start thinkering with them, but from what you write I get the impression you are not worried these 3 important components will go kaput within say two months of normal usage if you get a working unit and don't do anything crazy with it right?



Yeah, thats basicly the conclusion im drawing. 

As long as you have got a good condition working unit you should have little issue with its build unless yiu start to fiddle with its inards. 

The only real concern i have is the battery.  This is very poorly put together.  Let me explain..... the battery itself is quite nice and not really bendable (like some ultra cheap lithium battery platters i have come across.  Im looking at you iphone 5s and JXDs7800b) that has 2 paper thin + & - tin slips coming off of it to a very small rectangular circuit board.  These slips are bulk soldered to this little board which has an 18guage + & - wire running from it to the mail connector that attaches to the female conector on the main devices board to power everything.  These little tin slips are the batteries akilies heal as they tear with just the slitest bit of tension.  I accidently did this without even noticing and of course my unit wouldnt power on. 

Took me a little while to see the slitely torn + slip on the edge of the battery under the yellow seethrough edge tape.  Would be soo easy to miss as it looked to be intacked but it actually had a paper thin tear in the middle and the two slivers were so close it looked good until i removed the tape and saw the separation damage.


 I could see this happen to a large number of these units during assembly, or after the units been used for a while and the tin slip starts to desintegrate after being heated up and cooled down from charging then using then charging.  Without these tin slips there is NO way i see to access the + & - leads of the battery.  If these tin slips are torn or break due to heat exchange like a tube fuse coil eventually separating in the middle after being heated.  That battery will be toast even if the battery itself is still good, we would have no way to access its electricity.

;_;

But I have to say, I have mine for a month now, keep it on all day long (in standby also), have had it in charger almost 50 times already I guess (including more then 10 times overnight so all night long), and did in total like a hundred hours of gaming and hours of watching anime on it, and it's still fine. Also, it doesn't heat up at all really as far as you can feel on the outside.

Basically what I mean is this, it might be fragile during assembly sure, but is there any reason to assume the heating going on in the device is going to destroy this connection? Is this a sure thing or just a small chance of this happening?
Also, do you think this will happen after three months, or more like two years? Because if it lasts one or two years of heavy usage, I am happy. I throw it away and buy the surely better model they will have on the market by then XD

(Yeah, fuck the environment... :O )



In the end i think there is just a small chance of it happening and not something to worry too much about. 

I do hope they come up with a better battery solution in the future as well as maybe switch the arrow key and A, B, X, Y buttons to the dome click type that can be seen on the rest of the board that the android menu buttons use.

 These are of much higher quality and for the most part last just as long and feel better.  I think the cost and time to make this minor hardware modification to the design request before manufacturing the all in one board would be negligible at best.
It may be better for gpd to keep the key mat style dome buttons don't live that long key mats are cheap and last for years