Interfacing with Samsung Alias 2's e-ink keyboard

I've attacked various facets of the project very slowly over the past several months. Decided I needed to focus on listening in on the e-ink keyboard.

I've ruled out a bunch of possible connectors; there are quite a few from different manufacturers, but they're all incompatible, I think. Instead I have extra phones, and have been desoldering the connectors with a hot air rework station at work. It's quite tricky, though; I've salvaged 2 out of 6 connectors (2 on the main phone board, 1 on the LCD's PCB) from two phones.

For now, 2 connectors is all I need. My focus is going to be on getting PCBs made that let me monitor what's happening with the e-ink keyboard. That's probably my next step.

Current thinking: I'm going to make a pair of identical breakout boards that each have one of the board-to-board connectors on it, and then break out the 60 pins to two rows of 30 0.1" spaced thru-holes which will plug into a breadboard. This should give me plenty of room to test with. I might need to order more jumper wires though.

Am slowly making indirect progress, but very slowly. I've got an Intel Edison, and figured out toggling of GPIOs via the MRAA C/C++ library (and via python), once I learned what the mapping in software was for the GPIOs. Useful reference page to that end: https://github.com/intel-iot-devkit/mraa/blob/master/docs/edison.md

I'm now working towards getting an Arduino form-factor TFT 2.8" LCD working. I've not messed with LCDs whatsoever before, so I assume some amount of what I learn will be useful. The Edidoom project seems to be the best documented interfacing of a TFT LCD with an Edison, so I've been gradually digesting its workings. I'll probably end up with (sound-less) DOOM running. I'm using somewhat different hardware than in that project, so that will force me to learn some things as I go, rather than just copying and running code/wiring. http://2ld.de/edidoom/

I've yet to get around to doing the simple little custom PCB for monitoring what's happening on the ribbon cables. It's a boring unappealing step for me, I guess.

I also did more disassembly. Got the screen half pried apart as well. Finally sated my curiosity (of 5 years and running) as to how the two-way hinge works. Cool stuff. I've got pics, but haven't bothered to upload them anywhere (sorry!).

The LCD and the e-ink keyboard both use 60 pin 0.4mm pitch connectors. These are the same flavor of connector as the Intel Edison uses, it just so happens! The Edison uses the 70 pin version, which is fine. I'll regardless need to have various resistors/capacitors, I'm sure.

For reference, they are Hirose DF40 connectors: http://www.mouser.com/ds/2/185/ed_DF40_20140305-337786.pdf

Mouse has e.g. this pair of 3mm tall connectors that are readily available:
http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Hirose-Connector/DF40HC35-60DS-04V51/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMvffgRu4KC1Ry7cu3RxfNlTTj5mBFiCV9w%3d
http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Hirose-Connector/DF40C-60DP-04V51/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMvffgRu4KC1Rw0uA%252bB%2fcqq%2f9Sn%2f4WIT5YQ%3d

There's just enough labeling that I know which pins are which. (Only one is labeled via screen printing, but both have the same label on the header, which tells me the connector orientation.) The mainboard side has the "header" half of the connectors, while the two ribbon cables terminate in the "receptacle" half of the connector.

At a later point I will get better pictures of the PCB and attempt to identify the components near the connector. I can already see where the power lines probably are; thicker traces and the telltale color of SMD capacitors.

Just a basic note for the future, there are two (or was it 3?) screws hidden under a separate plastic piece that I thought was part of the non-battery cover back half of the phone's case... So my spare phone took some major damage in my attempts to pry it apart. Eventually said plastic piece popped off and I saw the screws.

There are also of course several plastic latches that I ended up breaking along the way. The screws do a good enough job holding the phone together.

And yes, I can reassemble the components and the phone turns on fine :D