Macbook 2008 Pro Broken -> Again :(

Well about two months ago, the macbook again didn't showed up the booting screen (apple logo)...

Didn't had a lot of time to keep my blog up to date...

It was clear that the third time reflowing didn't repaired it forever...
I decided to buy some equipment to reball the GPU...

Pebble Watchface - Sonar

I wrote that I'll post my watchface here when it's finished...

So here it is (downloads below):

Outside is the second dot, the middle dot is the minute, and the inner is the hour.
Upper left is day of week, bottom left is day, bottom rigth is month and upper rigth is calender week.
There's an animation which looks like a sonar...

 

I call it the Radar Sonar Clock :) 

Pebble Watch

The past days I bought a Pebble Watch... A friend bakered some goods to the kickstarter project a year ago and now he received some watches... He asked me if I want to have one (thx to flaex)...
First I was a bit skeptic because I was really happy with my old watch (analog, no numbers, no stopwatch,...).

But I was really curious about the capabilities. Also a new challenge in programing it. Finally I took it and it's really awesome...
I only received Phone Call Notifications with iOS5 first, so I updatet on iOS6...
Then I received only Phone Calls, SMS and mail Notifications.

If you have a Jailbreak you can download BTNotificationEnabler (by Konrad Kramer) then you'll get all notifications on your pebble... Really nice ;)
(You'll find it in the BigBoss Repo)

Watchfaces (and Apps) can be found here.

I already downloaded/installed the SDK... There are a lot of steps to install but it's explained very good on the dev site of pebble.
Attention: Only MacOS & Ubuntu Supported... (VirtualMachine could be an alternative for Windows users).

I'm going to develop my own Watchface... Post it here when it's finished...

What I'm missing at my new Pebble Watch:

• Saphireglas
• Ceramic Band
• The function to control the phone (you can answer/cancel calls)
• Microphone and Speaker
• More Functions in the SDK 
• Could be a bit thinner (but it's really thin when you keep in mind what's inside...)

Actually I'm a bit tired, so if you find some error in this article... See it as a gift and keep it or write a comment ;p

Macbook Pro 2008 Repair (Hot Air Gun Reflow)

My Macbook Pro stopped working...
It's the popular GPU Problem of the Nvidia graphic card.
Somehow the lead between the BGA chip and board breaks and the result is not boot up with a black or white screen; or artifacts in the internal and external display...

Possibilities:

• Buy a new one and throw away the old one
• Try to ask apple for a "free repair" -> good luck
• Reflow with hot air gun/oven/Prof. Reflow station
• Reballing
• Bring it to somebody who can fix it...

I decided to try the hot air gun method...

I made it twice already before, but I think not good enough...
So I did some research and did it for the third time.

This time I recorded it:

Detailed information about the different methods I tried:

First time

Method: Used a cheap (borrowed) hot air gun and put it on top for about one minute
Durability: 1 month

Second time 

Method: Used a much better hot air gun (with digital display & +/-10°C interval)  240°C on top for 2 minutes
Durability: 2 months

Third time

Method: Used a thermocouple to messure the board temparature on the top of the board, heat up the bottom to aprox. 110°C, Heat up the top up to aprox. 220-230°C
Durability: Don't know yet... hope a life long... ;P

Amazon Frustation Free - Review

During my last order on amazon I found the option "Frustration Free"...

I read the Information on the amazon site and thought: "what a good idea!!!"

Result: I'ts really frustration free! ;) 

amazon Page:

 

What I reveiced:

Thanks Amazon!