Disassembly Guide: Cowon S9

[trikon000]

This will cover taking apart a Cowon S9, model used is a COWON S9 32GB Titanium/Black from jetmall.net.

Tools used:
Electronics screw driver set
A very thin and pointy pin
Precision Phone Disassembly Tool set (optional)

This guide should only be used if you do not care about the product warranty
or your device's warranty has elapsed. Onto the guide then.
















Now that we have the S9 out we can now flip the device over and see the backside where the screws are. The screws are covered by plastic covers that need to be removed. With a pin or thin needle we will need to remove the plastic covers, put them on wax paper or something.

In the diagram below, the plastic covers are marked:







We can now remove the screws, now that the screws are removed we can use the electronics flat head screw driver or phone tools at this point. I have opted for the phone tools for this part, they leave less visible marks when used.




At this point the S9 should be on the table or workbench when you pry the back off. Not doing so will result in a loss of the buttons when the back seperates from the device. Each side of the back is held in place by 4 internal snap on clips on each side, that is a total of 8 holding the back piece. Finding a space big enough for the wedge tools to get between the side and back was near the volume controls.




You will only need to pry off one side to get the whole backing off in some cases.




Once you have the backing seperated we will now look at what is holding the PCB down. After looking at what is holding the rest of it in place we can see that it is held down by 4 screws, the LCD frame and oddly enough the AMOLED Touch Screen flat ribbon cable.

Order you should take them apart are: A, C, B
(yes that labeling is intentional, doing B before C first will rip the ribbon cable)




There is a piece of blue thermal tape on the ribbon cable that needs to be removed before disconnecting the ribbon cable. Lift the black part up and the cable will come out without effort. Pulling on the cable will will rip the dimpled head. The metal tabs on the LCD will need to be poped out of the frame. You will need the wedge tool to slowly seperate it from the AMOLED Touch Screen.







Now that the AMOLED Touch Screen is seperated from the PCB assembly we can now look at what else is holding the LCD and PCB together.

You can stop at this point and flip the PCB assembly over for cleaning of the LCD and inside of the AMOLED Touch Screen.

After looking at the design we can see that the battery is soldered to the main board on the left side. The sub board is soldered to the main board via a riser pin in the lower right side. After several attempts at seperating the battery from the back of the LCD by hand, resorted to using the exacto knife to cut the double sticky sided neoprene off.











This is after reassembling the S9.










I had to use reference images of the volume button forward/backward button to place them back in place, it is not exactly marked and they are actually angled buttons.

This concludes the guide, trikon000.

---

Close up shot of the PCB:




This can be found here:
http://iaudiophile.net/forums/showthread.php?t=28554
http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum...ad.php?t=43843

My Cowon S9 folder:
http://s186.photobucket.com/albums/x...n000/cowon_s9/

[tma888]

Wow! That is insane man!
You didnt even turn the unit on first hahaha!
You have paved the way. Now if anyone can only modify
it to add something like maybe an SD card slot!

[karupin101]

Hmm, so the battery isnt easy to remove then....

[trikon000]

A third of the case is empty space.

Nope, the battery requires soldering.

[Confispect]

I have a question, my screen is been gone haywire I been holding out on sending it in because then I'd be without my music, anyhow. I believe I sat on it to much because it was always in my back pocket. When I press where it says Cowon right under the screen the colors go back right. If I press it to hard I can successfully turn it off. One when I press right under the screen in the black space what am I pressing on. Two could something be....smushed out of of place and just need to be realigned?

[trikon000]

The nonconductive padding below the screen probably came off and came into contact with the sensor points on the screen.

You would have to open it to find out though.

[Illbashu]

Wouldn't that kill the warranty ?

[trikon000]

This guide should only be used if you do not care about the product warranty
or your device's warranty has elapsed.

Try not skipping anything I put down in text.

[invertedskull]

From this, can anyone tell me where on the unit the bluetooth receiver is located? I want to know where I should perhaps ´try to avoid´ holding the S9 due to poor bluetooth reception.

[trikon000]

I would assume it is on the sub board since there is print labling ANT1, which would be an antenna. Either that or it is the FM antenna.

[WalkGood]

@ trikon000 Very nice guide, moved to sticky.

[trikon000]

Only thing left to wait for is a 32GB P3.

[eroarex]

yep and the sony x1000, i'd really like to see that one disassembled

[trikon000]

someone already did the sony one.

http://www.sonyinsider.com/2009/05/2...ies-dissected/

[Uffeh]

I would love to see this:




Would it fit? Kinda hard to tell since the pic is pretty much 2d.

[trikon000]

not really. you would be covering up the bluetooth antenna, FM antenna, reset switch and mic; not only that you would cut off the heat disapparating from the chips.

[Action]

What opamp is used? Can someone point it out?

[trikon000]

Op-amps are just circuit components, be more specific in what you want to ask. Or is it that you are misusing the term and confusing it for something else?

[Johnnaris]

Thanks for sharing. It's great.
simulation credit

[stephsalvador]

simulation rachat de credit

this is interesting. thanks for sharing the info