12-17-2019, 01:07 PM
I've been talking with Quectel's engineers about the possibility of swapping the EC25-G module with the EC25-AF that has all the bands for US 4G+ LTE on AT&T and T-Mobile and their related MVNOs.
They tell me that electrically, it's possible - the modules are compatible, and the antennas would likely not need to be changed. However, getting the EC-25-G module off the board would be difficult. It requires unsoldering the pins and heating the module to soften the solder underneath. The module will not survive the disassembly. But cleaning the pads and putting the EC25-AF should be straight forward. The module has it's software and IMEI and serial# loaded to the module but would require registering it if it hasn't been done already (I have a registered module sitting on my desk).
Before I consider risking doing this, I'd like to know the possibility of Pine doing a batch of PinePhones for the North American market next year. How hard would it be to portion a subset of the next batch with the EC25-AF module?
They tell me that electrically, it's possible - the modules are compatible, and the antennas would likely not need to be changed. However, getting the EC-25-G module off the board would be difficult. It requires unsoldering the pins and heating the module to soften the solder underneath. The module will not survive the disassembly. But cleaning the pads and putting the EC25-AF should be straight forward. The module has it's software and IMEI and serial# loaded to the module but would require registering it if it hasn't been done already (I have a registered module sitting on my desk).
Before I consider risking doing this, I'd like to know the possibility of Pine doing a batch of PinePhones for the North American market next year. How hard would it be to portion a subset of the next batch with the EC25-AF module?
