Mobile repairing

Try this

1. Find the exact model number of your own phone and, with their permission, of two family members' phones in Settings under About phone (Settings > General > About on an iPhone), and write down whatever it lists about RAM, storage and the processor.
2. Using a practice phone opened at the centre, or clear teardown pictures, draw a labelled diagram showing the display assembly, battery, motherboard, sub-board, charging port, cameras, earpiece, loudspeaker and flex cables.
3. Test the parts and sensors of your own phone: during a call, cover the top of the screen to see the proximity sensor switch the display off; with auto-brightness on, shade the top edge to see the light sensor dim the screen; and record a voice note to check the microphone and loudspeaker.

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1. Lay out a practice bench with an ESD mat and a magnetic screw mat, identify the Phillips, pentalobe, tri-point and Torx bits in a precision screwdriver set by their tip shape, and sort a box of mixed practice screws by type and length.
2. Under supervision and in a ventilated area, practise on a scrap circuit board: tin a clean iron tip, use flux, solder five short wires to the pads, check each joint with a magnifier, then remove the wires again, rest the iron in its stand and wash your hands afterwards.
3. Set a digital multimeter to continuity mode and test a good wire and a broken one to hear the difference, then switch to the DC voltage range and measure the voltage of an AA cell and a 9 V battery.

Try this

1. Check your phone's battery health or maximum capacity where your model shows it, such as in the Battery section of an iPhone's Settings or under Battery or Device care on many Android phones, and note the battery's capacity in mAh from the phone's specifications.
2. Make a safety poster for the workbench that lists the four signs of a dangerous battery and the steps to follow if a battery starts smoking, including the metal bucket of dry sand and long pliers or tongs.
3. Under supervision, on a practice phone chosen by your instructor, open it the way the instructor shows for that model (from the back or through the display), disconnect the battery connector first using a plastic spudger, and point out the pull tabs or adhesive that hold the battery in place, without bending or removing the battery.

Try this

1. Inspect the charging ports of three phones with a torch and a magnifier, then switch one off and practise loosening lint from the back of its port with a wooden toothpick, never a metal pin.
2. Plug a USB power meter between a charger and a phone with a low battery and record the voltage and current every five minutes for twenty minutes; then swap in a different cable, read the current again straight away and compare it with your last reading on the first cable.
3. Write a step-by-step charging-fault checklist that runs from the questions to ask the customer to board-level repair, then use it on a practice fault set by your instructor, such as a damaged cable or a phone with battery protection set to stop charging at around 80 percent.

Try this

1. Write the three "is it really the display?" checks on a card (call the phone, connect it to a computer, try the torch test on an LCD), use them on a faulty phone provided by your instructor, and record whether the fault is the display or somewhere else.
2. Make a chart of the six display symptoms in this lesson, describe each in your own words with its likely cause, then sort a set of photos or practice phones into those categories.
3. On a working phone, carry out the test you would do before sealing a repair: drag a finger slowly over every part of the screen in a drawing app, change the brightness from lowest to highest, try the front camera, and check that the screen turns off near your ear during a call.

Try this

1. Back up your own phone: check that your contacts are saved to your Google account or iCloud, turn on photo backup, and run a WhatsApp backup from its chat settings, noting the date and size of the backup.
2. On an Android phone, open Settings > Apps, choose one app and clear its cache from its Storage section, noting how much space was freed, then find out how your model starts in safe mode (on many phones, by touching and holding the Power off option).
3. On a practice phone provided by your instructor that holds no personal data, remove the Google account, perform a factory reset from Settings, set the phone up again, and write down each step in order.

Try this

1. Design a job card on paper or in Word or Excel with every field listed in this lesson, then fill it in while role-playing a customer and a technician with a classmate, including the condition on arrival and the data consent.
2. Dial *#06# on your phone to display its IMEI, write it down, and check that it matches the IMEI printed on the box or the bill.
3. Write a one-page privacy checklist for a shop counter that covers the five rules for handling customer data and the four steps before selling or exchanging a phone, and practise explaining it to a classmate playing the customer in under two minutes.