IMEI/Cellular tower connection : GrapheneOS | Torhoo darknet markets
I was reading through the Pixel repair guides and had some questions that I could not find the answer, maybe you guys can help out.
The phone has 3 cameras, 3 microphones, 2 speakers (I think), NFC RFID, an mmWave chip and mmWave antenna.
I was going to try and open a phone and just for fun try and get these items removed, with the guide it looks simple enough. But I thought, what if you can remove entirely the IMEI from the phone, just not transmit or connect to cellular data at all, basically sort of transforming it into an iPod3 from the old times, is that possible? Does removing the mmWave or mmWave antenna achieve this?
Is it possible to remove the cellular connectivity without affecting wifi connectivity? Otherwise the solution to having the IMEI broadcasted is airplane mode, correct?
Also, I think the microphone 1 is removable, it is encased according to the guide, microphone 3 can also be detached according to the last part of the guide, but microphone 2 based on the guide and position it is either soldered to the main board or soldered to one of the back cameras, does anyone know where this microphone could be? If it is on the camera it doesnt matter, remove the camera and there goes microphone 2, but if it is soldered to the main board does someone know how to identify it?
Removing the rest of components seems easy, you either open it from the back and have easy access to most components and dont have to replace the graphite sheets, or open it through the front and take out the fingerprint sensor while you are at it!
Removing the mmWave chip/antenna will not disable the cellular connectivity because the phone still has the sub-6GHz 5G/LTE antennas and the previously mentioned baseband modem inside. To fully disable cellular connectivity without affecting your WiFi you would need to remove the baseband modem, use software settings (such as airplane mode as you mentioned), or root the phone and disable mobile radio.
You can remove cellular connectivity without affecting your WiFi because they use different chips. Again, removing the baseband modem would achieve this. So would disabling the SIM slot.
Removing the microphones depends on where they are. If they can be removed, they will be in the following locations:
• Microphone 1: Detachable daughterboard
• Microphone 2: [Soldered to the] Mainboard
• Microphone 3: Camera Module
As for identifying Microphone 2, you have a few places to look:
• Websites which provide schematics (iFixit for example) which will provide teardown images
• Tiny holes near the edges of the motherboard as these are usually microphone openings
• Near the USB-C port
• Integrated with the front-facing camera
• Paths of thin copper traces from the microphone hole on the frame to the mainboard. If the traces lead to a tiny square metal-cased component soldered to the PCB, you're probably looking at Microphone 2
If you want to completely disable audio input, you will have to cut the previously mentioned traces and/or replace them with dummy parts.
Whether you open the phone through the front or back depends on what you want to remove specifically (if you want to remove the fingerprint sensor for example you will have to open it from the front) as well as your phone model (my guess is that you have the Pixel 6 Pro or 7 Pro but do correct me if I'm wrong). If you want to remove the fingerprint sensor as well as the components discussed, you will need to open the screen first, detach the necessary cables/screws, then remove the back panel.